1. Home
  2. UPSC/IAS/PCS Tips & Tricks

Question : How To Prepare For Three Stages In Conjunction?

Answer :

  • You might have heard in every Topper’s monologue, that they followed Prelims cum Mains approach. Albeit it might sound a little complicated at first or difficult to comprehend, but it's not as difficult as it sounds. Overall,syllabus for both Prelims and Mains is same. Mains being a subjective written examination has detailed elaborative syllabus and for Prelims, only small list of topics suffices all. You can say that, syllabus of Prelims is compressed version of Mains syllabus (Except, ethics and few other topics). The difference only lies in their paper pattern and demand of examination.
  • Prelims being an objective type examination, concentrates itself with important pieces of information and testing important tidbits of General Studies and current affairs. For example, let's say the topic is Ujjwala scheme. If a question is being asked in Prelims regarding Ujjwala then it might ask you, what the scheme is about. Which ministry is responsible for running this? And some other provisions in it, etc.
  • The same question when asked in Mains, usually takes one of the forms like, "Recent government initiatives like BBBP and Ujjwala have turned out to be a game changer in improving the social status and eradicating gender-bias environment. Critically evaluate?
  • All-in-all, both these question expects you to know about the scheme in-depth with other relative provisions. The only difference lies in its expression.
  • Recently, with the trend in Prelims, it has been seen that questions are being asked from the Mains syllabus. So, how can you afford to lose precious marks by studying Prelims and Mains separately?
  • So, an ideal candidate should actually study for Mains syllabus at stretch (covering different multitudes, different facets of topics) keeping in mind its (topic's) relevance with Prelims.
  • With regard to interview, there is also no separate process. Candidates are asked contemporary questions from relevant syllabus of both Prelims and Mains. Interview can be factual and subjective depending on the interviewer. DAF should be prepared but that’s altogether a different matter.
  • Thus, there's no separate preparation for Prelims/Mains/Interview. We all, study the same things, with same books and with same amount of time at our disposal. The only difference lies, in the approach we follow, which makes a huge difference.