IAS Exam Pattern shares about the marking scheme, distribution of questions, duration and sectional weight. The UPSC or the Union Public Service Commission decides the pattern every year. If you have enrolled in the best IAS coaching centre in Chennai, the successful IAS aspirants would assist you in clearing the exam and also offer required information about the exams and preparation. Here is the brief of IAS and its three stages.
IAS Prelims:
In IAS Prelims, there are two papers. It has objective type questions. The maximum marks to score is 400. It is the basic qualification round. The marks you are scoring in prelims will not be used in the final IAS score.
IAS Mains:
In IAS Mains, there will be two kinds of papers. One paper is counter for Merit creation and other paper is qualifying papers. The qualifying papers will have two language exams. It will be as per the candidate’s choice and the other mandatory paper is English. In the Merit formation paper, there will be seven papers. Each question paper will have about 300 questions. The main paper will have both objective kind and essay kind of questions. The total marks secured in all the papers and also the score earned in direct interview is used for candidate ranking.
IAS Personality Test:
In this, the candidate should take a test for about 275 marks. It will be taken by the candidates who have passed in the Main exam. It usually includes Personal Interview, Assessment Test, and the Psychometric Test. The scores obtained this test will be calculated while declaring the final result list.
Prelims Exam Pattern
In the prelims stage under IAS exam, the student should clear two mandatory papers. The two papers are CSAT (Civil Service Aptitude Test) and GAT (General Ability Test). These tests would determine the candidate’s analytical skills.
All the questions in the prelims exam will remain in objective form. The candidate should select one of the four answer options provided for each question.
The question papers will be given in both Hindi and English language. The questions connecting to English language comprehension abilities of standard X level will be scanned by a passage in English language only. It will not be provided in Hindi translation question paper. It will be written in English even in the Hindi language paper.
It is simple to qualify in IAS prelims paper. The candidate should score at least 33% to enter the next level Mains.
The prelims exam mode will be offline.
In paper 1, there will be eighty questions and in paper 2, there will be one hundred questions. The exam duration for each paper is two hours. There will be additional twenty minutes given for blind students.
Marking scheme for Prelims exam
· In the General Studies paper, there will be questions that carry 2 marks.
· In the Civil Service Aptitude paper, there will be questions that carry 2.5 marks.
· If the candidate gives the wrong answer, penalty to students is one-third of the marks for each question.
· If the candidate answers with two or more answers, the penalty is same for that question.
· If the candidate leaves the question blank without answering anything, no penalty to students for the question.
Read More : Ultimate Guide For IAS Exam Preparation