Preparing for Civil Services

One of the most competitive and prestigious exams, civil services, is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), India’s major regulating body. The UPSC conducts the Civil Services Examination (CSE), popularly known as IAS (Indian Administrative Service) exam including the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Revenue Service(IRS) in two phases namely UPSC Prelims and UPSC Mains. The prelims exam comprises objective-type questions, while the questions asked in mains need descriptive and essay-type answering.

The Prelims exam is also known as Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) that includes two objective type question papers of two hundred marks and two hours duration for each paper. One is on General Studies and the other is General Aptitude Paper (which has now an optional paper). Many students appear multiple times to clear Prelims because limited numbers of candidates are chosen to write the mains exam.

Paper 1 – General Studies

This includes areas like; Indian National Movement, Indian Polity, Basic Economic Understanding, Geography. While these are static part of the syllabus, the dynamic part includes current affairs, General Knowledge and that does not proper definition, thus making the syllabus quite vast.

Paper 2 – Aptitude Test

Unlike paper 1 which has some static part, paper 2 is totally dynamic in many senses. This includes mathematics, reasoning, analytical ability, and interpersonal skills that requires spot mental ability. The Paper 2 is now of only qualifying nature and its mark is not counted in preparing the merit list of the Prelims exam. However, you have to score 33 per cent in this paper to qualify the Prelims exam.

Since the preliminary exam is a test of endurance, candidate must prepare themselves mentally to adapt to the requirements of this test. The main constraint is the time one gets to answer about 100 questions in 120 minutes. On an average one gets around 40 seconds for each question.

It is not an exaggerated fact that IAS is the nation’s toughest competitive exam and calls for intensive practice and preparation. There is no definite answer to the most commonly asked questions, such as how many hours an IAS aspirant need to put in every day? It will differ from person to person so let us look at it from a general perspective.

Experts believe that aggressive preparation for 10 to 12 months is a must. Four out of every 10 Indians (21-32 years) aspire to become an IAS officer and competition is so intense that only 5 percent of that massive number gets through. An aspirant must map-out an effective strategy and decide ideal number of hours required to implement that strategy.

An aspirant should also understand that preparation for civil services examination calls for qualitative and not quantitative preparation. It is about completion of your short-term target. Ideally you should target two subjects every day. Most of the top rankers starts preparing for the exams right from their school days, as most of the questions are asked mostly from Class 6 to 12 standard books. So preparing notes and devoting 10 to 12 hours before a year of exam is believed to be sufficient.

Even with all this preparation, it is necessary to have a positive attitude and a great amount of will power to succeed in this exam. You must remember to achieve your goal of getting through the Civil Services exam, qualifying the Prelims exam is the first hurdle.

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