Back

MAIN EXAMINATION

Essay- 250 Marks
Candidates may be required to write essays on multiple topics. They will be expected to keep closely to the subject of the essay to arrange their ideas in orderly fashion, and to write concisely. Credit will be given for effective and exact expression.

The Essay Paper is one of the nine papers in the UPSC civil services mains exam. In this paper, you will have to write two essays each with a word count of 1000 – 1200. One topic can be selected from a choice of four topics. The Essay Paper is for a total of 250 marks with one essay for 125 marks. To Prepare the essay paper daily read newspaper articles so that you could have broad idea of concepts.

Durishetty-Anudeep

Anudeep Durishetty

IAS 2017, Rank 1

I secured this rank in my 5th attempt. Over the course of my long tryst with UPSC, I had learnt a lot from my mistakes and I consciously worked to rectify them. So my only plea to you is, if your Exam has not been cleared, do not become despondent. Just focus on your studies and do your best

Anu-Kumari

Anu Kumari

IAS 2017, Rank 2

I did not have a plan when I started out. But i started my preparation and I did prelims related test series as much i can. I also diligently attempted last prelims revision plan. After going through peoples’ strategies, I tried to do what I felt were genuine and honest suggestion by them.

sachin-gupta

Sachin Gupta

IAS 2017, Rank 3

After my second attempt I felt that I seriously need to work hard on General Studies papers as well, thereby I joined some offline test series for Answer Writing practice, which I found to be a game changer in this journey from Rank 575 to Rank 3.

manish-kumar

Manish Kumar

IAS 2017, Rank 61

As I was working i was not able to give more time to the preparation but i tried to cover all current related topic. Because this year I was very sure I won’t take any risk in prelims, else I can’t even fight the real battle for mains. I had not done much of static portion to time scarcity. So, I purchased online Test Series for practice. Everyday in evening i made it mandatory to attempt the online test series.