The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is an All-India level annual examination that is conducted under the aegis of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC.) It is often referred to as the IAS Exam as lakhs of candidates aspire to become IAS officers. UPSC announces vacancies for every year along with the official notification. For the 2020 Civil Services exam, there are 796 vacancies for the candidates. To fill the vacancies which are in mere hundreds, there are lakhs of aspirants who are going to flock the examination centres to test their preparation with a hope to clear the examination. The UPSC CSE is called to be one of the most difficult examinations of the country and also highly coveted. Hence, the hullabaloo over the difficulty of the examination can’t be ignored. The exam demands a lot of hard work and patience from candidates before they set their foot into the services. It becomes imperative for the candidates to know the minute details of this exam. The candidates should know the following details about the examination so to put an end to all kinds of doubts they have before they start their preparation: What are the stages of the exam? The CSE examination takes place in three stages - Preliminary, Mains and Interview When does the exam take place? As the examination is a three-tier process, the preliminary examination takes place mostly in the month of June on an annual basis. Mains take place in September/October, and the interview starts from early February. In 2019, the exam took place on 2nd June. However, this year with the sudden turn of events like Covid-19, the prelims will take place on 4th October 2020 and Mains will start only from 8th January 2021. What is the syllabus of the exam? The syllabus of the examination is such that for all the stages, the subject-matter remains the same. UPSC Syllabus is given with the official notification each year and it encompasses syllabi for both prelims and mains. What are the main subjects of the exam? As going by the examination trend analysis, the main subjects of the examination are often History, Indian Polity, Economics, Geography and Environment. The major set of questions revolve around these main subjects and if aspirants try to cover the syllabus of these subjects first, the major portion of it is done. What is the nature of the examination? While the preliminary examination is of objective type and is qualifying in nature; the mains examination is subjective type. Prelims has two papers - General Studies and CSAT; Mains has nine papers - 2 Language papers, 1 Essay paper, 4 General Studies papers and 2 Optional papers. The interview is a personality test generally spanning from 20-40 minutes depending on the interests of the UPSC panel. A candidate ought to keep these tips notes while preparing for the exam: Keep the syllabus handy all the time. Don’t hover around the topics from different books. One book is sufficient for each subject and candidates should be confident with that book. Note-making is a must. Self-written notes go a long way as an aspirant can retain a lot of information when he/she writes his/her own way. Revision and the past year papers are the catalysers. Aspirants should know that the entire preparation boils down to one factor and i.e. Revision. No topic should go unrevised and it can cost dearly on the examination day. Similarly, aspirants should take advantage of the previous year question papers. Everything about the civil services exam should be taken seriously right from the beginning. It is the IAS Exam that brings real, dreams of a few hundred aspirants. Aspirants should always maintain their patience and perseverance for the examination as these two, along with the right strategy will bear fruitful results. Prepare better for the UPSC CSE Exam
Quick Tips for the UPSC Exam
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