UPSC Exam Pattern: Prelims, Mains Exam & Interview

UPSC Exam Pattern Exam Pattern Prelims Mains Exam Mode Offline Offline Exam Duration 2 papers of 2 hours each 9 papers of 3 hours each Type of Paper Objective Descriptive Type of Questions MCQs Descriptive Total Number of Questions CSAT: 80 questions GS: 100 questions Usually, 20 questions per paper Total Marks 400 1750 Marking Scheme +2 for correct answer, negative marking of 1/3 of 2 marks No negative marking As I have mentioned before, to ace in any field, may it be at sports or at academics, you’d need to analyse and know the playing ground like the back of your hand. As a sportsman and a successful academician, I can vouch for the importance of knowing your playing field and the rules of the game wholeheartedly.  Basically, to ace the UPSC exams, 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 t...

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...