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UPSC Prelims Strategy: Pattern, Books, Syllabus and Preparation Tips

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UPSC Prelims Strategy: Pattern, Books, and Syllabus

UPSC CSE Prelims

What is UPSC or IAS Exam?

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is the central agency of India. It conducts various exams like Civil Services Examination (CSE), IFS, NDA, CDS, SCRA etc. the exam which is most popular among these is IAS which includes in a total of 24 services. It includes services like IFS, IPS, IRS, IRPS, IRTS etc.

We have covered complete details about upsc exams and eligibility criteria here you can read them

Know About Exam 

CSE is considered as one of the toughest exams in India and it is very tough to crack the exam. Every year lakhs of candidates give the exam with the dream of their success. It needs a lot of hard work, but hard work is not the only strategy you need, you have to make your work smart also i.e. you have to do smart work.

Also read: Motivation and Strategy for UPSC exam.

What is UPSC Prelims?

UPSC exam is divided into three levels. In order to appoint as an IAS officer, you have to clear all the levels.
The first level is also called Prelims Examination.

Second, comes Main Examination and the candidates who have qualified the prelims will be able to give the Main examination.

The last stage of the exam is Personal Interview or Personality Test.

UPSC Prelims:

It is the first level of UPSC. It is the first level which is needed to be cracked among all the three stages. It is a test which we can also call elimination round. The candidates who are not able to clear the prelims will be eliminated from the examination and cannot proceed further.

The marks of prelims will not be added to the final marks. It is just a basic exam to eliminate the candidates. A preliminary exam has the total of two papers. So the candidates who are cleared both the exams of prelims will proceed further.

Prelims are basically act like filtration process where the candidates who are able to implement their skills properly will be selected. According to given facts, there are only 3% of candidates appearing for prelims will make it to the main examination.

Also see: The success story of Nandini KR AIR 1 UPSC.

Examination Pattern

It has 2 papers of general studies.

Paper 1 consist of general studies topics like history, geography, polity, economy, science and technology, environment & ecology, climate change etc. The candidates should be updated to all the recent things happening around them for this round. The candidates should be well versed with all the current affairs to clear the exam.

A candidate will only make it to mains if he/she manages to pass the cut off marks of paper 1. The cut off of prelims paper 1 is not same for every year, it varies every year according to the difficulty level. The list of students who will be able to attempt the main examination will be based on the scores secured by a candidate in paper 1.

Paper 2 consist of questions related to logical reasoning, data interpretation, verbal ability, reading comprehension and general mathematics. The minimum scores required to clear the paper 2 is 33% of the total marks. It is quite easy to score in this paper.

Don’t miss: Success story of Jasmeet Singh Sandhu: AIR 3 UPSC IAS 2015.

Examination Scheme

The examination scheme for paper 1 will be as follows:

Name: GS Paper-I (General Awareness)
Total marks: 200
No. of MCQs: 100
Marks for each MCQ: 2
Duration: 2 hours
Negative marks for each wrong answer is -0.66.
Marks will be counted for the Main examination.

The examination scheme for paper 2 is as follows:

Name: GS paper-II (CSAT)
Total marks: 200
No. of MCQs: 80
Marks for each MCQ: 2.5
Duration: 2 hours
Negative marks for each wrong answer is -0.825
The minimum qualifying percentage is 33% of the total marks.

Must see: Daily current affairs for UPSC preparation.

Syllabus for Prelims

The syllabus for the prelims examination is divided into two parts as there are two exams.

The syllabus for Preliminary exams Paper 1 is:

Current events of national and international importance.
History of India and Indian National Movement.
Indian and World Geography: Physical, Social, Economic geography of India and the World.
Indian Polity and Governance: Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Right Issues etc.
Economic and Social Development: Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives etc.
General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity, Climate change.
General science.

Also read: Story of Shweta Chauhan: AIR 8 UPSC IAS.

The syllabus for Preliminary exams Paper 2 is:

Comprehension.
Interpersonal skills including communication skills.
Logical reasoning and analytical ability.
Decision-making and problem-solving.
General mental ability.
Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level).
Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level).

Note: It is mandatory for all the candidates to appear in both the prelims examination otherwise the candidate will be disqualified if he/she appears only in one exam.

List of Books/References for the Preliminary Examination

Also see: How to prepare for UPSC while working?

