UPSC Exam Pattern for IAS Civil Services exam

IAS civil services exam prelims and mains pattern

UPSC exam pattern for IAS civil services exam: Are you planning to prepare for Civil Services Examination? If yes then here we are providing everything that you need to know about the this Indian Administrative Service (IAS), UPSC CSE Exam pattern, complete syllabus, and its complete selection process. In this article, we will talk about the exam pattern of IAS Prelims and Mains.

UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern

The Prelims Exam for IAS Civil Services Exam consists of Paper -I General Studies (GS) and Paper – II Civil Service Aptitude Test (CSAT). All applicants appearing in the IAS CSE Prelims Test Must qualify the cut-off fixed by the commission to qualify for UPSC Mains Exam . Let’s have a look at the UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern for Civil Services Examination.

UPSC Prelims Exam Papers	No. of Questions	Total Marks	Duration	Nature of Paper
Paper I: General Studies	100	200	2 hours	Considered for cut off
Paper II: General Studies	80	200	2 hours	Qualifying Nature

Important Key Point about UPSC IAS Prelims Exam

1. All Questions asked in UPSC IAS Prelims Exam 2020 will be of objective nature, i.e. MCQs of Multiple Choice Questions will be asked in the Preliminary Exam.
2. The CSAT Paper will be of Qualifying nature and it is mandatory for all candidates to score a minimum of 33% in the paper to qualify the Preliminary round.
3. Each Question of General Studies (Paper I) consists of 2 marks. Similarly, every question asked in General Studies (Paper II) carries 2.5 marks.
4. Visually Impaired Candidates will be given an additional time of 20 minutes (Each Paper) to complete the Preliminary exam.
5. The Question Paper will be bilingual, i.e. asked in both English & Hindi
6. It is mandatory for all aspirants to appear in both the papers of Prelims to qualify for the Mains Exam
7. The score of Preliminary Exam is just for screening purpose, thus the score of this exam will not be considered in the final evaluation of the candidates when final result is drawn after the interview process has been conducted.

UPSC Mains Exam Pattern

The UPSC Civil Services Mains Exam will have two types of papers: One will be of qualifying in nature and the other will be considered for merit purpose. The first 2 papers (Paper A and Paper B) will constitute of two language exams, one in English and the other will be of candidates’ choice.

The IAS Civil Services written examination consists of 9 papers out of which 2 papers (Paper A and Paper B) are only qualifying in nature. The marks obtained in the remaining 7 papers (Paper I to Paper VII) and these 7 papers will be considered for making the final merit along with interview’s marks .

UPSC Mains Exam Paper	Subject	Total Marks	Duration
Paper A	One of the Indian Language to be selected by the candidate from the Languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution)	300	3 hours
Paper B	English	300	3 hours
Paper I	Essay	250	3 hours
Paper II	General Studies-I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society)	250	3 hours
Paper III	General Studies -II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations)	250	3 hours
Paper IV	General Studies -III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)	250	3 hours
Paper V	General Studies -IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)	250	3 hours
Paper VI	Optional Subject – Paper 1	250	3 hours
Paper VII	Optional Subject – Paper 2	250	3 hours
	Total	1750

Important Key Point about UPSC IAS Mains Exam

1. All the papers are of merit nature except for the language papers A & B
2. Paper A & B are of qualifying nature
3. All the Papers are descriptive answer type paper
4. Candidates need to score a minimum of 25% marks in all paper I to VII to be given weight age in the Mains Exam
5. Paper A is not compulsory for candidates from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim as well as candidates with hearing impairment provided they can prove that they have been exempted from such 2nd or 3rd language courses by their concerned board or university
6. The Indian Language paper covers any of the languages included in the 8th Schedule of the constitution
7. All Papers will be bilingual, i.e. asked in both English & Hindi except for the language papers

IAS Civil Services Exam Interview Process

All candidates, who qualified in the Civil services mains examination (CSE Mains) will be called for the final stage Interview Process / Personality Test. Weight age for Interview is 250 marks. Whatever marks you will score in interview that will be counted for the final merit. A board of recruiters sit together and they will ask questions related to candidate’s field of interest and questions related to past experience of his/her life to check the compatibility for the various post, which is to be filled through Civil Services Examinations by the commission. Here we are listing some of the qualities that the board looks for are:

1. Mental alertness
2. Critical powers of assimilation
3. Clear and logical exposition
4. Balance of judgement
5. Variety and depth of interest
6. Ability for social cohesion and leadership
7. Intellectual and moral integrity etc.