Whole Process of Civil Service Exams
- The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a nationwide competitive examination in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to various Civil Services of the Government of India, including Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Revenue Service (IRS) among others.
- The examination is the toughest examination in India with success rate of 0.1%-0.3% with more than 900,000 applicants and also has the least success ratio in the entire World(Only top 0.03% get the prestigious IAS).
- It is conducted in two phases - the Preliminary examination, consisting of two objective-type papers (General Studies and Aptitude Test), and the Main examination, consisting of nine papers of conventional (essay) type followed by the Personality Test (Interview). The entire process from the notification of the Preliminary examination to declaration of the final results takes roughly one year
The Civil Services Examination is based on the British Raj - era Imperial Civil Service, as well as the civil service tests conducted by old Indian Empires such as in the Mauryan Empire, and the Mughal Empire. The Civil Services Examination of India is considered to be one of the most difficult and competitive examinations in India. On an average, 9 to 10 lakh (900,000 to 1,000,000) candidates apply every year and the number of candidates appearing is roughly 616022 lakh for the examination. Aspirants must complete a three-stage process, with a final success rate of about 0.1% of the total applicants.
- Stage I: Preliminary examination - This is qualifying test held in August every year. Notification for this is published in May. Results are published in mid-October.
- Stage II: Main examination - This is the main test, held in December every year. Results are usually published in the second week of March.
- Stage III: Personality Test (Interview) - It is the final test and is held in April/May every year. Final results are usually announced in the month of May every year
The training program for the selected candidates usually commences on first Monday of September every year.
Scheme and subjects for the Preliminary and Main Examinations.
A. Preliminary Examination
The Examination shall comprise of twocompulsory papers of 200 marks each. The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each.
Note :
(i) Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions).
(ii) The General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%
(iii) The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English.
(iv) Details of the syllabi are indicated in part A of Section III.
(v) Each paper will be of two hours duration. Blind candidates and the candidates with locomotor disability and cerebral palsy where dominant (writing) extremity is affected to the extent of slowing the performance of function (minimum of 40% impairment will; however, be allowedan extra time of twenty minuts per hour for each paper.
B.Main Examination
The written examination will consist ofthe following papers
Qualifying Papers :
Paper-A
(One of the Indian Language to be selected by the candidate from the Languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution). 300 Marks
Paper-B
English 300 Marks
Papers to be counted for merit
Paper-I
Essay 250 Marks
Paper-II
General Studies-I 250 Marks
(Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society)
Paper-III
General Studies -II 250 Marks
(Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations)
Paper-IV
General Studies -III 250 Marks
(Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)
Paper-V
General Studies -IV 250 Marks
(Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)
Paper-VI
Optional Subject - Paper 1 250 Marks
Paper-VII
Optional Subject - Paper 2 250 Marks
Sub Total (Written test) 1750 Marks
Personality Test 275 Marks
Grand Total 2025 Marks
Candidates may choose any one of the optional subject from amongst the list of subjects given below
NOTE :
(i) The papers on Indian languages and English (Paper A and Paper B) will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard and will be of qualifying nature. The marks obtained in these papers will not be
counted for ranking.
(ii) Evaluation of the papers, namely, ‘Essay’, General Studies and Optional Subject of all the candidates would be done simultaneously along with evaluation of their qualifying papers
on 'Indian Languages' and 'English' but the papers on ‘Essay’, General Studies and Optional Subject of only such candidates will be taken cognizance who attain 25% marks in ‘Indian Language and 25% marks in English as minimum qualifying standards in these qualifying papers.
(iii)The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.
(iv) Marks obtained by the candidates for the Paper-I-VII only will be counted for merit ranking. However, the Commission will have the discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all of these papers.
(v) For the Language medium/literature of languages, the scripts to be used by the candidates will be as under:
Language Script
Assamese Assamese
Bengali Bengali
Gujarati Gujarati
Hindi Devanagari
Kannada Kannada
Kashmiri Persian
Konkani Devanagari
Malayalam Malayalam
Manipuri Bengali
Marathi Devanagari
Nepali Devanagari
Oriya Oriya
Punjabi Gurumukhi
Sanskrit Devanagari
Sindhi Devanagari or Arabic
Tamil Tamil
Telugu Telugu
Urdu Persian
Bodo Devanagari
Dogri Devanagari
Maithili Devanagari
Santhali Devanagari or Olchiki
Note : For Santhali language, question paper will be printed in Devanagari script; but candidates will be free to answer either in Devanagari script or in Olchiki.
2. List of optional subjects for Main Examination:
(i) Agriculture
(ii) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary
Science
(iii) Anthropology
(iv) Botany
(v) Chemistry
(vi) Civil Engineering
(vii) Commerce and Accountancy
(viii) Economics
(ix) Electrical Engineering
(x) Geography
(xi) Geology
(xii) History
(xiii) Law
(xiv) Management
(xv) Mathematics
(xvi) Mechanical Engineering
(xvii) Medical Science
(xviii) Philosophy
(xix) Physics
(xx) Political Science and International
Relations
(xxi) Psychology
(xxii) Public Administration
(xxiii) Sociology
(xxiv) Statistics
(xxv) Zoology
(xxvi) Literature of any one of the following languages:
Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri,Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri,Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit,Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and
English.
NOTE:
(i) The question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type.
(ii)Each paper will be of three hours duration.
(iii)Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers, except the
Qualifying Language papers
Paper-A and Paper-B, in any of the languages included
in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India or in English.
(iv) Candidates exercising the option to answer Papers in any one of the languages mentioned above may, if they so desire,
give English version within brackets of only the description of the technical terms, if any, in addition to the version in the language opted by them. Candidates should, however, note that if they misuse the above rule, a deduction will be made on this account from the total marks otherwise accruing to them and in extreme
cases; their script(s) will not be valued for being in an unauthorized medium.
(v) The question papers (other than the literature of language papers) will be set in Hindi and English only.
(v) The question papers (other than the literature of language papers) will be set in Hindi and English only.
