NS

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
NS
Table of contents
1. Introduction 1-2

2. Importance of one week break 3-4

3. Study Plan: Monthly, Weekly and Daily 5-7

4. Preparation Time for each Paper 8

5. Importance of Writing Practices & Test Series for Mains 9-10

6. Preparation Strategy GS 4, GS 3, GS 2, GS 1 11-23

7. Essay Preparation Strategy 24-25

8. Preparation Strategy for Optional Papers 26

9. Final Note 27
Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 1
NS

Prelims exam is the first hurdle in UPSC Civil Services preparation journey. Hope
you did well and are expecting your roll number to be shortlisted for IAS Mains
exam.

This is the most critical period in your entire preparation process as Mains
exam is an even bigger challenge. Ever wondered how toppers score great
marks in Mains and come out with flying colours? The trick lies in effective and
smart preparation!

The aim of the Ebook is to give you a detailed understanding of how toppers
prepare for Mains examination so as to help you become that next topper!

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 2
NS

Toppers Strategy for Mains exam

This Ebook has been prepared based on various interviews and personal interactions
with our IAS Toppers, where the central idea was to bring out the best strategy to
prepare for UPSC Mains exam.

Insights and tips from the following toppers ultimately shaped this Ebook -

Abhilash Mishra (AIR 5, CSE-2016) Prudhvitej Immadi (AIR 24, CSE-2017)

Suman Saurav Mohanty (AIR 9, CSE-2016) Rishi Raj (AIR 27, CSE-2017)
Saumya Sharma (AIR 9, CSE-2017) Shailendra Indoliya (AIR 38, CSE-2016)
CSE-Ashima Mittal (AIR 12, CSE-2017) Manuj Jindal (AIR 53, CSE-2016)
Varjeet Walia (AIR 21, CSE-2017) Rajarshi Shah (AIR 81, CSE-2016)

Hope it will be useful to strategise your Mains exam preparation well and next year
your name will also be included in the list of IAS toppers!

Toppers Strategy Follows...

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 3
NS

Take A Break
Yes, you heard it right!
You can take a break for a few after Prelims to refresh your-
self.

During this period, involve yourself in activities like nurturing

your hobbies, watching movies/TV, spending time with your
friends/family, going on a vacation or anything that makes
you happy and relaxed.

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 4
NS

Apart from this, try to spend one hour or so during this

break to strategize for next three months, plan and
analyse your Prelims paper.

if you feel that you are in the safe zone, you need to now
prepare for Mains with full confidence

if you think you are in a 50-50 zone, even then you need to
prepare for your Mains exam

if you are scoring low marks and you’re sure that you won’t
clear this year’s Prelims, then focus and rework on your
strategy for the next year

“If you think you are in a 50-50

zone, even then you need to
prepare for your Mains exam”
Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 5
NS

Detailed Study Plan for IAS Mains exam

Don’t take a break for more than ten days, start your
preparation without much delay.

You will roughly get 100+ days for you Mains exam, so plan
accordingly.

Prepare a detailed plan for next 3 months. You can break

down your plan into the following modules:

Monthly plan

Weekly plan

Daily study plan

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 6
NS
Monthly Plan
In this, set the broader goals, like covering GS Paper 2 and 3, along with Optional
subject Paper 1 syllabus completely, e.g. :

Weekly Plan and Daily Plan

In the weekly plan, break your monthly target syllabus, e.g. GS-1 into History, Share This Ebook

Geography, Society etc. and plan accordingly.

www.neostencil.com
 7
NS
Finally, in the daily plan, schedule the topics you need to cover on a given day and
assign the time for each of these topics.
Remember, always set realistic and pragmatic study goals, so that you can prepare
accordingly.

Say for Example:

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 8
NS

Time-Period for Preparing Each Paper for IAS Mains Exam

Here we are providing the sample period for each subject, and it may vary
accordingly depending upon each individual.

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 9
NS

UPSC Mains Writing Practice & Test Series

UPSC Mains exam needs lot of answer writing practice
apart from reading and preparing.

Suggestions to improve answer writing

Spend one hour daily for answer writing – choose four
questions- two from General Studies and two from
Optional paper.

Join a test series as per your wish for both GS & Optional
papers. Once you join test series, you can assess your
performance based on the expert’s/teacher’s feedback on
the tests.

