Preparations for Mains Examination | Crack Civil Services in First Attempt by Divey Sethi, IRS - UPSC PDF Download

 Page 1


Preparations for Mains Examination
The Civil Services Examination of 2013 witnessed a drastic change in 
the pattern of mains examination. Out of the 2 optional subjects, one 
was replaced by 2 additional papers of general studies. This increased 
the weightage of GS to twice that of the optional subject. Earlier, its 
weightage was half that of the 2 optional subjects combined. The 
number of questions in the GS papers was increased to 25 of 10 marks 
each, to be completed in 3 hours. The thinking time was reduced, and 
speed in writing answers mattered a lot. The intent behind this could 
have been to elicit a natural response from an aspirant rather than a 
cultivated one or the one that is administered by coaching/training – 
when faced with questions in the examination hall rapidly. Also, it was 
compulsory to score at least 10% of total marks in each of the 7 papers 
in mains examination to be considered for merit, that is, one essay, 4 
GS papers, and 2 papers of an optional subject.
The course of all the 4 papers of general studies was explicitly listed in 
the notification of CSE 2013. An altogether new subject was introduced 
in general studies paper – IV called Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude. 
The introduction of this paper in GS signifies the importance attached 
to personal and professional ethics of civil servants by UPSC. The 
quality a civil servant must possess is discussed in the next chapter on 
‘preparations for interview.’ Several, but not all, changes introduced in 
CSE 2013 were taken from the recommendation of the Arun Nigavekar 
committee report submitted in August 2012. The report is now available 
in the public domain by means of RTI.
It was contended before the committee that aspirants at such important 
positions of civil services generally qualify by scoring well in the 2 
optional subjects, which would have no relevance to the services as 
such. The civil servants are employed in generalist or functionalist 
Page 2


Preparations for Mains Examination
The Civil Services Examination of 2013 witnessed a drastic change in 
the pattern of mains examination. Out of the 2 optional subjects, one 
was replaced by 2 additional papers of general studies. This increased 
the weightage of GS to twice that of the optional subject. Earlier, its 
weightage was half that of the 2 optional subjects combined. The 
number of questions in the GS papers was increased to 25 of 10 marks 
each, to be completed in 3 hours. The thinking time was reduced, and 
speed in writing answers mattered a lot. The intent behind this could 
have been to elicit a natural response from an aspirant rather than a 
cultivated one or the one that is administered by coaching/training – 
when faced with questions in the examination hall rapidly. Also, it was 
compulsory to score at least 10% of total marks in each of the 7 papers 
in mains examination to be considered for merit, that is, one essay, 4 
GS papers, and 2 papers of an optional subject.
The course of all the 4 papers of general studies was explicitly listed in 
the notification of CSE 2013. An altogether new subject was introduced 
in general studies paper – IV called Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude. 
The introduction of this paper in GS signifies the importance attached 
to personal and professional ethics of civil servants by UPSC. The 
quality a civil servant must possess is discussed in the next chapter on 
‘preparations for interview.’ Several, but not all, changes introduced in 
CSE 2013 were taken from the recommendation of the Arun Nigavekar 
committee report submitted in August 2012. The report is now available 
in the public domain by means of RTI.
It was contended before the committee that aspirants at such important 
positions of civil services generally qualify by scoring well in the 2 
optional subjects, which would have no relevance to the services as 
such. The civil servants are employed in generalist or functionalist 
positions and are required to possess a broad general outlook on 
important current happenings. Taking into account these and other 
related views, the committee decided to scrap one optional subject 
and replace it with GS papers. Moreover, civil services preliminary 
examination served as a screening exam for Indian forest services in 
2013. This had a significant repercussion on the decreased final merit 
cut-offs in the forest services.
However, there was no change in the compulsory language portion – 
one is English, and the other language can be opted from the list of 22 
languages in schedule 8 of the constitution. The minimum qualifying 
standards are listed in the notification – 25% for both the Indian 
language and the English language. Marks of the interview have been 
decreased from 300 earlier to 275 in 2013, such that the percentage 
weightage of the interview in the total score for merit remains the 
same. These changes again provoked a huge uproar after the period 
of speculation of 2 months before the notification. To pacify the 
aspirants, the number of attempts for every category, where there was 
a limitation, was increased by 2 with a consequential increase in 2 years 
of the maximum age limit wherever applicable.
