First of all, you all must know the pattern of the UPSC IES Mains 2025, my children. So there are two technical papers and each paper is of 3 hours duration.  Like our college exams.   And each paper is of 300 marks.  Each paper is of 300 marks.   It is descriptive in nature. Meaning you have to write things step by step.  And friends, the questions that we get are of three types. 

 Firstly, a theoretical question arises.  There comes a derivation and there comes a numerical. And it is not the case that numericals are more known, theoreticals are less known or derivatives are less known.  Nothing like that.   All three have equal weightage.  And all three mean that we know the most important thing here, what happens?  Two things are most important here. One is knowledge and the other is the way of representing the answer. 

Exam Pattern : 

 If you know it well, you can easily crack the paper.  Because right now you are in college or you may have done college last year and are dropping out this year, so you have written the exam paper in college.  You people have writing skills but it is very important for you to learn how to present the answers here. We will see what we have to do for that.  So here friends we saw that first of all we have two technical papers, friends. See, there are two technical papers each of 3 hours and 300 marks.  And friends, here it is descriptive in nature. Requires step by step presentation, logical flow and clear diagrams.   And friends, there are three types of questions.  Concept based.   Those with numericals and derivations.  So let's move ahead.  Now look, what do we have to do here?  Here friends, now this complete slide is made.  But let me tell you a complete road map as to how we have to prepare. Friends, whatever preparation you have done for the GATE exam and you might have added a little for the prelims, whatever preparation you have done for prelims, you do not have to study anything extra.   There is no need to read anything extra.  So the first thing I would like to write is that you do not need to study anything extra for Mains. Nothing much extra for mains You don't have to do anything too extra.  Whatever you have studied for GATE, whatever you have done for prelims, that much knowledge is enough.  Meaning, this much knowledge is enough. This much knowledge is enough.  

How to Prepare : 

Now friends, let me tell you how we have to prepare for Mains now. One book for Mains preparation should come to you from the very first day when you start preparing for Mains.  Look, I think you guys should start preparing for Mains right now.   Your prelims paper is about to come.  But there will not be much time left in Mains.  So what can you do?  Let me tell you right now. Look, first of all friends, you should have the book of PYQ.  First of all you must have the book of PYQ.  This is the most important thing you need.   A must have PYQ book.  If this is not there then there will be a lot of mess.  So first of all you must have the book of PYQ.  Whether you are a student of Electronics, Electrical, Mechanical or Civil then you must have this PYQ book.  After that, friends, you do not need to do anything else from today onwards. You can take the test series , but take it later, not now.  So, what can you do right now?  Now you guys can focus on trying to answer the questions in your PYQ book.  Start answer writing.  See, this is the most important thing. What do people do in the garden?  What do kids do?  If I talk about myself, I did not study anything extra for Mains.  I wrote the answers over and over again using the knowledge that I had studied for prelims.  Is it okay?  So you need the PYQ book and start answer writing.  Now how to start answering writing friends?  First of all start with the most basic subject.  Whichever subject you like the most.   Whatever you find simple, like Sir, this subject seems simple to me, we will start answer writing from there. Now what to do in answer writing?  Look, we have done the answer writing. Right?  You have written the answers in college. You know how we write answers.  So first of all start with the simplest subject and right now we have to do only PYQs.   We have to focus only on PYQs. So first of all, focus on the simplest subject.  Start with that first. Now what to do after that friends? Look at the question, now here I am telling you the method of answer writing.  So first of all we have to start writing.  We have to try to answer at least two to three questions daily.  Is it okay?  This is very important.  This will build up your confidence.  Otherwise what happens is that we do not write the answers.  Just keep on studying and studying alone will not suffice. 

