UPSC Civil service IAS Preparation guide.

This post is intended to give you a basic outline for IAS exam preparation,  officially it is  Union Public Service Commission  (UPSC) Civil Services Examination, This post will cover basics of all you want to know about IAS Exam Syllabus, Eligibility, Books, Papers, Coaching institutes, online preparation, toppers advice and almost all things that a newbie wants to know.

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Civil Services Examination is very tough not only in terms of vastness and effort it demands but also time is  a major factor the exam process tales about an year to complete.To stay motivated for an year and study daily needs lot of determination and dedication.

First you might have heard  many things and  opinions about this exam,please put it all aside while you read this post. Start reading with a fresh mind without any prejudices or stereotypes clouding you .Thank you now read on

This post is Under constant Improvement and Updates. Regarding links , feedback, complaints and suggestions [email protected].

Table of Contents

Beginners Guide to IAS exam Preparation.

1.Prelims> 2.Mains > 3.Personality test/ Interview.

From first to last this exam is about elimination and filtering of  candidates they try to kick us out at each step its like playing Mario one mistake at any stage boom back to stage one !

To get an idea numbers are approximate : this year 4,50,000 members wrote Prelims  out of which 17000 are selected to write mains from 17000 only 3000 will be called for interview.From 3000 around 1200 will be selected.

That is the toughness and competition you are going to face,also always remember your real fight is always with the top 3000 people who clear at all stages try to be in that group all the time it will help you stay focused,also if you rest you rust.

Notification :

CIVIL SERVICES EXAM, 2014 ( English / Hindi ) * Last years notification

Education Qualification :

Indian, Graduate any degree no minimum percentage. Read Notification clearly for all such doubts.

New Age limit :

Source March 2014 Circular

GeneralbeforeAFTER
attempt limit44+2 = 6 years
age limit30 years30+2=32 years
OBCbeforeAFTER
attempt limit77+2=9
age limit3333+2=35 years
SC /STbeforeAFTER
attempt limitunlimitedunlimited
age limit3535+2=37 years
PH candidate frombeforeAFTER
PH from General/OBC categoryattempt limit77+2=9
age limit40
  • General PH: 30+12=42 years
  • OBC PH: 33+12=45 years
PH from SC/ST categoryattempt limitunlimitedunlimited
age limit40SC/ST PH: 35+12=47 years

This is not yet fully official but for 2015 notification these will be the ages,Till then what is written under before is official stand..

Prelims : Civil service Aptitude Test (CSAT)

Preliminary Examination The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory papers of 200 marks each.

  •  Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions).

CSAT Paper I – (200 marks) 2 hours this is General Studies Paper

  • 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 specialisation
  • General Science.

CSAT Paper II- (200 marks) 2 hours CSAT Paper.

  • Comprehension Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
  • Logical reasoning and analytically 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).

Note 1: 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. This year (2104) these passages were removed, no marks allotted to this section due to Language controversy.

How to Prepare For Prelims:

Golden Rules According to us

  1. Read one book 10 times than reading 10 diff books.
  2. Keep the book list short and trust it.
  3. The more you practice the better.
  4. Prepare for mains prelims is covered automatically. (most part at least)
  5. What everyone can attempt you must attempt, Extra questions is your edge.
  6. CSAT is king maker, everything is dependent on CSAT(Paper 2)
  7. Prepare daily and slowly you cannot read everything in one month even if you are a genius.
  8. Have the Right Mind set.
  9. Surround yourself with Doers and Serious people.
  10. Finally don’t leave any subject or topic. Leave no stone unturned.
  11. GS Prelims Anay Diwedi Strategy.

People don’t get the momentum till the last minute and as the exam approaches the tendency to give up this attempt and promising oneself to prepare better for next attempt is very common, that is a very flawed approach. So study daily even for 4 hours from now on but every day, this will help a lot. Time wasted now prove you deadly in the end.

Suggested Reading for Prelims.

