How To Clear IAS Exam and Become an IAS Officer?

How To Clear IAS Exam and Become an IAS Officer?

Unknown   9:20 am   1 comment:

What is IAS?

IAS is the short form of Indian Administrative Service. It is one of the prestigious services among the 24 services like IPS, IFS etc for the which the UPSC conduct Civil Services Examination (CSE) for selecting the candidates. An officer selected into the Indian Administrative Service gets exposure in very diverse roles like the collector, commissioner, head of public sector units, chief secretary, cabinet secretary etc. Not only the experience and challenges, but also the scope of making positive changes in the life of millions in India makes IAS a unique career choice.

How to become an IAS officer?

Even though the exam to be undertaken is popularly known as IAS exam, it is officially called UPSC . The UPSC CSE consists of 3 stages – Prelims, Mains, and Interview. Getting into Indian Administrative Service is not easy considering the competition involved, but not impossible for a candidate with right attitude and approach. Interesting read: .

Civil Services Examination(CSE)

UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) is the government agency responsible for selecting the right candidates for this service. Every year only around 1000 candidates is selected for all the 24 services combined. The number of candidates who applied for UPSC Civil Service Exam was about 9 lakh in 2015, out of which around 4.5 lakh candidates appeared on the exam day.

This exam is widely considered as the toughest exam in the world, considering the exam duration (extends 1 year), depth of the syllabus and the competition involved. The first stage of the exam – Preliminary (objective) – is usually conducted around August, while the second stage, Mains (written), is conducted around December. Those who clear Mains will have to face interview/personality test during April-May period. The final result usually comes in June.

How to Clear Civil Services Exam?

To clear IAS Exam, aspirants are advised to have a long-term strategy. Though most of the serious candidates start preparation 9-12 months before the exam date, there are candidates who successfully achieve top ranks with only a few months of dedicated study. So what matters is not the duration of the preparation, but the quality of the same.

A disciplined and focused mind with a passion for learning and reading is the basic trait of all successful candidates. The UPSC Civil Services exam is more a test of the analytic and presentation skills along with knowledge gained by the candidate rather than a test which checks candidate’s mathematical or verbal skills. To clear IAS, we feel two entities as essential:

1. Right guidance – for prelims and mains.
2. Right study-materials and books.

“UPSCPapers99.blogspot.in” is a humble attempt to provide aspirants with these two basic entities giving stress to self-study.

IAS Exam Eligibility Criteria

The educational qualification needed to appear in UPSC CSE is a degree (graduation) in any subject. Final year students can also apply. Aspirants may go through the article to the eligibility criteria for writing UPSC CSE exam.

IAS Exam Number of attempts permitted

Number of attempts permissible for a general category candidate in UPSC CSE is 6. For OBC candidates the number of attempts permitted it 9. SC/ST category candidates will have unlimited attempts till they attain the upper age limit to appear for UPSC CSE.

IAS Exam Age Limits

The minimum age to appear for UPSC Civil Services Exam is 21 years. Upper age limit for General category is 32 years, for OBC it is 35 years while for SC/ST it is 37 years.

IAS syllabus

A good understanding of UPSC syllabus and exam pattern is the first step for all freshers. Civil Services Preliminary exam comprises of two compulsory papers of 200 marks each (General Studies Paper I and General Studies Paper II). The questions will be of multiple choice, objective type. The marks in prelims will not be counted for final ranking, but just for qualification for main exam.

A candidate’s rank in UPSC Civil Service Exam depends only on the mark scored in Main and Interview. The written examination (main) will consist of the following nine papers, but only 7 papers will be counted for final merit ranking. For the rest two papers, the candidate should secure minimum marks prescribed by UPSC each year. The main exam has 1750 marks while interview has 275 marks.

IAS Coaching

Classroom IAS Coaching is adopted by many students for proper guidance and ease of materials for learning though it is not a must for clearing IAS. Now websites like UPSCPapers99.blogspot.in provide guidance outside the classroom coaching and free online IAS study materials for those who can’t afford it due to time/financial constraints. If the aspirant is dedicated and is properly guided, self-study is enough to clear UPSC CSE. Interesting read: Can I clear UPSC Civil Services exam without coaching classes?

Importance of mock exams

As you may know, only when tested in an exam atmosphere with negative marking, you can improve the ability to deliver in the actual exam hall. Try for free the UPSC Prelims online mock exams by ClearIAS. Our innovative platform integrates learning with test-taking. You would be surprised to find how fast you can learn!

Books needed for Civil Services Exams

Taking inputs from toppers, a detailed list of the best UPSC books available in the market as per the latest UPSC syllabus for each subject in Prelims and Mains is prepared by us. Aspirants may click on each link to buy books online at discounted prices.

IAS toppers

Read our UPSC topper’s interviews to know strategies straights from the horse’s mouth.