 This is not like a college exam where you can write anything and get marks.  It's not like that.  You have studied.  After that, you should get a presentation.  So what to do for that friends?  We have to write two to three questions daily.  You have to start with a simple subject. Now after that friends, you will get definitions.  So now if you have to give the definition of anything then you should not remember it word for word. Never write a word to word definition of a book. We have to create and write our own definition. You buy A4 sheets.  Now suppose a question came in front of you, friends, derive from lets dash dash dash and from lets, suppose it was a question of 20 marks or 20 marks.  Now you should look at this completely, mostly you must have derived the derivations in the class. We get everything driven in the class. So whatever derivation of 20 marks has come, you have to do it in a completely structured manner. You will have difficulty in starting off very slowly, comfortably, in a completely structured manner, but you have to develop it.   So first of all you write down what things you have like anything you need to derive.  Is it okay?  So you take some assumptions initially.  Right?  Do you take some assumptions?  Is it okay?  Is there some setup like this friend, this is the setup we have.  It has these assumptions.   And this is its diagram.   You should keep writing everything very slowly.  So first of all you will write what is our objective ?  What is our objective?  What do we have to do ?  Then after that you write what is our setup?  Like sometimes if there is an experimental setup or whatever we do, we will make its diagram here.   No, and it has to be made with the same pen.  It is not that we have to use red color, orange color, pink color, blue color pen, only blue color. Everything has to be made with just one pen. Black should also not be used. Now after that setup, friends, you have made a complete neat and tidy diagram.  Now what happens right? Sometimes we write too many paragraphs. Friends, don't write in paragraphs.  We have to write the answers step by step 1 2 3 4 point wise. Remember this thing here.  So after that friends, you have explained the setup.  So after that you are starting the derivation and here it is very important to give heading. Objective: What is our setup? What is derivation?  In derivation you do it point wise. Point number one, point number two, point number three.  You should not make long paragraphs. You have to write in points.  And after that friends, when you have written this entire answer , you can highlight the important points in black or underline them. Underline the important points in black. So you have written the whole thing in blue pen. You have written the entire thing in blue pen. And after that, underline the important points with a black pen.  We have to write very little.   You have to write as little as possible.  Now, for example, we are not going to write long paragraphs.   We have to write point wise so that things remain clear.  We have to write by taking space.  And we have to take care that the writing does not become too dirty.  Very much like there are some children whose handwriting is bad but still they get good marks because they write openly and with space.  Now, there are some children whose handwriting is bad, they write in a haphazard manner, then they are not going to get marks.   And friends, here generally step marking happens. But generally there is step marking. But if the final answer is wrong then you can get only 20 to 30% marks. You won't get more than that.   If the question is of 20 marks and the last final answer is wrong then you will not get more than six to seven marks. No matter how correct your steps are.   Let go.  Now here friends, as I told you, come on A4 sheets.  After that you see the different questions, what is there in PYQs?  First, try writing it yourself.  Try writing it yourself and then see what answer is written in your PYQ book.  Similarly friends, whenever you solve numerical problems.  Similarly friends, some questions will come in which there will be derivation definitions of two numbers each.  Now in the definitions of two numbers, you do not have to write more than two lines. Write it and move on.  Write it and move on.  Quickly.   Is n't that what happens sometimes, for example ?  You will see in PYQs that the same question is asked for 10 marks sometimes. Same question has been asked in question 20. Same question has been asked in number five.  So, you should have such a structured mind that what will I do if my brother comes in fifth position? What will I do if it comes in 15? What will I do if it comes in 20?  You have to structure this.  So I told you about the structuring.  If you have a good question of 20 marks then write the objective, setup , derivation and write it in 1 2 3 4 points.  It is numerical like that.  So in numerical also, always write the objective first that in this question I have to find this.  This data is given in the question.   This is how it has to be done. Whenever you do numerical, first of all you should look at the objective in numerical that what do we have to do brother?  And what all has data given us? A given data or data given to you.  Is it okay?  After that you can try to solve it.  Now, some question is worth five marks.  Suppose it is numerical, then you wrote the objective, wrote the data given and solved it quickly.  