As I have mentioned before, to ace in any field, may it be at sports or at academics, you’d need to analyse and know the playing ground like the back of your hand. As a sportsman and a successful academician, I can vouch for the importance of knowing your playing field and the rules of the game wholeheartedly.
Basically, to ace the UPSC exams also, knowing the UPSC exam pattern is of utmost importance. Everything that you’ll ever learn and prepare for during your IAS preparations will have to ultimately be calibrated to the IAS exam pattern. That’s how important the topic of the UPSC exam pattern is.
So, to get to the real thing the UPSC exam is comprised of 3 stages. The first stage as per the examination pattern is the Prelims round, which is essentially an elimination round designed to filter out a majority of unsuitable candidates.
Then comes the second phase as per the examination pattern or the Mains round, which is basically the core of the UPSC exams and the most important step of selection.
Lastly, comes the third stage as per the examination pattern, or the Personal interview round, which is designed to test your personality and your acumen as a bureaucrat. We’ll go through each stage in detail.
A. IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Prelims
The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each.
Note: (i) Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions) and each will be of two hours duration.
(ii) The General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.
(iii) The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English.
(iv) Details of the syllabi are indicated in Part A of Section III.
The IAS exam pattern for prelims in a tabular manner is given below:
IAS Prelims Exam Pattern
| Paper | Subjects | Total Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | General Studies (GS) | 200 | 2 hours (9:30 AM to 11:30 AM) |
| 2 | CSAT | 200 | 2 hours (2:30 PM to 4:30 PM) |
Assuming that the table given above is able to sufficiently inform you about the total marks and time duration of the 2 papers of the Prelims exams, there are some important points that I’d like to add:
- Paper 1 or the GS paper contains 100 questions with negative marking. Every right answer will fetch you 2 marks and every wrong one will cost you 1/3rd of that or .66 marks. Questions that you choose to leave unanswered will not fetch you or cost you any mark.
- Paper 2 or the CSAT paper contains 80 questions, most of them with negative marking. Every right answer will fetch you 2.5 marks, and wrongly answering a question with negative marking will cost you 1/3rd of that or .83 marks. Certain questions designed to test your decision-making skills will not cost you any marks if answered wrongly. Also, questions left unanswered will not fetch or cost you any marks.
B. IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Mains
The UPSC exam pattern for the Mains paper involves 9 papers that are conducted over a time period of 5-7 days.
The UPSC Mains exam will be available for you to appear, if and only if you are able to clear the Prelims exams.
This means scoring above the declared cut off marks for Paper 1 and scoring a minimum of 33% in paper 2 of the Prelims exam.
Anyway, getting back, the exam pattern of the Mains exam is further explained through the table given below:
IAS Mains Exam Pattern
| Papers | Subjects | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Paper A | Any Indian language (compulsory) – qualifying paper | 300 |
| Paper B | English – qualifying paper | 300 |
| Paper 1 | Essay (you can choose to write it in a medium of your choice) | 250 |
| Paper 2 | General Studies 1 (Indian and World history, Culture, heritage, &Geography) | 250 |
| Paper 3 | General Studies 2 (Polity, Constitution, Governance, International Relations & Social Justice) | 250 |
| Paper 4 | General Studies 3 (Economic Development, Technology, Disaster Management & Security, Biodiversity) | 250 |
| Paper 5 | General Studies 4 (Aptitude, Ethics, & Integrity) | 250 |
| Paper 6 | Optional Subject: Paper 1 | 250 |
| Paper 7 | Optional Subject: Paper 2 | 250 |
C. Interview/Personality Test
1. The candidate will be interviewed by a Board who will have before them a record of the candidate’s career. The candidate will be asked questions on matters of general interest. The object of the Interview/Personality Test is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for a career in public service by a Board of competent and unbiased observers. The Interview/Personality Test is intended to judge the mental calibre of a candidate. In broad terms this is really an assessment of not only intellectual qualities but also social traits and interest in current affairs. Some of the qualities to be judged are mental alertness, critical powers of assimilation, clear and logical exposition, balance of judgement, variety and depth of interest, ability for social cohesion and leadership, intellectual and moral integrity.
2. The technique of the Interview/Personality Test is not that of a strict cross-examination but of a natural, though directed and purposive conversation which is intended to reveal the mental qualities of the candidate.3. The Interview/Personality Test is not intended to be a test either of the specialized or general knowledge of the candidates which has been already tested through their written papers. Candidates are expected to have taken an intelligent interest not only in their special subjects of academic study but also in the events which are happening around them both within and outside their own State or Country as well as in modern currents of thought and in new discoveries which should rouse the curiosity of well-educated youth.
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Source by: https://www.anujjindal.in/upsc-exam-pattern-apply-online-admit-card/
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thanku so much