The examination consists of the following three
stages:
·
Stage I: Preliminary examination - A qualifying
test advertised in Feb–March and held in June–July each year. Results are
published in mid-August.
·
Stage II: Main examination - Held in October every
year. Results are usually published in the second week of March.
·
Stage III: Personality Test (interview) - held in
December each year. Final results are usually announced in May .
The training program for the selected candidates
usually commences the following September.
Eligibility
Eligibility for the examination is as follows:
Nationality
·
For the Indian Administrative Service and the
Indian Police Service, the candidate must be a citizen of India.
·
For other services, the candidate must be one of
the following:
·
A citizen of India
Education
All candidates must have as a minimum one of the
following educational qualifications:
·
A degree from a Central, State or a Deemed
university
·
A degree received through correspondence or
distance education
·
A degree from an open university
·
A qualification recognized by the Government of
India as being equivalent to one of the above
The following candidates are also eligible, but
must submit proof of their eligibility from a competent authority at their
institute/university at the time of the main examination, failing which they
will not be allowed to attend the exam.[1]
·
Candidates who have appeared in an examination, the
passing of which would render them educationally qualified enough to satisfy
one of the above points
·
Candidates who have passed the final exam of
the MBBS degree
but have not yet completed an internship.
·
Candidates who have passed the final exam of ICAI,
ICSI and ICWAI.
·
A degree from a private university.
·
A degree from any foreign university recognized by the Association
of Indian Universities.
Age
The candidate must have attained the age of 21
years and must not have attained the age of 32 years (for the General category
candidate) on August 1 of the year of examination. Prescribed age limits vary
with respect to caste reservations.
·
The upper age limit is relaxed for certain
candidates who are backward with respect to other factors and physically
handicapped (PH) people.
Numbers of attempts
The number of times a candidate may attempt the
exam is limited as follows:
·
General category candidates = 6.
·
OBC category candidates = 9.
·
SC/ST candidates = unlimited attempts till 37 years
of age.
Appearing to attempt one of the papers in the
preliminary examination is counted as an attempt, including disqualification/
cancellation of candidature. However, applying to sit the exam but failing to
attend is not counted as an attempt.
Following are the services
which one gets on qualifying the Civil Service Examination.
All
India Services (Group A)
·
Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
·
Indian Police Service (IPS)
Central
Services (Group A)
·
Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS)
·
Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS)
·
Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS)
·
Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS)
·
Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES)
·
Indian Foreign Service (IFS)
·
Indian Information Service (IIS)
·
Indian Ordnance Factories Service (IOFS)
·
Indian Post
& Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TAFS)
·
Indian Postal Service (IPoS)
·
Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS)
·
Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS)
·
Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS)
·
Indian Revenue Service (IRS-IT)
·
Indian Revenue Service (IRS-C&CE)
·
Indian Trade Service (ITrS)
·
Railway Protection Force (RPF)
Group
B Services
·
Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service
(AFHCS)
·
Delhi,
Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS)
·
Delhi,
Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police Service (DANIPS)
·
Pondicherry Civil Service
·
Pondicherry Police Service
The pattern of the Preliminary examination up to
2010 was based on the recommendations of the Kothari Commission (1979). It
included two examinations, one on general studies worth 150 marks, and the
second on one of 23 optional subjects worth 300 marks. Until 2011, when it
was revamped, the preliminary pattern was sustained with only minor
changes once every ten to fifteen years.
From 2011 onwards, the preliminary examination, now
popularly known as the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT)(officially it is
still called General Studies Paper-1 and Paper-2), intends to focus on
analytical abilities and understanding rather than the ability to memorize. The
new pattern includes two papers of two hours duration and 200 marks each. Both
papers have multiple choice objective type questions only. They are as
under:
·
Paper I tests the candidate's knowledge on current
events, history of India and Indian national movement, Indian and world geography,
Indian policy panchayti Raj system and governance, economic and social
development, environmental ecology, biodiversity, climate change and general
science, Art and culture.
·
Paper II tests the candidates' skills in
comprehension, interpersonal skills, communication, logical reasoning,
analytical ability, decision making, problem solving, basic numeracy, data
interpretation, English language comprehension skills and mental ability.
In August 2014, the Centre announced that English
marks in CSAT-II will not be included for gradation or merit and 2011
candidates may get a second chance to appear for the test next year.
In May 2015, the Government of India announced that
Paper II of the preliminary examination will be qualifying in nature i.e. it
wouldn't be graded for eligibility in Mains Examination & a candidate needs
to secure at least 33% marks in order to be eligible for graded on basis of
Marks of Paper I of Preliminary
The Civil Services Mains Examination consists of a written
examination and an interview.
