Ten Things to know About UPSC Examination

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is known to be the chief regulatory organization in India. It conducts many competitive examinations for recruiting the vacancies that develop every year in the civil services sector.

The Civil Services Examination i.e the CSE, or the Indian Administrative Service or IAS examination contains two phases in the form of UPSC Prelims and the UPSC Mains. In case you are planning to appear for the UPSC 2016 examinations, here are some points that you should be aware of, prior to appearing for this elite scrutiny:

1. Even as it is popularly known as ‘IAS exam’, actually it is the ‘Civil Services Examination’, which consists of posts to more than 24 services of central government. The most popular and reputed being the IAS.

2. The exam has Prelims, which is objective type; Mains, which is the written examination; and also the Interview, which is verbal.

3. It must be remembered that the Prelims is just a qualifying exam. Actually, only marks that are obtained in the Mains, and Interview rounds are considered for the purpose of offering the rank.

4. The candidates must apply using the online mode since no other mode is allowed for submission of the completed application form.

5. Every year, there are close to four lakh applicants for the IAS examination, while close to two lakh appear for the scrutiny.

6. Mathematical statistics indicates that the average age of the candidates who succeed in this examination is more than 26 years and further, it is increasing with every passing year.

7. It is in January that the UPSC announces the notice related to organizing the Civil Services Examination, for the Preliminary test in May of the respective year. As far as the applications are concerned, they are welcomed only till the month of February of the year of the test.

8. The IFS, IRS, and IPS come under the aegis of the IAS exam. The IPS (Indian Police Service), IRS (Indian Revenue Service), and IFS (Indian Foreign Service) examination come under the aegis of the IAS exam. ‘Where will be the cutoff?’, will be decided after the examination.

9. For General Knowledge students must read newspaper The Hindu, the magazine like Civil Services Chronicle or Pratyogita Darpan and the Manorama Year Book.

10. There are seven (7) attempts that can be made by aspirants belonging to General Category, and OBC non-creamy layer. On the other hand, for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category, there exist no restrictions as such and the aspirants can appear for the exam until the age of 35 years.

varun.acharya@collegedekho.com