In a UPSC exam, the Prelims stage is considered to be the elimination stage for the aspirants. Following your success in the first obstacle of this sought-after exam, immediately start to prepare for the UPSC Mains Exam. UPSC Prelims exam is a qualifying paper, therefore the score obtained in Prelims exams won’t affect the final selection. In fact, your final selection will be counted on the marks obtained and the rank scored in the IAS Mains exam. For this, the aspirants need to know the complete UPSC Mains syllabus and start preparing as soon as the prelims exams are over.
Since we know that UPSC mains is important, the strategy for qualifying the paper should be developed in a rock solid manner to secure the best rank.
UPSC Mains Syllabus
Before appearing for any exam, it is important to take a glance at the complete syllabus of it. Following is the syllabus for the Mains IAS Exam.
| Paper | Subject | Duration | Marks |
| Paper A | Indian language | 3hrs | 300 |
| Paper B | English | 3hrs | 300 |
| Paper 1 | Essay | 3hrs | 250 |
| Paper 2 | GS 1- Indian Heritage and Culture, History, and Geography of World and Society | 3hrs | 250 |
| Paper 3 | GS 2- Governance, Constitution, Welfare Initiatives, Social Justice, International Relations | 3hrs | 250 |
| Paper 4 | GS 3- Technology, Economic Development, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Security and Disaster Management | 3hrs | 250 |
| Paper 5 | GS 4-Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude | 3hrs | 250 |
| Paper 6 | Optional Subject Paper 1 | 3hrs | 250 |
| Paper 7 | Optional Subject Paper 2 | 3hrs | 250 |
Strategy to Prepare the UPSC Mains Syllabus for IAS Exam
If you plan your studies in the right direction, strategically, then you can surely get success in the exams in the first attempt.
- Plan your Post-Prelims Period
Before initiating the studies for the Mains exams, the aspirants should take a break from studies for at least a week and refresh themselves physically and mentally. However, this does not mean that they are suggested to cut off from their studies entirely, as they should keep in touch with the newspapers and current affairs.
- For the candidates who are perfectly sure that they will crack the Prelims Paper should start preparing the Mains exams strategy.
- For the candidates who are unsure about the results or sure that they are not going to clear the previous paper they should start preparing for the Prelims Paper from scratch.
- Make a Detailed Planner
The serious candidate must be knowing that the UPSC Mains exam consists of 9 papers out of which 2 are language papers, 2 are optional papers, 1 is an essay paper and the rest 4 are general studies papers. So there are a lot of papers to study hence, there should be a properly detailed planner for revising the subject and preparing which are not prepared yet.
- Divide the Subjects Equally in the timetable
According to the experts, the aspirants generally get confused with dividing the time among the subjects. So here is the timetable recommended by the experts, following which can help to save time and prepare effectively.
| Paper | Time/ Days |
| Optional Subject | 40 days |
| Essay Writing | Refer Current Issues and Previous Years Question Paper for types of essays |
| GS1 | 15 days |
| GS2 | 15 days |
| GS3 | 20 days |
| GS4 | 20 days |
- Regular Answer Writing Practice
The Mains exam is all about writing, and that too in a given time frame. Therefore it is important to keep practicing the answer writing. For this, the best method would be, whatever you read in current affairs or in any subject, to try to sum up the entire portion in your own words in the minimum time taken.
- Mock tests and Previous Year Question Papers
Mock tests and Previous Year Question Papers are very important to solve as they give the exact stimuli of the Mains exam and help you to prepare yourself for writing in a stress-free environment at your best. BYJUS exam prep would be the ideal website to get this preparation material.