How to Prepare for the Compulsory English Language Paper?

Compulsory English Language Paper is Paper-B in the scheme of UPSC Mains Exam. It is one of the nine papers in UPSC Mains. However, it is qualifying in nature. It means that the score obtained in this paper is not calculated while determining the final rank.

• You need to score a minimum of 25% marks or 75+ marks out of 300 to pass this paper.

Major Components and Preparation Tips

Essay-Writing (100 marks)

• Practice is the key to preparing for essay-style questions. To obtain a sense of how your essay should be structured, read the editorials of newspapers. It will assist you in structuring an organised essay.
• In order to ensure that your essay is cohesive and well-structured, make sure to write a rough draft that includes all the crucial ideas you have in mind for the specific topic.

Reading Comprehension (75 marks)

• It consists of a passage and 05 open-ended questions based on it. Read the passage carefully before answering in order to do so effectively. Reread the passage after answering the questions.
• Note the pertinent details that might serve as potential responses to the posed questions. Put the answers to the questions in your own words and restate them. Be careful not to reuse any of the passage's exact sentences. You can receive a low grade as a result and it might give you a bad impression.
• To more easily answer these problems in exams, practise Reading Comprehension questions from last year's tests.

Precis Writing (75 marks)

• Precis Writing is just summarising the passage that is being discussed. You must summarise the main ideas of the passage in as few words as you can.
• Typically, the word restriction is one-third of the passage's overall word count. To do this, carefully read the material provided and highlight the key parts. Lines in the passage that are filler or don't add to the information can be struck through.
• Make sure you don't go over the word count or use the same material twice.

Grammar-based Questions (50 Marks)

• You will need to work on developing your conceptual understanding if you want to do well on the grammar-based problems.
• Master the parts of speech, and practise questions from this book or ones from the previous year that are based on grammar. In this section, questions mostly focus on vocabulary, narration, fill-in-the-blanks, and error-correction.
• You will do better in this section if you read these books and practise the grammar- and vocabulary-based questions that are included in them.
• Students who have studied English as a second language do not need to pay extra attention to this paper. However, it may be necessary to give this paper extra attention when preparing for applicants who have difficulty understanding or writing in English.
• We hope that following the strategy mentioned above, you can comfortably tackle the questions in this paper.