Civil Services Exam (Mains) Pattern

The Union Public Service Commission conducts exams for the Civil Services, NDA, CDS, SCRA etc. IAS is the most sought after and prestigious career in India Civil Services Exam is one of the toughest examinations and tests a candidate’s knowledge, analytical ability, consistency, patience and overall personality. The exam is divided into three different levels. First is the preliminary examination with two papers of objective type questions. Candidates who qualify the preliminary examination are required to appear for the descriptive type test, i.e. civil services mains examination. The interview is the final stage of the whole examination process. Candidates who manage to make it to the final rank list prepared based on the marks of mains examination and the interviews are recommended by the UPSC for various Central and All India Services.

Civil Services Exam (Mains) is all about the skill of presenting your answer in a precise and comprehensible manner. It does not matter how many books you have studied or how many hours you have put into studying, all that matters is how well one is able to comprehend the questions and answer to the point in a limited time frame and word limit.

It is important to understand the pattern and go through the whole syllabus thoroughly before you start your preparations.

Civil Services mains examination pattern:

Sl no.	Paper	Marks	Syllabus
1.	Paper A	300	Paper on English
2.	Paper B	300	Choose one of the Indian languages from a list
3.	Paper 1	250	Essay paper
4.	Paper 2	250	Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society
5.	Paper 3	250	Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations
6.	Paper 4	250	Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
7.	Paper 5	250	Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude
8.	Paper 6	250	Optional Subject – Paper 1
9.	Paper 7	250	Optional Subject – Paper 2

●       ‘Paper A’ and ‘Paper B’ are of qualifying nature, which means the candidate must score above 25% in each paper and the marks will not be counted for ranking purposes.

●       Candidates are required to write 2 essays, choosing 1 from each section, in about 1000-1200 words. Each section has 4 topics to choose from.

●       Candidates are required to choose any one subject or language (in case of literature optional) from the list of optional subjects and literature papers are given.

●       Marks of Paper 1 to Paper 7 only are considered for ranking purposes.

Most of the candidates will be eliminated in the UPSC prelims examination. Civil Service Exam is enormous and requires intense preparation. Students appearing for the UPSC mains exam need to have clarity on each subject and topic. Besides, prelims and mains examination preparation must be integrated. One should not wait for prelims result to start mains preparation. Utilizing the time efficiently and enhancing writing skills will play a key role in the mains exam.

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