About Civil Services Exam

About Civil Services

The essence of Civil Services exam can be best exemplified by one citation of Gandhiji: “Steam becomes a mighty power only when it allows itself to be imprisoned in a strong little reservoir and produces tremendous motion and carries huge weights by permitting itself a tiny and measured outlet.” This is precisely what Union Public Services Commission (U.P.S.C) demands from an aspirant. As the herculean task of the nation building and socio-economic transformation of the society rests primarily on the shoulders of Civil Servants, the Civil Services Exam is a litmus test to ensure that these “shoulders” are robust enough for the mission.

The exam is conducted annually. The exam consists of three stages, wherein the different attributes and skills like aptitude, attitude, emotional quotient, critical thinking, decision making ability, leadership qualities, interpersonal skills etc of the aspirants are evaluated.  The following is the detail of the three stages with their major features.

Stage 1: The Preliminary Exam or CSAT

This stage is meant to serve as a screening test only; the marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination by the candidates who are declared qualified for admission to the next stages are not counted for determining their final order of merit.

This stage comprises of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each and of two hours duration each. The questions in both these papers are of objective type with each question followed by four options out of which only one option is correct. The marks are awarded only for choosing the correct option, choosing of incorrect option invites the negative marking which is equivalent to the one third of the weightage of the question. However there is no negative marking for the question involving the decision making.

Paper 1

The first paper in this stage presently consists of hundred questions and each question carries two marks. The time duration of the exam is two hours. The questions in the section cover the following topics:

• History of India and Indian National Movement

• Indian and World Geography - Physical, Social, Economic geography of India and the World.

• Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

• Economic and Social Development – Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

• General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change - that do not require subject specialization

• General Science

Paper 2

This paper contains 80 questions of two and a half marks each. The wrong answer invites a penalty of one third of the weightage of the question. The question involving decision making in this section does not have negative marking. This paper consists of the questions from the following sections:

• Comprehension

•   Interpersonal skills including communication skills  

•  Logical reasoning and analytical ability 

•  Decision making and problem solving 

•  General mental ability

•  Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. -Class X level) 

• English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level). 

• Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level   

Stage 2: The Mains

The number of candidates to be admitted to the Main Examination is about twelve to thirteen times the total approximate number of vacancies to be filled in the year in the various Services and Posts. Only those candidates who are declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Preliminary Examination in the year will be eligible for admission to the Main Examination of that year provided they are otherwise eligible for admission to the Main Examination.

The objective of the Main exam is to assess the overall intellectual traits and depth of understanding of candidates rather than merely the range of their information and memory.

The scheme of Mains examination comprises of the Compulsory as well as the Optional papers. There are in total nine papers in the Main exams. Out of the nine papers five papers are compulsory while the four papers are optional.

(Click Here To Read Model Answers of IAS Mains of previous years)

Compulsory Papers:

The compulsory papers consist of the following:

1. English Language
2. Indian Language (Candidate has to opt for an Indian language as his/her choice)
3. Essay
4. General Studies I
5. General Studies II

The Language papers (English and Indian language) are of qualifying nature only.  The marks obtained in these papers are not counted for ranking. However if a candidates fails to qualify these papers he/she is deemed as disqualified from the exam.

Optional Papers

The candidates are required to choose two subjects from the pool of subjects as specified by the Commission. The question papers for the examination are of conventional (essay) type. Each paper is of three hours duration. Each optional subject has two papers, therefore in total there are four optional papers of two subjects of maximum 300 marks each.

The following is the pattern and weightage of Main Exam

Stage 3: The personality test

The personality test or the interview is conducted by the interview boards of five members. The weightage of personality test is of 300 marks. The chairman of the each interview board is the member of U.P.S.C, and the rest others are the “experts” in various fields.  There is no limitation to the questions or area and anything under the sun could be asked by the board members. However, this stage is not meant to test the knowledge but it’s meant for an assessment of the overall personality of the candidate which is an aggregate of various parameters.