GS paper

The Hindu + Opinion Pages of Indian Express + Yojana Magazine is a Must.

Read NCERT books First for all subjects, irrespective of your background, knowledge levels read them in long run you will understand the utility. Available as Pdf’s.

Polity: Laxmikanth the one and only book you need in all stages. DD Basu is another favourite of toppers but Laxmikanth is simple and student friendly.

Economy: Sri Ram IAS institute Material, which is available in Xerox shops in all places. This is most useful to build your basics and 90% of prelims questions can be comfortably answered. Ramesh Singh is next best alternative also useful for mains, between these two book and newspapers you economy for IAS exam is almost done.

Geography: 11th and 12th NCERT and selective study from Spectrum Geography.

History: 

  • 11 and 12 Tamil Nadu NCERT books.
  • Spectrum’s Brief History of Modern India, By Rajiv Ahir or Bipan Chandra If you have time and patience.
  • Sekhar Bandyopadhyay from Plassey to Partition. [Only if you have time]
  • Ancient History NCERT selective study. Most people leave out ancient and modern from preparation due to low output ratio.

Culture: Nitin Singhania Xerox notes or Vision IAS culture material.

Environment and Biodiversity:

  • NIOS books
  • Shankar IAS academy Xerox notes.

Science:

7-12 NCERT books

ClassPHYSICSChemistryBiology
74, 13, 14 & 155 & 61,2,10; 11 & 12
811 to 163 to 62, 8, 9 & 10
98 to 121 to 45,6,7 & 13
1010, 12 & 131 to 56 to 11
111,5,81,142 to 5
121514,164,5 then 7 to 16

Chapter wise arranged by Murnal.

Do buy this book for practice 14000+ Objective Questions after reading a topic you can solve questions from this book and check and in case if you miss any point it will be covered very useful feedback mechanism.

CSAT Paper 2:

  • Cracking the CSAT Paper – 2 : Solved Papers 2014 – 2011 & 10 Crack Sets
  • Career launcher previous papers.

These two will be more than enough if you practice perfectly, again who can define perfection? If you read the above books like you mean it and Join career launcher test series and write all tests sincerely you will surely clear prelims 2015.

But most people despite of doing all things mentioned above panic in the exam or afraid of maths, I was scared to death by maths but doing few hours of maths practice every day of very basic models from Rajesh Verma book I can say that it helped me a lot.

Cut off’s

Combined for both papers so out of 400 you must get:

category201120122013
GEN198209241
OBC175190222
SC165185207
ST161181200

Mains Syllabus and CSM 2014 Papers.

This is the stage 2 of the examination, only those who cleared in prelims are eligible to write mains and this is the most important stage where almost everything is decided.

Papers in mains and Max score

Papers in MainsTotal score2013 Topper Gaurav’s score
Compulsory English300X
Compulsory Indian Language300X
Essay250135
GS125085
GS225063
GS325088
GS4250102
Optional.PAPER1250134
Optional.PAPER2250162
TOTAL ( Compulsory papers, they’re not counted in final score)1750769

 List of Optional’s

Following is the list of optional papers one can choose from, any one subject can be selected including Literature , Popular optional’s are Anthropology, Public Administration, Geography, Sociology, Literature’s, .etc.

Click on the link for respective question paper.

