Civil Service - Eligibility

[VelMurugan]

Eligibility

The Candidates applying for the examination should ensure that they fulfill all eligibility condition for admission to examination. Commission take up verification of eligibility conditions with reference to original documents only after the candidate has qualified for interview/Personality Test.

Educational Qualifications :

Graduates in any discipline from a recognised university. Candidates having professional and technical qualifications recognised by the government are also eligible. Those who have appeared in the final year but do not have the result can also apply but they would have to produce proof of passing the exam with their application for the Main Exam.

Nationality :

   1. For the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service, a candidate must be a citizen of India
   2. For other services, a candidate must be either :
      (a) a citizen of India, or
      (b) a subject of Nepal, or
      (c) a subject of Bhutan, or
      (d) a Tibetan refugee who came over to India with the intention of permanently settling in India. or
      (e) a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Srilanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.

Provided that a candidate belonging to categories (b), (c), (d) and (e) shall be a person in whose favour a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India. These candidates will not be eligible for appointment to the Indian Foreign Service.

Age Limits :

Candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 30 years on the 1st August of the year in which examination is being held. The upper age limit may be relaxed in respect of the SC/ST and other backward classes.

Personal Attributes :

The aspiring candidates are expected to have keen interest in the General Studies and are supposed to have a good amount of interest in current affairs. Regular and detailed reading of a good national newspaper, a standard competition magazine and a basic book on general knowledge is the essential pre-requisite. Another important point is efficient time planning.

Physical Standards :

Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Civil Services Examination.

Reservation will be made for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Physically disabled categories in respect of vacancies as may be fixed by the Government.

[ganeshbala]

Eligibility for the Civil Services Preliminary Examination

For entry to the civil service, there's a multi-step examination process. The entire process takes a full calendar year. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) first conducts an objective type preliminary examination for screening candidates. The Preliminary Examination: There are two papers for the preliminary round. There is one on general studies and another on an optional subject.

The question papers are set in both Hindi and English. Each paper is for a duration of two hours. General study covers history, geography, economics and so on. The question papers have objective type multiple choice questions. The general studies paper carries 150 marks. The syllabus for the optional subject is the same as that for graduation level. The question paper for the optional subject carries 300 marks. The optional subject for the second paper may be chosen from the following- ¨ Agriculture ¨ Animal Husbandry and veterinary science ¨ Botany ¨ Chemistry ¨ Civil Engineering ¨ Commerce ¨ Economics ¨ Electrical Engineering ¨ Geography ¨ Geology ¨ Indian History ¨ Law ¨ Mathematics ¨ Mechanical Engineering ¨ Philosophy ¨ Physics ¨ Political Science ¨ Psychology ¨ Public Administration ¨ Sociology ¨ Statistics ¨ Zoology

The Main Examination: The preliminary round is basically a screening round. The marks obtained are not counted for in the final stage of the examination. For candidates who clear the preliminary round, there is the main round. The second stage is the main examination that includes written tests and an interview. The written test consists of nine papers (essay type answers to be written) –

¨ Paper I: One Indian language that is included in the Eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution. These languages are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Pali, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. This paper is of a qualifying nature and the marks obtained are not counted for ranking. This paper is not compulsory for candidates from the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.

¨ Paper II: English. The English language paper is also of a qualifying nature and the marks obtained are not counted for ranking. ¨ Paper III: Essay ¨ Paper IV &V: General Studies ¨ Optional Subject I (two papers) ¨ Optional subject II (two papers). For papers VI, VII, VIII, and IX two subjects are to be chosen.

The list of subjects from which the choice may be made is - ¨ Agriculture ¨ Animal Husbandry and veterinary science ¨ Anthropology ¨ Botany ¨ Chemistry ¨ Civil Engineering ¨ Commerce & Accountancy ¨ Economics ¨ Electrical Engineering ¨ Geography ¨ Geology ¨ History ¨ Law ¨ Management ¨ Mathematics ¨ Mechanical Engineering ¨ Philosophy ¨ Physics ¨ Political Science & International Relations ¨ Psychology ¨ Public Administration ¨ Sociology ¨ Statistics ¨ Zoology ¨

Literature in one of the following languages -: Arabic, Assamese, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Marathi, Malayalam, Oriya, Pali, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu Except English, the question papers are set in both Hindi and English.

The total marks secured in both the written tests and the personal interview determine the rank of a candidate. The Interview This is the last hurdle to be cleared. The interview carries 250 marks and there are no stipulated minimum qualifying marks. The main aim of the interview is to assess a candidate's overall personality.

The interview is conducted by a board. The board is fully informed about the candidate and they base their questions on a record of the candidate's career, which is provided to them.

The aspects that are generally looked into are the candidate's grasp of academics and general awareness as in current affairs, social issues, etc. It is basically a test of the potential of a candidate. The board tries to assess whether he or she can rise to the demands of the job of a Civil Servant.