What Does It Take To Become An IAS Officer?

By Alxa Robin


Individual those are more career oriented always look for a reputed job and they struggle and work hard for it to achieve their respective dream. In India, there are lakhs of people running behind the dream of becoming an IAS, IFS and IRS and so on. IAS or the Civil Service examination continues to be the most looked up career choice by the individuals in India. However you need to know what is needed to become an IAS officer.

The examination of the Civil Service comprise of two very important stages, the Preliminary stage and the Mains Stage. The civil preliminary examination has objective type questions which are conducted for the selection of the candidates for the Main exams. The Civil services mains examination includes the written examination, which is then followed by the personality interview for the selection of the candidates for various posts.

For general information, the prelims examination consists of two papers, which have multiple choice questions and have maximum marks of 400. The exams consists of two compulsory question papers each concerning of 200 marks, the question papers are available both in English and in Hindi. In case the question paper is meant to test your English skills, then the passage in the question will be in English only without providing you with any Hindi translation. The duration for each of the paper is for two hours; however candidates with physical disability are given twenty minutes extra time for each paper.

You have to develop your knowledge about current affairs and general studies, so make sure you start reading newspaper, get your notes made about the news from the newspaper. By a book for the syllabus that gives you all the information about the exams, the subjects and also what you need to study in order to pass the examination.

You have to plan accordingly once you have made the decision of appearing for the civil service examination, firstly you will have to choose the optional subjects for the prelims and you can choose the second subject later on. The first decision you have to make is to choose which subject are you going to choose as the first optional.

You must also know what is needed to apply for the test too. In order to apply for the exam you will have to use the online portal, there is no other mode of submitting your application. You can get to the official UPSC website and follow the instructions given up there to fill your application. Also you will be provided with an e admit card and no admission call letter shall be sent you through posts.

Once you have cleared the CSAT, you must not stop and continue with the preparation as the upcoming months are going to be tougher than the current level, so no break must be taken. The next few months where you prepare for the Mains Exam is more important than the months before the CSAT exams, so you study must continue in a flow. After you have had the mains examination, you must keep preparing for the interview.

Candidates that have professional or technical qualifications recognized by the government as equivalent as the degrees are eligible for the exams too. You must also ensure that you are mentally ready for the attempts to crack the civil service exams, it is tough to crack in the first round itself and even though you qualify you can look to achieve better ranking to improve your service allotment.




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