In the mains stage which is conventional in nature, where candidates are made to write subjective questions to check their writing skills and holistic approach of students through GS papers and an Essay paper.

In UPPSC mains Exam, Essay paper consists of three sections, a candidate must write at least one essay from each section from options given. Essay paper carries 150 marks. The nature of optional can range from philosophical, current affairs, things related to general studies and even essay questions foray in to moral and ethical domains.

Essay Papers allows a candidate a robust scoring opportunity, so as to brighten their chances for final selection. An ideal approach for essay papers should be analyze previous year papers so as to grasp the approach the examiners want from the candidate.

It is always worthy if candidate prior to exam writes a essays on some broad topics e.g related to women, so as in real exam situation candidate has fodder to write, they just need to distil it to what is asked e.g Gender equality.   It is always advisable for candidate to stick to essence of essay question, so as to fulfill the questions demand.

Essay should Consist of Introduction, Body and Conclusion. An introduction can be started with a data if demand of question is related to economic or social parameter, any anecdote, any apt quote or things related to current happenings, but there is no straight jacket formula to start an essay. The Introduction part should be crisp and precise so as to give a window peep into approach and insight of student.

The body should be in continuation of introduction, so as to substantiate the introduction part. Candidate should touch many dimensions depending on demand of questions like if question is analytical in nature one should build momentum like documenting previous situation, current state and room for improvement in future.

For Social and economic issue-based questions, dimensions like Socio, economic, political, gender, environment should be stressed with fact and figures if possible. Philosophical and moral based questions are trickiest and if a candidate finds themselves in tight corner, they should not panic and try to demystify the root words of questions and elaborate it further.

The conclusion part should emanate from body and should not seem out of place.  The Conclusion should always bear optimistic thoughts, room for improvement and if one is ending with apt quotes it is then cherry on the top.