How to Tackle Compulsory English Paper in UPSC Exam | English Language for UPSC CSE PDF Download

The UPSC civil services main exam consists of 9 papers out of which one is the English language paper. This paper is compulsory and is of qualifying nature. The marks obtained in this paper will not be counted for your final ranking.
The main objectives of the English paper are:

• To assess a candidate’s ability to read and understand serious descriptive prose.
• To assess a candidate’s ability to express his/her ideas correctly and clearly.

A lot of candidates (who don’t fancy themselves as having good English) worry unnecessarily for this paper. Remember that you don’t have to speak or know the Queen’s English to clear this paper. The questions asked in this paper will be of matriculation or equivalent standard. Just brush up on your grammar and make it a practice to read regularly. That will help you gather a good vocabulary and help you score at least the minimum required to pass this exam which is 75 out of a total of 300. 
Given below is the English question paper pattern for the UPSC civil services main exam along with sample questions:
UPSC mains English compulsory paper syllabus: As per the UPSC notification, the syllabus for the English language paper will be of matriculation or equivalent standard.

Essay question (100 marks)
Write an essay in about 600 words on any one topic:
(a) What kind of crisis is India facing - moral or economic?
(b) Participating in sports helps develop good character.
(c) Should students be allowed to grade their teachers?
(d) Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

This essay is general and different from the essay that you would write in the UPSC mains essay paper. Here, UPSC wants to test your ability to write lucidly on any topic. In the English paper, you should write an essay more along the lines of the essays that you wrote in your school and college days.

Tips for writing a good general essay:

• Choose your topic wisely.
• Read more essays to get more ideas.
• Have a proper structure for your essay. There should be an introduction, body and conclusion.
• Use active voice rather than passive wherever possible. This makes your essay more gripping.
• Use diverse vocabulary and avoid repeating words.
• Have a positive and pleasing tone.
• Use appropriate quotes as it shows your erudition.

Comprehension (75 marks)
Read carefully the passage below and write your answers to the questions that follow in clear, correct and concise language:
A complete reading program, therefore, should include four factors : at least one good book each week, a newspaper or news magazine, magazines of comment and interpretation, and book reviews. If you keep feeding your intelligence with these four foods, you can be sure that your brain cells will be properly nourished. To this must be added the digestive process that comes from your own thinking and from discussion with individuals or groups.
It is often desirable to make books that you own personally part of your mind by underlining or by marking in the margin the more important statements. This will help you to understand the book as you first read it, because out of the mass of details you must have selected the essential ideas. It will help you to remember better the gist of the book, since the physical act of underlining, with your eyes on the page, tends to put the thought more firmly into your brain cells. It will save time whenever you need to refer to the book.
Above all, never forget that creative intelligence is correlation of facts and ideas, not mere memorizing. What counts is what you can do with your knowledge, by linking it with other things you have studied or observed. If you read Plutarch's life of Julius Caesar, think how his rise to political power paralleled the technique of Adolf Hitler, or that of your local political boss. If you read a play by Shakespeare, think how his portrayal of the characters helps you to understand someone you know. In everything you read, keep at the back of your mind what it means to your life here and now, how it supports or challenges the things you were taught in school, in church and at home, and how the wisdom you get from books can guide you in your thinking, in your career, in your voting as a citizen and in your personal morals.
Questions: 
(a) What are the four things required for a complete reading program and why?
(b) What else is required to feed your intelligence?
(c) Why does the writer recommend underlining or marking in the margin the more important statements?
(d) What use can you put your knowledge to?
(e) How can what you learn from books help you in your life?

Tips for answering the comprehension question:

• You don’t have to understand everything written in the passage; just the gist would do.
• Read the question well and look for the answer.
• Underline keywords while you read the passage.
• Stick to answers which you can find in the passage. Do not infer your conclusion from the passage.
• The importance of increasing your vocabulary cannot be stressed enough. So, improve your vocabulary and up your chances of understanding the passage better.
• Practice solving comprehension passages as practice makes perfect.