Optional Subjects for Main Examination
Agriculture Paper IAgriculture Paper II
Animal Husbandary & Veterinary Science Paper IAnimal Husbandary & Veterinary Science Paper II
Anthropology Paper IAnthropology Paper II
Botony Paper IBotony Paper II
Chemistry Paper IChemistry Paper II
Civil Engineering Paper ICivil Engineering Paper II
Commerce & Accountancy Paper ICommerce & Accountancy Paper II
Economics Paper IEconomics Paper II
Electrical Engineering Paper IElectrical Engineering Paper II
Geography Paper IGeography Paper II
Geology Paper IGeology Paper II
History Paper IHistory Paper II
Law Paper ILaw Paper II
Management Paper IManagement Paper II
Mathematics Paper IMathematics Paper II
Mechanical Engineering Paper IMechanical Engineering Paper II
Medical Science Paper IMedical Science Paper II
Philosphy Paper IPhilosphy Paper II
Physics Paper IPhysics Paper II
Political Science & Internation Relations Paper IPolitical Science & Internation Relations Paper II
Psychology Paper IPsychology Paper II
Public Administration Paper IPublic Administration Paper II
Sociology Paper ISociology Paper II
Statistics Paper IStatistics Paper II
Zoology Paper IZoology Paper II
Literature Subjects for Main Examination
Assamese Paper IAssamese Paper II
Bengali Paper IBengali Paper II
English Paper IEnglish Paper II
Gujarati Paper IGujarati Paper II
Hindi Paper IHindi Paper II
Kannada Paper IKannada Paper II
Manipuri Paper IManipuri Paper II
Maithili Paper IMaithili Paper II
Malayalam Paper IMalayalam Paper II
Marathi Paper IMarathi Paper II
Oriya Paper IOriya Paper II
Punjabi Paper IPunjabi Paper II
Sanskrit Paper ISanskrit Paper II
Santali Paper ISantali Paper II
Sindhi (Arabic) Paper ISindhi (Arabic) paper II
Sindhi (Devanagari) Paper ISindhi (Devanagari) Paper II
Tamil Paper ITamil Paper II
Telugu Paper ITelugu Paper II
Urdu Paper IUrdu Paper II

 Essay and GS papers

General StudiesPaper I
Paper II
Paper III
Paper IV

English and Compulsory Language paper .

One has to choose one language for compulsory paper .The paper Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.

30% marks in Indian Language and 25% marks in English as minimum qualifying standards in these qualifying papers.

English Language (Compulsory)
Indian Languages (Compulsory)
AssameseBengali
BodoGujarati
HindiKannada
MaithiliMalayalam
MarathiNepali
OriyaPunjabi
SanskritManipuri
TamilTelugu
UrduKonkani
Sindhi (Devanagari)Sindhi (Arabic)

 How to Prepare for Mains:

Now as you have seen the previous papers and list of optional’s to select from Decide on one optional ,as per suggestion of toppers choose the one you love not the one crowd follows  or so called scoring ones.

I will copy paste what Gaurav Agrawal said, there is nothing to add or remove to what he said it’s just perfect it depends on you how much you will learn from it.

Choosing an Optional

People often have many criteria to choose the optional. Some of them are…
– ‘Scoring’ optional: People think some optional’s are more scoring than others.. Don’t know what to say on this. Every year UPSC changes the optional’s it favours / punishes, so u never know whether the ‘scoring’ optional u took may end up in the ‘butchering’ list of UPSC next year..

– Overlap with GS: “Pubad le lo, GS ki bhi taiyyari ho jaayegi”… Nothing could be more dangerous than this attitude.. coz if we don’t like pubad, and still take it, then we anyways won’t be able to study it well enough and not only will we screw the pubad portion of GS but also additional 500 marks optional. We only amplify our weakness by this attitude.

I believe an optional must be chosen out of our strength. When I took economics, many people advised me against it saying economics is technical, not scoring etc. etc. But I knew economics was my strength… doesn’t matter if no one has scored 400/600 in economics so far, I know I would score it (as per the older marking scheme). When UPSC is giving us 500 marks to play by our strength, why should we pick anything else? These are our marks and let us score the maximum out of it. And of course, such a strength can only develop when we have deep interest and luv for the subject.

So How to Prepare for Optional?

Again reproduced from his site: Stages of Preparation

There are multiple stages of preparation in a subject like Economics.

– Stage 1: In this stage, we just focus on understanding what we are reading. While reading, we must understand the concept fully. We will forget the thing 2 days after we have read it, don’t worry. We will not even understand half the questions which have been asked in previous years, don’t worry. We don’t even have a clue of how to write answers in the exam, don’t worry. Just ensure you understand what you are reading and finish the syllabus.

