General Queries About Civil Services

What is the pattern of civil services Examination?
The civil services examination consists of three stages-prelims, mains and interview. The preliminary test consists of two objective tests of two hours duration each. One paper of General Studies of 150 marks and one optional of 300 marks to be chosen from the list given. The main exam has nine papers of conventional essay type of 300 marks each except essay which is of 200 marks- two of G.S, two each of two optionals, one essay and two language papers, one English and one Indian language. The language papers are only of qualifying nature. The interview is of 300 marks and the final merit list is made from total of mains and interview marks, i.e. out of 2300.


Is there any minimum cutoff for General Studies (G.S.)?
It's a difficult question to answer as the marking pattern of the UPSC is a closely guarded secret and there are different theories about the same. A score of 85+ in GS can however be considered a safe score for this purpose.

Can I prepare from my home or should I come to some big center like Delhi for my preparation?
Most of the candidates who do qualify finally are based in a few selected places like Delhi, Hyderabad , Allahabad etc .Delhi seems to be the best place to prepare for the examination due to various factors such as

• The presence of a large number of candidates provides a rich civil services examination culture.
• In recent past the examination has become highly information based specially the GS papers. Delhi provides a rich base for such information.
• Large numbers of good coaching institutes are present in Delhi.

How many hours should one study for the preparation?
With the right preparation material any thing between 7 to 8 hours of quality study is sufficient. Regularity in the preparation is most important. The essence being that it is not only important to study hard but also to study smart.

What strategy should I follow? Should I focus more on my optionals to get good rank?
Please don't fall in this trap especially during your mains. During the prelims it pays to divide more time to your optional due to the following reasons.

The high weightage of the optionals (300 marks) compared to the GS, which is of 150 marks. The exhaustive nature of the GS syllabus as compared to the well-defined syllabus of the optional. •  During mains one should devote equal time to both the optionals as well as GS. Does the choice of medium of language matter? The only areas where the choice of your medium would matter would be in the case of availability of reading materials. Many of the optional might not have relevant study material and many times the candidates spend a lot of time translating the texts from English. In terms of marks one should not consider any form of bias positive or negative for choosing the medium On what topics should one concentrate while preparing for essay? The essay is a test of ones world view and orientation in life besides ones ability to express things in clear perspective. One should not cram /mugup topics for the essay but try to develop a holistice view about isssues in life and ones surrounding as a educated and socially conscious youth of India would. Where can I get the UPSC syllabus? Syllabus is issued by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) every year. It is normally published in the UPSC website and the same is published in the Employment News also. It is normally available in the market. Where will I get the UPSC application? It is available in the designated post offices through out India. The list of post offices are given in the website as well notification issued by UPSC in Employment News. When will be the notification issued? Normally it is issued in the month of November every year. There will be more than 30 days for filling up the application. Is it necessary to take the subject studied at the college level to be taken as an optional? Not necessary. Candidate is free to take any optional in the given list. Can a person opt for one optional in the prelims and another one in the mains? Yes. What is the medium of writing the main exam? One can write the main exam in any one of the Indian Languages in the 8th Schedule of the constitution. But the question paper will be either in English or Hindi only. What is the medium of Interview if a person appears the exam with regional language? If a person writes his/her exam in the regional language he/she can appear in the interview with the same language. There is an option available to appear in English also. But it is not vice versa if a person appears in the exam in English medium. Is there any negative marking in the exam? "YES" "THERE WILL BE PENALTY (NEGATIVE MARKING) FOR WRONG ANSWERS MARKED BY A CANDIDATE IN THE OBJECTIVE TYPE QUESTION" (I) There are four alternatives for the answers to every question. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate, one third (0.33) of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty. (ii) If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer even if one of the given answers happens to be correct and there will be same penalty as above for that question. (iii) If a question is left blank i.e. no answer is given by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question. When are UPSE exams for IAS held? The Civil Services Prelims Exam is conducted in the month of May. The main exam may be around October-November of the same Year. The main exam will be in the next year April. The scheme and pattern of the exam is available in the Book. The Notification advertisement for the exam will be issued by the UPSC in the month of November. Please check the Employment News and other leading National dailies. This Exam is conducted once in a year. Once you miss the opportunity, you have to wait for one more year. I want to know the date of CS . The date of Examination ( Preliminary)is the third Sunday of May every year. The main exam is in the month of October-November of the same year. The Interview is in the month of April, corresponging next year. For the authentic details, please go through the notification issued by the UPSC. Normally, it comes in the month of November. The same will be published by the Employment News and leading newspapers. There is no separate exam for IAS and IPS. It is the combined Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC for IAS, IPS, IFS. IRS, ICCES, IAAS, I RTS,IRAS, IRPS,ICAS,IDAS and some more services. The names of the services are also available in the model notification in the site. I am doing my Mechanical Engineering in Tomsk Polytechnic University in Tomsk, Russia. I have another three years to complete my course. I am very eager to take up UPSC exam. Is the degree I get from here valid to take up the examination? And please let me know the best way to approach this examination in my present situation. I will not be coming to India for another two years and where will I get the study material. Please suggest some effective methods of preparing for the exam. First of all, you have find out from UGC authorities, whether the degree you get from abroad is valid in India or not. As per the UPSC's notification, any degree should be UGC recognized degree. That's all. As far as your preparation is concerned, first select the optional interesting to you. Then start the preparation for general studies and one optional. You can get some online sources as study material also. Good study material is concerned; you can get it from Delhi. Delhi is a hub centre for civil services exams. Till what rank one will get IPS? Normally, after the final result is cleared, successful candidates are allotted the service based on their rank and their preference given in the mains application. Most of the students opt for IAS as a first choice, few may opt IFS or IPS also as a first choice. For example, if a person has given preference of IPS as a first choice, And he/she tops in the civil services, he/ she will be given IPS only not IAS. Normally one has to come (General Category) in the top 100 in the list, there is a good chance of getting IPS. What is the selection procedure for Preliminary exam? Is there same procedure for all optional subjects. Is there any negative marking? In Preliminary, 300 marks are awarded for optional subject and 150 marks for General studies. There are about 23 optionals are there in preliminary. The questions of all these subjects may vary in its easiness / toughness to the aspirant. One optional may be very easy same time other may be very tough. So, how to measure the talent of these two subjects? So UPSC scales the scores of the optionals. The process is called normalisation / standardization. ie. One subject (Normally highest number of students appeared) taken as a standard paper. Marks of other optionals may go up or go down accordingly. In this process every subject has become normal. Equal treatment is being given. Then General studies marks are added with it. Then final ranking is fixed. So, one need not worry about the standard of question paper. One should top in his own subject. So that selection in the prelims becomes easy. There is no negative marking in the Civil services exam. courtesy: three authors.com