Hello,


UPSC Civil Service Exam consists of three stages-

Preliminary
Mains
Interview

To give you a brief about the exam;

Preliminary consists of 200 Marks for each paper. It mainly consists of GS Paper-I where you just need to score the required cut offs against your category, it includes topics such as History of India and Indian national movement, Indian and World geography, Economic and social development- sustainable development, poverty,inclusion demographics, social sector initiatives etc,Indian polity and governance-constitution,political system,Current Events nationally and Internationally, General Science,General Issues on environmental ecology,biodiversity and climate change.

The second paper is CSAT which is qualifying by nature, you need to score 33% means 66 marks out of 200, it includes topics such as basic numeracy, comprehension, logical reasoning and analytical ability, general mental ability, decision making and problem solving, interpersonal skills including communication skills. Both consists of 200 marks, MCQs based. Prelims is mcq based, but still it requires knowledge coupled with speed in order to ace it, it's numbers are not added in the final list,


Coming to Mains it's more of a subjective type, one needs to write answer for Four General Studies Paper such as

GS-I includes Indian Heritage and Culture,History and Geography of the World and Society,
GS-II includes Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations,
GS-III includes Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management,
GS-IV includes Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude

Further, there are Two Optionals, One Essay, two language paper, there are total nine papers here. 250 marks for each paper, total is 1750 marks followed by Personality Test of 275 marks.


You can go through the following steps in order to initiate your preparation


The first and most important step is to be well acquainted with UPSC Syllabus in order to crack the exam, you'll know what to read and what to skip.

Prepare for Mains and Prelims together, because nowadays what's happening is even in prelims, UPSC frame questions based on Mains syllabus,

Make a timetable,set targets on a daily,weekly and monthly basis,that's the only way to complete this humongous syllabus.

Another equally important part is to start reading any newspaper like The Hindu, or Indian Express on a regular basis to be updated as well as gaining knowledge which shall be highly useful to you in future exam preparation part. Put a more emphasis on editorial part, it will not only broaden your perspective but help a lot in answer writing,and make sure whatever opinion you form it should be well balanced. You can also make notes of this,it'll be very useful in answer writing.

When it comes to reading books ,start with basics, for each subject, you can do with NCERTs for this. This will build your foundation strong,as you progress, move on to other relevant books as mentioned below;

For Prelims, refer the following books:

History ;

NCERT Class XI and XII
India's Struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra
For Indian Culture, refer art and culture by Nitin Singhania

Geography ;

NCERT Class VI to XII
GC Leong's Physical Geography
World Atlas

Economics ;

NCERT Class XI
Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh

International Relations & Polity ;

NCERT XII Political Science with current affairs
Indian Polity by Laxmikanth

CSAT ;

Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning by RS Agarwal
M Tyra's Quicker Maths

Coming to Mains Exam, you can refer the following books for four General Studies Paper;

GS I - For History , Class XI NCERT book with India's struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra,India after Independence by Bipan Chandra,History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra

For Geography refer World Geography and Geography of India by Majid Hussain, GC Leong's Physical and Human Geography with NCERT Class XI book.

For GS II - Polity and International Relations , refer Indian Polity by Lamikanth,India's Foreign Policy by Rajiv Sikri

For GS III - For Economics refer Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh, read ARC report along with Economic Survey and Fiscal Budget.

For GS IV - For Ethics refer a book named Lexicon by Niraj Kumar, also you can go through study material of IGNOU.

Keep resources minimal always, read one book many a times instead of many a book one time ,and revision is must, as you'll have to retain so much information.

Start practicing answer writing in advance, even in a little way, Writing mains is a huge task, for nine paper it requires immense practice along with knowledge. There are many sites which provide questions on daily basis you can avail that. Try to give a holistic viewpoint while answer writing by providing political,economical and social aspect.

You should definitely check out previous year toppers answer sheet that's available on UPSC preparation sites, this will help you in understanding the finer nuances of answer writing, tips to fetch more marks, how interconnecting events as per present scenarios covering its social, geographical, economical aspect can help you get more marks.

In order to evaluate your performance you should go through previous year question paper available at the official UPSC website, at the same time applying mock papers and test series which you can get it from any of the sites exclusively dedicated to UPSC

Hi

Yes, you can definitely prepare for UPSC examination even if you are doing maths Honours as to be eligible for UPSC all you need to be a graduate in any discipline ,so after your graduation you will be eligible for UPSC.

You can start your UPSC preparation while pursuing your graduation but yes you'll have to manage time for studying both UPSC syllabus and your mathematics Honours syllabus and maintain a balance between your studies for college and for UPSC examination.

To start your preparation  first of all go well through syllabus  , you can check the complete syllabus at
https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-syllabus

Top books which you can follow for UPSC examination preparation are listed below subject wise:-

HISTORY

*NCERT XI (Ancient & Medieval)
*NCERT XII (Modern Indian History)
*Facets of Indian Culture Spectrum
*From Plassey to Partition - A History of Modern India

Indian Art & Culture

*Indian Art & Culture - Nitin Singhania

Polity

*NCERT IX-XII
*Indian Polity M Laxmikanth

Geography

*NCERT VI X (Old Syllabus)
*NCERT XI, XII (New Syllabus)
*Certificate Physical Geography G C Leong
World Atlas

Economics

NCERT XI
*The Indian Economy Sanjiv Verma
*Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
*Economic Development & Policies in India Jain & Ohri

Environment

*Class XII Biology (last 5 chapters)
*Environment by Shankar IAS Academy

International Relations

*NCERT XII (Contemporary World Politics)
*Current Affairs ( read newspaper )

To get the complete list of books go through
https://competition.careers360.com/articles/books-for-upsc-ias

*Make a routine or a time table , keep short breaks of 20 to 25 minutes after every 2  hours

*Read newspaper daily and keep yourself updated with the current affairs

*Choose your optional subject wisely , choose the subject you have interest in.

*Make short notes after completing each chapter

*Revise :- there's no point of preparing for the exam if you couldn't recall anything in the UPSC Examination so you should stress on revision as well.

*Solve previous year question papers and mock test papers ;- You should solve these , it will give you idea of types of questions asked and their difficulty level and will help you a lot.

*Also work on your communication skills and personality development as it plays an important role in your interview round

For more tips go through

https://competition.careers360.com/articles/how-prepare-for-upsc-ias

Thankyou