UPSC IAS Prelims Syllabus 2020
Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a nationwide competitive examination in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to various Civil Services of the Government of India, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and Indian Police Service (IPS). It is conducted in three phases – a preliminary examination consisting of two objective-type papers (General Studies Paper I and General Studies Paper II also popularly known as Civil Service Aptitude Test or CSAT), and a main examination consisting of nine papers of conventional (essay) type, in which two papers are qualifying and only marks of seven are counted followed by a personality test (interview).
In IAS Prelims, UPSC tests the analytical, logical and reasonable ability of the candidates. The IAS Prelims Exam is divided into two parts:
(i) General Studies Paper-I
(ii) General Studies Paper-II
Both papers have the maximum time limit of two hours and the General Studies Paper-II, which is popularly known as CSAT, is only qualifying in nature. The exam is conducted on a single day with Paper 1 in the morning session and paper 2 in the evening session.
i. UPSC IAS Prelims Exam Syllabus 2020: General Studies (GS) Paper I
Marks: 200
Duration: 2 hours
| Sl. No
|
Subject-wise Division | Detailed Syllabus |
| 1 | History
History of India and Indian Freedom Struggle |
Ancient History of India
Medieval History of India Modern History 1857 to 1947 Indian National Movement |
| 2 | Geography
Geography of India and Concept of Physical Geography |
Physical Geography
Human Geography Economic Geography World Geography |
| 3 | Polity
Indian Polity and Governance issues |
Union Executives
State Executives Federalism in India Judicial System Panchayati Raj |
| 4 | Economy
Indian Economy and Social Development |
Basic Principles of Indian Economy
Social Schemes of Government Social Development through Economic Empowerment Sustainable Development Demographics |
| 5 | Environment and Ecology
Principles of Environment and Ecology |
General Principles
Climate Change and Climate Summits and Conferences |
| 6 | General Science
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Technology |
General Principles
Latest Science and Technological Development |
| 7 | Current Events
It covers all the events of National and International Importance |
Current Affairs
Current Affairs with all Dimensions |
ii. UPSC IAS Prelims Exam Syllabus 2020: General Studies Paper II (CSAT) [Qualifying]
Marks: 200 marks
Duration: 2 hours
1. Reading Comprehension
2. Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
3. Logical reasoning and analytical ability
4. Decision making and problem-solving ability
5. General mental ability
6. Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)
7. English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).
8. Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level (last item in the Syllabus of Paper-II) will be tested through passages from English language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question paper.