The topic wise list of references/books for General Studies is given below:

Books on Indian History & Culture:

NCERT (+ 2 level) — Ancient India, Medieval India, Modern India.
Publication Division: Gazetteer of India (Vol 2 : History & Culture)
Gandhi Nehru Tagore & Ambedkar — Gopal Krishna – Buy Now
Bipin Chandra – Modern India – Buy Now
A.C.Banerjee – History of Modern India Raghavan Aiyer — Mahatma Gandhi

Books on Geography:

NCERT: Physical Geography of India for X – XII Std
A Good School Atlas
Sharma & Cotinho : Economic and Commercial Geography of India.
Khullar: India- A Comprehensive Geography – Buy Now
Charles Farro: General Principles of World Geography
Charles Farro: Monsoon Asia Reports published by Centre for Science and Environment And Tata Energy Research Institute
National journal – Kurukshetra, Yojana etc.
Down to earth

Books on Indian Economy:

NCERT (+1 level)—Evolution of Indian Economy(I C Dhingra).
Mishra & Puri or Dutt & Sundaram – Indian Economy
Ramesh Sharma – Indian Economy – Buy Now
Economic Survey
The Economic Times, Business Standard
Yojana

Books on Social and National Issues:

Social Problem – Ram Ahuja
Social Welfare Magazine – Published by ministry of social welfare
Yojana/Kurukshetra
IIPa Journal

Also read: Which is the best optional subject for UPSC?

Books on Indian Polity:

NCERT (+1 level)—Indian Political System
N.L. Madan: Bhartiya Rajya Vyavastha
D.D. Basu—Indian Constitution – Buy Now
P.M. Bakshi—Indian Constitution – Buy Now
Our Parliament – Subhash C. Kashyap
Our Constitution: Subhash C. Kashyap
Perspective on Constitution: S.C. Kashyap
Frontline Magazine
IIPa Journal

Books on Science & Technology:

NCERT : (10 level) : Science, (+2 level) : Biology.
Popular Science Series (CSIR)
Reports Of the Ministry of Science and Technology Yojana
Science Reporter
Science and Technology in India – Spectrum

Books on Statistics:

(NCERT +1 level) Elementary Statistics
S.C.Gupta: Statistical Methods

Books on India and the World:

Journal of Peace Studies
World Focus
Strategic Analysis
South Asian Journal

Other Books for General Studies:

India Year Book latest – Buy Now
One competitive Magazine
Guides like Tata Mc Graw Hill – Buy Now

You can also take help from the various newspapers during your preparation. You can read current affairs from the newspapers. Newspapers will help you to gather general knowledge.

Must read: Success story of Anmol Sher Singh Bedi: 2016 UPSC IAS topper.

You can take help from the below newspapers:

The Hindu/ The Times of India
Frontline
Civil Service Chronicle
Chanakya
Competition WIZARD
Civil Services Today

You can also refer to some of the guides for your preparation. The list of some guides which will help you are:

Tata McGraw Hill for GS
Arihant for CSAT
Spectrum
Unique

Also see: Journey of Athul Janardhanan: UPSC topper 2016 AIR 13.

Strategy

Finally, the most important thing during your preparation is the strategy you follow. Prelims require reasoning as well as solving skills.

The strategies which will help you to achieve success is discussed below:

Study Materials

Nowadays there are a huge number of study materials are available on Internet as well as offline. So, with the increasing number of study materials, it is very important to find the correct one which will help you to prepare accurately for the examination. The factors which will help you to choose right study materials are worthy of your time and knowledge.

You have to choose a study material which will help you to gain as much as knowledge in a shorter span of time. NCERTs will be very helpful for you, it will give you the basic idea of everything. So, always start with NCERTs.

Be a journalist

A journalist is a person who always knows about everything but not in brief. The journalist knows anything about everything but not everything about anything.

So, try to go through each and every topic specified in the syllabus, take an idea of everything. Don’t go in brief of everything. Always choose the correct data for accurate things. Try to read everything so that you have a knowledge of all the specified topics.

Mock Test

The preliminary examination tests your mental ability to solve the questions. You have to take care about how will you score in the exam and how will you avoid the negative marking.

Give some mock tests before your final exam, so that you will have a good ability and skills to solve the MCQs. It will increase the chances of making it to the Main Examination. Mock test will help you to find your strengths and weaknesses and further you can work on them.

Revision

Revision is the backbone of improvement. It will help you develop as well as protect you from any kind of wastage. Prelims required revision after regular interval of time. The proper revision will help you to make your choice easy in the exam between different options.

It is necessary to increase the number of revisions as much as you can. Rather than increasing the number of books, you should increase the number of revisions.

Also read: Inspirational journey of Ashish Tiwari: UPSC 2015 Topper AIR 6

Notification for UPSC Civil Services 2018

The official notification for UPSC 2018 exam is out. All the candidates who are preparing and willing to give the exam can now register online from UPSC Civil services.

Now you can start your preparation towards your success.

If you have any doubt or need guidance you can comment below, our team will try to answer it.

Read Other Basic Preparation Articles  Preparation Guide – How to Prepare  

We hope that our article will help you to prepare for the preliminary examination. In our article, we have discussed about all the details of prelims. We will soon provide you the information about Main Examination. Till then start preparing for your prelims.

If you have any doubt or need guidance you can comment below, our team will try to answer it.

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