Over View of Civil Services Examinations

CS (Preliminary)

(A) Tentative Schedule
(i) Notification of Examination	November/December of previous year
(ii) Conduct of Examination	May

(B) Age - limits:	21-30 years as on 1st August of the year of Examination.
	Certain categories of persons as specified in the Commission's Notice as published in Employment News/Rozgar Samachar are eligible for age relaxation.

(C) Educational Qualification

Degree of a Recognised University or equivalent.

Candidates appearing in the requisite Degree qualification are also eligible for appearing in the examination, however, they are supposed to submit proof of passing the requisite qualification along with with Detailed Application Form for Civil Services (Main) Examination.

Scheme of CS (Preliminary) Examination

The Preliminary Examination consists of two papers of objective type (multiple-choice questions) carrying a maximum of 450 marks.
The Question Papers (Test Booklets) are set in English & Hindi

Paper - I	General Studies	150 Marks
Paper - II	One of the optional subjects to be selected from the prescribed optional subjects	300 Marks

List of Optional Subjects CS (Preliminary) - Total 23

Agriculture	Mathematics
Animal Husbandry & Vetinary Science	Mechanical Engineering
Botany	Medical Science
Chemistry	Philosophy
Civil Engineering	Physics
Commerce	Political Science
Economics	Psychology
Electrical Engineering	Public Administration
Geography	Sociology
Geology	Statistics
Indian History	Zoology
Law

Statistical Data CS (Preliminary)

Year of Exam	No of Candidates
	Applied	Appeared
1997	2,65,761	1,30,198
1998	2,71,517	1,22,363
1999	3,09,501	1,35,086
2000	2,25,555	1,19,398
2001	2,56,673	1,38,240
2002	3,01,585	1,57,486

 Note : For further details, please refer to the Commission's Notice when it is published in the Employment News and some of the leading newspapers.

CS (Main)
Tentative Date of Examination : October  - November

Scheme - CS (Main)

Paper-I	One of the Indian Languages to be selected by the candidate from the 18 languages included in the VIIIth Schedule to the Constitution (Qualifying Paper)	300 Marks
Paper-II	English (Qualifying Paper)	300 Marks
Paper-III	Essay	200 Marks
Papers IV & V	General Studies (300 Marks for each paper)	600 Marks
Papers VI, VII, VIII & IX	Any two subjects (each having 2 papers) to be selected from the prescribed optional subjects (300 marks for each paper)	1200 Marks
Total Marks for Written Examination		2000 Marks
Interview Test		300 Marks
Grand Total		2300 Marks

List of Optional Subjects - CS (Main) - (Total 25)

See Note below List of Optional Subjects (Literature)

Agriculture	Management
Animal Husbandry & Vetinary Science	Mathematics
Anthropology	Mechanical Engineering
Botany	Medical Science
Chemistry	Philosophy
Civil Engineering	Physics
Commerce & Accountancy	Political Science & International Relations
Economics	Psychology
Electrical Engineering	Public Administration
Geography	Sociology
Geology	Statistics
Indian History	Zoology
Law

List of Optional Subjects (Literature) - CS (Main) - (Total 26)

Arabic	Gujarati	Manipuri	Sanskrit
Assamese	Hindi	Nepali	Sindhi
Bengali	Kannada	Oriya	Tamil
Chinese	Kashmiri	Pali	Telugu
English	Konkani	Persian	Urdu
French	Marathi	Punjabi
German	Malayalam	Russian

Note : Total Optional Subjects : 51

Note (i) :	Candidates have the option to answer all the question papers, except the language papers, viz, Paper-I and Paper-II, in any one of the languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution or in English
Note (ii) :	Candidates who have opted for an Indian Language as language medium for the Main Examination have an option of being interviewed either in English or in the same language which they have opted for the Main Examination

Statistical Data - CS (Main)

Year Of Exam	Vacancies					Candidates Recommended
	SC	ST	OBC	GEN	TOTAL	SC	ST	OBC	GEN	TOTAL
1995	98	49	165	333	645	101	49	192	303	645
1996	125	57	174	383	739	138	59	212	330	739
1997	89	43	166	323	621	94	46	215	266	621
1998	53	28	114	275	470	60	30	142	238	470
1999	53	27	97	234	411	63	30	127	191	411
2000	54	29	100	244	427	58	34	128	207	427
2001	47	39	97	234	417	52	42	131	192	417
2002	38	22	88	162	310	38	22	88	138	286

General Information

Courtesy: UPSC.G