The pattern of the mains examination broadly remains the same in 
the year 2014. It is ironical that 2013 witnessed an uproar mainly due 
to drastic changes in the mains examination, and in the year 2014, it 
was the converse – protests surrounded the preliminary examination 
and not the mains examination! Let us try to devise a strategic plan to 
crack the mains of CSE. Let me assure you, dear aspirant, that mains are 
competitively easier than prelims just because of the numbers – out of 
the 16,000 selected candidates in the preliminary stage, around 3,000 
would be selected on the basis of the subjective mains examination to 
face the interview. A well-chalked-out strategy that can organize your 
studies, recall to memory the information written in a structured manner, 
and examination hall temperament can definitely help you emerge in 
flying colors in the mains examination. All those aspirants who find 
Page 3


Preparations for Mains Examination
The Civil Services Examination of 2013 witnessed a drastic change in 
the pattern of mains examination. Out of the 2 optional subjects, one 
was replaced by 2 additional papers of general studies. This increased 
the weightage of GS to twice that of the optional subject. Earlier, its 
weightage was half that of the 2 optional subjects combined. The 
number of questions in the GS papers was increased to 25 of 10 marks 
each, to be completed in 3 hours. The thinking time was reduced, and 
speed in writing answers mattered a lot. The intent behind this could 
have been to elicit a natural response from an aspirant rather than a 
cultivated one or the one that is administered by coaching/training – 
when faced with questions in the examination hall rapidly. Also, it was 
compulsory to score at least 10% of total marks in each of the 7 papers 
in mains examination to be considered for merit, that is, one essay, 4 
GS papers, and 2 papers of an optional subject.
The course of all the 4 papers of general studies was explicitly listed in 
the notification of CSE 2013. An altogether new subject was introduced 
in general studies paper – IV called Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude. 
The introduction of this paper in GS signifies the importance attached 
to personal and professional ethics of civil servants by UPSC. The 
quality a civil servant must possess is discussed in the next chapter on 
‘preparations for interview.’ Several, but not all, changes introduced in 
CSE 2013 were taken from the recommendation of the Arun Nigavekar 
committee report submitted in August 2012. The report is now available 
in the public domain by means of RTI.
It was contended before the committee that aspirants at such important 
positions of civil services generally qualify by scoring well in the 2 
optional subjects, which would have no relevance to the services as 
such. The civil servants are employed in generalist or functionalist 
positions and are required to possess a broad general outlook on 
important current happenings. Taking into account these and other 
related views, the committee decided to scrap one optional subject 
and replace it with GS papers. Moreover, civil services preliminary 
examination served as a screening exam for Indian forest services in 
2013. This had a significant repercussion on the decreased final merit 
cut-offs in the forest services.
However, there was no change in the compulsory language portion – 
one is English, and the other language can be opted from the list of 22 
languages in schedule 8 of the constitution. The minimum qualifying 
standards are listed in the notification – 25% for both the Indian 
language and the English language. Marks of the interview have been 
decreased from 300 earlier to 275 in 2013, such that the percentage 
weightage of the interview in the total score for merit remains the 
same. These changes again provoked a huge uproar after the period 
of speculation of 2 months before the notification. To pacify the 
aspirants, the number of attempts for every category, where there was 
a limitation, was increased by 2 with a consequential increase in 2 years 
of the maximum age limit wherever applicable.