– Stage 2: This begins after the syllabus has been finished once. In the second time, we again focus on understanding what we are reading. This time we would find, it takes less time to understand all the stuff and most of it seems familiar once we read. Our retention would increase at this stage. Read, re-read, revise the syllabus 2-3 times, ensure that we can recall without any aid what was said in a given topic / theorem and can reproduce it on paper. At the end of this stage, we would still not be able to even understand half the questions in the paper.

– Stage 3: Many questions in the eco question paper are not direct i.e. they ll not ask write abt XX theorem. These questions are indirect and we won’t even know which theorem / model to apply! The aim of this stage is to identify which model to apply. This can only come if we sit down with previous years’ question papers and think and think and discuss with others on what model to apply for a particular question. by now we have internalised all the stuff, we can not only reproduce the entire model / theorem on paper but also understand when and where to apply them. We will be able to answer most (90-95%) of the questions in previous years’ question papers now.

Optional Strategy Subject Wise:

Essay:

After seeing the results of last mains no one can deny that Essay has become a very crucial paper, more crucial than ever before. CSM 2014 essay paper no requires a candidate to write two essays around 1200 words each. Regular reading of books, newspapers and Yojana will help a candidate accumulate lot of points.

Some are gifted writers but to majority of us that art comes only with rigorous practices. And writing in the exam hall is a completely different story. Gaurav Agarwal wrote a post on How to improve Essay Writing for UPSC Mains? .He also listed his past experience and what mistakes he committed.

Essay and GS Strategy :

GS Paper 1

Indian Heritage and Culture, History 

  1. Indian culture  will  cover  the  salient  aspects  of  Art  Forms,  Literature  and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
  2. Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present‐ significant events, personalities, issues
  3. The Freedom Struggle  ‐  its  various  stages  and  important  contributors /contributions from different parts of the country.
  4. Post‐independence consolidation and reorganization within the country.
  5. History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars,  redrawal  of  national  boundaries,  colonization, decolonization.
  6. Political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.‐ their forms and effect on the society.

Society.

  1. Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
  2. Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues,
  3. Poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
  4. Effects of globalization on Indian society
  5. Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

Geography of the World 

  1. Salient features of world’s physical geography.
  2. Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub‐continent); factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and  tertiary  sector  industries  in  various  parts  of  the  world (including India)
  3. Important Geophysical phenomena  such  as  earthquakes,  Tsunami,  Volcanic activity,  cyclone  ,  geographical  features  and  their  location‐  changes  in critical  geographical  features  (including  water‐bodies  and  ice‐caps)  and  in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Suggested Book List for GS 1

Indian History: From Plassey to Partition by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Modern Indian History Rajiv Ahir or Bipan chandra.

Indian Heritage and Culture: Questions are very in-depth and sometimes requires PhD .Still Nitin Singhania’s Xerox notes is best source so far along with any institutes material.

Geography of the World: Spectrum Geography is a comprehensive book it is for mains geography but selective reading will help you in both mains and Prelims.

Society: NCERT books and Newspapers will do.

GS Paper 2

Constitution

  1. Indian Constitution‐ historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.
  2. Comparison of the Indian constitutional scheme with that of other countries
  3. Parliament and State Legislatures  ‐  structure,  functioning,  conduct  of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.

Polity

  1. Functions and  responsibilities  of  the  Union  and  the  States,  issues  and challenges  pertaining  to  the  federal  structure,  devolution  of  powers  and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.
  2. Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions.
  3. Structure, organization  and  functioning  of  the  Executive  and  the  Judiciary Ministries  and  Departments  of  the  Government;
  4. Pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity.
  5. Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act.
  6. Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.
  7. Statutory, regulatory and various quasi‐judicial bodies

Social Justice

  1. Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
  2. Development processes  and  the  development  industry  the  role  of  NGOs, SHGs,  various  groups  and  associations,  donors,  charities,  institutional  and other stakeholders
  3. Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
  4. Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
  5. Issues relating to poverty and hunger.

