How to start preparation for UPSC examination during graduation period?

You should start preparing your subjects for UPSC while persuing your degree course. However, it is not necessary to choose the optional papers in the stream you are persuing rather it would depend upon your choice for which you have passion and inclination. Even Philsophy, History and Economics could be your optional papers though persuing your Mechanical Engineering course at your degree stage. I am noting down a few guidelines to be followed while persuing for UPSC examination. The points are noted below -
1) You must be proficient enough in your spoken and written English since the Interview - board would judge your capability of your expression during the process of Interview and how smoothly you are reprinting your facts. Apart from you should be well versed in the written English with the compliance of rules of grammar, syntax, structure of sentences and have sufficient vocabularies to express the feelings at ease in the English paper which is treated as one of compulsory papers. You will have to take up some specialised training with some professional institutes in this line.
2) Remain in touch with the developments of external and internal happenings so that you should not be blank while such topics are raised or you are asked for your comment in this regard before the panels of Interview.
3) In respect of preparation of your optional papers, you need to choose such papers which would help you in scoring marks and less time consumption. Hence regardless of your streams, Philosophy, Sanskrit, Geography may be your subjects. Choosing Physics, Pure Mathematics and Chemistry would demand a lot of times though these subjects may fetch full marks if attempted correctly.
4) You should enroll yourself in a reputed professional institute such as Rao Study Circle, T.I.M. E etc so that you may get valuable tips with respect to your preparation of papers.
5) Make your own notes including all necessary formulaes, its derivations and its applications while solving the problems in Physics, Pure Mathematics and Applied Mathematics.
6) A stress free life - style including simple but nutritive diet followed by sufficient rest would enhance your concentration in your studies.
7) You may attend a Group - discussion class where your skill in the presentation of facts would improve considerably.
While preparing for the examination, no negative emotion should set in since you have to clear both the current degree examination apart from the most prestigious IAS examination.

The Civil service examination is the toughest examination which one has to qualify for the IAS and PAS etc posts. The details asked for are given below.

The Civil Services Examination is a competitive examination. This test will be conducted every year by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The persons qualified in this examination will be appointed in various Civil Services for the government of India. Around 24 services are covered by this examination. IAS, IFS, IPS and IRS are among those 24 services.

Every year around five lakh people will be attending this examination and this is considered to be a very difficult teat to pass.

There are three stages in this examination.

1.Preliminary: First this examination will be conducted. This test aims to screen the candidates for mains.
2. Mains: People who are qualified in preliminaries can attend this examination. This test will be conducted to select people for interview.
3. Interview: Personal test and this is the final stage for this selection process.

You have to apply for this test online. There is no chance for you to apply offline and send the physical copy. You have to apply Online by using the website http://www.upsconline.nic.in. The last date and time will be announced in the announcement. You will receive your E hall ticket at least 20 days before the date of examination. You have to download the same from the above site. No copy will be sent by post. There is no necessity of uploading any certificate when you apply for the examination. Anyhow all your certificates will be verified during mains examination. In-service candidates should send their application after getting permission from their present employer. You should be careful in giving the facts. If any wrong declaration is found you will be disqualified even after completing the interview also. All graduates are eligible to appear for this examination. Final year students can also apply but they should submit their qualification certificate at the time of final examination. The age limit is Minimum 21 years and maximum of 32 years as on 1st August of the year you are applying for the examination. The maximum age limit will be more for SC/ST/OBC candidates. For correct age limits, they can visit the website mentioned above. A general category candidate can appear for this examination maximum of 6 times before he attains 32 years maximum limit of age.

In Preliminary examination, there will be two compulsory papers. Each paper will be of 200 marks each. All question will be multiple-choice questions. The examination will offline and two papers will be om the same day. This test is only for qualifying and the marks obtained will not be counted for final selection. Paper 2 will be on general aptitude and one has to get a minimum 33 marks. The rank will be given based on the Paper 1 marks.