Examination
The written examination consists of nine papers,
two qualifying and seven ranking in nature. The range of questions may vary
from just one mark to sixty marks, twenty words to 600 words answers.
Candidates who pass qualifying papers are ranked according to marks and a
selected number of candidates are called for interview or a personality test at
the Commission's discretion
According to the new marks allocations in Civil
Service Examination 2013 there are some changes made in the examination
according to the suggestion of the Prof. Arun. S.
Nigavekar Committee. However, after some controversy, the
qualifying papers for Indian languages and English were restored to the
examination.
|
Paper
|
Subject
|
Marks
|
Paper A
|
(One of the Indian languages
listed below, to be selected by the candidate (from the languages listed in
the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution
of India) (Qualifying)
|
300
|
Paper B
|
English (Qualifying)
|
300
|
Paper I
|
Essay
|
250
|
Paper II
|
General Studies I (Indian
heritage and culture, history and geography of the world and society)
|
250
|
Paper III
|
General Studies II (Governance,
constitution, polity, social justice and international relations)
|
250
|
Paper IV
|
General Studies III
(Technology, economic development, bio-diversity, environment, security and
disaster management)
|
250
|
Paper V
|
General Studies IV(ethics,
integrity and aptitude)
|
250
|
Optional Paper
|
One paper on subject to be
selected by the candidate from the list of optional subjects below (250 marks
for each paper)
|
|
Sub Total (Written Test)
|
1750
|
Personality Test (Interview)
|
275
|
Total Marks
|
2025
|
List of Languages
The examination is offered in the following
languages, with the name of the script in brackets
·
Assamese(Assamese)
·
Bengali
(Bengali)
·
Bodo
(Devanagari)
·
Dogri
(Devanagari)
·
English
(English)
·
Gujarati
(Gujarati)
·
Hindi (Devanagari)
·
Kannada (Kannada)
·
Kashmiri
(Persian)
·
Konkani
(Devanagari)
·
Maithili
(Devanagari)
·
Malayalam (Malayalam)
·
Manipuri
(Bengali)
·
Marathi
(Devanagari)
·
Nepali
(Devanagari)
·
Oriya
(Oriya)
·
Punjabi
(Gurumukhi)
·
Sanskrit (Devanagari)
·
Santhali
(Devanagri or Ol Chiki)
·
Sindhi
(Devanagari or Arabic)
·
Tamil
(Tamil)
·
Telugu
(Telugu)
·
Urdu (Persian)
Optional subjects
The subjects available for Papers VI and VII are Public
administration is one of the most sought after optional subjects in Mains
examination as it has overlapping content with other subjects like Current
Affairs, History, Polity. The standards of Optional papers is of Post Graduate
level. Paper I is theoretical but Paper II is often dominated by Current
Affairs and Application based questions.
·
Agriculture
·
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
·
Anthropology
·
Botany
·
Chemistry
·
Civil Engineering
·
Commerce and Accountancy
·
Economics
·
Electrical Engineering
·
Geography
·
Geology
·
History
·
Law
·
Literature of any one of the non-English languages
listed above
·
Management
·
Mathematics
·
Mechanical Engineering
·
Medical Science
·
Philosophy
·
Physics
·
Political Science and International Relations
·
Psychology
·
Public Administration
·
Sociology
·
Statistics
·
Zoology
Officially called the "Personality
Test", the objective of the interview is to assess the personal
suitability of the candidate for a career in public service by a board of
competent and unbiased observers. The test is intended to evaluate the mental
calibre of a candidate. In broad terms, this is really an assessment of not
only a candidate's intellectual qualities, but also social traits and interest
in current affairs. Some of the qualities to be judged are mental alertness,
critical powers of assimilation, clear and logical exposition, balance of
judgement, variety and depth of interest, ability for social cohesion and
leadership, and intellectual and moral integrity.
The technique of the interview is not that of
a strict cross-examination, but of a natural, though directed and purposive
conversation that is intended to reveal the mental qualities of the candidate.
The interview is not intended to be a test
either of the specialised or general knowledge of the candidate, which has been
already tested through written papers. Candidates are expected to have taken an
intelligent interest not only in their special subjects of academic study, but
also in the events which are happening around them both within and outside
their own state or country as well as in modern currents of thought and in new
discoveries which should rouse the curiosity of all well-educated youth.