Examination Pattern
The Civil Services Examination is administered in two stages
Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective type) for the selection of candidates for Main Examination
Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the various services and posts.
The Preliminary Examination
Preliminary Examination (CSP)
CSP consists of two papers Which is common for all candidates from 2011 i.e., No optional paper is there in CSP form 2011.This is the first stage of Civil Services Examination. This is an Objective type examination consisting of Two Papers that is common to all candidates from 2011 having special emphasis on testing their "aptitude for civil services" as well as on "ethical and moral dimension of decision making". Normally, there are about 3 lakh applications for the preliminary examination. From this, the UPSC selects 10 to 12 folds of vacancies for the main examinations. This is only for the selection and not to be taken into consideration in the main ranking.
Subjects for Preliminary Examination:
� As per the decision of Government of India, there shall be change in the syllabus and pattern of the Preliminary Examination from 2011 in the scheme of the Civil Services Examination.
� The Preliminary Examination shall now comprise of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each and of two hours duration each. Detailed below is the new syllabus and pattern of the Preliminary Examination, which is brought to the notice of the prospective candidates intending to appear at the Civil Services Examination (CSE) in 2011 onwards:
Paper I - (200 marks) Duration: Two hours
� Current events of national and international importance
� History of India and Indian National Movement
� Indian and World Geography - Physical, Social, Economic geography
of India and the World.
� Indian Polity and Governance � Constitution, Political System,
Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
� Economic and Social Development � Sustainable Development,
Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
� General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate
Change - that do not require subject specialization
� General Science.
Paper II- (200 marks) Duration: Two hours
� Comprehension
� Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
� Logical reasoning and analytical ability
� Decision making and problem solving
� General mental ability
� Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude
etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data
sufficiency etc. -Class X level)
� English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).
� Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level
(last item in the Syllabus of Paper-II) will be tested through passages from
English language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question
paper.
� The questions will be of multiple choice, objective type.
The Main Examination
Papers | Subjects | Marks |
Paper I | One of the following Indian Languages Language--> Script ------------------------ Assamese--> Assamese Bengali --> Bengali Gujarati--> Gujarati Hindi --> Devanagari Kannada --> Kannada Kashmiri--> Persian Konkani --> Devanagari Malayalam--> Malayalam Manipuri--> Bengali Marathi --> Devanagari Nepali --> Devanagari Oriya --> Oriya Punjabi --> Gurumukhi Sanskrit--> Devanagari Sindhi --> Devanagari or Arabic Tamil --> Tamil Telugu --> Telugu Urdu --> Persian | 300 |
Paper II | English (Qualifying Paper) | 300 |
Paper III | Essay | 200 |
Paper IV | General Studies | 300 |
Paper V | General Studies | 300 |
Paper VI,VII,VIII & IX | Any two subjects (each having 2 papers) to be selected from the prescribed optional subjects (300 marks for each paper) Agriculture Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science Botany Chemistry Civil Engineering Commerce Economics Electrical Engineering Geography Geology Indian History Law Mathematics Mechanical Engineering Medical Science Philosophy Physics Political Science Psychology Public Administration Sociology Statistics Zoology Anthropology Arabic Assamese Bengali Chinese English French German Gujarati Hindi Kannada Kashmiri Konkani Malayalam Manipuri Marathi Nepali Oriya Pali Persian Punjabi Russian Sanskrit Sindhi Tamil Telugu Urdu Management | 1200 |
The papers on Indian Languages and English will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard and will be of qualifying nature; the marks obtained in these papers will not be counted for ranking. The Paper I of Indian Languages will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the North-Eastern States of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland and also for candidates hailing from the State of Sikkim. The papers on Essay, General Studies and Optional Subjects of those candidates will be evaluated who attain minimum standard for the qualifying papers on Indian Language and English.