Précis Writing (75 Marks)

Make a precis of the following passage in about one-third of its length. Please do not give a title to it. Précis should be written in your own language.
If this century has, in the famous phrase, made the world safe for democracy, the next challenge is to make a world safe for diversity. It is in India's interest to ensure that the world as a whole must reflect the idea that is already familiar to all Indians - that it shouldn't matter what the colour of your skin is, the kind of food you eat, the sounds you make when you speak, the God you choose to worship (or not), so long as you want to play by the same rules as everybody else, and dream the same dreams. It is not essential in a democratic world to agree all the time, as long as we agree on the ground rules of how we will disagree. These are the global principles we must strive to uphold if we are to be able to continue to uphold them securely at home.
We want a world that gives us the conditions of peace and security that will permit us to grow and flourish, safe from foreign depredations but open to external opportunities. Whether global institutions adapt and revive will be determined by whether those in charge are capable of showing the necessary leadership. Right now many of us would suggest that there is a global governance deficit. Reversing it would require strong leadership in the international community by a number of powers, including the emerging ones. India is an obvious contender to provide some of that leadership. India should aim not just at being powerful - it should set new standards for what the powerful must do.
This is a huge challenge, and one to which India must rise. An analogy from another field is not encouraging; many would argue that India has not acquitted itself well when given the chance to have global impact in one domain - that of the sport of cricket, where India accounts for more than 80 percent of the game's revenues and perhaps 90 percent of its viewership, giving it an impact on the sport that no country can rival. Clearly, international opinion does not believe that in its domination of world cricket, India has set new standards for what the powerful must do. Broadening the analogy to global geopolitics, one could well say : India, your world needs you.
So India must play its due part in the stewardship of the global commons (including everything from the management of the Internet to the rules governing the exploitation of outer space). We can do it. India is turning increasingly outward as a result of our new economic profile on the global stage, our more dispersed interests around the world, and the reality that other countries, in our neighbourhood as well as in Africa, are looking to us for support and security. India has the ability and the vision to promote global partnerships across the broad range of its interests; it only needs to act.
The world economic crisis should give us an opportunity to promote economic integration with our neighbours in the subcontinent who look to the growing Indian market to sell their goods and maintain their own growth. But as long as South Asia remains divided by futile rivalries, and some continue to believe that terrorism can be a useful instrument of their strategic doctrines, that is bound to remain a distant prospect. We in South Asia need to look to the future, to an interrelated future on our subcontinent, where geography becomes an instrument of opportunity in a mutual growth story, where history binds rather than divides, where trade and cross-border links flourish and bring prosperity to all our peoples.

Q4. Grammar (one example is given for each type)
(a) Rewrite the following sentences after making necessary corrections.  Please do not make unnecessary changes in the original sentence. (1*10 = 10)
(i) School is very near my home.
(b) Supply the missing words. (1*5 = 5)
(i) If you see him give him ______ message.
(c) Use the correct forms of the verbs in brackets: (1*5 = 5)
(i) His company is greatly _____ after. (Seek)
(d) Write the antonyms of the following: (1*5 = 5)
(i) Ability

Q5. Grammar (one example is given for each type)
(a) Rewrite each of the following sentences as directed without changing its meaning:   (1*10 = 10)
(i) He finished his exercise and put away his books.
(Change into simple)
(b) Make sentences using words given: (1*5  = 5)
(c) Choose the appropriate word to fill in the blank: (1*5  = 5)
(i) He got a _____ blow from his enemy. (deadly/deathly)
(d) Make sentences using phrases given: (1*5 = 5)

If you want to clear the UPSC civil services, you must take this paper seriously even though you only need a minimum of 75 marks out of 300 to pass and qualify. All your hard work in other subjects will be in vain if you fail to qualify in the UPSC compulsory English paper. Read on to know more about the strategy to deal with this paper:

• Ensure you know basic English grammar well. Not only will this help you score well, but this will also help you in writing error-free essays and answers.
• Have neat handwriting.
• Do not make spelling mistakes.
• Finish off the grammar part first.
• Have clarity in your answers. Avoid being too verbose.
• Improve your vocabulary by reading newspapers and other books.
• Attempt the essay question last and dedicate at least 45 minutes for it.