This is a No-Nonsense guide for Civil Services Exam preparation. The Examination has three stages- Preliminary, Mains and the Interview.
Prelims
The preliminary examination consists of two papers of objective type carrying a maximum of 450 marks. The optional paper has 300 marks and the general studies (GS) paper has 150 marks. The optional paper has to be studied extensively and one should aim at scoring 95-110 out of 120 questions. The GS paper has 150 questions and each question here has 1 mark compared to 2.5 for the optional. One should aim to score 95-105 out of the 150 to feel absolutely safe. A little bit of strategising may be helpful here as it may not be possible to cover all the topics in GS.
Modern Indian History and Indian Polity can form the core of studies as they are important from the point of view of mains also. Current affairs has gained increasing prominence in the recent years. Very roughly speaking, there may be about 40 questions from current affairs, about 20 from History, 30 from Geography, 30 from Economy and Polity, 15 from General Mental Ability and 15 from General Science in the G.S prelims paper.
IAS Exam 2009 Preparation Schedule
Personality attributes UPSC is looking for
Current affairs - Persons in news
Sources of the Indian Constitution
IAS Mains Exam
Scheme of the examination:
Paper-I: One of the Indian Languages to be selected by the candidate from the 18 languages included in the VIIIth Schedule to the Constitution (Qualifying Paper) 300 Marks
Paper-II: English (Qualifying Paper) 300 Marks
Paper-III: Essay
200 Marks
Papers IV & V: General Studies (300 Marks for each paper)
600 Marks
Papers VI, VII, VIII & IX: Any two subjects (each having 2 papers) to be selected from the prescribed optional subjects (300 marks for each paper)
1200 Marks
Total Marks for Written Examination
2000 Marks
Interview Test 300 Marks
Grand Total 2300 Marks
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