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Life after IAS Exam Preparation

Life after IAS Exam Preparation

Unknown   7:11 am   No comments:

While it may be the most depressing thought for IAS aspirant, it is very important to have a well-organized backup plan in case your aspiration of cracking the coveted exam doesn’t work out. Statistically speaking, clearing the UPSC civil services examination in general, and selection for IAS in particular is highly unlikely for aspirants. Because of the alarmingly low success probability (generally 0.2%), the IAS exam is listed among the toughest recruitment tests in the world. Of the nearly 3 lakh candidates appearing every year, only top 700/800 make it through the final selection and that also not necessarily as per their service preference. Despite such high odds of success, every year thousands of new aspirants join the race to crack the much-coveted examination.

As many will tell you, IAS Preparation is not a process it is a way of life. After you have either exhausted the number of attempts available or lost the will to compete further, you are left scrambling to piece together a life and career. In such circumstances, many dejected candidates are left to face failure with nothing to fall back upon. While staying positive and confident about your ability to crack the exam holds the key to success, it doesn’t hurt to have an alternative career plan, in case things don’t pan out as per your liking. Below, we shall discuss other career opportunities that IAS aspirants can take up after completing the preparation phase for the coveted exam.

If the main reason for you picking IAS as a career option was to serve your country, then all is not lost for you. Apart from the civil services examination, the central government also conducts a host of other recruitment examinations to hire candidates for mid-level positions within the Indian bureaucracy. These include Indian Forest Service (IFoS), Indian Engineering Service (IES), Assistant Central Intelligence Officer (ACIO) and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). While these remain top choices preferred by IAS aspirants as backup career options, there are many others that are available apart from these four. One of the key advantages of opting for other central government recruitment examinations as an alternative career choice is that the intense preparation and knowledge base will help you crack them quite easily. This along with low competition ratio and higher chances of success makes them a great career option for aspirants after IAS.

While this technically falls within the purview of the first point, we choose to list it separately because of its popularity. The Staff Selection Commission is a government run agency in-charge of recruiting staff for different governmental departments. SSC conducts the exam based recruitment process for Group B posts and all non-technical Group C posts in various ministries/departments of the Government of India. The agency conducts SSC CGL (Combined Graduate Level) Examination to recruit candidates for different desk and field jobs offered by the central government.

1. SSC CGL Desk Jobs: Ministry Assistants, Auditors, Tax Assistants, Accountants and Upper Division Clerks

2. SSC CGL Field Jobs: Tax Inspectors, Examiners, Preventive Officers, Assistant Enforcement Officers, CBI Inspectors, NIA Inspectors, Narcotics Inspector/Sub-inspector

All the jobs offered by the SSC are for junior to middle-level posts in administrative functions of different government departments and ministries. Many IAS aspirants prefer to take up SSC Desk Jobs to supplement their finances while continuing to prepare for civil services exam.

State level Public Service Commission Jobs

In addition to the UPSC, candidates aspiring to join the governmental machinery to make a difference can also look at state level public service commission jobs. While not at par with IAS or other civil services profile, the state PCS proves to be a great alternative for candidates in terms of low competition (mainly due to domicile restrictions) and easy to crack exams. In addition to this, the exam format and even the syllabus more or less remains the same for the civil services exams and state PCS exams. This makes it an ideal alternative for candidates, who are looking to build a respectable career in government sector after IAS. After clearing state PCS exams, candidates can look forward to being appointed at mid to senior level position within the state government’s administrative machinery.

Banking

The banking sector is ideal for candidates, who have either exhausted all the aforementioned options or are no longer interested in joining the mainstream government bureaucracy. Public Sector Banks regularly announce clerical as well as probationary officer level vacancies, for which open recruitment is done through a competitive examination. While still highly competitive in nature, the recruitment exams for Bank Jobs are concentrated on finance, economy, accountancy and general awareness sections along with logical reasoning, numerical ability and reasoning. As an IAS aspirant, you would already be aware of these and would have done extensive training to tackle questions from these sections. Therefore, Banking Jobs are also a viable career choice for candidates after quitting on their IAS dreams.

Teaching

For candidates, who have a deep interest in teaching and helping others understand complex concepts with ease; teaching can be a great alternative career option. If you possess necessary educational qualifications to take up TET / NET and have great grades in your graduation, you would be able to take up teaching as a formal profession in schools or colleges. However, for candidates with an aptitude for teaching, there is another option of teaching in IAS coaching institutes and helping other aspirants realize their dreams of becoming an IAS officer. During your IAS preparation phase, you would already have studied several subjects in detail to add to this the experience of attempting IAS exams multiple times would give you the added advantage when it comes to guiding others towards success. While it may seem like an anticlimax, teaching at an IAS coaching centre could prove to be a very financially rewarding for candidates.

The list given above is very limited and only includes top 5 options preferred by IAS aspirants as alternative career options. But, if we expand the scope there are several career options that are open including business, MBA, private sector jobs and many more; which candidates can opt for after their IAS preparation.

Click here for Motivation during IAS preparation
Click here for IAS Prelims Current Affairs
Click here for UPSC IAS Main Exam 2015 Question Paper

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