IAS Preparation

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IAS 2011 Exam Preparation

The central government established a common constitution named as Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which frames the rules, regarding the admissions to the public services; common to both, the states and unions in the country. Thus the candidates to the above said positions are selected through two merit based processes; one process, comprising the promotion of the appropriate cadre officers to the public services designations and the other process comprising, the selection of the suitable candidates through competitive examinations. A degree from a recognized university, or its equivalent would be the minimum qualification criteria to apply to the civil services examinations. It selects its candidates through three vital steps, such as:

• Civil Services Preliminary Examination
• Civil Services Main Examination; followed by the
• Interview procedures

The preliminary examination encompasses two objective type question papers; on the whole, accounting to 450 marks. One of the two objective type question papers contains questions from the ‘General Studies’, amounting to 150 marks and the other question paper comprises, questions from the ‘Optional Subject’, amounting to 300 marks. Only the qualifying candidates would be appearing for the main examination; the list of qualified candidates would be displayed in the UPSC website. The main examination consists of the following:

• Paper I & Paper II – it consists of language papers; Paper I includes the language, which is selected by the candidate from the list provided by the constitution; Paper II is all about the English language. These two language papers are considered only as the qualifying papers; the two papers constitute 600 marks; 300 mark each, but the marks are not included in the final grand total!
• Paper III – it is an essay paper and it constitutes to 200 mark of the grand total.
• Paper IV & V – comprises questions from general studies; 300 mark for each paper, which adds up to 600 marks of the grand total.
• Paper VI, VII, VIII & IX – comprises questions from optional subjects; 300 mark for each paper, which amounts to 1200 marks of the grand total.

Finally, interview is conducted as the last stage in the procedure; this stage constitutes to 300 marks of the grand total. Hence, the candidates are selected based on their marks, out of the grand total of 2300 marks. The candidates are selected only on the basis of merits.

Numerous speculations have already arisen, regarding the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), which is likely to get amended from 2011. If this is amended, then the candidates would be attending aptitude tests in the preliminary examination level, instead of the questions from the general studies and the optional subject, selected by the candidate. Thus the candidates are perplexed about the new scheme, as they don’t even know about the pattern of the question paper. There is a rumor, regarding the new pattern; it is likely to consists of the questions to test the logical reasoning skills; knowledge about the current affairs; incepts about the nation; decision making skills; arithmetic skills… of the candidates, but no one is certain about the pattern yet!