Taking a count, while optional paper carries 500 marks, the four GS papers taken together carry 1000 marks. Then, the essay paper is allotted 250 marks. Thus, the total marks allotted to mains exam is 1750. Personality test, commonly called Civil Services interview, carries 275 marks. This makes the main exam the deciding factor in the success of a candidate. Unfortunately, many candidates fail to appreciate this fact and opt for facts based, prelims oriented preparations, a trend set by the coaching shops by promoting the so called test series which runs into dozens of numbers. This diverts energy as aspirants struggle with so many unnecessary facts at the cost of mains preparations. It must be clearly understood that prelims, being just a qualifying exam, only requires students to secure the cut off marks. The focus should be on mains preparations. While preparing for the mains, one is also preparing for the prelims, because both are interconnected.

Basic skills required for mains:

I. Cognitive Skills: These skills are necessary for acquisition of knowledge and use of information in order to make sense of reading books and other sources. Without this skill, the readings will be rendered useless.

II. Linguistic Skills: It means having good command over language in terms of grammar, vocabulary and structuring of sentences. Your cognitive skills can be put to use only by your linguistic skills.

III. Normative Skills: It means a set of norms or standards to evaluate an issue. There will be many areas in the UPSC mains syllabus where such norms will be applicable. For example, in the essay paper, you need to apply some norms while writing on a philosophical or social topic. In the ethics paper, normative skills will have to be applied on many questions.

Nature of the mains GS papers:

I. Multi-disciplinary syllabus: Each mains GS paper consists of many disciplines. Paper I combines history, art and culture, geography and social issues. Paper II includes polity, governance, international relations and issues of social justice. Paper III is a combination of economy, disaster management, internal security and science and technology. Paper IV is on ethics but in this paper also, there are topics from ethics, social psychology ( e.g. attitude and emotional intelligence), and governance ( e.g. citizen charter, utilisation of public funds).

II. Dynamic syllabus: The mains GS syllabus is dynamic in two senses. One, it is very contemporary and takes up most recent happenings. Two, it is mostly Current Affairs based. The static portions are confined to history, geography, art and culture only. Rest are all current affairs based.

III. Unconventional questions: By this, it is implied that only few questions can be answered from textbooks. Majority of them can be attempted only by close observation of events unfolding on a day to day basis.

IV. Maturity of knowledge: UPSC itself has notified that no marks will be given for superficial, irrelevant answers. It means that answers to each question must reflect a candidate's mature under-standing of the issue. Just relying on commercialized market materials can not lend full maturity as they are just compiled materials and most of them furnish similar information. Instead, one must read from standard sources. For example, the current international order is in a chaotic flux. To understand it, one may read a recent book by Shashi Tharoor titled: "A new world disorder". On such original topics, available market materials are poor substitutes for original readings.

Thus, a true understanding of the nature of the mains exam will lead to better performance. Just following the syllabus mechanically, in a routinised way is bound to result in poor performance.

How to cover the mains syllabus: Since the syllabus is only indicative, one needs to enlarge it's scope by breaking it into various components. The best way to do this is to look at last several years' questions and locate the areas from where questions are framed. It must be noted that from some areas, questions are asked regularly. Emphasis should be put on such areas. Never forget that you can never do a complete preparation. Therefore, go for covering a substantial portion of the syllabus intelligently.

Answer writing: Since there will be 20 questions in each GS paper, covering them all will challenge your time management. There will be 10 questions to be answered in 150 words and rest 10 in 250 words. Thus, you have to write 4000 words in three hours. It works out to 8-9 minutes per question. Unless you perfect your writing speed in advance, you are most likely to leave some questions unanswered. I suggest at least 10 full tests in each GS paper should be practiced before the exam. It means you should start it early and not just before the exam. You need to get your answers evaluated by a truly knowledgeable person to get correct feedback or some wrong feedback can harm your prospects. Answers should be introduced well and while introducing, mention the central theme of the question. If the question needs more analysis than facts, follow a paragraph wise writing. If it requires many facts to be presented, then, follow point wise presentation. But even in point wise presentation, introduction will be required.

Don't underline your answers unnecessarily. It's not really needed. Let the examiner find out what you have written. Unless really required, don't make charts and diagrams. An essay format of writing will always be better. Without charts and diagrams, answers look clean and uncluttered.

Suggested Book list for mains exam:

History:
1. Bipan Chandra: India's struggle for independence
2. Bipan Chandra: India since independence
3. R.C. Pradhan: Raj to Swaraj
4. A.R. Desai: social background of Indian nationalism

Art and culture:
1. A.L. Basham: The wonder that was India
2. Gazetteer of India: Art and Culture, volume II

Polity
1. P.M. Bakshi: Indian Constitution
2. Granville Austin: Constitution of India
3. M.P. Singh: Indian Federalism

Economy
1. Misra and Puri: Indian Economy
2. Economic Survey
3. Vijay Joshi: The long road to development
4. Geography: all NCERT books on Geography
5. Goh Cheh Leong: certificate Geography

Ethics
I. Peter Singer: Ethics
II. Peter Singer: Ethics in real world
III. ARC II report no. 4 on ethics in governance

Social issues
I. Vinita Pandey: Indian Society and Culture

For areas like disaster management, internal security, science and technology, it's better to rely on current parts of the topics, as no books covering the exact syllabus are available.

-Employment News
S.B. Singh