There will be a total of 9 papers in the final examination. One paper is on one of the official languages like Telugu which can be opted by you and the second one will be the English Language. Each paper will be for a maximum of 300 marks. These two papers are only qualifying nature and the marks obtained will not be counted in the final selection process.
The remaining 7 papers will be as follows.
Paper 1: Essay 250 marks.
Paper 2: General studies, 250 marks. Subjects covered will be Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society
Paper 3: General studies, 250 marks Subjects covered will be Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Paper4: General Studies, 250 Marks. Subjects covered are Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management.
Paper 5: General Studies, 250 Marks. Subjects covered are Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude.
Paper 6: Optional Subject 250 Marks
Paper 7: Optional Subject 250 Marks

The options can be selected from the list given below
Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry. Civil Engineering, Commerce, Economics. Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, Indian History, Law, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Philosophy Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Public Administration Statistics, Zoology, Anthropology, Assamese, Bengali, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi.Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santalo, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Management.
The syllabus will be of masters-level and you can obtain the detailed syllabus from the official website. You have to face an interview also which will be valued for 250 marks and based on your performance in finals as well as in an interview you will be selected.

You can concentrate on your studies and spare some time for preparation for this examination. You have to select to optional from the above list and you have to prepare well for the subject. In your graduation, you can concentrate on general knowledge, logical thinking, general awareness and other datils. Decide on the optional subjects and concentrate on those subjects also. Try to see old preliminary and mains papers and start answering them. Try to get admission in a good coaching centre and start English learning and other related subjects.

The Civil Services Exam is the most coveted nationwide competitive examination for various all India services like Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Revenue Service (IRS). UPSC conducts it every year and there is a preliminary exam after which only the candidates are shortlisted for the mains one. There are a good number of posts (around 800 to 900) advertised in these but also a large number of students or candidates (about 2 to 3 lakhs) appear for it.

Frankly speaking, the preparations for this type of exams are to be started from the early age when one is in class IX or X. Parents and the teachers have to guide the student from that stage itself if they find that the student has a potential to qualify in tough competitive exams. A strong base helps in getting through these exams more easily rather than doing last minute attempts. The students who are having a reading habit and are having interest in general knowledge and current affairs and also have inculcated a habit of scanning the newspaper in the morning or any suitable hour of the day get a basic awareness of things and need not to cram the small details for getting score in the competitive exams especially the civil services. One thing which is very important and is to be understood is that when a person prepares for such a big target and does a thorough study then he automatically becomes eligible for all other competitive exams which are also important for job point of view but are lower in status than the civil services. What I want to emphasise is that the hard work done for the civil services entrance exam will not go waste and will also be equally useful in other exams in case the candidate is not able to compete in the civil services because of cut throat competition.

The age eligibility is 21 to 32 years and a maximum of 6 attempts are given to the candidates to try to get through this entrance exam. The Civil Service Exam is conducted in three phases -
1. Civil Services Exam (Preliminary) – Objective Type.
2. Civil Services Exam (Main) – Descriptive Type.
3. Personality Test / Interview.
The above process is completed almost in a year time and the preliminary exams are held sometime in June and the mains is held sometimes in September/ October of every year followed by the interview by February/ March next year. The selected candidates undergo a specialised training and then posted to their positions.

In the prelim exam a mixed question paper containing objective questions of varied types are given to test the basic learnings of the candidates and to shortlist the candidate for mains exam. It comprises of two parts one is General Studies and other is Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT). The only purpose of this preliminary exam is to shortlist for the mains exam and the scores obtained in this has no further significance. The mains exam is the most important and there are 2 language papers one for English and other any Indian language. This is an important thing to note that one has to qualify in them and score at least 25% but the scores will not be added for ranking. Then there are 5 papers on Essay, General Studies I (Indian heritage and culture, history and geography of the world and society), General Studies II (Governance, constitution, polity, social justice and international relations), General Studies III (Technology, economic development, biodiversity, environment, security and disaster management) and General Studies IV(ethics, integrity and aptitude). In addition to this there are 2 papers which the candidate has to select from the list of the subjects comprising of science, humanities, engineering, commerce, agriculture and many more.

