IGNOU MAPS Guess Paper for December 2026: MPS Paper Patterns, a Two-Track MPS-001 and a First-Year Run That Ends on 8 January

MAPS December 2026: Electives From 7 December, the Four MPS Core Papers From 31 December

The first MAPS paper is MPSE-001 on Monday 7 December 2026 and the last is MPS-004 on Friday 8 January 2027, per IGNOU’s tentative date sheet printed on 21 September 2026.

IGNOU’s tentative December 2026 term-end date sheet spreads the full cycle across 25 November 2026 to 13 January 2027. Its window for reporting discrepancies to datesheet@ignou.ac.in closed on 25 September 2026, so any later change will come from IGNOU as a revised sheet, not on request. The sheet prints codes without hyphens, and not consistently: MPSE01 and MPSE11 sit beside MPSE002 and MPSE012. The session of each code is taken from the column it is printed in.

The order surprises most first-year learners. Second-year electives fill December; the four compulsory papers come last, all in the morning session per the sheet: MPS-003 on Thursday 31 December, MPS-001 on Monday 4 January, MPS-002 on Wednesday 6 January and MPS-004 on Friday 8 January. After 4 January there is exactly one free day before each of the last two papers. A first-year learner who plans to finish MPS-002 revision between papers is planning on a single day.

Runs of consecutive exam days in MAPS, per the sheet.

• 7, 8 and 9 December: MPSE-001, MPSE-002 and MPSE-003. With MED-002 on 10 December and MPSE-013 on 11 December, a learner sitting all five has five straight weekdays.
• 18 and 19 December: MPSE-004 and MPSE-005.
• 21 to 24 December: MPSE-006, MPSE-007, MPSE-008 (evening session per the sheet) and MPSE-009, four days in a row.
• No two MAPS codes share a date, so there is no clash to report inside the programme.

What the two sessions mean in clock time is set out on the IGNOU exam timing page, and the December 2026 date sheet finder searches the cycle by code. No MAPS paper can be sat without the exam form and its fee, covered on the IGNOU exam fee guide with payment steps on the online exam fee walkthrough; centre allotment is on the IGNOU exam centre page.

Seventy Per Cent of Each MPS Grade Is Decided in the Exam Hall

Most of every MAPS course result rides on one three-hour paper. The term-end examination carries 70 per cent of the final course result and assignments carry the remaining 30 per cent.

None of the sixteen MPS papers reviewed prints a weightage line on its cover, so that split is IGNOU’s general scheme for theory courses rather than a figure taken from an MPS paper. The practical point is length. An MPS-002 paper asks for about 500 words per answer; five answers of 200 words leave most of the 100 marks unclaimed, and no assignment grade can make that up. The IGNOU percentage calculator shows how the two parts combine once both marks are in.

This guide states no pass mark for MAPS, because neither section 3.18 of the July 2026 Common Prospectus nor the MPS papers print one.

Guess Paper, IGNOU’s Own Past Paper or a Solved Paper: What Each Does for an MPS Learner

A guess paper is a revision set of the important and recurring questions for a single course code, such as MPS-003, with a model answer for each, put together by a publisher from IGNOU’s past papers and the syllabus; learners also call it important questions, expected questions or a model paper. A previous year question paper is the paper IGNOU itself set in an earlier term-end examination, such as the December 2025 MPS-003 paper, and IGNOU gives it away free on ignou.ac.in. A solved question paper is one of those IGNOU papers with a publisher’s answer written under each question.

Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.

MPS-001 makes the order matter. A learner who practises only the December 2025 paper has rehearsed one of the two families of questions that paper has used, and a learner who practises only June 2025 has rehearsed the other. Start with one IGNOU paper from each session, then a guess paper for what returned, then the blocks. Worked answers to real IGNOU papers, for anyone who wants both at once, are grouped on the IGNOU solved question papers page, and sets for other programmes are on the guess paper hub for every programme.

What a MAPS set gives you, code by code.

MAPS Course Codes, Credits and the Layout of an MPS Paper

MAPS learners sitting December 2026 are examined on MPS-001 to MPS-004 in the first year and on MPSE and MED electives in the second, per IGNOU’s MPS programme page and the 21 September 2026 date sheet. The MPS programme page on ignou.ac.in describes a 64-credit programme: four compulsory 8-credit courses, 32 credits, in Year I, and optional courses worth 32 credits in Year II. Four courses at 8 credits each do add up to the 32 it states.

Year I: Four Compulsory 8-Credit Courses

On a narrow screen, drag the table left to reach the date column.

Year II: MPSE and MED Electives on the December Sheet

Fourteen rows; slide sideways for the exam dates.

IGNOU’s programme page leaves the credit value blank for eight of the fourteen elective listings, marked “Not printed” above; the Year II total of 32 credits is the figure it does print. Pick electives from your own registration before ordering anything.

The Revised MPS 101 to MPS 110 List in the Prospectus

Section 3.18 of the July 2026 Common Prospectus describes a revised, semester-wise MAPS of 80 credits, and prints only its first two semesters.

Codes appear here exactly as the prospectus prints them, with a space.