Then you should not explain that it has been done like this, I have applied KCL , I have applied KVL or I have done this step like this. Solve it quickly.  But if any question is numerical then it is of 20 marks. So friends, you will do it step by step. Step number one first of all we apply this at this point.  Then we do step number two.  Then we have applied it like this. Then step three.  You have to do it like this. So you have to structure your answers. And friends, the structuring of the answer will come to you only from your answer writing. You keep looking at the books, keep looking at the PYQs. Keep looking at someone else's answer sheets, it will not come.  You will have to answer it yourself and you people should know this thing.  You have done it. You did these things in college.  This is nothing new for you guys.  It's not new.  This is not new for you guys.  It is the old one.   We have done all this in college.  So you just have to keep in mind that whenever we look now, you have to write two to three questions daily. Start with the simplest subject. Buy the PYQ book.  Buy A4 sheets and just start writing.  You will try to write two-three questions daily, right? Slowly, gradually it will become your habit. And after that you do not need any extra knowledge. We only need a power to represent our answer which will help you in answer writing. If I talk about myself, friends, it was the Engineering Services Mains paper that got me selected because I had written the Mains very well. I wrote PYQs, which was a PYQ book. Just to tell you my point of view, I wrote the PYQ book at least three to four times.  I tried to write each question three-four times. And if you did this with friends, it means don't do anything else. If you do only the PYQ book, you will see that the syllabus is very huge.  This is a sure thing.  The syllabus of every branch in Engineering Services is very huge.  We don't even have to complete it.  Options also come. Choices are also included in the question.   as you may know.  So we can skip some things.  You can try to do it.   But what we have to do is that we should know how to write quickly as well.  You will also have to attempt 300 marks.  This is not a joke.  Attempt 300 marks in 3 hours.  So friends, what do we have to learn from answer writing? Look, you will have to do the answer writing yourself and it will improve automatically.  There is no need for anyone else to check our answer copy sir. Do this for us.  Brother, I don't need anything. We will do everything, it will come out.  All that will come for you guys.  All those facilities will be available. But now I am telling you that all this is not needed.  You can do your answer writing yourself. 

Syllabus : 

 You have to learn two things in answer writing. First of all the structure of the answer, but how should you give the structure of the answer ?  Secondly, friends, you have to see that if a question is of 5, 10, 15 or 20 marks then how should it be answered? You have to learn this.  That will come from answer writing.   Is it okay?  How will you answer this?  And the third and most important thing is to answer, friends.  I also have to write quickly.  If the paper is of 300 marks, then we will have to attempt at least 280.  Only then will our numbers be something like 170, 180, right?  So this is very important, friends.  If we have to attempt 300 then we need a lot of speed. The speed should be very high. Only then will we be able to do this.  And for this you will have to do only answer writing. Take the target.  Take the target.  Two to three questions per day.  And you should start with your most basic subject, slowly do it for five to seven days, after that take up a bigger subject, then do it for five to seven days and so on, see, no extra knowledge is required, I am telling you this again and again, and only PYQs. If I talk about myself, I was telling you that it was only on the basis of my marks in Mains that I got selected, I was fine, otherwise I was fine in prelims but I had very bad marks in the prelims GS paper of 2015, I had 70 marks in it and 70 marks were very less at that time.   At that time, children would easily get 160-170 marks in Paper One which was the GS paper.  I got 70 marks.  So there was a gap of 100 marks between us.  Meaning, between me and the other children.  Now, I have covered those 100 marks in Mains only.  I had good marks in mains.  So friends, what just did I do for Mains?   I picked up the PYQ book and went through the PYQ at least two to three times. I wrote each question two to three times and generally you will see that the questions are repeated.  You will find old questions. These people do not do anything very new. People in engineering services don't do much new work.  They keep raising old questions. So just old if you do PYQS 202 years old.   You make him 20 years old.  If you assume that from 2005 till 2024, then you can assume that you are on the safe side.  Paper will not come outside this.  If you have written the 20 year old paper at least two-three times, then you are done with the Mains.  There is nothing left inside the mains now.  Is it okay? You should keep this in mind.  Ok?  Now as we will see here, friends, obviously your concepts will be very good.  You will get a good rank in GATE. You guys will be preparing well for the prelims. So what do we do, friends?  We obviously already have our technical knowledge.  Now you don't need anything extra.  What should we do, friends?  Now first of all we have to try to start with two subjects but they are weak. Ok?  