The candidates appearing for the IAS examination are shortlisted for the main examination based on the performance in the preliminary examination. The performance in mains is evaluated based on the basis of seven papers including:
Each of the papers contains essay and conventional type questions. So, the writing pattern and writing skill should be mastered to score well. The following box will be convenient to understand the IAS mains examination pattern:
Paper A: language test of 300 marks (any Indian language (Schedule 8) by choice)
Paper B: English test of 300 marks
Paper I: essay writing in any language of the candidate’s choice carrying 250 marks
Paper-II: general studies regarding Indian and world history, geography, culture and heritage( 250 marks)
Paper III: Indian constitution and international relationship(250 marks)
Paper IV: environment study, disaster management, technology (250 marks)
Paper V: ethics, integrity and aptitude (250 marks)
Paper VI: optional subject (250 marks)
Paper VII: optional subject (250 marks)
Each of the papers contains essay and conventional type questions. So, the writing pattern and writing skill should be mastered to score well. The following box will be convenient to understand the IAS mains examination pattern:
IAS MAIN EXAMINATION:
Visual Arts Topics |
Topics Covered |
| Number division | Each paper carrying 250 marks |
| Question types | Conventional and essay types |
| Mode of examination | English and Hindi |
The mains examination is a crucial step of the examination because it would give you the gate pass for the interview. Here is some UPSC mains answer writing tips for you to brush up your writing skill and score well.
UPSC mains answer writing strategy
Essay writing is a delicate art and all that you have to do is to follow it with lots of mastery and practice. So, here are the UPSC mains answer writing tips for you:
There four pillars on which you are going to rest your essays on:
The names of the four pillars |
What does it mean? |
| What am I writing on? | An article can deal with different facets of a particular topic. And the different facets can appear as individual paragraphs not relevant to the topic.
But in essay writing, you cannot imagine a paragraph which has got such existence that does not in individually connect to the topic. So, be careful while writing an essay and be focused on the topic you writing. |
| Who am I writing for? | Write an essay keeping in the mind that an elderly person is going to read this. Do not use colloquial modern English that might appear to him as inappropriate.
More specifically, while writing an essay,
People are too touchy about individuals. So, take care of that too. |
| Why am I writing this essay | Keep in mind that you are writing this essay only because of getting marks. So, do not put up a write-up that can hurt anyone’s sentiments by imposing your logic or point of view. |
| The tone in which I am writing | You must ensure that your tone should go as if in a race that you have got. Like a tone that can vary from pessimist tone to serious tone to sober tone to an optimistic tone to an enthusiastic tone. |
If you can keep these four rules of essay writing in your mind, it would much easier to uplift your essay writing style and skill onto a whole new level. Try to uplift your essay writing style so that you can get higher marks than others, it will take you to your goal.
Add to that, the framework of essay is crucial to answering the questions correctly. Here, we are going to discuss the beautiful path of essay writing that is where you are actually tossing the entire essay in your mind and then doing brainstorming through which you will be doing frame working. I am going to give you a beautiful tool of the framework and then also give you ten points through which you can make a framework. And I promise if you have got those checklists a kind of spreadsheet of those ten points you go on taking, you never go wrong. This trick is going to help you with essay writing.
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Title and idea:
The title is the topic that you have taken and then break it based on the idea. The idea is nothing but the framework that I have already explained above.
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Paragraph:
A paragraph is something where I would expect that you are trying to break the small keywords and convert them into new paragraphs.
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Analysis:
The paragraphs written on the paper would not go like as one sentence. There has to be some analysis. One tool of analysis is logic and the other is an example supporting the same statement. Sometimes you need to mention the fact too.
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Tone:
Whichever tone you have got that must be reflected in the analysis of that particular paragraph.
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Examine:
Getting the own framework of the essay, examine it to check it if it is right or not.
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Layering:
It is that if the point that you have taken as a paragraph, has so many dimensions and see whether it needs rearrangement to empower the statement of the answer.
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Fusion:
When looking at analysis, you see every time the same fact the same logic or same example comes up, so writing three times the same thing, it is better to diffuse it.
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Cancellation:
After the evaluation is done, cut off the inappropriate paragraphs without any hesitation.
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Ordering:
Ordering should be something which is saving the second most important point as the last point because the conclusion of the paragraph should be strong.
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Linker:
While moving between the paragraphs, there are decent transitions. A linker is like you can use from the last part of the paragraph and the first part of the paragraph.