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About : Public Service Exams

The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a countrywide competitive examination in India administered by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for recruitment to the Civil Services of the Government of India, such as the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, and Indian Police Service. it is conducted in three phases - a preliminary examination consisting of two objective-type papers (General Studies Paper I and General Studies Paper II also popularly known as Civil Service Aptitude Test or CSAT), and a main examination consisting of nine papers of conventional (essay) type, in which two papers are qualifying and only marks of seven are counted followed by a personality test (interview).

Selection Process:-

• Stage I: Preliminary Examination - Held in June every year. Results are announced in August.
• Stage II: Mains Examination - Held in October every year. Results are announced in January.
• Personality Test (interview) - Held in March.
• Final results are usually announced in May.
• The training program for the selected candidates usually commences the following September.

Number of attempts The number of times a candidate can appear for the exam are given below.

• 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.

Preliminary Examination:-

The exam pattern includes two papers of two hours duration and 200 marks each. Both papers have multiple choice objective type questions only. They are as follows:

• Paper I tests the candidate's knowledge on current events, history of India and Indian national movement, Indian and world geography, Indian polity panchayti Raj system and governance, economic and social development, environmental ecology, biodiversity, climate change and general science, Art and culture.
• Paper II (also called CSAT or Civil Services Aptitude Test), tests the candidate's 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.It is qualifying in nature and the marks obtained in this paper are not counted for merit. However, it is mandatory for the candidate to score a minimum of 33 per cent in this paper to qualify the Prelims exam.

Mains Examination:-

The Civil Services Main 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. Each paper is of a duration of 3 hours.

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.