Be weak on two subjects. Try it, 10-10 years is written here.  But I would say that you should try and deal with 15 to 20 year old PYQs. And friends, start writing two to three questions per day.  Now this is a variant. If you want to clear the Mains then you will have to start this.  Right? We don't have any other option.  Next, if we talk about intensive answer writing, friends, what do we have to do? After that friends I will tell you again that before giving any test paper, Sir no, we will give you a test series.  We have to give the test series.  My brother wrote your PYQs twice before giving the test series. After that go for any test series from PYQ.  Because I am telling you the truth.  Only PYQs are repeated. You can look at the PYQs of the last 20 years. You will get repeats.  The framing of the question has been changed from here to there but the data is the same.  The content is the same.  You have to answer the same.  So you do this thing.  First solve PYQ properly. After that, friends, the next phase will come when you can give full length answer sheets i.e. your test paper.  After that you can give a test series.   You can take the test.  Because giving the test is also important because till the time you do not give the test, you will not know your speed and friends, speed is the very important means it is very important because it is difficult to attempt 300 marks in 3 hours and friends, suppose you attempt for 220, 230 then you will not get the marks, you will get marks only when you attempt for 300 because obviously there will be some mistakes, we might have written something wrong, we might have made some mistake, there will be an attempt for 300, only then you can think that I will get 170, 70 marks or 160 marks, 180 marks.  If there will be an attempt of 220, or 230 then there will be a lot of mess. So if you want to crack the Mains then you will have to make your entire attempt strong.    And friends after that if your first phase gets over where you do the PYQs properly and to do the PYQs I think it will take you around 1.5 months to 2 months.  It will take 1.5 to 2 months.  Is it okay? So after that friends, you will have to bring your three to five questions to practice daily. And after that friends, as I told you, we have to start the structure of our answer writing from the beginning, brother, we have to focus more on the diagrams.  Have to write point wise.   Do n't make long paragraphs. Important points have to be underlined.   Important points have to be underlined so that the examiner can quickly check it and see that yes, this person said this point, this one said this, that one said that, everything was correct.  If it is good then he will also like to see it and he will quickly give you good marks.  So here friends, structuring is very important for answer writing.  You will have to learn it yourself.  You can learn by looking at the PYQS book. You can learn by looking at the answers of the test series given.   And after that friends, you should know how to evaluate yourself. I used to evaluate my answers myself, friend, this is written correctly, it seems correct here.   I used to get my friend evaluated by someone else.  And test series but do that later. Focus on PYQs first. After completing the PYQs, you can give five, seven or eight tests.  You can give it sitting at home.  There is no need to go to any centre.  I want to suggest that I go to your centre and take the test. You give it to me sitting at home.  Time will not be wasted. Sit for 3 hours and see whether you are able to attempt 300 or not.  Now that is very important.  It is very important to be able to attempt 300. And friends, the test is really important because if you are doing PYQs at home through tests only, it is a good thing.   It is good for practice but you will not get exam environment.  You will not know what your speed is and for that it is very important for you to take a test.  Is it okay ?  So mock test and revision.  So friends here you will know that the test is simulated and given the exam conditions and exam environment.   And after that friends, when your whole PYQ work is finished.   Let the PYQ thing be over once and for all. If you complete the PYQ once, then you can give the test series. PYQs is good for practice.  It is good for understanding. Good for structuring answers to questions.  But to do the speed test you will have to give the test series.  Is it okay ? And friends you obviously have to keep revising the definitions, definitions diagrams, okay, you have to keep revising the definitions diagrams continuously and friends after that, what is going to happen finally, friends, finally when you guys reach the final stage, you reach the final stage, when your paper is about to come, now this is a final polish, you have to maintain your speed, confidence and quickness, the most important thing is quickness, sometimes it will happen that you are not able to solve the question but you do not have to worry.  So guys what else is there here?  You have to keep revising, keep revising things from short notes.  Is it okay?  You have to avoid new topics in the last stage of your preparation and keep writing mock tests every two to three days and keep reviewing them.  So here friends, you all know what our daily routine can be.  Right now you guys are busy with the prelims.  Now we have to prepare for the prelims.  