The pattern of the mains examination broadly remains the same in 
the year 2014. It is ironical that 2013 witnessed an uproar mainly due 
to drastic changes in the mains examination, and in the year 2014, it 
was the converse – protests surrounded the preliminary examination 
and not the mains examination! Let us try to devise a strategic plan to 
crack the mains of CSE. Let me assure you, dear aspirant, that mains are 
competitively easier than prelims just because of the numbers – out of 
the 16,000 selected candidates in the preliminary stage, around 3,000 
would be selected on the basis of the subjective mains examination to 
face the interview. A well-chalked-out strategy that can organize your 
studies, recall to memory the information written in a structured manner, 
and examination hall temperament can definitely help you emerge in 
flying colors in the mains examination. All those aspirants who find 
Preparations for Mains Examination
the mains examination invincible, those who always get through the 
preliminary and then find mains as a bottleneck to crack open, and 
those who have believed till now that the mains examination is the only 
barrier between them and the civil services shall be beneficiaries of 
these nuances which are to follow in the sections below;
?   ESSAY:
Essay is nothing but a reflection of general studies. It is a broad, multi-
faceted assessment of a particular topic under consideration from 
a generalist viewpoint – a quality mandatory for a civil servant to 
possess so as to deliberate upon important issues. From the point of 
view of examination, an essay exam is the one where you can create 
a difference in scores. The marks of an essay vary widely, and it will 
require certain skills to maintain your score in the range of average 
and above-average marks but profound strategy and practice to land 
up in the top range of marks. An essay has become more important 
in the present scenario where the knowledge difference among the 
aspirants as far as GS is concerned is minuscule; resulting in very 
closely spaced marks in GS. It is here that an essay can give you a 
huge lead from the competitors. Thus, after a lot of discussions and 
deliberation with the other successful candidates and their candid 
sharing of expected marks and actual scores, I have come to the 
following effective strategy for the essay;
a) Distinguish between areas and topics:
An aspirant needs to know the difference between an area and the 
topics falling in that area. For example, social issues are an area, and 
the topics falling in that area may be women empowerment, family 
values, casteism, etc. Another example – Environment is an area. The 
topics falling under that area are pollution of air, degradation of land, 
deforestation, erosion of coastal areas, etc. Thus, we can make out that 
an area is a broad domain incorporating many topics which are the 
subsets of that broad area.
Page 4


Preparations for Mains Examination
The Civil Services Examination of 2013 witnessed a drastic change in 
the pattern of mains examination. Out of the 2 optional subjects, one 
was replaced by 2 additional papers of general studies. This increased 
the weightage of GS to twice that of the optional subject. Earlier, its 
weightage was half that of the 2 optional subjects combined. The 
number of questions in the GS papers was increased to 25 of 10 marks 
each, to be completed in 3 hours. The thinking time was reduced, and 
speed in writing answers mattered a lot. The intent behind this could 
have been to elicit a natural response from an aspirant rather than a 
cultivated one or the one that is administered by coaching/training – 
when faced with questions in the examination hall rapidly. Also, it was 
compulsory to score at least 10% of total marks in each of the 7 papers 
in mains examination to be considered for merit, that is, one essay, 4 
GS papers, and 2 papers of an optional subject.
The course of all the 4 papers of general studies was explicitly listed in 
the notification of CSE 2013. An altogether new subject was introduced 
in general studies paper – IV called Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude. 
The introduction of this paper in GS signifies the importance attached 
to personal and professional ethics of civil servants by UPSC. The 
quality a civil servant must possess is discussed in the next chapter on 
‘preparations for interview.’ Several, but not all, changes introduced in 
CSE 2013 were taken from the recommendation of the Arun Nigavekar 
committee report submitted in August 2012. The report is now available 
in the public domain by means of RTI.
It was contended before the committee that aspirants at such important 
positions of civil services generally qualify by scoring well in the 2 
optional subjects, which would have no relevance to the services as 
such. The civil servants are employed in generalist or functionalist 
positions and are required to possess a broad general outlook on 
important current happenings. Taking into account these and other 
related views, the committee decided to scrap one optional subject 
and replace it with GS papers. Moreover, civil services preliminary 
examination served as a screening exam for Indian forest services in 
2013. This had a significant repercussion on the decreased final merit 
cut-offs in the forest services.