Governance

  1. Important aspects  of  governance,  transparency  and  accountability, e‐governance‐  applications,  models,  successes,  limitations,  and  potential;
  2. Citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures.
  3. Role of civil services in a democracy.

International relations.  

  1. India and its neighbourhood‐ relations.
  2. Bilateral, regional and  global  groupings  and  agreements  involving  India and/or affecting India’s interests
  3. Effect of  policies  and  politics  of  developed  and  developing  countries  on India’s interests, Indian diasporas.
  4. Important International institutions, agencies and further structure, mandate.

Suggested Book List for GS 2

  • Polity and Constitution parts : Laxmikanth or DD Basu
  • Vajiram  PDF on various schemes.
  • Insights website compilation will also help Or Vajiram Yellow books.
  • PRS reports and Blog.
  • Newspaper is the most important source for social justice and IR.
  • C.Raja Mohan articles for International relations.

GS Paper 3

Economic Development

  1. Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
  2. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.
  3. Government Budgeting.
  4. Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation  and  irrigation  systems  storage,  transport  and  marketing  of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e‐technology in the aid of farmers
  5. Issues related  to  direct  and  indirect  farm  subsidies  and  minimum  support prices;  Public  Distribution  System  objectives,  functioning,  limitations, revamping;  issues  of  buffer  stocks  and  food  security;  Technology missions; economics of animal‐rearing.
  6. Food processing  and  related  industries  in  India‐  scope  and  significance, location,  upstream  and  downstream  requirements,  supply  chain management.
  7. Land reforms in India.
  8. Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth.
  9. Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
  10. Investment models.

Technology

  1. Science and Technology‐ developments and their applications and effects in everyday life
  2. Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
  3. Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano‐technology, bio‐technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

 Bio diversity and Environment

  1. Conservation, environmental  pollution  and  degradation,  environmental impact assessment

Disaster and disaster management.

Security

  1. Linkages between development and spread of extremism.
  2. Role of external state and non‐state actors in creating challenges to internal security.
  3. Challenges to  internal  security  through  communication  networks,  role  of media  and  social  networking  sites  in  internal  security  challenges,  basics  of cyber security; money laundering and its prevention
  4. Security challenges  and  their  management  in  border  areas;  linkages  of organized crime with terrorism
  5. Various security forces and agencies and their mandate

Suggested Book List for GS 3

  • Ramesh Singh for Economy.
  • Newspapers, Vision IAS printed Material.
  • Shankar IAS academy notes foe Environment and Bio diversity (read at prelims thoroughly not directly useful for mains)
  • Vajiram yellow book for Security.
  • Insights Compilation for any gaps.

GS Paper 4

This  paper  will  include  questions  to  test  the  candidates’  attitude  and approach to issues relating to integrity, probity in public life and his problem solving approach to various issues and conflicts faced by him in dealing with society. Questions may utilise the case study approach to determine these aspects. The following broad areas will be covered.

Ethics

Ethics  and  Human  Interface:  Essence,  determinants  and  consequences  of Ethics  in  human  actions;  dimensions  of  ethics;  ethics  in  private  and  public relationships.

Human Values – lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators; role of family, society and educational institutions in inculcating values.

Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour; moral and political attitudes; social influence and persuasion.

Aptitude and foundational values for Civil Service , integrity, impartiality and non‐partisanship, objectivity, dedication to public service, empathy, tolerance and compassion towards the weaker‐sections.

Emotional intelligence‐concepts, and their utilities and application in administration and governance.

Contributions of moral thinkers and philosophers from India and world.

  1. Public/Civil service  values  & Ethics  in  Public  administration:  Status  and problems;  ethical  concerns  and  dilemmas  in  government  and  private institutions;
  2. laws, rules,  regulations  and  conscience  as  sources  of  ethical guidance;
  3. accountability and ethical governance; strengthening of ethical and moral values  in  governance;

Ethical issues in international relations and funding; corporate governance.

