Marking Scheme of UPSC Prelims

The Civil Services Exam conducted every year by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is your ticket to a profession in the prestigious civil services. This exam is conducted in three stages – Prelims, Mains, and Interview (Personality Test). Each stage eliminates candidates who fail to clear it. Starting with a few lakh candidates, ultimately only about 1000 people make the final cut. In this article, you can read all about the UPSC Prelims marks distribution.

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The two constituent papers carry negative marking in UPSC Prelims. Each paper is for 200 marks which means, the total UPSC prelims marks are 400 marks. But it is to be noted that there is negative marking in IAS Prelims. Details like the marking scheme and UPSC Prelims syllabus about both the papers are given below.

UPSC Prelims Paper 1

The UPSC Prelims Paper 1 is officially called the General Studies I Paper and is known commonly as the General Awareness paper.

Prelims General Studies(GS) Paper I Syllabus:

• Current events of national and international importance
• History of India and Indian National Movement
• Indian and World Geography – Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World
• Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
• Economic and Social Development – Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialisation
• General Science

In this paper, there would be 100 questions, and you would have 2 hours to finish it. Each question will have four choices out of which you should pick the correct answer. Each incorrect answer would cost you 1/3rd of the marks allotted to that question.

In this paper, you should score the cut-off mark (minimum required mark) as prescribed by the commission to clear it. (This mark would be revealed only after the final UPSC results are out after the whole process is done with.) The UPSC will only reveal whether you qualified or not when the IAS Prelims results are declared. Check out the UPSC Prelims cut-off marks in the linked article.

Aspirants can check out the links given below to boost their preparation and upgrade their performance in the UPSC prelims general studies paper 1:

UPSC Prelims Paper 2

The second paper is called General Studies Paper-II. It is also known as the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT).

Prelims GS Paper II Syllabus:

• Comprehension
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability
• Decision-making and problem-solving
• General mental ability
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)

In this paper, there are 80 questions, and you would have 2 hours to complete them. Here again, there would be four choices given, and you have to select the correct option. An incorrect answer will invite a penalty of 1/3rd of the total marks allocated to that question. In GS paper II, you have to score at least 33% or 66 marks in the exam.

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UPSC Prelims Marks – IMPORTANT NOTE

It is generally the marking scheme for the prelims paper that confused candidates. One must always remember that this phase is only qualifying in nature. The final merit list does not include the UPSC prelims marks.

The CSAT is a qualifying paper in the IAS exam, and you are required to score at least the minimum required of 33% marks for the marks secured in General Awareness to be counted towards acceptance for the Mains exam.

To qualify for the UPSC Mains, you must score:

1. 33% in the CSAT paper, AND

2. The cut-off marks prescribed by the UPSC or more.

The following table sums up the pattern and marking scheme of the UPSC prelims:

The UPSC Prelims total marks add up to 400. Aspirants should practice from UPSC previous year question papers to gain an idea of the IAS exam pattern and also check their knowledge of the Civil Services syllabus.

Learn about the IAS Mains exam pattern which is mentioned in the UPSC Notification 2023.

Furthermore, candidates can also refer to the links below to score more in the upcoming civil services prelims examination:

Visit BYJU’S Website for strategy and articles on Free IAS Prep and all the latest information on the UPSC IAS exam.

To read more about UPSC Prelims, check out: