IAS Exam Pattern

The UPSC exam is conducted in three stages. You have to clear one stage and then move on to the subsequent stage. And, at every stage, the number of candidates is drastically reduced. On average, about 5 lakhs candidates take the first stage and finally, at the end of the process, about 700 – 1000 candidates get selected into the civil services.

Therefore, to clear the exam, the candidates have to formulate their own UPSC strategy to crack the exam. 

Stage 1: Prelims

This stage consists of two objective type papers, General Studies I and General Studies II (CSAT). For more details on the these prelims papers, you can click on the link below:

UPSC Prelims 2023 – Notes, Books, Strategy & IAS Prelims Syllabus For Civil Services (Preliminary) Exam

Stage 2: Mains

This stage consists of nine descriptive papers.

Check UPSC mains exam pattern, papers, syllabus, dates in the linked article.

UPSC Mains Exam Pattern

Stage 3: Personality Test

This stage consists of an interview with the UPSC board.

The above three stages of the UPSC CSE Exam are very different from each other, and the aspirants can look into the UPSC Notification to know about the different posts of the CSE Exam and to download the official notification for a better understanding of the requirements of the exam. 

 UPSC Preparation Strategy

General Strategy for Preparation
“Well Begun is half done”

Every year, thousands of candidates work hard to clear the exam, but only a few, hardworking and smart candidates get through. The success of those few is decided by the right motivation and correct preparation strategy. This leads to the question of how aspirants should start preparation. To have a better understanding related to the basic strategy few things can be kept in mind.

Key Highlights

• Go Through the Syllabus Multiple Times
• Practice Previous Year Questions
• Read NCERTs Books
• Daily Newspaper Reading
• Make Notes
• Do Practice
• Revise
• Take proper guidance

Key Points to Follow

• Coverage of Syllabus. Civil Services is known for its unpredictability and vast syllabus. Before starting preparation, it is imperative to have a good understanding and hold on to the syllabus. For this take a printout of syllabus. Read and analyze it thoroughly.
• Analysis of previous year question papers. An analysis of previous years’ papers helps in putting the syllabus in a better perspective, by highlighting the area from which more questions have been asked. This will help in
• Understanding the demand of the examinationnds Analysis
• Important Topics and Subjects
• Self-Evaluation
• Working on Basics: Aspirants should work on building a strong foundation. UPSC checks the basic understanding of aspirants about the common issues and topics. For this, aspirants should work on the clarity of concepts instead of doing research on topics.
• Beginning with Basic Books: To get a very basic and better understanding of the subjects, aspirants should start preparing with the NCERTs (Class VI to XII) and most basic reference books (for this check the ‘Reading List’ under ‘Section D’).
• Staying up to date: UPSC checks the day-to-day awareness of aspirants about their surroundings. For this, it is important to have a clear understanding of events happening around. Habit of Daily Newspaper Reading must be inculcated.
• Making Notes: It is always recommended to make notes of whatever one reads – be it newspapers or current affairs magazines. (Notes Making Strategy is discussed under – ‘How to make Notes’ in this book.)
• Answer Writing Practice: It involves both practice through tests and writing practice. For writing practice pick up an editorial from a newspaper or take any topic from what you read and rewrite it in your own words. It will help in writing answers for Mains Examination. (Answer writing strategy is discussed in this book.)
• Regular & Multiple Revision: Nobody can remember important analysis and facts from a book after its first reading. Revision is a must to clearly remember whatever one has read or understood and use it in the examination.
• Practice MCQs and Mocks: To evaluate the level of preparation, it is essential to practice Multiple Choice Questions and write mock tests. This also helps in understanding the demand of the questions and retaining concepts.
• Keeping it Simple: One neither requires 20 different coaching institutes to pass a single exam, nor 20 different books to study a single subject. But it is important that whatever one has read or from what sources, the candidate has understood it well and with clarity and is able to retain it.
• Integrated preparation: A Prelims-cum-Mains strategy should be adopted to prepare as a lot of syllabus is common for both Prelims and Mains. A well-planned study schedule should be prepared to prepare for the examination in an integrated manner. ((Planner for Integrated preparation is given under – ‘An Approach for Integrated Preparation for Prelims-cum-Mains’.)

Strategy for UPSC Prelims

Prelims are more to check the breadth of knowledge an aspirant has. The details create the big picture and present an all side view. It broadens the fact base. The UPSC syllabus is constituted of static and dynamic portions. Static portion requires fundamentals which are mentioned in the syllabus. The dynamic part requires the material which includes mainly current affairs. Prelims is an objective paper and has negative markings. Hence it requires an aspirant to select one option out of 4. What you need is a holistic approach that covers the core areas along with the new areas from which questions are being asked. Prelims is not just a test of knowledge, It is also about problem-solving skills and the ability to memorize facts and eliminate options when you have limited knowledge on a particular topic.

