Best Approach towards UPSC Mains to clear IAS Exam

Civil Services Examination (CSE) most commonly known as IAS Exam takes place annually. It occurs in three stages – Prelims, Mains and Personality Test. Each stage of the examination has a set exam pattern and syllabus, however, a candidate’s approach towards these define his/her success in the exam.

The IAS Exam in the year 2020 is going to start with UPSC Prelims which is scheduled for 4th October. UPSC Mains is going to be conducted from 8th January 2021 onwards. It is often said that the second stage of the IAS Exam i.e. the mains stage decides the success of the aspirant. As it is subjective in nature and comprises nine papers with the extensive syllabus, the CSE Mains becomes one of the difficult stages of the exam.

To add to the difficulty of the IAS Mains, there are optional papers, essays and language papers. Hence, it becomes imperative for an aspirant to know the best approach towards this stage so as to make his/her chances to be on the final list of the exam more.

Tips to Approach IAS Mains

The points mentioned below should be noted by the aspirants to better approach the mains stage of the examination. Apart from these points, aspirants should know the latest UPSC Exam Dates so as to know how much time is exactly given to prepare for the exam.

The UPSC aspirants should know the exam pattern of the CSE Mains:

Number of Papers	There are nine papers
Nature of the examination	Subjective
Qualifying papers	Paper A and Paper B are qualifying in nature Paper A – Indian Language Paper Paper B – English Language Paper
Marks of the papers	While Paper A and Paper B are of 300 marks each; remaining seven papers are of 250 marks each
Total marks	1750

Know the major sections of General Studies (GS) papers I-IV as these help in scoring better in the examination:

GS-I	Indian History World History Geography Indian Society
GS-II	Indian Polity International Relations Environment Security
GS-III	Economics Biodiversity
GS-IV	Ethics Integrity Aptitude

Know reference books for each of the main subjects for the mains exam:

History	Ancient History: NCERT Class XI and XII Upinder Singh’s A History of Ancient and Medieval India Medieval History: NCERT Class XI and XII Upinder Singh’s A History of Ancient and Medieval India Modern History: Rajiv Ahir’s A Brief History of Modern India Art & Culture: NCERT Class XI and XII – Fine Art & Themes Books World history: Norman Lowe’s Mastering Modern World History
Polity	M.Laxmikanth’s Indian Polity
Economics	NCERT Class XI and XII
Geography	NCERT Class VI-XII
Environment	PD Sharma’s Environment and Ecology

Stick to the reference books and revise often – The exam pressure is such that candidates feel unfulfilled with only one book. They are lured with the existence of a number of books for the same subjects in the markets. Hence, they take on many books for one subject and fall in the trap. Later, with the paucity of time, they are unable to revise and increase their chances of low retention of points on the exam day. Therefore, it is advised that candidates should be confident enough to stick to one book and revise it often.
Practice previous year question papers – Candidates should always analyse the trend of the examination with the help of past year question papers. This way, they will understand which theme of a subject is often asked in the paper.

The IAS Exam is one of the coveted exams with its three stages. Once aspirants clear prelims stage, they should thoroughly revise their UPSC Mains notes. It will help them to score better and finally pass on to the next stage i.e. Interview.

UPSC Exam is taken up by lakhs of aspirants and it is hopeful that using these tips, a candidate will devise a strategy to approach the CSE examination and successfully clear the exam.