UPPSC PCS 2020 exam pattern - UPPSC PCS 2020 exam pattern

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Prelims

The UPPSC has continued with the existing UPPSC prelims exam pattern. There are two papers in the prelims exam. The time allotted for each paper is two hours. The details are as follows

Paper Name	No. of Questions	Marks
General Studies – I	150	200
General Studies– II(Aptitude)	100	200

The General Studies paper–II (Aptitude) is only qualifying in nature and the candidates need to score only 33% (66 marks) in it to qualify the paper.
The UPPSC PCS prelims exam is a screening exam only. It filters out the candidates and reduces the number of candidates for the main exam. The marks secured by the candidates in the UPPSC PCS prelims exam is not counted for the final merit. But it is a very important stage of the exam as the candidates need to qualify in the prelims exam to appear in the main exam.

Main exam

Recently, UPPSC has changed the exam pattern for the main exam. The candidates are still in the process to understand the exam process completely and to design a strategy for preparation. The UPPSC has conducted only one exam based on the new exam pattern and hence there is no guidance available based on the previous year question papers.

The candidates need to follow the new exam pattern of the UPPSC PCS main exam as it is very similar to the UPSC IAS exam pattern. The only difference is the marks assigned to papers and the additional compulsory General Hindi paper in the UPPSC PCS main exam.

In the new exam pattern, there are four general studies papers instead of two papers of general studies. UPPSC has changed the nature of the exam altogether. Previously, the two general studies paper were objective type offline papers, but now there are four descriptive type question papers.  Besides, a new paper of Ethics was introduced.

The structure of the UPPSC PCS main exam is as follows

Paper	Description	Marks
1	General Hindi	150
2	Essay	150
3	General Studies-I	200
4	General Studies –II	200
5	General Studies –III	200
6	General Studies –IV	200
7	Optional Subject - Paper 1	200
8	Optional Subject - Paper 2	200
Sub-Total (Written Test)		1500
Personality Test (Viva-Voce)		100
Grand Total		1600

Interview

There is no set pattern for the UPPSC PCS interview and it differs from candidate to candidate and board to board. The interview is conducted on the office premises of the UPPSC in Prayagraj. The candidates need to report at the office on the assigned date.

In the interview process, all the original documents related to the academic records and professional experience are verified by the office staff and the candidates are assigned to a particular interview board. Each board is chaired by the member of the commission.

Besides the exam pattern, the number of candidates passing the prelims exam was also changed recently. Now the number of candidates passing the prelims exam is restricted to thirteen times the number of vacancies.  This ratio was 18 times earlier. It made the prelims exam tougher. Also, the number of candidates passing the UPPSC PCS main exam will be two times the number of vacancies.