Civil Services of India: UPSC: What pattern do upsc follow in asking the general studies questions in mains?

There is no pattern followed that is why it is challenging and very difficult to predict. However concentrate more on current events like any issues effecting current environment.   It can be anything from global warming to marine pollution, from technology to space revolution.   Also the questions will never be direct, The question can be from a luke and corner of the book which you read and thought it is not very important o you just ove looked it.   These are mere examples , you can not predict what pattern will they follow.

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You obviously can't predict the pattern. There are many people who are in the business of coaching classes for years and even they cannot predict it. There is one thing that I would like to share with you if you are preparing for this exam. People in coaching classes will make a big hype about the current affairs don't ever fall for it. Just see the paper of last ten year yourself. You will realize there is only one or questions that are there which comes from general studies. And you can even dodge those questions also as you have the choices in the paper. Now why did this people create so much hype about the current affairs... Its just like a way to keep you on edge and you believe that you cannot make it without them. One of the biggest problem with the IAS aspirants is that they end up studying the newpaper too much instead of focusing on the paper. So just see the papers of last 10 year and try to find a patter yourself.

i  think we could predict the pattern to a certain extent.mostly they are related to current affairs even though they are from history,geography etc.for example in cse 2015 prelims they had asked which country is land locked one with options jordan,syria,lebanon,isreal. this question is a geographical one but related to a ongoing conflict in syria. in 2013 mains question related to a IPR appeared as a result of court battle involving novartis.