Please note that there is no short cut to the success and it requires a thorough hard work with determination and focussed approach especially when the target is a difficult one. One should have a dedicated and motivated mind for preparing for such a high level competitive exam and certainly a good life style coupled with a healthy mind can do a lot of good work in making attempts for such a coveted position. Will power and concentration have a great role in such situation and distraction of any kind is to be avoided. The last thing is learning has no limit and one should not be satisfied with a limited study or limited learning. There should be a continuous yearning for learning and remember there is nothing easy or nothing tough in this world and it is only how much we can endeavour that matters. If there is a will there is a way. The people getting qualified are just like you only. It is only their focussed approach and hard work that they got there.

All the best.

For preparation for UPSC examination during graduation period is not very difficult and neither it is late. I think it is the right time you should start preparation. You have to do a very hard work. You will have to prepare a strategy for study and cover all topics.

It is one of the difficult exams in the country. This examination is conducted by Union Public Service Commission every year. Through this exam recruitment has been done for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Revenue Service (IRS), etc.

Minimum Age for Civil Services Exam is 21 year. Maximum Age limit has been set 32 years for general category, 35 years for OBC and 37 years for SC and ST.
To take the UPSC exam, candidate should have a bachelor's degree from a recognized university.
Preparation for UPSC examination is very difficult and requires rigorous preparation. You will have to be very serious and devote your time in study. First you should try to cover all the topics for prelim exam and focus on main exam subjects and optional subjects.


The Civil Services Examination is conducted in three phases:
1. Phase 1: Civil Services Examination (Prelims) -objective exam
2. Phase 2: Civil Services Examination (Mains)- descriptive exam
3. Phase 3: Personal Interview for Personality Test
Phase 1: Preliminary Exam:
It includes two compulsory papers of objective type and Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) are asked in both these papers. They are having 200 marks each. Duration of these papers is 2 hours. Syllabus for prelims paper are as follows:
1. General Studies (Paper 1): MCQs asked based on the following topics: Current events of national and international importance; History of India and Indian National Movement; Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World;Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.; Economic and Social Development Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.; General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity, and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization; General Science.
2. Aptitude Test (Paper 2): in this paper Questions asked on these topics: Comprehension, Interpersonal skills including communication skills, Logical reasoning and analytical ability, Decision-making and problem-solving, General mental ability, Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level).

Phase 2: Second Phase/ Main Exam :
It is descriptive in nature and requires deep knowledge of the subjects. It includes 9 papers. Out of these 9 papers, 7 are considered for final ranking. These 7 papers are of 250 marks each.
1. Paper 1: Essay
2. Paper 2: General Studies 1 includes Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society
3. Paper 3: General Studies 2 includes Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations
4. Paper 4: General Studies 3 includes Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
5. Paper 5: General Studies 4 includes Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude
6. Paper 6: Optional Subject – Paper 1. Candidates may choose any one optional subject. Subjects are : History, Geography, Economics, Sociology, Public Administration, Philosophy, Psychology, Political Science, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Anthropology, Botany, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Commerce, Electrical Engineering, Geology, Law, Mathematics, Management, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Physics, Statistics, Zoology
7. Paper 7: Optional Subject – Paper 2. Candidates may choose any one optional subject from the given subjects: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.

Phase 3: Personal Interview for Personality Test

Tips for interview:
1. Don't waste time and start preparation.
2. Develop self confidence and positive attitude
3. Improve communication skills
4. Focus on current affairs and read new papers daily.
5. You can also join a good coaching centre for guidance
6. Take mock test daily.
7. Read your graduation books and revise optional subjects regularly.
8. Watch IAS interviews videos available on youtube.

You can watch these videos for motivation.
https://youtu.be/m6vjXNohX_w
https://youtu.be/S66ebPR8h5E
You should also watch channels run by loksabha TV, Rajya sabha TV, egyankosh IGNOU and Press Information Bureau.

However, it is very difficult to crack an UPSC exam but hard work and positive attitude can make a success.