After a long delay of more than 30 days, UPSC has finally notified the Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2013 and along with it introduced far reaching changes in the IAS Mains pattern. There are approximately 1000 vacancies in the 2013 civil services exam. The Prelims pattern and syllabus is the same as before. So let’s discuss the important changes in Civil Services Mains pattern and how it will impact your IAS exam preparation.
New IAS Mains Pattern
The mains exam now consists of 2075 marks as against 2300 marks previously. The distribution is as follows:
Paper | Marks | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I Section-1 Essay Section-2 English Comprehension and English Precis | 200 100 | Of Matriculation/Xth standard level | ||
| II General Studies-I | 250 | Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society | ||
| III General Studies-II | 250 | Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations | ||
| IV General Studies-III | 250 | Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management | ||
| V General Studies-IV | 250 | Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude | ||
| VI Optional Subject-Paper 1 | 250 | Choose one subject from more than 30 subjects including literature | ||
| VII Optional Subject-Paper 2 | 250 | |||
| Sub Total (Written Test) | 1800 | |||
| Personality Test | 275 | Oral | ||
| Grand Total | 2075 |
As you can see from the above table, marks in the Main exam have been scaled down to 2075 as against 2300 marks in the old pattern. But let’s list the major highlights of the new IAS Mains pattern below:
New Pattern | Old Pattern | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Only one optional subject | Two optional subjects | |||
| GS now 1000 marks | Previously 600 marks | |||
| Optional paper only of 500 marks | Optional papers of 1200 marks | |||
| English precis and comprehension added | Not present | |||
| To choose literature subject, have to graduate in the subject | No such requirement | |||
| Interview of 275 marks | 300 marks | |||
| Ethics and Decision Making added | Not present | |||
| World History and Geography part of syllabus | Only Indian History and Geography | |||
| UPSC reserves right to specify qualifying marks for individual papers | No qualifying marks | |||
| All papers are scoring | Two qualifying but non-scoring compulsory papers |
New IAS Mains Pattern
The major change is the increased importance of General Studies in the new pattern. Previously, veteran candidates used to primarily focus on the optional papers and ignored the GS paper relying heavily on the optionals to boost their score. Now there is no alternative but to prepare the GS papers seriously. After all, GS has 55 percent weightage of total 1800 marks in the written papers.
Since two optional subjects have been replaced by only one, it implies more even competition among candidates as scaling, which many aspirants complained of, will be limited to only one subject and that too of 500 marks as against 1200 marks in the old pattern. So expect the competition to become tougher as the advantage of some optional papers has been done away with.
Decision making and ethics that were introduced in the Prelims two years back find their way in the new Mains syllabus as well. This implies UPSC wants to test, not just the theoretical knowledge of candidates, but also their aptitude for civil services, their integrity and honesty, and decision making capabilities.
Role of coaching institutes is bound to reduce drastically. Since GS marks will be the deciding point now, it will become ever tougher to guess the Mains papers and you can expect big surprises in the four GS papers. Previously, questions in the optional papers used to be repeated very often and anyone who went through the last 5 years papers could easily guess the questions that would be asked in the exam. Not any more. Guessing will not work now, only wide coverage of the syllabus will.
Another feature continued from Prelims is the addition of English comprehension together with precis, which means Hindi and other language candidates will need to work on improving their English language skills.
Interview (personality test) marks have also been reduced to 275 from 300 earlier. Some people feel interview marks should be scaled down even further as there does not seem to be much logic to the marks awarded to different candidates in Interview. Besides the entire interview process is quite opaque. Still this is an improvement.
Another change is the elimination of qualifying but non-scoring papers which is welcome as it was unnecessary burden to prepare for these papers given their insignificance in the final tally.
Also to choose a literature subject as optional, you need to graduate in that subject and it should be your main subject during graduation. This will obviously boost candidates with humanities background as they will face lesser competition from candidates with no background in that subject.
Pali optional has been done away with and not for the first time. But this is rather surprising and disappointing since ‘foreign’ languages like Nepali are present while a prominent classical language like Pali has been excluded. One can expect noises in Parliament over this issue.
Overall, this is a very progressive Mains pattern introduced by UPSC and is bound to favour candidates with original thinking and unique answers rather than ‘rote masters’ who reproduce coaching class answers quite accurately. Also, candidates can now focus on GS and just one optional subject rather than two previously. This will bring focus to their preparation and also be less burdensome. If I had to rate these changes to the IAS Mains pattern I will give it 8 points out of 10. What is your reaction to the changes introduced in the Mains pattern and are you satisfied with the changes?