Key Points to Follow

• Follow a General Strategy. A general strategy has been discussed that can be followed as a most basic strategy to prepare for civil services examination along with subject-specific strategies. (Discussed under A General Strategy for UPSC Civil Services Examination.) 

• MCQs Analysis. Spend more time analyzing the mock tests than the actual time spent on taking tests. In this, you should focus on analyzing the tests you have given earlier. Hence revision of tests is also necessary for a sound preparation.
  • Practice MCQs.
  • It helps to reduce Negative Marking.
  • It helps to increase accuracy.
  • It helps in minimizing common errors (silly mistakes).
• Critical thinking and ‘joining the dots’. Try to enjoy the learning process. In this case, try to observe the things soundly like their historical, political, economic, social aspects, etc. This is the process we call ‘deepening and widening’ our knowledge base. Always keep in mind that this is a ‘generalist’ exam; research should always be only to the extent the exam requires. Being more aware and clear is necessary rather than being scholastics.
• Make a study plan. A weekly plan can be made to complete the various aspects of the syllabus. But the plan should be followed rigorously and diligently.
• Time Management. Practice of questions within a timeframe is necessary. 100 questions are to be completed in 2 hours. So try to cover an entire practice paper in one-and-a-half hours. This would optimize your preparation. It will help in reducing incorrect answers as there is negative marking in UPSC.

Strategy for UPSC Mains
“Confidence and passion come from preparation.”

Mains Examination is entirely different from objective examination of Prelims. It is a subjective examination. It gives scope for analysis rather than mugging up the facts. Hence, for Mains examination one has to study keeping in mind that it needs a holistic approach, with the capacity to analyze the questions from various dimensions. It also has two parts Static and Dynamic. From Dynamic mainly questions from the current affairs are asked. If you go through previous years’ question papers, you will find that Dynamic questions are being asked as well as static.

Key Points to Follow

• Pre-cum-Mains Perspective. It is important that if we mix the syllabus of the Preliminary and Mains examination, about 60% of the total syllabus is common for both. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare such topics with a pre-cum-mains perspective, though their approaches are different.

• Equal Importance. As all the papers have equal weightage, hence it is recommended that reasonable amount of focus is kept on all the GS papers, Essay as well as Optional. Thorough preparation and a daily practice plan with weekly revisions would help you to achieve good marks in the Mains examination.
• Interlinking of Topics. All subjects in CSE are interconnected in one way or another. While writing an answer, aspirants should think of various dimensions related to that particular topic such as geographical, historical, social, political, economic aspects, etc.
• The dimensional analysis. It will require taking up a problem and then explaining the various cause and effect relationships of the problem with various dimensions as political, economic, ethical, social, etc. Firstly prepare all subjects individually and then after an optimum point of time try to inculcate all subject knowledge in your answer writing on need basis.
• Answer Writing. Aspirants generally make the mistake of reading more and more books and content. They skip answer writing practice thinking that once they have read everything, they will be able to write it in the examination. But, this does not go well in the examination hall. Answer Writing Practice has the following benefits:
  • Brings clarity of thoughts
  • Answers get more structured and communicate clearly
  • Time Management (3 hrs. for 20 questions)
  • Self-analysis
  • It is equally important to get your work evaluated. This helps in
  • Reducing mistakes
  • Boost Confidence 
  • Improvement in quality of answers

How to prepare for the interview?

The final stage in the UPSC examination is personality testing. The main purpose of the interview is to ensure the candidate’s ability, to see their personality, and to check the suitability for various posts of the civil services. By garnering good presentation skills and knowledge, an aspirant can maximize the chances of their selection. 

Key Points to Follow

• Right after Mains. For the interview, students should start preparing after giving the Mains examination and should not wait for the result of Mains to be declared.
• Prepare Introduction. It’s very important to prepare a good introduction about yourself and highlight all the significant achievements.
• Clarity of Answers. The quality and response for any answer reflect the personality of aspirants. So, a clear understanding of the question and the content of the answer becomes quite significant.
• Balanced Approach. An aspirant should try to develop a balanced approach and answer for every topic and answer. Aspirants should be positive and stay calm during the interview. The candidates are tested for their decision making and problem solving capabilities, awareness of their surroundings, a positive world view, sensitivity, social and national commitments and pragmatism rather than their absolute ideological positions.
• Group Practice. It’s a good practice to form groups for interview preparation. Form a group of around 3-5 friends.
• Mock Interviews. Take mock interviews of each other once a day. Blatant and explicit flaws will be easily pointed out and the basic common questions will be practiced. Also, you come into the flow of giving the UPSC interview.
• Be yourself. You should not try to modify your personality too much before the IAS interview.