IAS Examination, also called Indian Administrative Services Examination, which is one of the toughest and prestigious examination held in India, gives a chance to get most eminent designation offered by Indian Government. Thus a detailed look throughout the syllabus is very necessary, especially for those who are going to appear IAS 2015 for the first time.

UPSC – IAS examination is conducted in three phases:

Phase 1: Preliminary Examination or CSAT (Objective Section)

Phase 2: Main Examination (Subjective Section)

Phase 3: Interview (Vocal Section)

Phase 1: Preliminary Examination – CSAT Syllabus:

CSAT or Civil Services Aptitude Test is the Preliminary examination of UPSC, it test the aptitude of examinee to tackle Reasoning and Analytical questions. Consist of two papers, each of 200 marks and two hours of duration and it is compulsory to appear in both.

It is an Objective section, and every wrong attempt will cost you 1/3rd marks of the attempted question.

CSAT is just a screening test, thus the marks obtained will not be entertained in your final merit.

Syllabus for Paper 1:

  • Current events (National and International)
  • History of India
  • Geography of the world (Physical, Social, Economic)
  • Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution
  • Economic and Social Development
  • General Issues (Environmental Ecology, Bio-Diversity, Climate change etcs.)
  • General Science

Syllabus for Paper 2:

  • Comprehension
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Logical Reasoning and Analytical Ability
  • Decision making and problem-solving
  • General mental ability
  • Basic Numeracy
  • Data Interpretation
  • Comprehension Skill (English)

Phase 2: Main Examination Syllabus:

This phase will test your academic and intellectual talent in depth. It consists of 9 papers, in which two are qualifying papers of 300 marks each:

I. Any Indian Language

II. English

These two papers just need to qualify which is mandatory and marks obtained will not be considered or counted.

Language for the rest seven papers can be any of the languages mentioned in Eighth Schedule of the constitution or you can opt for English. Rest seven papers are mentioned below, each weighing 250 marks:

III. Essay

IV. General Studies 1 (Indian Heritage/Culture, World History & Geography)

V. General Studies 2 (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations)

VI. General Studies 3 (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security & Disaster Management)

  1. General Studies 4 (Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude)
  2. Optional 1 (Of your choice)

VII.  Optional 2 (Of your choice)

These are the optional subjects from which you can choose your preference:

  • Agriculture
  • Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
  • Botany
  • Chemistry
  • Civil Engineering
  • Commerce
  • Economics
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Geography
  • Geology
  • Indian History
  • Law
  • Management
  • Mathematics
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Medical Science
  • Philosophy
  • Physics
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Public Administration
  • Sociology
  • Statistics
  • Zoology
  • Anthropology
  • Assamese
  • Bengali
  • Chinese
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Gujarati
  • Hindi
  • Kannada
  • Kashmiri
  • Konkani
  • Malayalam
  • Manipuri
  • Marathi
  • Nepali
  • Oriya
  • Punjabi
  • Russian
  • Sanskrit
  • Sindhi
  • Tamil
  • Telugu
  • Urdu

You can take literature as your optional one even if you had not done a degree in that.

Phase 3: Interview and Personality Test (275 Marks)

This phase is totally vocal one and candidates are provided with the option to choose their desired medium of communication.

This is only a brief intro of UPSC syllabus, for the detailed info and advertisement please visit www.upsc.gov.in