For Essay writing, write two essays every week and get it
evaluated by experts, teachers, friends or peers to
improve your essay score.
Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 10
NS

Importance of answer writing

The final selection is based on your Mains exam score and
Interview score. Thus, every answer you write and every
mark you score will be crucial for your selection and cadre
allocation.

Every feedback from test series will be helpful for you to

improve and streamline your answer writing skills once you
have joined the test series.

Share This Ebook Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com www.neostencil.com
 11
NS

UPSC Mains Preparation Strategy for GS

Papers and Optional Subject
After the Mains exam pattern change from 2013 onwards,
the key to crack Mains exam mostly relies on GS Paper 4
(Ethics), Essay and Optional Subject. This is because GS
Paper 1, 2, and 3 are common for all, and on an average,
most of the aspirants get a similar score in these papers.

Given below is the paper-wise preparation strategy for

these 100+ days that can help you secure a good score in
IAS Mains exam.

Share This Ebook Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com www.neostencil.com
 12
NS

GS Paper 4 – Preparation Strategy

Ethics paper provides an opportunity to score more than
120+, at the same time if you make any mess in the paper,
it can also backfire and you can end up with a sub-par
score, thereby, spoiling your chances of selection.

What is the key to scoring great marks in ethics? The

answer is pretty simple - be honest!

Part A - Ethics theoretical aspects

Emphasis should be given to ethical concepts and meaning.

Good understanding of terms like Aptitude, Attitude,

Emotional Intelligence, Civil Services values etc.

Frame relevant, preferably, real-life examples to illustrate

these terms clearly in the exam.

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 13
NS

How to approach the questions in Mains

exam
In this section, UPSC will test your understanding and
approach.

Say for example, ‘What does happiness mean to you?’ For

such questions, there are no bookish answers – you need
to write based on your experience and knowledge.

While providing examples, try to offer real-life examples or

any incidents which happened in your life. Do not give
ivory-tower or ‘to-good-to-be-true’ examples.

Apart from tis, try to join one test series and for static
portion refer Lexicon textbook as reference material.

What is the key to scoring great marks in

ethics? The answer is pretty simple
Share This Ebook
be honest! Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com www.neostencil.com
 14
NS

Part B - Ethics case studies

In this section, you need to approach each case study
from an administrative perspective.
While analysing and studying each case study, you should
consider the following aspects

Resources involved in the case study and how to utilise it

Different stakeholders involved in that case study. Before

deriving the conclusion – check how each decision affects
different stakeholders etc.

The most important aspect of a case study is- based on

what ethical theory or value did you come to such a
conclusion. This should be mentioned in your answer.

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 15
NS

Also, depending on the case study, you should also know

how to utilise the state agencies like Police, Judiciary etc.

Finally, as per the demand of the case study mention the

relevant government schemes and quote them in your
answers.

Take a balanced stand, i.e. do not take a purely emotional

stand.Try to come out with a just conclusion which is a
good mix of rules, laws and emotions.

To include all the points mentioned above in your answer,

you should practice as many case studies as possible
before you appear for the Mains exam.

“Try to come out with a just conclusion

which is a good mix of rules,
Share This Ebook
laws and emotions” Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com www.neostencil.com
 16
NS

GS Paper 3 – Preparation Strategy

This paper is extremely dynamic, and almost all the
questions asked are based on current issues.

All the topics in this paper demand conceptual

understanding of the topics and awareness of the recent
developments.

How to prepare for GS Paper 3

To write good quality answers in mains exam, you should
analyse all the topics mentioned in the GS paper 3 syllabus
while you are preparing for it.

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 17
NS

For example, if you are reading ‘Food processing and

related industries in India- scope and significance, location,
upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain
management’, you should read:

Food Processing Industry in India and how it is evolving

Global best practices followed in other countries
Challenges and problems
Issues in FDI investment
How can we improve this segment
Any recent government initiatives/schemes
Actionable solutions etc.

When you read in such a manner, you will have more inputs
on this topic. If UPSC asks a question from any perspective,
then you will be in a position to answer this question without
any hesitation.

Share This Ebook Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com www.neostencil.com
 18
NS

Sources and Technique to write answers

To cover these topics, the best sources are Newspaper
editorials, Yojana and Kurukshetra magazine, NITI Aayog
documents and other ministry annual reports.

To write unique and good answers in mains exam, try to

use more examples, data and facts, and if possible use
diagrams (in a diagram – label all the elements you have
drawn).

