About Civil Services Exam

The Indian Civil Services exam is conducted by UPSC, every year in order to select best candidates to work in various services in India. The examination is one of the toughest exams. It is conducted in three parts-

1) Preliminary Examination
2) Main Examination
3) A final personal interview for those who passed the mains.

SCHEME OF EXAMINATION

I. Preliminary

The Preliminary Examination is usually held by the UPSC on a Sunday in the latter half of May every year. The exact date will be published in the Notification.

The Preliminary Exam will have two papers of Objective (Multiple Choice) type questions and carries a maximum of 450 marks.

Paper I (General Studies) - will carry 150 marks and
Paper II (one subject to be selected from the prescribed list of optional subjects) carries 300 marks.

Each paper will be of two hours duration. The course content of the syllabi for the optional subjects will be of the degree level.

Negative Marking:

The UPSC has introduced negative marking for wrong answers in objective type of question papers from CSE 2007. The relevant clauses governing negative marking are given below for guidance.

i) There will be a penalty (negative marking) for wrong answers marked by a candidate in the objective type of question papers. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given,
1/3rd of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as a penalty.

ii) If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer even if one of the given answers happens to be correct and there will be same penalty as above for that question.

iii) If a question is left blank i.e. no answer is given by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.

The Examination Centres for the Preliminary Examination are: Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Aligarh, Allahabad, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bareilly, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cuttack, Dehradun, Delhi, Dharwar, Dispur (Guwahati), Gangtok, Hyderabad, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jammu, Jodhpur, Jorhat, Kochi, Kohima, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai,
Nagpur, Panaji (Goa), Patna, Pondicherry, Port Blair, Raipur, Ranchi, Sambalpur, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, Tirupati, Thiruvananthapuram, Udaipur and Vishakhapatnam.

II. Main Examination

Only those who are declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Preliminary Examination in a year, are eligible for admission to the Main Examination of that year, provided they are otherwise eligible for admission to the Main Examination.

The number of candidates admitted to the Main Examination is generally about 14 to 15 times the total approximate number of vacancies to be filled that year in the various services and posts.

The written part of the Main Examination is usually conducted in October/November every year spread over a period of 3 weeks and consists of 9 papers, as detailed below, of the conventional essay-type questions, in the subjects prescribed by the Commission.

The Main Examination is intended to assess the overall intellectual traits and the depth of understanding of the candidates, rather than merely the range of their information and memory. Sufficient choice of questions will be allowed in the question papers.

The question papers (III to IX) will be set both in Hindi and English. The Level of Optional Subject Papers Two subjects are to be selected from the prescribed list of optional subjects. The papers are broadly of the Honours degree level, i.e. a level higher than the Bachelor’s degree and lower than the Master’s degree. In Engineering, Law and Medical Sciences, the level corresponds to the Bachelor’s degree.

Pattern of the Main Examination

The written examination will consist of the following papers:

Compulsory

Paper I One of the Indian Languages 300 marks
Paper II English 300 marks

Papers I and II are of a qualifying nature only. The marks obtained in
them will not count for ranking purposes..

Paper III Essay 200 marks
Papers IV & V General Studies - (Papers I & II) 300 marks each

Optional Subjects - (2 Subjects)

Papers VI & VII Optional I (Papers I & II) 300 marks each
Papers VIII & IX Optional II (Papers I & II) 300 marks each

Grand Total (Papers III to IX) 2000 marks

Note:
i. The aim of Papers I and II is to test the candidate’s ability to read and understand serious discursive prose and to express his/her ideas clearly and correctly in English/the Indian language concerned. These papers will be of the Matriculation level and of the qualifying
nature; the marks obtained in these papers will not be counted for ranking.

ii. Paper I (Indian Language) will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the North Eastern States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland or the State of Sikkim.

iii. Candidates have the option to answer Papers III to IX in English or in one of the Indian languages as per Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India.

III. Interview

The number of candidates who pass the Main Exam and are called for the Interview is usually more than twice the number of likely vacancies. A total of 300 marks is alloted for the Interview.
Final Ranking.The total marks obtained in the Main Examination - both written and interview - will determine the candidate’s rank in the final selection.

Eligibility Conditions

i. Nationality:

(1) For the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service, the candidate must be a citizen of India.

(2) For other Services a candidate, subject to certain conditions,must be either

(a) a citizen of India or
(b) a subject of Nepal or
(c) a subject of Bhutan or
(d) a Tibetan refugee satisfying certain conditions or
(e) a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka or some specified East African countries and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.

ii. Age:

A candidate for CSE 2009 must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 30 years on 1st August, 2009 i.e. he/she must have been born not earlier than
2nd August, 1979 and not later than 1st August, 1988. The upper age limit will be relaxable by 5 years for Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe candidates, by 3 years for candidates of OBC and
by variousperiods for certain other categories. iii. Qualification: A candidate must hold a degree from any Indian University or other educational institution deemed as a University or
possess an equivalent qualification (there is no restriction on the basis of marks, class or duration of the course.) A candidate who is in the final year of his/her degree course can apply for and appear in the Prelim Examination. However, he/she should submit proof of his/her qualification while applying in the month of July/August 2009 for the Main Examination, if selected.

iv. Number of Attempts:

A candidate is allowed four attempts only, subject to the age limits. Appearance in any one of the two papers of the Prelim Examination will be considered as an attempt. Submission of Prelim application to UPSC and receipt of the Hall Ticket will not be treated as an attempt if the candidate does not appear at all in either paper. An OBC candidate is allowed a maximum of seven attempts subject to the age limit with relaxation. There is no ceiling on the number of attempts for a candidate belonging to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe, subject to the age limit with relaxation.

v. Reservation:

Reservation will be made for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Physically disabled categories in respect of vacancies as may be fixed by the Government from time to time.

Admission Fee for UPSC Prelim Examination

A candidate seeking admission to the Preliminary Examination must pay the prescribed fee (currently Rs.50) to the UPSC (candidates from Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes are not required to pay any fee). Payment must be made by affixing a single Central Recruitment Fee Stamp on the standard Application Form.

Application for Prelim Examination

The Application should be submitted for the Preliminary Examination only. The application forms are not supplied by the UPSC, but will be available at all designated Head Post Offices/Post Offices on a cash payment of Rs.20/-. The relevant examination rules and Notice will be published in the Employment News and an abridged version published in leading daily newspapers. Central Recruitment Fee (CRF) stamps of Rs.50/- and Rs.100/- denomination specially designed for optical scanning are available at designated HPOs/POs. Candidates are advised not to use any photo copies/unauthorised printed copies of the form which are likely
to be rejected. Candidates should go through the instructions given in the Application Form carefully and fill the Application Form in the correct manner so that it does not get rejected.

Application for the Main Examination

Candidates who have appeared in the Prelim Examination and who are declared by the UPSC to have qualified for admission to the Main Examination, must apply again for the Main Exam, in the detailed application form which will be sent to them by the UPSC, along with the prescribed fee (currently Rs.100/-) in the form of Central Recruitment Fee Stamp.

Last Date of Application

The completed Application Form must reach the Secretary, Union Public Service Commission, Dholpur House, New Delhi 110 069, by Registered Post or by personal delivery at the counter, on or before the due date. Candidates are advised not to wait till the last date but submit their applications at the earliest so that it reaches the UPSC in time. If the Admit Card for the Prelim Examination is not received, the Facilitation Counter of UPSC should be contacted for information and help. The Commission's website can also be accessed at www.upsc.gov.in