Basic Information about civils exam

The Civil Services Examination is conducted by UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) every year.
Number of Attempts & Age Limit  :

Category       Minimum Age          Maximum Age              No. of Attempts
General            21                         30 (by Aug of Exam year)     4
OBC               21                          33 (by Aug of Exam year)     7
SC/ST             21                         35 (by Aug of Exam year)   Not Applicable




The examination has three stages i.e.,

(1) Civil Services Aptitude Test(CSAT) - normally conducted during the second half of May.
(2) Civil Services (Main) Examinations conducted during the month of October/November. Here, those who are selected in the preliminary examination only are eligible to appear.
(3) Those who are selected in the main examination will be eligible to appear before the Interview Board at New Delhi.

Preliminary Examination (CSAT) :

                CSAT consists of two papers i.e., (1)Comprehension , Aptitude, Logical
Reasoning,Communication skills including Interpersonal Skills for 200 marks  (2) General studies for 200  marks. Total of 400 marks. Each paper is of two hours duration. The course content of the syllabi for the CSAT is at the 10th level. Normally, there are about 3 lakh applications for the preliminary examination. From this, the UPSC selects 10 to 12 folds of vacancies for the main examinations. This is only for the selection and not to be taken into consideration in the main ranking.
The General Studies syllabus is same for all.
 (The question papers are in Hindi and English and each paper is of two hours duration. The course content of the syllabi is of degree level. Each paper is of two hours duration. Blind candidates are allowed an extra time of 20 minutes for each paper.)

(Paper 1) (200 marks) - Duration  : Two hrs.

• Current events  of national and international importance
• History of India  and Indian national movement
• Indian and World Geography- physical, social, economic geography of India and the world
• Indian Polity and governance – constitution, political system, panchayati raj, public policy, Rights issues, etc.
• Economic and social development – sustainable development, poverty, inclusion, demographics, social sector initiatives etc.
• General issues on environmental ecology, bio-diversity and climate change-that  donot require subject specialization
• General science.
(Paper II) (200 marks) – Duration  : Two hrs
• Comprehension
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability
• Decision making and problem solving
• General mental ability
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc. (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. –Class X level)
• English language comprehension skills (Class X level)

REFERENCE BOOKS FOR PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION : General Studies

1. Indian History - India Struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra; NCERT Books ( XI & XII )
2.  Geography – Spectrum
3.  Indian Polity - Constitution of India by Bakshi
4.  Indian Economy - Plus One, Plus Two Books, Pratiyogita Darpan
5.  General Science - Tata Mc Graw Hill Guide
6. Current Affairs – Some magazines and Newspapers
i. The Hindu/The Times of India
ii. Frontline
iii. Civil Service Chronicle
iv. Chanakya
v. Competition WIZARD
vi. Civil Services Today
1. Tata Mc Graw Hill
2. Spectrum
3. Unique
Topic Wise Reference On General Studies :

Books on Indian History & Culture :

NCERT (+ 2 level) — Ancient India, Medieval India, Modern India.
Publication Division : Gazetteer of India (Vol 2 : History & Culture)
Gandhi Nehru Tagore & Ambedkar — Gopal Krishna
Bipin Chandra - Modern India
A.C.Banerjee - History of Modern India Raghavan Aiyer — Mahatma Gandhi

Books on Geography :

NCERT : Physical Geography of India for X - XII Std
A Good School Atlas
Sharma & Cotinho : Economic and Commercial Geography of India.
Khullar : India- A Comprehnsive Geography
Charles Farro : General Principles of World Geography
Charles Farro : Monsoon Asia Reports published by Centre for Science and Enviornment And Tata Energy Research Institute
National journal - Kurukshetra, Yojana etc.

