UPSC Mains 2021 Exam Preparation Strategy- How to Prepare for UPSC Mains in Less than 3 Months?

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UPSC Civil Services Examinations- Prelims 2021 concluded, What’s next?

UPSC Prelims 2021 exam was recently concluded. The UPSC Prelims 2021 paper was on the tougher side of the spectrum and left many aspirants disheartened. Many prestigious institutes including Adda 247 have released prelims 2021 cut-off (expected). To see your prelims 2021 score, click here.

To check UPSC Prelims 2021 Expected cut-off and detailed subject-wise analysis, click here

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts Civil Services exam each year in three phases- Prelims, Mains and Interview. Candidates who qualify UPSC Prelims are invited for writing UPSC Mains examination and candidates who qualify Mains are asked to appear in the Interview. UPSC Prepares a list of selected candidates based on the Mains and Interview marks of appearing candidates.

UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam Dates 2021

UPSC Prelims Exam Date	10^th October 2021
UPSC Prelims 2021 Results	2^nd week of November (Expected)
UPSC Mains Exam Date	7^th January 2022 (5 Days)

UPSC Mains 2021 Exam: IAS Mains Subject List and Mains & Interview Marks Distribution

Title of the Paper	Marks Allotted
Essay writing	250 Marks
General Studies–I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History, and Geography of the World and Society)	250 Marks
General Studies –II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations)	250 Marks
General Studies –III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio‐diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)	250 Marks
General Studies –IV (Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude)	250 Marks
Optional Subject – Paper 1	250 Marks
Optional Subject – Paper 2	250 Marks
Sub Total in the written Test	1750 Marks
Personal Interview	275 Marks
Grand Total	2025 Marks

UPSC Mains 2021 Exam- General Suggestions for UPSC Mains 2021 Exam

Don’t Waste Time irrespective of you are qualifying for UPSC prelims 2021 or not
- Aspirants who are either clearing or on the borderline as per the expected cut-off, can’t afford to waste any time. This is important as the gap between UPSC Prelims and Mains is very less, given the vast syllabus of the Mains examination.
- Even if, you have a minute chance of clearing prelims, you should not waste time. This is because, after the prelims result, you won’t get enough time for preparing UPSC CSE Mains exam.
UPSC Mains exam- Dedicated Mains Answer Writing Practice
- As it is important to may MCQs in prelims exams. It is even more important to practice mains answer writing regularly and rigorously. This helps you manage your time better and also improve the content & structure of your answers.
UPSC Mains exam- Distribute an adequate amount of time for each paper

- Candidates often make the mistake of dedicating a large part of their time to one or two papers at the cost of others. This results in a good performance in few papers and poor performance in others, leading to failure of poor marks in Mains results.
- This is why aspirants should allocate a proportionate amount of time to each paper based on their overall weightage and mark fetching potential.

UPSC Mains 2021 Exam- Plan for Acing UPSC Mains 2021 in Less than 3 Months

Focus on Your Optional Paper:
- Optional papers are said to be the main reason for scoring good marks in the mains examinations.
- An aspirant must secure good marks in optional papers in order to either qualify or secure good ranks in the UPSC Civil Services Exam.
- Toppers often score around 300 out of 500 marks in the optional subject itself. This shows the importance of the optional subject in the UPSC Mains exam.
- This is why an aspirant must dedicate at least one month of dedicated preparation for the optional subject. Make short notes which you can revise during the gap between GS and Optional papers.
- Revise as many times possible and focus on dedicated answer writing and improvements in the content of your answers. This will surely fetch you good marks in the UPSC Mains examination.
Allocating Adequate Time for Essay and Ethics
- Aspirants often invest less time in ethics and Essay papers even though they constitute 500 marks (like optional) in the total maximum mains marks (1750 marks).
- This is because of unfamiliarity with the subjects (especially beginners) as they are not exclusively covered in the UPSC prelims syllabus.
- This combined with a very few months gap between prelims and mains exam results in poor performance by the students.
Don’t ignore qualifying English and language paper:
- Students must allocate at least 1-2 hours for 5-6 days for these subjects when the UPSC Mains exam date is near. Many aspirants fail in these qualifying papers (like CSAT) because they ignore them.
- You shall not do the same mistakes.

UPSC Mains exam 2021: Time Allocation for Different Papers

In this context, aspirants should cover Essay, Ethics and Optional subject (total- 1000 marks) within the first 45 days after the prelims exam is over.
In the next 45 days, aspirants must holistically cover currents affairs of the last one year at least and revise the static portion of the syllabus (polity, history, geography and economy).
- Revising polity, history, geography and economy from mains perspective won’t be tough as you have already well prepared these subjects for prelims exam.
- In these 45 days, aspirants must also allocate time for the revision of optional, ethics, and essay papers.
It is advisable to the aspirants appearing in the UPSC Mains exam that they shall continue to revise and do answer writing practice for the whole duration between Prelims and Mains examination.

All the Very Best to all the Civil Services Aspirants who are sweating day and night to make their dream of becoming a civil servant a reality.