Kredoz IAS

There are three stages involved in the recruitment of an IAS Officer. These include:

1. Preliminary Examination

2. Mains Examination

3. Personality Test/Interview

There are two compulsory General Studies papers in the preliminary examination, each of which carries 200 marks. Each paper is of 2 hours and is objective type.

Yes, there is a negative marking in the prelims General Studies (GS) Paper I. Each incorrect answer would cost you 1/3rd of the marks allotted to that question. For prelims Paper-II, 1/3rd negative marking is applicable, also, you have to score at least 33% or 66 marks in the exam

The Mains Written Examination consists of the following papers:

• Paper A – One of the Indian Languages (300 Marks)
• Paper B – English (300 marks)
• Paper I – Essay (250 marks)
• General Studies‐I – Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society (250 marks)
• General Studies‐II – Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations (250 marks)
• General Studies‐III – Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management (250 marks)
• General Studies‐IV – Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude (250 marks)
• Optional Subject – Paper 1 (250 marks)
• Optional Subject ‐ Paper 2 (250 marks)

This brings the total marks for the mains examination to 1750. 275 marks for Personality Test are also included in this, which brings the total to 2025 marks.

The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is a highly prestigious career option. The IAS officer performs a number of varied tasks which mostly involve an administrative charge of a district/area/department, policy formulation, policy implementation, heading PSUs, etc.

The main function of the All India Services Branch of the Commission is to assist the Commission in induction of State Services Officers into the All India Services through Promotion or by Selection.

As per the UPSC’s notification, currently, the minimum age criteria have been set as 21 years to appear in the Civil Services IAS Exam. But if you listen the topper interview then you realize that he/she told that we want to be an IAS office at my childhood.

And the basis of interview and book recommended by him it is clear that (NCERT play a very important role) so I think you can start your preparation during second and third year of graduation.    

The first step is to check out the syllabus properly. Read the notification properly and a repeat a few times. Do it yourself and do not go with what others say. Decide how much and what you have to study for each topic. You can use the internet for this research. I have mentioned all the books I studied for each topic and a lot of other people have also done the same. Check those lists out. See what seems relevant. Start with NCERTs. And then move onto more specialized books. You can use internet to study each topic properly and in detail.

Choosing Optional subject of UPSC is the biggest task in the initial phase of preparation.it carries 500 marks in the Mains, so success is somewhat lying in this decision.

Here, we will suggest some parameters for making your beneficial for you- 

• Your interest

UPSC is a marathon and not a 100 m sprint. You may have to study your optional for say 1–2 years. So, choose the subject which you feel interesting.

• Is it scoring? Get the answer for this question as your ultimate goal is to get high score.
• Degree subject. One can go ahead with degree subject if you have honestly studied that subject during the course of your graduation.
• Material availability. Choose the subject for which material is easily available in the market.
• Coaching facility. Hunt for the coaching institutes in your region for the subject you are willing to choose. If its available then go ahead.
• Have a look at the whole syllabus of the subject you want to choose. Go with the subject which has short and concise syllabus.
• Past year question papers. Check the previous years question papers. Have a look at the difficulty level of the question.
• Trend in UPSC. Analyse the current trend in the UPSC regarding optional subjects. Think about optional subjects of successful candidates.
• Utility in GS. Have an idea about the utility of your optional subject in GS papers. See how much optional syllabus overlaps with GS.
• Have your own opinion. Just do not go with crowd, choose the subject which suits you the best.

These are some parameters on the basis of this you can take your own decision. It is not necessary to match all the parameters mentioned above.

IAS Interview is finishing line. UPSC aspirants need to cross three stages of the hurdle to achieving success. Third and the last stage of UPSC civil services exam is of personality test generally called UPSC Interview round. It is most important and challenging stage.

Time duration of UPSC Civil Services interview is approximately (30-40) minutes. The purpose of the interview is to check whether the candidate is suitable for a career in the civil services. That is, whether the candidate has the potential to demonstrate good administrative skills.