Just what do you need to do together? Just start looking at the Mains PYQs to see whether we are able to write two to three questions or not.  So that you develop that mindset that I have cleared the prelims.  Now I have to prepare for Mains.   Have to move ahead.  Is it okay?  Because prelims will happen. You won't face much difficulty in prelims.   There may be trouble in the mains.  So friends, what to do?  We have to try that if we look at our daily routine here, then in the daily routine you will see that we have to revise or study concepts on technical subjects, you can give three hours for PYQs in that, if you are talking about its writing right now, then you can give one hour, right now focus on prelims but after that as soon as the prelims is over, the day prelims is over, you have to start preparing for it from the very next day.  Is it okay ?  We have to focus on solving numerical problems. And many people will tell you to solve questions from standard text books. No brother, we do not have to solve questions from standard text books.  Is it okay?  Just what do we need to focus on ?  PYQ and other test series. Do PYQs and test series, join whichever test series you can, anywhere.   Is it okay?  After that, friends, you should look at the mistakes. You can focus very well on structuring the answer.  And for structuring the answer you can use chart GBT that how can we structure it. You put the question there and it will give you a good structure. That will give you a basic idea of ​​how to do the structuring.  So you guys can make very good use of Chart GPT in this.   here we have the real test, our exam experience, the real ESC exam environment is for both prelims and mains, friends, here is the real test.   And here our actual test dates are 18th and 25th May for Pre and July for Mains. Friends, our registration will end on 10th May.  So you can see that this will be a good experience for you people that we will experience the prelims as well. You will also experience the Mains as it is really going to be in the final exam.    I have already told you this, friends.  Answer writing what is that?  We should write all the headings.  Bullets points have to be earned.  You have to answer this numbered test.  There should be many diagrams.  There should be labeled diagrams.  That is a variant.  Is it okay ?  Highlight the keywords.  Is it okay?  You can do this.  And you can put the final answer in the box.  Is it okay?  And friends, what do we do in between ?  Like in the answers we can try to make big paragraphs.  No, I don’t have to do it.  We have to write point wise that step one is this. I wrote it very short.  Will work.  We just have to explain that we know how to do it.  We have to write the whole story.  I have to write a little book.  So we should not use fillers in answer writing.  Avoid fillers.   Be very precise and structured.  Precise points have to be written.  We have to write small points so that we can do it easily.   And as I told you friends you must have PYQ books. We do not need standard books.   There is no need for standard books. You will obviously have subject wise notes and test series.  If you can do these three things then you don't need anything more than this.  There is no need for standard text books as for Mains, questions have to be solved from standard text books. No brother, don't do anything.  Have to do PYQs and test series and there is nothing new. Friend, I told you about derivation, you should look at PYQs first.  By looking at PYQ you will know which derivation is important and which is not.  So just keep watching PYQs.  Take it easy, if you see PYQS then your things will get done.  Focus on PYQs.  See if these derivations come up?  Just look at the derivations that come up.  There are many derivations which do not come, so there is no need to focus much on them.   Yes.  Which derivation is important and which is not. Look at PYQs.   The same derivations are repeated in PYQs. Look, I can talk about electronics. I did not keep Electrical and Mechanical Civil but the pattern in Electronics will be the same everywhere.  So the same derivations are repeated that brother, you know this derivation is sure to come, so you just have to memorize it. Not all derivations are important. Ok.  And friends, we have to focus on revision strategies. Obviously we know what we have to do in the exam. How to do revision.  You guys already know all this.   Friends, Mains is such an exam which can wash away all your sins. Whatever sins you have committed in the first paper or if you have less marks in prelims then all the recovery can be done in mains. You can score a lot of marks by writing answers in Mains.   And we have already done this thing in college. So, I don't think you guys will have any trouble.   Let go.  So thank you dia students.  I think if I summarize what I told you guys, then the summary of it is this.  The first thing you must have is the PYQ book. You should comfortably complete the PYQ book at least two to three times.  Start answer writing now. Structuring is very important in answer writing.  Structuring the answer is important.  Answers have to be given in bullet points.  Have to answer in steps. We need labelled diagrams.  We need all these things.  And after that, friends, after completing the entire PYQ, you see which are the important focus areas. Derivation is important in this field or numerical is important.  What are you asking ?  The pattern remains the same.  If you look from 20-2 years, you will find the pattern similar to that of Mains.