Main Examination:

The second stage of the Civil Services Examination is called the ‘Main Examination’.

The purpose of preliminary examination is only that some serious and deserving candidates are selected among all the candidates and the actual examination should be conducted among those selected candidates.

The main examination has a total of 1750 marks in which 1000 marks are prescribed for general studies (4 papers of 250-250 marks), 500 marks for an optional subject (2 papers of 250-250 marks) and 250 marks for essay.

In the main examination, 300-300 marks are prescribed for both the ‘qualifying’ nature papers (English and Hindi or any language included in the 8th schedule of the constitution), with minimum qualifying marks of 25% (75 marks). The marks in these papers are not added to the qualification.

The main examination question papers are published simultaneously in both English and Hindi languages, although candidates are allowed to answer in any of the 22 languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution (only in subjects of literature that exemption is given The candidate has written the answer in the script of the same language, even if it is not the medium).

It is worth noting that while the preliminary examination is completely objective, the main exam asks descriptive or subjective questions with different word limits. In these questions one does not have to choose the answer from different options but write in his own words. This is the reason that good writing style is considered very important to succeed in the main examination.

Courtesy: UPSC