IFoS Mains Syllabus — General English & General Knowledge

The complete official syllabus is just three sentences in the UPSC IFoS notification: "Candidates will be required to write an essay in English. Other questions will be designed to test their understanding of English and workmanlike use of words. Passages will usually be set for summary or precis." In practice, recent papers add a comprehension passage and a 50-mark grammar-and-usage question — visible only when you read the actual question papers.

Verbatim from the UPSC notification: "General Knowledge including knowledge of current events and of such matters of every day observation and experience in their scientific aspects as may be expected of an educated person who has not made a special study of any scientific subject. The paper will also include questions on Indian Polity including the political system and the Constitution of India, History of India and Geography of a nature which the candidate should be able to answer without special study."

The notification states: "The standard of papers in General English and General Knowledge will be such as may be expected of a Science or Engineering graduate of an Indian University." All papers are conventional essay type, three hours each, set in and answered in English only.

Yes, in recent years. The actual 2024 and 2025 papers instruct: "All the questions are to be attempted." The English paper had 5 questions (essay offering a choice of four topics within Q1) and the GK paper had 6 questions with 4 parts each — 24 compulsory answers with no choice. Optional-subject papers, by contrast, offer choice (5 of 8 questions).

In the 2024 and 2025 papers, each GK question had parts (a) and (b) at 15 marks with "Answer in 200 words" and parts (c) and (d) at 10 marks with "Answer in 125 words". That is close to 3,900 words of writing in three hours, which is why answer frameworks and time drills matter more than content hoarding.

Two subjects from: Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Forestry, Geology, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Statistics and Zoology. Certain combinations are barred — for example Agriculture + Forestry, Mathematics + Statistics, and not more than one engineering subject.

UPSC does not pre-publish per-paper minimums — the notification says the Commission may fix qualifying marks in any or all papers at its discretion. Its official cutoff sheets show the practice: for IFoS 2025 the General-category written cutoff was 675 out of 1,400, subject to a minimum of 5% marks in each paper (669 in 2018, for comparison). The 2025 notification additionally said only candidates clearing a Commission-set minimum in Paper II (GK) would have their other scripts evaluated; that note does not appear in the 2026 notification.

The Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination 2026 commences 22 November 2026 and runs over 7 days, per the official UPSC calendar. The 2026 notification announced approximately 80 vacancies (33 UR, 21 OBC, 12 SC, 8 EWS, 6 ST), and 1,046 candidates were shortlisted for Mains in the result declared on 15 June 2026. In 2025 there were approximately 150 vacancies.