Entry and Examination

The Civil Services Examination is used for recruitment for many Indian administrative bodies. Civil Service Exam is conducted by Union Public Service Commission.

It has three stages

• Preliminary Exam
• Main exam and   
• Interview            

and is known for being extremely challenging.Recently the preliminary exam pattern has been changed. There used to be 23 optional subjects along with a general studies paper. Now there will be no optional subjects in the preliminary examination. Instead there will be a second paper which will be common for all candidates. It will check the administrative aptitude of candidates-hence its name - the Civil Service Aptitude Test [CSAT].There is so many section in it it's comprises Aptitude, General Mathematics,Comprehensive English etc. Entry into the IAS is considered very difficult; most applicants rank the Indian Administrative Service as their top choices because of the high prestige, salary, and benefits that come with such positions. For example, in the 2005 batch, of the 425 selected candidates, 398 indicated IAS as their first preference, 18 chose IFS and just nine chose IPS. But when it came to second preference, 200 candidates had marked IPS as their choice, while only 155 had marked IFS as their second choice.

Repeated attempts are allowed up to four times for General Merit candidates, seven times for OBC candidates. There is no bar on the number of attempts for SC/ST candidates. The upper age limit to attempt the examination is 35 for SC/ST,33 for OBC and 30 years for the rest. The candidate mustn't be 30 year till 1st August that year. The minimum age is 21 years.

About 850 candidates are finally selected each year out of the nearly 200,000, but only a rank ie top 50-100 guarantees an IAS or IFS selection—an acceptance rate of 0.01 percent, which makes it the most competitive exam in the world.

Posted in: Entry and Examination