You can download the 2013 Civil Services Notification here.
About Lazylord
Your analysis is right to a great extent. Had upsc made it compulsory of taking your graduation subject for optional I would have rated 10 out of 10.
what about those engineering graduates who doesnt have their subjects in the list of optionals prescribed by the UPSC
Sir, I have read the new pattern with deep analysis , and just have come to know that ” Political Science & International Relation ” as optional will definetly help in almost avery aspect of all General Studies paper…. so i have decided to choose it.
Please suggest me some good Coaching institutes for ”Political Science & IR ” in Delhi ….
Medium : HINDI
thank you.
Completely agree with your views.I will give it a 9/10 rating.With this new pattern the exam will get a fuzzy perception but will help the well-prepared & knowledgeable students. Though, it is also giving the perception of having one particular subject in all the GS papers like pub ad, geography, sociology e.t.c.
Sir,
please tell how to prepare geography now for gs.
sir. Which is best choice as optional which is helpful in gs papers also. as per new pattern .I have geog. And eco in my graduation or i should choose pol. Science plz reply than
we can say that 72% syllabus is common 4 all i.e 1300 out of 1800 and optional role is only 28% with scaling. If v add interview also then v can say that 76% (1575 out of 2075) is common 4 all…
Thanks a lot. You gave a clear picture about the changes.
You mentioned “Role of coaching institutes is bound to reduce drastically.”
I do accept the above point, but due to uncertainity & generic syllabus, people will be forced to join some or the other coaching institutes. The net result, the demand for the institutes will increase!!
TRUE! Also, in my view, with the clearly demarcated sections of constitution, history, and geography, the question trend is expected to again shift to the conventional questions. The recent GS trend showing a general interest of the examiner in asking current affairs questions, do not have a higher chance to appear now, given the clearly defined slabs of these conventional topics!
As per the notification, to choose literature as an optional one should have graduated in the same, as the main subject.
What are the possibilities of taking a literature optional if one has an M.A in it, but graduation in a science subject?
“Also to choose a literature subject as optional, you need to graduate in that subject and it should be your main subject during graduation”
I’m a student of engg from IT branch.. Which all optional subject are available for me??
sir
if i have done man graduation in electronics enggthen tell me whether i can choose public admin for mains or not .
Yes you can choose public admin. or any other subject for mains expect literature of languages..
I thought of choosing English Literature and Geography as my optionals but now with only one optional needed I am totally confused as to which one I should go with. Any help, please?
sir, i will be appearing for cse in 2014. suggest me some standard books for ias mains (gs) preparation on the changed pattern and syllabus..plz help..
Sir,
I am B.com Graduate in English Medium. But I had a Kannada language paper in first 2 years of my graduation as qualifying paper.
As per new notification, can I write Public Administration optional and all GS papers in Kannada Language.
Pls clarify,
thanks & regards,
Girish
This new pattern is very nice. now upcoming IAS officers will be more powerful and intelligent. They will change the face of the nation. I liked this pattern very much. I’ll give 9 out of 10.
sir the idea behind the pattern is very good but wt are the options for engineering computer science students what is the optional for them ?
Please tell us now how will we prepare for gs mains
Pls use the search form on this site for Mains prep tips!
res…. sir
i want 2 know a bout g s books
nice changes….but for how many years this pattern is valid?..I am asking this because if we start our preparation keeping this pattern in mind and if they make some more changes next year finally we will be effected right……….
sir, give me the list of optional subject in main examination
th
is change continue for how many year n give me list of optional subject
i am graduate in zoology botany and chemistry, can i choose optional subject is history or Hindi
Dear sir! please advice a good coaching institute in New Delhi for General studies(Prelims+Mains) preparation. I am willing to start it in June 2013. please help me sir.
Sir, I graduate as a chemical engineer, can I take chemistry as my optional. And is there a need to prepare an Indian language such as Hindi, for the mains? or will only english be asked in paper 1 of mains?
i am hotel mgmnt stdnt ..wht optional subjct shuld i chooz
green wishes,
i am a chemical engineer. can i take optional subject from my any core subjects.
thanking you
Well, this is a welcome change .surely,Progressive .Better late than never . kuddos! to UPSC.
Is core subj in my dept can be a optional in mains ?
sir, i am graduate in maths , can i choose optional subject in histosy
of course you can