The UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) Civil Services Examination (CSE) is one of the country’s highly sought-after and fiercely competitive government exams. UPSC administers it annually to recruit promising candidates for twenty-four government services, including the IAS.
For every UPSC aspirant, two years at Mussoorie is a dream come true, as it is the land that incubates and nurtures the future administrators of the country. Reasons vary– the desire to serve the nation, a proclivity to partake in the nation-building process, an impulse to hook the faculty of power and prestige, etc. In other words, to become an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer, you must first qualify for the IAS exam/ UPSC CSE examination with a considerably high rank.
If you are still finding your feet in this all-new enterprise, this article will help you get started. It will attempt to break down the IAS syllabus and filter out the core focus areas and subjects.
IAS Exam Pattern
Before we talk about the subjects for the UPSC examination, let’s look at its structure. The IAS exam consists of three parts:
The scope of this article will be limited to the prelims and mains, by virtue of them being written examinations with a comprehensive syllabus.
UPSC Prelims Subjects
UPSC Prelims is the first stage of the IAS exam, which aims to shortlist efficient candidates for the next stage. It has two components:
All questions will be objective. Also, there will be a negative marking for every incorrect response equal to 1/3rd of the question’s score.
GS II or CSAT (Civil Service Aptitude Test) is a qualifying paper, passing which requires at least 33% marks. On the other hand, the order of merit will govern the GS I cut-off.
UPSC Mains Subjects
You will be eligible to appear for the Mains only if you qualify for UPSC Prelims. UPSC Mains tests the time-bound subjective answering skills and in-depth knowledge of aspiring civil servants in various disciplines. It also assesses the language skills (both English and a regional language) and specialized knowledge possessed by the candidate in any discipline of her/his choice.
In toto, there will be nine papers in this section of the IAS exam:
Paper A/ Compulsory Language Paper
The candidates can choose any one of the following languages for this section of the IAS exam:
Optional Papers
Candidates can choose any one of the following subjects as an optional subject for the IAS exam (Mains):
Conclusion
After analyzing the list of subjects for the UPSC/ IAS exam, we can conclude that its comprehensiveness and vastness complement the cutthroat competition, making it one of the toughest nuts to crack. In this article, we dissected the IAS Exam syllabus and attempted to filter different papers’ core subjects and focus areas. If you’re planning to give the IAS exam, step up your game and hit the books, with this article as a reference to whip up a versatile study plan.
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