UPSC Exam Pattern & Syllabus

Students preparing for the UPSC IAS Exam usually confront a very peculiar problem during the course of preparation. This problem pertains to the selection of suitable and right optional subject that will help them to sail through the Civil Services Exam. Choosing right optional decides the fate of your selection in the UPSC exam. Fortunately in the new format importance of UPSC GS papers has increased manifold.

The pattern for the UPSC Mains Exam is quite different from prelims stage. The nature of mains exam is purely subjective. There are total 9 papers in the IAS Mains exam that are conducted over 5-7 days. Only those candidates are eligible to appear in this stage who qualifies the UPSC Prelims Exam. The details regarding types of papers and their allocated marks in UPSC Mains Exam have been mentioned below:

The exam pattern for the Preliminary stage of Civil Services Exam comprise two papers, conducted on single day. Both the papers in IAS Prelims consist of objective type questions with multiple choice of answers. The candidates are filtered for the mains exam through this stage. However the marks obtained at this stage are not counted towards the final merit list, though candidates have to prepare well for this exam as cut-offs are unpredictable and depend on the average score every year.

The candidate will be interviewed by a Board who will have before them a record of his/her career. He/she will be asked questions on matters of general interest.