The Civil Services Mains examination syllabus of the IAS exam consists of General Studies papers which is a total of 1000 marks. The two Optional papers is for 250 marks each. The following papers will be part of the Mains exam: essay, general studies I, general studies, II, general studies III, general studies IV, and optional papers I and II. There is a change in the IAS exam pattern, the number of optional subjects for the UPSC exam which is usually chosen by the candidate is decreased to one; you can choose one from the following 25 elective subjects: agriculture, animal husbandry, and veterinary service, anthropology, botany, chemistry, civil engineering, accountancy and commerce, economics, electrical engineering, geography, geology, history, law, management, math, medical science, mechanical engineering, political science and international relations, psychology, public administration, sociology, statistics, and zoology.
IAS aspirants become eligible for Mains only after the qualifying Prelims Exam held by UPSC. If you are looking for a prelims exam syllabus. UPSC Main Examination Syllabus consists of 2 compulsory papers, and 7 merit ranking papers are listed below:
- Qualifying PapersEnglish and anyother Indian Language
- UPSC EssayPaper-I and Paper-II
- General StudiesPaper-I, Paper-II, Paper-III and Paper-IV
- Optional SubjectsPaper-I and Paper-II
The Optional subject consists of 48 subjects, out of which one can be selected by the candidate as per the latest exam pattern for both the papers. Each optional subject comprises of two papers (Paper I and Paper II), each of 250 marks, making it a total of 500 marks.
UPSC IAS Exam Syllabus
Paper | Suject | Marks |
---|---|---|
Paper-I | Essay (can be written in the medium of the candidate’s choice) | 250 |
Paper-II | General Studies – I (Indian Heritage & Culture, History & Geography of the World & Society) | 250 |
Paper-III | General Studies – II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice & International Relations) | 250 |
Paper-IV | General Studies – III (Technology, Economic Development, Biodiversity, Security & Disaster Management) | 250 |
Paper-V | General Studies – IV (Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude) | 250 |
Paper-VI | Optional Subject – Paper I | 250 |
Paper-VII | Optional Subject – Paper II | 250 |
Marks of English and Language will not be counted in the total tally of marks for the written exam. So the total of the Mains exam will be 1750 Marks Only.
This part of the exam comes after the results of the mains exams are declared, and this test has no prescribed syllabus. The candidates will be interviewed by a Board of unbiased members and will be questioned on matters of general interest, and the candidate will be evaluated not only based on their intellectual qualities but also on social traits, interest in current affairs, mental alertness, critical power of adaptation, rational exposition, the balance of judgment, variety, and depth of interest, ability for social interconnection and leadership, logical and moral uprightness, and candidates can give preference of the language in which they may like to be interviewed. UPSC will make arrangements for the translators. The marks fetched in this stage of the exam are combined with the marks obtained in the UPSC mains.
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