Probity in Governance:

  1. Concept of  public  service;
  2. Philosophical basis  of governance  and  probity;
  3. Information sharing  and  transparency  in government,
  4. Right to  Information,
  5. Codes of  Ethics,
  6. Codes of  Conduct,
  7. Citizen’s Charters,
  8. Work culture,
  9. Quality of  service  delivery,
  10. Utilization of public funds,
  11. Challenges of corruption.

Case Studies on above issues.

Suggested Book List for GS 4

  • Any one Institute Printed notes for basics
  • Ethics Lexicon as you need to know the meaning of the words in the question paper.
  • Synergy Class notes Xerox. + Tons of common sense.
  • Ethics is your personality can’t be taught.

Interview test

The candidate will be interviewed by a Board who will have before them a record of his/her career. He/she will be asked questions on matters of general interest. The object of the interview is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for a career in public service by a Board.

On a personal note a guy who reached this stage will not read this post. So more on this section later. If you get a Interview call Go to Delhi, Old Rajendar Nagar near Karol Bagh Metro, And get some professional help, as institutes there will bring retired bureaucrats and others who will help you a lot.

Toppers:

Toppers Blog’s

Toppers’ Interviews: their journey struggle & success – Mrunal

Downloads and Miscellaneous

25 thoughts on “UPSC Civil service IAS Preparation guide.”

  1. Hi..I read the above post.Its every useful.But i am a beginner.I decide to prepare for IAS exam 2016.Can I follow the above preparation guide for my studies.Please help me.From when should i start my preparation?From which topic i should start preparing?

    Reply
    • Yes you can, but start with Ncert books and your optional subject.Also read News Paper daily , they all play major role. First see old papers both mains and Prelims it will give you over all Idea of what kind of questions are coming, what is the standard and depth UPSC is expecting. Depending on that you can follow.

      Reply
    • IAS preparation requires hard work and perseverance above all. When I was preparing for the exam, the center of learning was quite far from my place. I decided to take the risk and study online through platforms like https://neostencil.com/upsc-syllabus/ . I think that might have changed a lot of things because I saved time in commute and learnt a lot through the tons of online resources. Keep at it without loosing faith guys and you will succeed.

      Reply
  2. hi, a good news for students of hindi medium. ramesh singh’s economy book in hindi version is come. 7 th edi, come
    buy it from-http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/9339222717?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A3HKLOB57IFCW2

    Reply
    • hi, Frankly no one can choose it for you , But best suggestion will be choose the subject you love, If you are engineer and very good at maths choose it, if You are CA choose commerce, If you are good in your mother tongue choose it as literature optional.

      If you are not comfortable with any of the above, choose among sociology-anthropology-geography-pub ad as these are most popular subjects and availability of material and coaching is more.

      See the syllabus of each optional you short listed, previous question papers, and talk to any one in service or seniors. Above all choose the subject you love and are comfortable in , because you have to be very good in optional to get good score. Hope this helps 🙂

      Reply
  3. hi…i read all the information thanks for the valuable information. i have only one doubt that in the mains examination the optional subjects are 2, from which category we have to select the two subjects,weather one from the optional subjects category and one from literature category or only one subject from both the categories.plz give me full information about it as i am new aspirant.

    Reply
    • HI, for mains now there is only one optional. not two according to new pattern. You can choose as per your interest, or educational back ground or availability of coaching etc.

      Reply
  4. hello sir
    with a great dilemma as to new news of age limit i am 30 i hve given 2011 and2015 year exam general category 4 attempts exhausted will i be able to give exam in 2016 …i read it in 2-3 places please clarify.

    Reply
    • hello sir
      with a great dilemma as to new news of age limit i am 30 i hve given 2011 and2015 year exam general category 4 attempts exhausted will i be able to give exam in 2016 …i read it in 2-3 places please clarify

      Reply

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