“To write unique and good answers in

mains exam, try to use more examples,
data and facts, and if possible use diagrams”

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 19
NS

GS Paper 2 – Preparation Strategy

This paper is tricky as it deals with Polity, Governance and
Social aspects. You should have a good command over the
syllabus and recent developments.

Polity and Governance

For Mains, every answer you write in the exam should be
backed by constitutional values and statements, with legal
and ethical backing.

The best material to read the polity section for Mains is

from D.D. Basu and Laxmikanth

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 20
NS

For the governance section, you need to follow Yojana and

Kurukshetra magazine for schemes and development
related issues.

Develop a habit of reading newspaper editorials on a

regular basis, since most of the Mains’ questions are
asked based on the recent debates and discussion.

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
NS 21

International Relations Section

Inevitably, the questions in Mains will be asked based on
current issues

Apart from that, you should also know the background

and issues involved in for Major countries.

Also, you should be aware of how India’s foreign policy

has evolved over the years from National Book Trust
authored by V.P Dutt.

Do follow the newspaper and IDSA articles for more

points and analysis to ensure that you write good
answers in IR section.

“Do follow the newspaper and IDSA articles for

more points and analysis”
Share This Ebook Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com www.neostencil.com
 22
NS

GS Paper 1
In GS Paper 1 almost all the topics (History, Geography,
Art and Culture) are of static nature, and you would have
covered most of the syllabus topics of GS Paper 1 in your
prelims preparation. So you need to brush-up and revise
those topics once again for your Mains preparation. Refer
the same standard books which you referred while
preparing for Prelims examination.

However, for World history part (which is not in Prelims

syllabus) refer the book by Arjun Dev till world war part.
Post world war part can be covered from Norman Lowe
book.

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 23
NS

Regarding Indian Society section, you can read NCERT

textbooks for a basic understanding of the topic. Once you
are done with NCERTs, exhaustively cover current
affairs for any society related news as most of the
questions asked in this section are from current affairs. For
more, read EPW magazines to get some inputs, and the
rest will depend on your answer writing skills.

“Exhaustively cover
current affairs for any
society related news”

Share This Ebook Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com www.neostencil.com
 24
NS

Essay Preparation Strategy

As mentioned earlier, practice two essay topics every week
and get it evaluated from the teachers or your peer group.

Try to write the essay on diversified topics like

Globalisation
Women empowerment
Quote based Topics
Philosophical Topics
Science and Tech Topics
Education
Economy – Growth and Development Issues
Culture
Democracy etc.

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 25
NS

There is no defined way to structure your essay. You can

choose to either write in paragraph format or write in points
under various heading and subheadings. Just make sure
that you are linking one point/paragraph to another.

It is always a good practice to begin your essay with a

story/case-study. Also use quotes by famous personalities
wherever you can in your essay as they can help you fetch
those extra marks.

“Whenever you write an essay,

try to cover as many
dimensions as you can”

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 26
NS
NS

Optional Subject Preparation

One of the major deciding factors for your interview call in
IAS Mains exam is your Optional subject. Once your
Prelims exam is done, you should spend quality time
in preparing for the optional subject.

Given below is the preparation strategy for the popular

optional subject for your reference.

Public Administration
Philosophy
Anthropology
Sociology

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
 27
NS

Finally...

Practice as many mock tests as possible. Make notes of those

questions which you found difficult to answer in the tests.
Always make it a point to go through the model answers to see
which point you could have missed in your answer.

Don’t feel unnecessary pressure – IAS Mains is just like any other
exam. It’s meant to be cleared, and you definitely will!

As always, we wish you the very best for your Mains

examination.

Best Wishes!

Share This Ebook

www.neostencil.com
NS
NeoStencil is India’s number 1 platform for LIVE
online learning. We help you connect with India’s
best teachers from the comfort of your home.

Some of our popular UPSC Mains courses:

GS Foundation Courses
1. Lukmaan IAS
2. Pavan Kumar IAS
3. Destination IAS
4. Toppers 25

UPSC Mains Optional Courses

Pub Ad : S. Ansari, Pavan Kumar, Atul Lohiya (Hindi
Medium)
Philosophy : Mitrapal
Geography : Prof. Majid Husain, Alok Ranjan (English and
Hindi Medium), Md. Rizwan
Sociology : Praveen Kishore, Venkata Mohan,
Mujtaba Husain
Anthro : Venkata Mohan
History : Rajnish Raj, Alok Jha
PSIR : Kailash Mishra (English and Hindi Medium), RS.
Share This Ebook
Sharma (Coming Soon)

www.neostencil.com