Ten courses of 4 credits make 40 credits, half of the 80 the same section states; the Total Credits row is left blank and Semesters III and IV are not listed. None of the ten codes appears on the 21 September 2026 sheet, and IGNOU’s June 2026 question-paper list carries no MPS 101 file. A learner whose registration shows these codes should confirm the examination date with the Regional Centre, and can send the code on WhatsApp so the position is checked against IGNOU’s latest notice before anything is ordered.

How Every MPS Paper Is Laid Out

The December 2025 MPS-001 paper is 3 hours and 100 marks, with ten questions in two sections, five to be answered, at least two from each section, each worth 20 marks and written in about 500 words. The other three core papers use the same frame; they differ in short notes, section labels and the occasional internal choice.

Six columns: move the table sideways on a phone.

Three hours, five answers, in minutes. Take 10 minutes to read both sections and choose, and 170 minutes remain: 34 minutes for each 20-mark answer. A two-part short-note question splits that into two halves of 17 minutes. Settle the section split before writing anything: four answers from one section leave room for only one from the other, and the rule asks for two.

The theme tables below cover MPS-001, MPS-002, MPS-003 and MPS-004. An MPSE or MED learner gets the same check by message: send the code on WhatsApp, and its layout is confirmed from IGNOU’s most recent paper for that code.

The prospectus itself is summarised on the IGNOU prospectus guide.

Sixteen MPS Papers, Four Courses: What IGNOU Set Again

In MPS-001, all ten themes of the December 2023 paper came back in December 2025, eight of the June 2024 themes came back in June 2025, and no theme crossed between the December and the June papers. The other three courses repeat in a different way: MPS-004 keeps certain kinds of question in fixed slots, and MPS-003 returns to six Indian themes in three papers out of four.

MPS-001: One Track in December, Another in June

Topics seen once in MPS-001 are kept in a set but marked as seen once: conservatism and the meaning of socialism (June 2024), Gramsci’s hegemony and the gender-sex distinction (June 2025), and legitimacy and power (December 2025).

MPS-002: Realism, China and Technology Came Back Most

The June 2025 MPS-002 paper asked globalisation twice, once as a short note in Q5(b) and once as a full question in Q9; it counts once in the table.

MPS-003: Peasants, Interest Groups and the Development Debate

MPS-004: The Same Kind of Question in the Same Slot

MPS-004 is the clearest case of structure repeating where topics do not. Question 1 has asked for an approach to comparative politics in all four papers, a different approach each time; question 6 has always been about identity and pluralism. Knowing four approaches well is therefore worth more than memorising one.

These tables scroll sideways on small screens. A dash means the theme did not appear in that paper.

How These Counts Were Made

The counts come from sixteen IGNOU MPS question papers, four for each of MPS-001, MPS-002, MPS-003 and MPS-004, from December 2023 to December 2025, each reviewed in full by ignouproject.com on 28 September 2026. Matching is by topic, not identical wording, and is a human judgement: “Trace the genesis of Democracy” and “Trace the historical background of Democracy” count as one theme. A theme counts once per paper even when a paper asks it twice. A theme seen in one paper is reported as seen once, never as important. IGNOU’s question-paper list for June 2026 also carries MPS-001 to MPS-004; those papers join the tables at the next review. The papers themselves are free: December 2023 MPS-001, June 2024 MPS-001, June 2025 MPS-001, December 2025 MPS-001, June 2024 MPS-002, December 2024 MPS-002, June 2025 MPS-002, December 2025 MPS-002, December 2023 MPS-003, June 2024 MPS-003, June 2025 MPS-003, December 2025 MPS-003, June 2024 MPS-004, December 2024 MPS-004, June 2025 MPS-004 and December 2025 MPS-004.

Building a MAPS Revision Set, Step by Step

1. Code and year settled. The code is matched to IGNOU’s MPS programme page and the 21 September 2026 sheet, so a revised MPS 101 code or an elective missing from the sheet is caught first.
2. Layout copied from the latest paper. Two sections, five of ten, 20 marks, about 500 words, and the short-note word limit IGNOU last printed for that code.
3. Themes ranked by what returned. For MPS-001 the December and June families are ranked separately; a theme seen once stays in and is marked as seen once.
4. Answers written to IGNOU’s length. A 20-mark answer runs to about 500 words; each half of an MPS-003 note stays inside 200 or 250 words.
5. Medium set last. English or Hindi, confirmed on WhatsApp before anything is prepared.

What a 10-mark MPS-003 note looks like in outline. “Democracy and interest groups” was set as a short note in December 2023, June 2025 and December 2025. At 250 words it has room for four moves: a one-line definition of an interest group; how it differs from a political party; two Indian cases, from the blocks, of groups pressing a demand; and one sentence on the risk that organised interests drown out unorganised ones. Anything longer eats into the 17 minutes the other half of the question needs.

The Limits of Any MAPS Guess Paper, Stated Plainly

Free MAPS Planners: The December Run and the Three-Hour Clock

Nothing typed here leaves your browser. The dates and paper layouts the planners use are the same ones printed in the tables earlier in this guide.

