Hello,

UPSC is conducted in three phases mainly Prelims, Mains and Interview

Since you specifically asked about Mains,it is the second stage, it's more of a subjective type, you are required to write answers for Four General Studies Paper such as

GS-I includes Indian Heritage and Culture,History and Geography of the World and Society,


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.

GS-II includes Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations,

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


GS-III includes Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management,

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

GS-IV includes Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude

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

Remember to keep your resources minimal, read one book many a times instead of many a book one time, as you have to retain so much of information so rely on only limited yet trustworthy resources and revision is the only key for remembrance.

Two Optionals to be chosen among the following-

Agriculture
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
Anthropology
Botany
Chemistry
Civil Engineering
Commerce & Accountancy
Economics
Electrical EngineeringSyllabus
Geography
GeologySyllabus
History
Law
Management
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Medical Science
Philosophy
Physics
Political Science & International Relations
Psychology
Public Administration
Sociology
Statistics
Zoology

Other than this, you can also consider literature subjects for optionals such as Assamese,Bengali,Bodo,Dogri,Gujarat,Hindi,Kannada,Kashmiri,Konkani,Maithili,Malayalam,Manipuri,Marathi,Nepali,Oriya,Punjabi,Sanskrit,Santhali,Sindhi,Tamil,Telugu,Urdu,English

Two Language Paper which is only qualifying by nature, each is of 300 Marks, and candidates need to get merely 25% that is 75 Marks

One Essay

In total there are nine papers in Mains, except the two language papers , each paper is of 250 marks, total adds up to 1750 marks.

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