Frequently Asked Questions
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If you are serious about giving
Civil Services Exam, it is absolutely mandatory that you get hold
of the Notification for the year you want to apply. The Examination
Notice is published every year in the Employment News and
Rozgar Samachar late in November or early in December. You
can find the latest Notification in the Archive section of the
UPSC website at http://upsc.gov.in.
Apart from that you could also read IAS Planner
published by Chronicle Books for clearing all you conceptions,
seeing various statistics and gearing you up with other info.
Competition Success Review, Civil Services
Chronicle and other magazines come out
with handy booklets from time to time regarding various questions
relating to IAS. You can go through these useful documents. |
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When does the notification for the exam come out?
It comes out usually during the first week of December every year. The
notification is published in Employment News and Rozgar Samachar.
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How many vacancies are there each year, on an average?
Nowadays the vacancy is around 300-350. Even this number can be
expected to come down in the coming days with the government trimming
itself down. Just a few years back the vacancy used to be more than
double.
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What is the exam scheme?
It is a three stage exam, with only successful candidates eligible to
apply in subsequent stages. The first stage is the Preliminary Exam, open
for all applicants. Upon clearing this the successful candidate has to
apply again to sit for the Main Exam. Successful candidates at this stage
are called for the Personality Test or Interview. Those passing the
Personality Test are the ultimate successful candidates.
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When is the Preliminary Exams held?
The Preliminary Test is held usually in the third Sunday of May every
year. The date is declared in the notification published during the
previous December.
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Tell me about the Preliminary Exam.
It is an objective test with multiple choice questions- there will be four
options for each question, one correct. There are no negative marking.
There are two papers- the compulsory General Studies paper of 150 marks,
with 150 questions (2 hours answering time); the optional paper of 300
marks with 120 questions (2 hours answering time). The optional paper is
held first, followed by a break of 2 hours, followed by the GS paper.
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When is the Mains Exam held?
It's held over a period of almost one month during October-November every
year.
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Tell me about the Mains Exam.
The Exam has nine papers: Two GS papers, two papers of first optional
subject, two papers of second optional subject, a compulsory essay paper,
a compulsory English language paper, and an Indian language paper. Each
paper is of a three hour duration and carries 300 marks, except for the
essay paper which carries 200 marks. The two language papers are
qualifying in nature- the marks acquired there is not counted for ranking.
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Where are the exams held?
The Prelims exam is held in a large number of important towns and cities
all across India. The actual list of cities are published along with the
notification every year, but you will know your actual centre (school,
college, etc) only in your admit card. The Mains exam is held at fewer
places, in the bigger cities. The list of centres is posted to you along
with other relevant documents once you clear the Preliminary stage.
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