What should I Study in Public Administration for the UPSC Exam? Here’s Your Answer

One of the most common questions that boggle the mind of the UPSC Aspirants is “What should I study in public administration for the UPSC exam?” Many of the aspirants lack guidance and they are never able to find the answer to this question.

Till now it has remained an unanswered question. But now it is being answered with an accurate answer. If you follow the guideline below, you will get the direction to work towards. You will get to know about the strategy that you should follow to prepare well for the UPSC examination.

UPSC examination is considered to be one of the toughest examinations. To prepare for it a candidate needs to switch all his/ her focus towards the examination.

 How to Start the UPSC Preparation?

To start with the UPSC preparation, you have to make a note of the syllabus and the Examination structure. Until and unless you know the examination structure, you cannot move forward. After knowing the structure you need to write down the syllabus on a long piece of paper and paste it on the cupboard that you can easily look up to. UPSC examination syllabus is very vast and it becomes difficult for a candidate to complete it all in the time frame. Hence it is suggested that you should keep the syllabus of each subject handy to make sure that you cover all the important topics properly and can just revise through the not-so-important topics.

 Structure of the UPSC Examination

UPSC examination is conducted in 3 phases: Prelims, Mains, and interview. Once a candidate clears a prelims examination he/she moves to the mains examination and then the interview, at the end, the total score of the mains examination is calculated to rank the candidate and distribute the cadre. Check out the public administration UPSC examination pattern below:-

 Also Read:- UPSC Seats & Vacancies 2021: All You Need to Know about it – Category Wise

1. Prelims

The prelims stage has two papers that are conducted on the same day. This type of multiple-choice questions. Marks obtained in the stage are not counted in the final merit list but it is the filtering stage where the candidates who fail to clear the examination cannot move on to give the mains examination. The prelims stage has two paper:- General Studies I and General Studies II (CSAT) –

Paper	Marks	No. of questions	Duration	Negative marks
General Studies I	200	100	2 hours	Yes
General Studies II (CSAT)	200	80	2 hours	Yes

Prelims examination is GK driven hence a candidate has to be acquainted with all the happenings all around the world. He/she needs to know about the economy, politics, social, environmental news at the local, national, and international levels.

 2. Mains Examination

The main examination is conducted to evaluate the academic learning of the individual. MAins examination has 9 papers among which 2 are language papers. Each paper has a different weightage and different duration to complete. Check the mains paper details below:-

Paper	Subject	Duration	Total marks
Paper A	Compulsory Indian language	3 hours	300
Paper B	English	3 hours	300
Paper I	Essay	3 hours	250
Paper II	General Studies I	3 hours	250
Paper III	General Studies II	3 hours	250
Paper IV	General Studies III	3 hours	250
Paper V	General Studies IV	3 hours	250
Paper VI	Optional I	3 hours	250
Paper VII	Optional II	3 hours	250

Here Paper A and B are qualifying papers that do not have a share in the final marks counting. The candidate has to achieve a minimum of 25 %. PAper A is not compulsory for the candidates coming from Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Sikkim, or the candidates that have a hearing impairment. They can provide acceptance from the concerned board or university to get exempted. Each paper has its own syllabus so don’t forget to note it down and work with it.

 3. UPSC Interview

The final stage of the UPSC examination is the UPSC interview. Here, a candidate is evaluated to see if he/ she is suitable for civil services or not. Whether they will be able to carry out their responsibilities with a righteous attitude. The candidate’s mental and social traits are being judged by asking questions particular to his/ her journey or general questions.

Other qualities that are being assessed during the interview are – critical powers, logical thinking, confidence, presence of mind, style of handling the situation, motivation to become an IAS officer, leadership quality, intellectual and moral integrity.

Make sure you don’t leave behind the preparation of the Interview. You should check out the questions being asked in the interview and prepare for it accordingly. Preparation before any interview yields good results.

 Also Read:- What are the Links to the Notes of the UPSC Toppers? What is the Suggested UPSC Booklist by Toppers?

What should I Study in Public Administration for the UPSC Exam?

Civil service aspirants have to choose one optional subject for the mains examination. The optional subject has two papers of 200 marks each. Paper is descriptive and not MCQs that the candidate requires to write the answer to the question given. Check out the list of public administration subjects that you can choose from:-

S. No	List of Public Administration Optional Subjects
1	Agriculture
2	Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
3	Anthropology
4	Botany
5	Chemistry
6	Civil Engineering
7	Commerce & Accountancy
8	Economics
9	Electrical Engineering
10	Geography
11	Geology
12	History
13	Law
14	Management
15	Mathematics
16	Mechanical Engineering
17	Medical Science
18	Philosophy
19	Physics
20	Political Science & International Relations
21	Psychology
22	Public Administration
23	Sociology
24	Statistics
25	Zoology

Make sure that you choose your optional subject wisely. And it is advised that you should choose an optional subject that you are good at, you should never choose a subject that is not known to you.

How to Prepare for UPSC Examination?

For the UPSC examination you have to follow a few mantras given below, make sure that you follow them with all your dedication, and remain consistent throughout your preparation.

1. Time Table

Many UPSC aspirants, remove relaxing time from their schedule. They take so much pressure that a second they waste on something else seems unbearable to them. But mental health is as important as preparation. Fix your hobby time at least for 20 minutes in your timetable so you feel relaxed.

 2. Guidance

Guidance plays a very important role in one’s life, if you don’t have proper guidance you may find yourself in the middle of a sea where you cannot see your direction anymore. So to have a mentor you can enrol yourself into offline coaching or for a more convenient option you can enrol yourself in online coaching.

 3. Don’t Quit Books

In the digitalized era where everything is available on the internet, people tend to ignore books, but it is not an advised practice. Books have knowledge that can sometimes be missed by articles and online resources. So make sure you get a hold of the right books for your preparation.

Also Read:– What is the Civil Service Aptitude Test? How to Prepare for the CSAT to Clear in the First Attempt? 

Conclusion

UPSC preparation is a tough one, many aspirants sometimes feel like they are lost or they are not going in the right direction. If it happened to you then you should take a look at the information given above that will help you clear all the doubts from your head. And for even better preparation, do not forget to check out the amazing courses offered by UPSC Pathshala.