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.
IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Prelims
The Prelims stage IAS exam pattern basically consists of 2 papers, both conducted on the same day. The question type in both papers is objective with one right answer out of several multiple choices.
The prelims paper, as I have mentioned before is essentially a qualifying stage designed to filter out the unsuitable candidates from the exam process.
The remaining candidates get to appear for the Mains exam. Also, important to note down is that the marks secured in the prelims paper will not be counted when the final merit list of successful candidates is prepared.
Having said the aforementioned, I don’t even for a moment mean to imply that the prelims papers are less important or are easy to crack.
I would even go so far as to say that clearing the prelims is even tougher than clearing some of the other eminent exam prelim papers in the world.
This is mostly because the UPSC cut offs for the Prelims exams depend on the average score every year and are known to be notoriously unpredictable.
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)
| 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.
That pretty much sums up the topic of IAS exam pattern for the Prelims exam. Now it’s time for us to talk about exam pattern for the UPSC Mains exam.
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.
Having said that it should be duly noted that, unlike the Prelims exam, the Mains exam consists of only Descriptive/subjective type questions of a total of 1750 marks, meaning you’d have to elaborately write your answers instead of choosing the right ones from among a host of choices.
Therefore, having a lucid understanding of all IAS-related topics is a must, and for that, you’d need to read from the best IAS books in the market. To know more about the best IAS preparation books, you can go through the blog I have written on them.
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
| 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 |
Assuming you understood the table, here are some important points I’d like to add:
- Out of the 9 papers of the UPSC Mains exam, 2 are qualifying language papers, I.e, English and, any other Indian language. Both language papers hold a maximum mark of 300 each. The minimum qualifying marks in these 2 papers is 25%.
- Both language papers have 100 marks worth of essay questions, 60 marks worth of reading comprehension questions, 60 marks worth precis writing, 40 worth translation-based questions, and finally another 40, worth grammar-based questions.
- If you’re unable to secure the minimum 25% of the total 300 marks in the 2 language papers, the rest of your mains papers will be disbarred from further evaluation.
- In all the papers apart from the 2 language papers, you can write in the language of your wish provided that it is listed in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution.
- Paper A is not compulsory for you if you belong to certain North-Eastern states, or you are hearing impaired and can prove it through documents.
That said, let us now look at the list of optional subjects for paper 6 and paper 7 of the UPSC Mains exam.
UPSC Mains Optional Subjects
List of Optional Subjects Agriculture Anthropology Chemistry Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Botany Geology Law Mathematcics History Management Psycology Sociology Zoology Public Administration Statistics Commerce and Accountancy Electrical Engineering Civil Engineering Economics Geography Medical Science Physics Mechanical Engineering Philosophy Political Science and International Relations Literature of any of the following languages: Bengali, Dogri, Hindi, Kashmiri, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali, Punjabi, Santhali, Tamil, Urdu, Assamese, Bodo, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Telugu, and English
| List of Optional Subjects | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | Anthropology | Chemistry | Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science | Botany |
| Geology | Law | Mathematcics | History | Management |
| Psycology | Sociology | Zoology | Public Administration | Statistics |
| Commerce and Accountancy | Electrical Engineering | Civil Engineering | Economics | Geography |
| Medical Science | Physics | Mechanical Engineering | Philosophy | Political Science and International Relations |
| Literature of any of the following languages: Bengali, Dogri, Hindi, Kashmiri, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali, Punjabi, Santhali, Tamil, Urdu, Assamese, Bodo, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Telugu, and English | ||||
The last thing to note is that you have the liberty to write both your optional papers, namely paper 6 and 7 in English, even if you have written all the other papers in some other language.
With that, we come to the end of this section.
I hope through this section you get to know everything there is to know about the exam pattern of the UPSC Mains exam.
Now it is time to talk about the final stage of the UPSC exams or the Interview round.
UPSC Exam Pattern for UPSC Interview Round
The interview round is the final stage of the UPSC exams. If you are able to make it into this round, know that you did so by clearing through the written segments of one of the toughest exams in the world, and give yourself a pat on the back.
However, you should not rejoice as yet, because the war’s not yet won.
You still have to clear the last round or the Interview round.
In this round, a panel of unbiased and competent individuals will take your interview in order to test your personality.
The questions that the panel asks is to extract suitable answers out of you. Your answers will then be scrutinized meticulously, and you will be judged on your social and mental traits.
Some of the qualities that the panel would be looking for in you are critical powers of assimilation, a balance of judgment, ability to lead and create social cohesion, mental alertness, clear and logical exposition, variety and depth of interest, and intellectual and moral integrity.
The maximum marks allotted for the interview round for a candidate is 275, which brings the maximum marks of the final merit list to 2025 (1750 of the Mains exams + 275 of the interview round)
With this, we come to the end of the topic of exam pattern. Now that you know about the exam pattern, you should also go through the IAS syllabus once.
Click here to read: UPSC mains commerce coaching
Source by: https://www.anujjindal.in/upsc-exam-pattern-apply-online-admit-card/
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thanku so much