The Union Public Service Commission conducts recruitment exams for a variety of Group A and few Group B posts in the Indian government every year. The most prestigious and the most competitive exam conducted by the UPSC is the Civil Services Examination.
The pattern of UPSC Civil Service Exam 2020:
- UPSC CSE (Preliminary) – October 4, 2020
- UPSC CSE (Main) – January 8, 2021, onwards
- IAS Interview/ UPSC Personality Test
UPSC Mains Time Table
Earlier, the UPSC Mains 2020 was scheduled for September 18, 2020, onward, however, with the current notification on 5th June 2020, UPSC revised the date to January 8, 2021. The UPSC Mains Exam Time table will be updated post prelims results.
Candidate can check the 2019 mains time table below:
| UPSC Exam Date (Mains) | Morning | Afternoon |
| September 20, 2019 | Paper I Essay | – |
| September 21, 2019 | General Studies-I | General Studies-II |
| September 22, 2019 | General Studies-III | General Studies-IV |
| September 28, 2019 | Paper- A (Indian Language) | Paper B- English |
| September 29, 2019 | Optional Paper I | Optional Paper-II |
UPSC Mains – IAS Exam 2020
Topics covered in this article:
- What is the UPSC Mains Exam/CSE(Main)/IAS Mains
- How many candidates will appear for UPSC Mains 2020
- How to apply for UPSC Mains 2020
- Preparation Strategy for UPSC Mains 2020
- UPSC Mains Exam Pattern for IAS exam 2020
- Important information regarding UPSC Mains and UPSC Mains Syllabus
- UPSC Mains Syllabus – IAS exam 2020
- Qualifying Papers
- Essay
- General Studies
- Optional Subjects
What is the UPSC Mains Exam/CSE (Main)/IAS Mains?
The UPSC Mains exam is the second stage of the Civil Services Examination. IAS aspirants who clear the Prelims i.e. those who score above the cutoff in General Studies Paper I and more than 33% marks in General Studies Paper-II (CSAT) are eligible to appear for the UPSC Mains.
Candidates who aspire to become IAS, IPS, IFS and IRS officers have to give UPSC Mains before they are cleared for the IAS interview/UPSC Personality Test stage.
How many candidates will appear for UPSC Mains 2020?
As per UPSC, the total candidates allowed to appear for UPSC mains will be twelve to thirteen times the number of Civil Sevice vacancies for that exam year. For UPSC 2020, the total number of vacancies is 796 so accordingly around 10 thousand candidates will give the UPSC Mains 2020.
How to apply for UPSC Mains 2020?
Once the Civil Services Exam (Preliminary) results are declared, successful candidates will have to fill the online Detailed Application Form (DAF) for UPSC Mains on the official website (upsc.gov.in).
The DAF for UPSC Mains has six modules/sections:
- Personal
- Educational Information
- Parental Information
- Employment Information
- Upload documents
- Final Submission
Some fields like name, Date of birth, exam centre for UPSC Mains, etc will be prepopulated in the UPSC Mains DAF from the information provided at the time of filling the UPSC online application for CSE(Preliminary).
Note – Once Final Submission is done no changes are allowed online, so candidates should be extra careful and cross-check all details which filling the DAF for UPSC Mains.
Also, this DAF forms the basis of a lot of questions in the IAS interview/UPSC Personality test stage so make sure that you keep a copy of it for your reference.
Preparation Strategy for UPSC Mains 2020
- Current Affairs are an important part of the Civil Services Exam (for Prelims and for UPSC Mains). Ideally, aspirants should prepare Current Affairs for at least 12-15 months i.e. UPSC Mains exam in 2020 will be held in January 2021, so candidates should prepare Current Affairs from June 2019 onwards.
- Important sources for current affairs preparation for IAS exam 2020 are:
- Yojana Magzine
- Newspapers (The Hindu/The Indian Express)
- Press Information Bureau (PIB)
- Economic and Political Weekly (EPW)
- Candidates should prepare for UPSC Prelims and UPSC Mains simultaneously as there is a syllabus overlap.
- As per UPSC, marks in the Civil Services(Main) exam are not given for superficial answers, so candidates should do answer writing practice.
- An important part of IAS preparation is practicing the UPSC previous year question papers.
The UPSC Mains or CSE (Main) pattern was revised in 2015. As per the revised pattern, the UPSC Mains 2020 will comprise nine theory papers (essay descriptive type). Out of the nine papers, only seven will be counted for merit ranking. Candidates also have to choose one optional subject for UPSC Mains. More on UPSC Mains optional later in the article.
