UPSC PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION PATTERN AND SYLLABUS

  PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION:

Scheme and subjects for the Preliminary and Main Examination.

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION: 

 The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each. 

 Note : (i) Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions) and each will be of two hours duration. 

 (ii) The General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.  

(iii) The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English. 

 (iv) Details of the syllabi are indicated in Part A of Section III. 

NOTE : Candidates are advised to go through the Syllabus published in this Section for the Preliminary Examination and the Main Examination, as periodic revision of syllabus has been done in several subjects.

Preliminary Examination  

Paper I - (200 marks)                                                                       Duration : Two hours

1. Current events of national and international importance. 
2. History of India and Indian National Movement. 
3. Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World. 
4.  Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc. 
5.  Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
6.  General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change - that do not require subject specialization. 
7.  General Science.  

Paper II-(200 marks) 

• 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 1 : Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%. 

Note 2 : The questions will be of multiple choice, objective type. 

Note 3 : It is mandatory for the candidate to appear in both the Papers of Civil Services (Prelim) Examination for the purpose of evaluation. Therefore a candidate will be disqualified in case he/she does not appear in both the papers of Civil Services (Prelim) Examination.