UPSC civil services examination

India's major regulating body. UPSC also conducts a number of competitive exams to fill-in various civil service vacancies for the government of India.

The UPSC conducts the Civil Services Examination (CSE), popularly known as IAS (Indian Administrative Service) exam, in two phases namely- UPSC Prelims and UPSC Mains. The prelims exam comprises objective-type questions, while the questions asked in mains need descriptive and essay-type answering.

If you are planning to appear for the UPSC 2018 or 2019 exam, you need to get acquainted with the factors mentioned below:

The exam dates

The exam dates are subject to change as per the UPSC guidelines. So, an aspirant is required to keep an eye on the new dates released by the commission on the official website.

Why IAS?/PI quotient

Before stepping into the preparation of one of the most competitive exams in the nation, an aspirant must get his/her PI (personal interview) quotient scoped-out . During personality test, a candidate's candidature would be measured against his/her performance. Once he/she gets the PI quotient evaluated, the candidate would have a clearer mindset throughout the preparation.

The subsets of IAS

IPS, IRS, IFS fall under the aegis of the IAS exam and the cutoff to get recruited in the services mentioned above is decided after the conduction of the exam. A good understanding of the target is what will streamline the preparation and to keep the focused better.

• IPS Indian Police Service
• IRS Indian Revenue Service
• IFS Indian Foreign Service

technique:

It is not an exaggerated fact that IAS is the nation's toughest competitive exam and calls for intensive practice and preparation.There is no definite answer to the most commonly asked questions, such as how many hours an IAS aspirant need to put in every day? It will differ from person to person so let us look at it from a general perspective.

Time required:

Experts believe that aggressive preparation for 10 to 12 months is a must. Four out of every 10 Indians (21-32 years) aspire to become an IAS officer and competition is so intense that only 5 percent of that massive number gets through. An aspirant must map-out an effective strategy and decide ideal number of hours required to implement that strategy.

An aspirant should also understand that preparation for civil services examination calls for qualitative and not quantitative preparation. It is about completion of your short term target. Ideally you should target two subjects every day. Most of the top rankers have started preparing for the exams right from their school days, as most of the questions are asked mostly from Class 6 to 12 standard books. So preparing notes and devoting 10 to 12 hours before a year of exam is believed to be sufficient.