At the first outset, I would appreciate your interest and with a little careful planning, success at the fist instant can be achieved in the IAS Examinatin provided you consider the following tips-
1) As soon as you pass out your graduation, time is to be utilised effectively in pondering over the questions set of the last seven years including the optionals for which you would be choosing for your IAS examination. It hardly matters if you select History or Geography despite being a Mech - engineer graduate.
2) Enrol yourself with a premier institution so that you can getter inputs for the clearance of preliminary test. There are some compulsory papers such as essay - writing, comprehension and grammar related portions where you must follow up their instruction to maximise your scorings and at the same time be familiar with the latest developments in our country apart from the international one.
3) Optional papers are to be chosen carefully and such selection of papers of Arts - stream may enhance your rate of score though you may be a science or an engineering graduate. By opting Philosophy or Geography as optional papers, the aspirants have fared better in their IAS examination.
4) On the final round of selection the aspirants have to face the experts of the subjects where the real potentiality of the aspirants are tested, hence aspirants must be honest in their response. One must be good listener and patience should not be lost.
5) Answers for the written portion should be written with their own words without copying the texts of a text - book.
6) if Physics or Mathematics is one of your optional papers, make a sufficient preparation of all the relevant formulaes to be used in course of solving problems and all the formulaes should be entered in a note - book so that it can be revised conveniently a number of times prior appearing for such papers.