However, there was no change in the compulsory language portion – 
one is English, and the other language can be opted from the list of 22 
languages in schedule 8 of the constitution. The minimum qualifying 
standards are listed in the notification – 25% for both the Indian 
language and the English language. Marks of the interview have been 
decreased from 300 earlier to 275 in 2013, such that the percentage 
weightage of the interview in the total score for merit remains the 
same. These changes again provoked a huge uproar after the period 
of speculation of 2 months before the notification. To pacify the 
aspirants, the number of attempts for every category, where there was 
a limitation, was increased by 2 with a consequential increase in 2 years 
of the maximum age limit wherever applicable.
The pattern of the mains examination broadly remains the same in 
the year 2014. It is ironical that 2013 witnessed an uproar mainly due 
to drastic changes in the mains examination, and in the year 2014, it 
was the converse – protests surrounded the preliminary examination 
and not the mains examination! Let us try to devise a strategic plan to 
crack the mains of CSE. Let me assure you, dear aspirant, that mains are 
competitively easier than prelims just because of the numbers – out of 
the 16,000 selected candidates in the preliminary stage, around 3,000 
would be selected on the basis of the subjective mains examination to 
face the interview. A well-chalked-out strategy that can organize your 
studies, recall to memory the information written in a structured manner, 
and examination hall temperament can definitely help you emerge in 
flying colors in the mains examination. All those aspirants who find 
Preparations for Mains Examination
the mains examination invincible, those who always get through the 
preliminary and then find mains as a bottleneck to crack open, and 
those who have believed till now that the mains examination is the only 
barrier between them and the civil services shall be beneficiaries of 
these nuances which are to follow in the sections below;
?   ESSAY:
Essay is nothing but a reflection of general studies. It is a broad, multi-
faceted assessment of a particular topic under consideration from 
a generalist viewpoint – a quality mandatory for a civil servant to 
possess so as to deliberate upon important issues. From the point of 
view of examination, an essay exam is the one where you can create 
a difference in scores. The marks of an essay vary widely, and it will 
require certain skills to maintain your score in the range of average 
and above-average marks but profound strategy and practice to land 
up in the top range of marks. An essay has become more important 
in the present scenario where the knowledge difference among the 
aspirants as far as GS is concerned is minuscule; resulting in very 
closely spaced marks in GS. It is here that an essay can give you a 
huge lead from the competitors. Thus, after a lot of discussions and 
deliberation with the other successful candidates and their candid 
sharing of expected marks and actual scores, I have come to the 
following effective strategy for the essay;
a) Distinguish between areas and topics:
An aspirant needs to know the difference between an area and the 
topics falling in that area. For example, social issues are an area, and 
the topics falling in that area may be women empowerment, family 
values, casteism, etc. Another example – Environment is an area. The 
topics falling under that area are pollution of air, degradation of land, 
deforestation, erosion of coastal areas, etc. Thus, we can make out that 
an area is a broad domain incorporating many topics which are the 
subsets of that broad area.
Now an aspirant must recall the way of reading a newspaper – the 
art of smart reading of a newspaper – wherein entries are made into 
different diaries titled as social, economic, political, environmental, 
international relations, science & technology. These are nothing but 
the broad areas listed for you, and the entries therein may comprise 
material to be used in the relevant essays. That means the exercise 
an aspirant did for his/her general studies preparations by extracting 
and segregating news of relevance would also prove beneficial in the 
essay.
Remember, dear friends, that those essays which provide suitable, 
current, related examples, in accordance with the topic under 
consideration, create a tremendous effect on the examiner. This is 
bound to fetch more marks.
b) Make a list of your strong areas:
For the purpose of an essay, the number of areas swells by 
incorporating philosophical, historical, and cultural topics along with 
the existing lot of social, economic, political, IR, Environment, and S 
& T. An aspirant must identify his/her comfort zone. You must pick 
at least 3 areas of your comfort – when I talk of comfort, it includes 
the assumption that you are aware of the recent happenings related to 
that field. The fourth area is bound to be chosen to act as a buffer in 
case of contingency.
Analyze the essays of the last 3 years. You will realize that the topics of 
the essays find their roots in at least 2 areas and a maximum of 3 areas 
– except for the philosophical essays. Thus, an aspirant must select 3 
areas of maximum comfort so that he/she has the information to build 
on and conclude the essay from those 3 areas.
