1.Preliminary (Objective type):- 2 papers – General studies & CSAT
(CSAT paper -2 is qualifying paper & you must get 66 marks only out of 200 & Merit will be
determined on the basis of marks obtained in General studies)
2. Mains (Essay type or conventional type): 9 papers (Indian language, English, Essay, G.S 1,
G.S. 2, G.S. 3 , G.S.4, Optional paper 1 & Optional paper 2)
[ Indian language & English are qualifying papers & rest of the papers will be counted in
merit ]
3. Interview
IMPORTANT BOOKS FOR PRELIMS PREPARATION:
• CSAT has been qualifying from 2016. So from then UPSC is framing questions from many
sources
• Now don't focus much on Previous year papers
• You may look previous year question papers of CAPF of 1 year back, as sometimes they
may ask 1 question on Environment portion.And don't expect more than 1 question.
• Also look at 5 year previous year papers of Civil Services. In this only you will get
just 1 question only.
• History : Spectrum for Modern History, Krishna Reddy For Ancient & Medieval History &
Nitin Singhania for Indian Culture
After this you may look at NCERT Class 6th to 12th, NIOS, TAMIL NADU CLASS 11 & 12th. But the
above books are more important. If you have read above books then 90% of History Prelims
questions you may solve easily
• GEOGRAPHY : Spectrum of Geography, Shankar environment,Oxford Atlas .
Also search International Organisations & read About us section from their website.
• ECONOMICS : India Year Book- for government Schemes, Economics section like Export of
commodities- Import of commodities.Yojana & Kurukshetra from January 2019 to April 2019 for
Prelims. Along with this you must look at S. Ramesh too.
• POLITICAL SCIENCE :Laxmikant Indian Polity
• CURRENT AFFAIRS : You may read from The Hindu website.
The Hindu-Editorial columns, Life Style Section, Science & Technology(Sunday),International,
Front page, National Column are very important.
Mostly History questions & Environment questions are coming from these sections.
You must prepare from January 2018 to May 2019.
• SCIENCE : Spectrum's Development in Sciencen & Technology or Ravi P. Agrahari's
Science & Technology
Now you will ask I have not mentioned NCERT BOOKS of all the subjects.NCERT Books are imp.
But Since 2016 UPSC is asking questions Mostly from Optional Sources. You must read NCERT
BOOKS for basic understanding. As 1-2 questions you may get from NCERT BOOKS TOO.
IF YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME IN READING ALL THE ABOVE BOOKS, then you must adopt following two strategies :
1. • YOU MUST LOOK AT IAS- PRELIMS -FRAMED QUESTIONS SECTION:-
ON DAILY BASIS WE ARE FRAMING QUESTIONS FROM RELIABLE SOURCES WHICH YOU MUST READ BEFORE PRELIMS
EXAMINATION. SINCE PAST YEARS MANY QUESTIONS ARE REPEATING FROM OUR INITIATIVE
LINK : IAS-PRELIMS- FRAMED QUESTIONS
2.•THE HINDU CURRENT AFFAIRS COMPILATIONS:
Our team is making sincere efforts in making Compilations from The Hindu Newspaper thoroughly & We are
Providing The Hindu newspaper Compilations on Monthly basis through Mail Assistance Programme.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR CSAT (PAPER-2) PRELIMS:
• For this you must look at previous year papers of CAPF & Civil services.
• Some Quantitative aptitude questions you will get from the previous year papers while some
questions you can easily solve by applying same techniques
• In permutation & Combination questions they will never ask repeated questions
•For mental ability questions you can take help from Pratiyogita darpan Extra Issues
• Logical reasoning questions you can easily solve, if you have practiced from previous year
papers
• You can also practice questions from our website in CSAT APTITUDE SECTION.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR MAINS:
• First of all you must prepare Notes for Mains from today only upto date of prelims
examination
• After conduction of prelims , you won’t have time for making notes & that time will
only for learning/revision
• From "INSIGHT MIND MAPS" you can prepare notes of Issues.
• For General Studies portion, you must prepare from NCERT BOOKS & must practice ques.
given at the end of each chapter.
• After then, you must prepare previous year questions from 2013 MAINS TO till now.
If possible, then get Pratiyogita Darpan solved IAS MAINS papers 2013 to 2016 as they have
written solutions very nicely.
• Apart from that prepare current affairs questions from THE HINDU, LIVE MINT, YOJANA
ISSUES, KURUKSHETRA ISSUES in 200 words
HOW TO PREPARE FOR ESSAY:
• Current issues topics will be helpful for Essay preparation
• Just extra thing you must prepare is : Introduction, Quotations, Conclusion.
• While selecting Essay topics in exam, don’t think to write on toughest topic
considering that very few will write on this topic so I must choose this topic.
• Before Introduction, you must give any good quotation
• While ending essay , you must give good conclusion
HOW TO PREPARE FOR OPTIONAL:
• Just select that optional subject, which you have read upto graduation, because it
will help you to prepare easily.
• Never imitate others , in selecting optional
• First complete the syllabus provided by UPSC for optional & after that look at
previous year questions from 1978 to till now.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR INTERVIEW:
For this you must look at our Interview section & IAS TOPPER INTERVIEWS.
JOB PLACEMENT AFTER CLEARING UPSC CIVIL SERVICES :
It is civil services exam & ranking will be allotted to you on the basis of Percentage or
marks secured in Mains & Interview. Prelims is of qualifying nature only.
If you become IAS then you can become DM,Cabinet Secretary & you can be
appointed at the top posts of the government departments like Election Commissioner, CBSE
Chairman & sometimes Governor too if you have good political contacts.
If you become IPS , then you could become SSp, commissioner, etc. etc. in Police department.
If you become IFS (Foreign Service), you could become Foreign Secretary, Ambassador, High
Commissioner
If you become IFoS (Forest Service), you could become DFO (Divisional Forest Officer or
District Forest Officer) & also at the top posts of other ministeries too . If you become
IRS, you could become Commissioner of Income Tax.
Note : ALL INDIA SERVICES ARE : IAS, IPS, IFoS