Books on Indian Economy :

NCERT (+1 level)—Evolution of Indian Economy(I C Dhingra).
Mishra & Puri or Dutt & Sundaram - Indian Economy
Economic Survey
The Economic Times,Business Standard
Yojana

Books on Social and National Issues :

Social Problem - Ram Ahuja
Social Welfare Magazine - Published by ministry of social welfare
Yojana/Kurukshetra
IIPa Journal

Books on Indian Polity :

NCERT (+1 level)—Indian Political System
N.L. Madan : Bhartiya Rajya Vyavastha
D.D. Basu—Indian Constitution
Kashyap—Constitution of India
Publication Division—Subhash C. Kashyap : Our Parliament
P.M. Bakshi—Indian Constitution
Our Constitution : Subhash C. kashyap
Perspective on Constitution : S.C. Kashyap
Frontline Magazine
IIPa Journal

Books on Science & Technology :

NCERT : (10 level) : Science, (+2 level) : Biology.
Popular Science Series (CSIR)
Reports Of the Ministry of Science and Technology Yojana
Science Reporter
Science and Technology in India - Spectrum
Books on Statistics :

(NCERT +1 level) Elementary Statistics
S.C.Gupta : Statistical Methods
Books on India and the World :
Journal of peace Studies
World Focus
Strategic Analysis
South Asian Journal


Other Books for General Studies:

1. India Year Book latest
2. One competitive Magazine
3. Guides like Tata Mc Graw Hill, Spectrum or Unique For General Reference
4. The Pearson General Studies Manual
Mental Ability :

Do lot of practice from previous years bank test papers. The preparation can also be made from some
standard books for aptitude and reasoning like QUANTATIVE APTITUDE and VERBAL and NON-VERBAL REASONING by R.S.AGARWAL .The speed and accuracy should be practised. Concentrate on permutations, combinations, probability, logical reasoning.

Current affairs-Suggested Reading:

• The Hindu News paper
• Frontline Magazine
• Yojana Magazine
• Competition Wizard or Spectrum Issue on Current Affairs
   This is just to make sure that you have covered all the current affairs issues in News Paper.General Knowledge Quite a few questions are asked from this area. Some difficult questions are also asked. Do not spend too much time in memorizing unnecessary facts. You should have a broad awareness about various fields. At the same time, focus more on areas,which have been asked in the past.



India Year Book :

           This is important for the prelims and also for some mains two mark questions. But do not read every thing given in the book, be logical and concentrate on the basics, which can be asked in the exam. You should prepare notes on the
various terms that are given in the book. Do not focus too much on unnecessary facts given in the book.

Manorama Year book :        
           This book should also be taken as reference.For the GS prelims, if you want a compilation of all material at one point then can refer some standard guide like TMH. But do not ignore the NCERT and other books since they give better clarity.

Main Examination :

                Only those who are declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Preliminary Examination in a year, are eligible for the Main examination of that year, provided they are otherwise eligible for the Main Examination.
                Civil Services Main examination has two optional subjects (two papers each carries 300 marks), one General Studies (two papers each carries 300 marks), one essay (carries 200 marks) - total 2000 marks. Other than this, there are two language papers one in Indian language and one in General English at the level of 10th standard. This is to test the ability of the candidate's proficiency in his mother tongue / Indian language and English. Total nine papers. These two papers carry 300 marks each but it will not be considered for the ranking. It is must to clear these two papers. If a candidate fails to clear these papers, his other papers will not be evaluated.
                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 is allowed in the question papers.

Optional Subjects for the Main Examination :
Optional subjects :

 Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Commerce and Accountancy, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, History, Law, Management, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science and International Relations, Psychology, Public Administration, Sociology, Statistics, Zoology. Each paper is of 3 hours duration.

Literatures :

                Arabic, Assamese, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada,
Kashmiri, Konkani, Marathi, Malayalam, Manipuri, Nepali, Oriya, Pali, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.

The following combinations not allowed are :

Political Science & International Relations and Public Administration
Commerce and Management
Anthropology and Sociology
Maths and Statistics
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
Management and Public Administration
Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science and Medical Science
Any two branches of engineering.
Combination of two literatures in the above list.

 
Interview :        

    At interview stage, two-fold vacancies are called to appear before the UPSC Board. Interview carries 300 marks. Interview calls are sent on the basis of minimum marks fixed by the UPSC at its discretion. The overall ranking is done based on the Mains performance (i.e., 2000 marks) and interview. Therefore, the total marks involved in the ranking are 2300. Candidates are allotted various services keeping in view their ranks in the examination and preferences given by them in their main application form.
Note: If a person fails in either in mains or interview, he has to appear once again from the preliminary stage.