Further, there must be either environment or science and technology 
in those 3 areas. These both areas are finding relevance in wide issues 
and can’t be neglected in an essay. The best combination of robust 
Page 5


Preparations for Mains Examination
The Civil Services Examination of 2013 witnessed a drastic change in 
the pattern of mains examination. Out of the 2 optional subjects, one 
was replaced by 2 additional papers of general studies. This increased 
the weightage of GS to twice that of the optional subject. Earlier, its 
weightage was half that of the 2 optional subjects combined. The 
number of questions in the GS papers was increased to 25 of 10 marks 
each, to be completed in 3 hours. The thinking time was reduced, and 
speed in writing answers mattered a lot. The intent behind this could 
have been to elicit a natural response from an aspirant rather than a 
cultivated one or the one that is administered by coaching/training – 
when faced with questions in the examination hall rapidly. Also, it was 
compulsory to score at least 10% of total marks in each of the 7 papers 
in mains examination to be considered for merit, that is, one essay, 4 
GS papers, and 2 papers of an optional subject.
The course of all the 4 papers of general studies was explicitly listed in 
the notification of CSE 2013. An altogether new subject was introduced 
in general studies paper – IV called Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude. 
The introduction of this paper in GS signifies the importance attached 
to personal and professional ethics of civil servants by UPSC. The 
quality a civil servant must possess is discussed in the next chapter on 
‘preparations for interview.’ Several, but not all, changes introduced in 
CSE 2013 were taken from the recommendation of the Arun Nigavekar 
committee report submitted in August 2012. The report is now available 
in the public domain by means of RTI.
It was contended before the committee that aspirants at such important 
positions of civil services generally qualify by scoring well in the 2 
optional subjects, which would have no relevance to the services as 
such. The civil servants are employed in generalist or functionalist 
positions and are required to possess a broad general outlook on 
important current happenings. Taking into account these and other 
related views, the committee decided to scrap one optional subject 
and replace it with GS papers. Moreover, civil services preliminary 
examination served as a screening exam for Indian forest services in 
2013. This had a significant repercussion on the decreased final merit 
cut-offs in the forest services.
However, there was no change in the compulsory language portion – 
one is English, and the other language can be opted from the list of 22 
languages in schedule 8 of the constitution. The minimum qualifying 
standards are listed in the notification – 25% for both the Indian 
language and the English language. Marks of the interview have been 
decreased from 300 earlier to 275 in 2013, such that the percentage 
weightage of the interview in the total score for merit remains the 
same. These changes again provoked a huge uproar after the period 
of speculation of 2 months before the notification. To pacify the 
aspirants, the number of attempts for every category, where there was 
a limitation, was increased by 2 with a consequential increase in 2 years 
of the maximum age limit wherever applicable.
The pattern of the mains examination broadly remains the same in 
the year 2014. It is ironical that 2013 witnessed an uproar mainly due 
to drastic changes in the mains examination, and in the year 2014, it 
was the converse – protests surrounded the preliminary examination 
and not the mains examination! Let us try to devise a strategic plan to 
crack the mains of CSE. Let me assure you, dear aspirant, that mains are 
competitively easier than prelims just because of the numbers – out of 
the 16,000 selected candidates in the preliminary stage, around 3,000 
would be selected on the basis of the subjective mains examination to 
face the interview. A well-chalked-out strategy that can organize your 
studies, recall to memory the information written in a structured manner, 
and examination hall temperament can definitely help you emerge in 
flying colors in the mains examination. All those aspirants who find 
Preparations for Mains Examination
the mains examination invincible, those who always get through the 
preliminary and then find mains as a bottleneck to crack open, and 
those who have believed till now that the mains examination is the only 
barrier between them and the civil services shall be beneficiaries of 
these nuances which are to follow in the sections below;
?   ESSAY:
Essay is nothing but a reflection of general studies. It is a broad, multi-
faceted assessment of a particular topic under consideration from 
a generalist viewpoint – a quality mandatory for a civil servant to 
possess so as to deliberate upon important issues. From the point of 
view of examination, an essay exam is the one where you can create 
a difference in scores. The marks of an essay vary widely, and it will 
require certain skills to maintain your score in the range of average 
and above-average marks but profound strategy and practice to land 
up in the top range of marks. An essay has become more important 
in the present scenario where the knowledge difference among the 
aspirants as far as GS is concerned is minuscule; resulting in very 
closely spaced marks in GS. It is here that an essay can give you a 
huge lead from the competitors. Thus, after a lot of discussions and 
deliberation with the other successful candidates and their candid 
sharing of expected marks and actual scores, I have come to the 
following effective strategy for the essay;
a) Distinguish between areas and topics:
An aspirant needs to know the difference between an area and the 
topics falling in that area. For example, social issues are an area, and 
the topics falling in that area may be women empowerment, family 
values, casteism, etc. Another example – Environment is an area. The 
topics falling under that area are pollution of air, degradation of land, 
deforestation, erosion of coastal areas, etc. Thus, we can make out that 
an area is a broad domain incorporating many topics which are the 
subsets of that broad area.