The maximum marks for the UPSC Mains exam are 1750 (7 papers * 250 marks each). All papers are of three-hour duration.
The UPSC Mains pattern for Civil Services Exam 2020 is given below:
| S.No | Papers | Subject | Nature of Exam | Total Marks |
| 1 | Paper A | Indian Language | Qualifying | 300 |
| 2 | Paper B | English | Qualifying | 300 |
| 3 | Paper I | Essay | Counted for Merit | 250 |
| 4 | Paper II | General Studies (GS) I | Counted for Merit | 250 |
| 5 | Paper III | General Studies (GS) II | Counted for Merit | 250 |
| 6 | Paper IV | General Studies (GS) III | Counted for Merit | 250 |
| 7 | Paper V | General Studies (GS) IV | Counted for Merit | 250 |
| 8 | Paper VI | Optional Subject Paper-I | Counted for Merit | 250 |
| 9 | Paper VII | Optional Subject Paper-II | Counted for Merit | 250 |
Important information regarding UPSC Mains and UPSC Mains Syllabus
- An IAS aspirant’s marks in UPSC Mains and IAS interview determine his/her final rank in the merit list
- The UPSC Mains intends to assess the depth of a candidate’s knowledge. Hence marks will only be given for “relevant, meaningful, and succinct answers.”
- The questions in UPSC Mains test aspirant’s basic understanding, ability to analyse and “take a view on conflicting socio-economic goals, objectives and demands.”
- Although UPSC maintains that for General Studies papers (Paper II to Paper V), a “well-educated person will be able to answer them without any specialised study,” candidates are advised to go through previous year UPSC question papers to ascertain for themselves whether they need ‘specialised study.’
- Candidates are allowed to use Scientific(Non-Programmable) calculators in UPSC Mains if needed.
- The level of examination for the optional subjects in UPSC Mains will be equivalent to an honours degree (between bachelors’ and masters’ level). Only for engineering subjects, Law and Medical Science, the scope is limited to the bachelors’ degree level.
UPSC Mains Syllabus – IAS Exam 2020
The UPSC Mains syllabus 2020 can be divided into two parts:
- Qualifying Papers
- Paper A
- Paper B
- Papers which are counted for merit ranking
- Essay
- General Studies (Paper II to Paper V)
- Optional Subject (Two Papers)
UPSC Mains Syllabus and Exam Pattern for Qualifying Papers
In UPSC Mains, candidates have to score a minimum of 25% marks in Paper A and Paper B otherwise their marks in other papers will not be taken into account. The pattern/syllabus for qualifying papers in UPSC Mains and IAS online Course is given below:
| Paper | Exam Pattern |
| Paper A – Indian Language (any of the Indian languages listed in the 8th schedule of the Constitution) |
|
| Paper B – English |
|
Important information regarding UPSC Mains qualifying papers:
- Paper A and Paper B test the candidates’ ability to read and understand serious prose in the given language and to express her/her views correctly and clearly.
- The marks in Paper A and Paper B in UPSC Mains will not be counted for merit but if candidates score below 25% in either of these two papers, then their marks in the remaining papers will not even be declared.
- The level of Paper A and Paper B is of a Matriculation (or equivalent) level.
- Paper A (Indian Language) in UPSC Mains is not compulsory for candidates hailing from Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim
UPSC Mains Syllabus for Essay paper
As such the UPSC Mains syllabus doesn’t have a prescribed section for the Essay paper. In the essay paper in UPSC Mains, candidates have to write two essays out of a few given options for a total of 250 marks. As per the UPSC, “Candidates are expected to keep close to the subject of the essay to arrange their ideas in an orderly fashion and to write concisely. Credit will be given for effective and exact expression.”
UPSC Mains Syllabus for General Studies
The UPSC Mains syllabus for GS papers covers broadly the following subjects/areas:
| UPSC Mains Paper II – General Studies I | UPSC Mains Paper III – General Studies II | UPSC Mains Paper-IV – General Studies III | UPSC Mains Paper V – General Studies IV |
| Indian Heritage and Culture | Governance | Technology | Ethics |
| History and Geography of the World | Constitution | Economic Development | Integrity |
| Society | Polity | Bio-diversity | Aptitude |
| Social Justice | Environment | ||
| International relations | Security and Disaster Management |
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