MAPS December Run Planner

MPS Three-Hour Answer Clock

Getting IGNOU’s MPS Papers and the Date Sheet Yourself

IGNOU publishes every MPS paper free on ignou.ac.in, one list per session, and the June 2026 list already includes MPS-001 to MPS-004 and the MPSE codes. The IGNOU question paper list for June 2026 is the place to start.

1. On ignou.ac.in, go to Student Services, open Downloads, pick Question Papers and select the session you want.
2. Search the course number, 1 to 4 for the core papers, because the same course is filed as MPS-001 in one place and MPS001 or MPS-1 in another.
3. Check the session and the code printed on page 1; some files sit in a folder with no session in its name.
4. Scroll past the English paper: the Hindi version follows in the same file.
5. Date questions are settled by the newest date sheet PDF: look at the date in its first line, which on the version used in this guide is 21 September 2026.

Older sessions are collected on the IGNOU last year paper guide, and the IGNOU date sheet overview explains the tentative and final versions each cycle goes through.

Hall Ticket, Result and Revaluation Around the MAPS Exams

The hall ticket comes before the first paper; the IGNOU hall ticket page tracks its release and the hall ticket download steps show the login. After the papers, the latest declared cycle is on the June 2026 result page, MA-specific results on the IGNOU MA result guide, and the general route on the IGNOU result overview. Assignment marks for MPS courses show on the assignment result and grade card page, the degree on the final grade card page, and a paper you think was under-marked can go to the IGNOU revaluation process. Grades convert on the IGNOU CGPA calculator.

Assignments, Books and Other MAPS Support

MAPS learners usually ask about assignments in the same message as the guess paper. The MPS and MPSE handwritten sets are on the MAPS handwritten assignment page, reference answers on the solved assignments catalogue, and Hindi-medium assignment rules on the IGNOU assignment in Hindi guide. Printed course books are on the IGNOU help books range, the guide books sold online and the Chakradhar Publication book list. Project and synopsis help for the MA Political Science dissertation is on the MPS project guide; it is not part of a guess paper set.

English or Hindi: Medium and Session for MPS Sets

MAPS is taught in English and Hindi, according to section 3.18 of the July 2026 Common Prospectus and IGNOU’s MPS programme page, and every MPS paper reviewed prints the English paper followed by the Hindi version in one file. The December 2025 files run to six or seven pages because of it.

Each set is prepared for the upcoming term-end examination, in every medium IGNOU examines that course in, and the medium for your course code is confirmed on WhatsApp before you pay.

Every MAPS set sold from now until the next date sheet targets December 2026. Once IGNOU puts out its tentative June 2027 sheet, this guide is revised, and the June 2026 MPS papers join the theme tables.

Ordering MAPS Sets on WhatsApp

1. Send your MPS, MPSE or MED codes and the medium you write in.
2. Each code is checked against the 21 September 2026 sheet and its latest IGNOU paper, and the total is quoted.
3. Choose PDF or printed copy, and pay.
4. The PDF comes on WhatsApp; a printed copy goes out by courier.

The rate is ₹49 per subject code for a solved guess paper as a PDF, or ₹100 per subject code as a printed copy. Printed copies carry a one-time courier charge of ₹100 per order, whatever the number of subject codes; the PDF has no courier charge. The PDF is shared on WhatsApp once payment is confirmed. A printed copy is dispatched the next day after payment is confirmed, and the courier details are shared on WhatsApp. No arrival date is promised, because transit time depends on the courier and your location. There is no minimum order: one subject or ten, same rate per format.

₹49 PDF · ₹100 printed, per subject code

Every service rate on the site is listed on the services and charges page. Learners who prefer a store checkout can buy from the MA Political Science guess paper category at Shri Chakradhar Publication.

Sources, Review Dates and Limits of This MAPS Guide

Written and reviewed by BK Sahni, Founder, Shri Chakradhar Publication Pvt. Ltd. and ignouproject.com, who has guided 5,00,000 students till date. ORCID 0009-0005-8092-459X.

IGNOU documents. Programme structure, codes, titles and credits come from section 3.18 of the July 2026 Common Prospectus and IGNOU’s MPS programme page. Dates come from the tentative December 2026 date sheet printed on 21 September 2026. Paper layouts come from sixteen MPS question papers from December 2023 to December 2025, and the June 2026 file list from IGNOU’s question-paper list for that session.

ignouproject.com’s analysis. Everything counted or calculated here is ignouproject.com’s own reading of those documents: the n of N figures, the theme tables, tool 1’s revision split and tool 2’s minutes per answer. Topic matching is a judgement, and the theme tables cover MPS-001 to MPS-004 only.

Commercial terms. The rates, the two formats, dispatch timing and the WhatsApp medium check are set by ignouproject.com. IGNOU has no part in them.

Limits. The date sheet is tentative and can be revised. The June 2026 MPS papers are listed by IGNOU but are not yet in the tables. Session slots are taken from the column each code is printed in on the sheet.

Published 28 September 2026. Last reviewed 28 September 2026. Next review: March 2027, the month in which IGNOU issued its tentative June sheet in 2026.

MAPS Guess Paper Questions, Answered

Important Notice