Preparation strategies for Civil Services

By Gopala Krishna Director, Braintree Academy, Hyderabad Civil services under the government can be classified into All India Services, Central services and State services. While the IAS and the IPS are the All India Services, the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), The Indian Railway Services etc. are services under the Central government. The State government(s) also has their own Administrative services. Entry into the All India Services and the Central Services (approximately 23 services) is through an annual combined competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. The basic qualification to appear for the examination relate to age and education. An aspirant has to be at least 21 years old when he is attempting the examination and has to be a graduate (any discipline). Students who have appeared for the final year examination are also eligible to apply. Scheme of examination:  The examination consists of two stages - i.e., the Preliminary examination and the Main examination (which consists of written papers and the interview). The Preliminary examination is an objective type examination. Candidates have to appear two papers i.e., one optional and one General Studies paper. The optional accounts for 300 marks and the General Studies accounts for 150 marks. Both the papers will be held on the same day usually the second Sunday of May every year. The General Studies paper has questions from a wide range of areas: They are: 1.General Science 2. Geography 3. Indian Polity 4.Indian Economy 5.History of India 6. Freedom struggle 7. Current Events 8. Mental Ability. Candidates who qualify the preliminary have to appear at the Main examination which consists of General Essay, General Studies and two optional. It is a conventional Essay type paper. Candidates who qualify for this examination have to appear for an Interview. The marks scored in the Main examination and the Interview are added to determine the final merit list. Beginning the journey:  When does one begin preparation for the Civil Services Examination? Most of the toppers, when confronted with the question "Why did you want to join the Civil Services?" reply saying that it was a childhood dream. Does it mean that they started their preparation since childhood? No one starts their preparation from childhood. However, there have been many aspirants who have succeeded in the first attempt having started their preparation earlier than the others. How early is early? Logically, the first year of graduation would be the most appropriate juncture to start your preparation. Having settled down in graduation i.e., in your chosen branch of Engineering, one can prepare a long-term plan for the civil services. How does one prepare a long term plan? Planning for the Civil Services examination requires knowledge about the method of examination. Plan for preparation:  Briefly, an aspirant has to prepare for two optionals, a General Studies paper and a General Essay paper. Let us start with the plan for the optional. Can you choose the subjects in which you are graduating as the optional for the Civil Services examination? Ideally, yes. The Civil Services examination has been designed on the principle of transferability of academic talent to administration. Therefore, you will find that most of the Engineering subjects (except Electronics) are available in the list of optionals prescribed by UPSC. However, practically it may not be possible to choose both the optionals from the subjects of graduation. If we notice the optionals of the toppers, we will find that they either had entirely different optionals or one optional which they have done in graduation and the other an entirely new one. Keeping this as the 'success mantra' (as it has been proved by the results) we can start our preparation with the first optional i.e., your specialization in Engineering. Start with your specialization in engineering i.e., Civil, Mechanical, Electrical etc. Having identified the subject, you can follow the steps given below to prepare a fool - proof plan: Procure the UPSC syllabus for the subject of your choice. Compare the syllabus with the syllabus prescribed for you in your graduation. You will find that almost 80% of the syllabus will be the same. Identify which areas of the syllabus are being covered in your first year, second year, third year and so on. Coincide your preparation of those areas with your class. If a particular topic being taught to you in the class which forms a foundation for your subject is also present in the UPSC syllabus, you should prepare for the topic thoroughly. First, cover the topic from the prescribed texts for graduation. Inform your lecturer about your intention to appear for the Civil Services examination with the same subject. Ask your lecturer for further additional references. Check whether these references are available in your college library. Most of them are. Go through these books and make your own notes. These notes should be made along with the notes that you make for your graduation examination. Having made the notes, ask your lecturer whether they are correct and are also relevant for your graduation. In case they are relevant then you can incorporate them in your notes for the graduation examination. Otherwise, store them along with your class notes. Procure the previous question papers of the UPSC (both Preliminary and Main) in the subject. Check whether you are in a position to answer them. At the first glance, you may feel that you are able to answer most of the questions. Give more importance to the questions which have appeared in the Mains. This is because; usually the Mains syllabus covers the Preliminary areas also. Again, the Mains being descriptive, answering the Mains questions will equip you for the Preliminary multiple choice questions. Having written the answers, request your lecturers to correct your answer scripts. Focus on the areas where you require improvement. Follow the same method in all the subsequent years of your graduation. In this way, you can easily complete one optional for the Civil Services examination. Apart from completing your preparation you will also notice that your scores in graduation will improve dramatically. Keep continuing this exercise throughout your graduation. However, ensure that it does not interfere with your preparation in graduation. Having completed your first optional, you can focus on your second optional, the General Studies and General Essay at the appropriate juncture and successfully appear for the examination along with your final year.