Now an aspirant must recall the way of reading a newspaper – the 
art of smart reading of a newspaper – wherein entries are made into 
different diaries titled as social, economic, political, environmental, 
international relations, science & technology. These are nothing but 
the broad areas listed for you, and the entries therein may comprise 
material to be used in the relevant essays. That means the exercise 
an aspirant did for his/her general studies preparations by extracting 
and segregating news of relevance would also prove beneficial in the 
essay.
Remember, dear friends, that those essays which provide suitable, 
current, related examples, in accordance with the topic under 
consideration, create a tremendous effect on the examiner. This is 
bound to fetch more marks.
b) Make a list of your strong areas:
For the purpose of an essay, the number of areas swells by 
incorporating philosophical, historical, and cultural topics along with 
the existing lot of social, economic, political, IR, Environment, and S 
& T. An aspirant must identify his/her comfort zone. You must pick 
at least 3 areas of your comfort – when I talk of comfort, it includes 
the assumption that you are aware of the recent happenings related to 
that field. The fourth area is bound to be chosen to act as a buffer in 
case of contingency.
Analyze the essays of the last 3 years. You will realize that the topics of 
the essays find their roots in at least 2 areas and a maximum of 3 areas 
– except for the philosophical essays. Thus, an aspirant must select 3 
areas of maximum comfort so that he/she has the information to build 
on and conclude the essay from those 3 areas.
Further, there must be either environment or science and technology 
in those 3 areas. These both areas are finding relevance in wide issues 
and can’t be neglected in an essay. The best combination of robust 
Preparations for Mains Examination
areas would be social, economic, and science and technology, with 
the political area as a buffer. Another good combination would be 
economic, political, and environment, with the social area as a buffer 
to act for contingency. A buffer area means that when it doesn’t find 
relevance to any one of the 3 core areas, then the buffer area can be 
plugged in.
After deciding the 3 core areas and the fourth buffer area, an aspirant 
must be thorough with the current happenings and their analysis in 
those areas.
c) Analysis of CSE 2015 (mains) essays:
An element of surprise in the civil services paper of UPSC is no surprise 
at all, at least in the last 3 or 4 years! The notification of 2014 CSE 
should have been paid heed, which read as below;
PAPER-I Essay: Candidates may be required to write essays on multiple 
topics. They will be expected to keep closely to the subject of the essay, 
to arrange their ideas in an orderly fashion, and to write concisely. 
Credit will be given for effective and exact expression.
The same is the language of the CSE 2015 notification.
“MULTIPLE TOPICS” – these words were sufficient to ring bells in the 
minds of an aspirant. And as it happened, there came 2 essays to be 
written in the paper; of course, the word limits were reduced to almost 
half of what they had been in the year 2013. The essays too were more 
restricted to a particular area of interest in their approach and content, 
and that too found their origins in burning hot current issues compared 
to what was presented in 2013. Let us see what CSE mains 2015 essays 
have to offer to the aspirants;