How to crack the Civil Service Examinations in India?
Civil Service Examinations conducted by Union Public Service Commission is the toughest examination, it needs a systematic and discipline preparation to crack the examination. The UPSC has changed the structure of the preliminary examination by introducing Aptitude test.
The toughest examination in India to crack is Civil Service Examinations conducted by Union Public Service Commission or UPSC.
This year over two lakh candidates are getting ready to take up the examination and approximately 800 positions are to be filled. The Civil Service Examination will take nine months comprising of over 20 subjects out of which one needs to have mastery in at least nine subjects and the subjects varies from Tamil language to Geology which seems to be most grueling one.
The authority of the examination UPSC have made certain changes to what it was till last year. For the preliminary examination of Civil Service Examinations, this year UPSC has introduced an Aptitude paper as it is widely appreciated by the aspiring as well as previous toppers in the Civil Service Examinations as the introduction of Aptitude paper is an useful and a progressive attempt, the previous system of scaling which is used to bring the parity between the subjects and secondly the newly introduced system does not require mugging up as it was to be done till last year.The present number of applicants for Civil Service Examination
This time the test takers are more compared to previous years as the change in the preliminary system of introducing Aptitude paper in place of Optional paper is the main reason, whereas the number of attempts is remained same as four attempts for general candidates, where as the repeaters are less and it is estimated that it will be around half of the applications received till the last year.
The main reason for the downsize in the number of applications received, those who have already appeared once or twice have decided to skip this year to understand the concept and methodology of the newly introduced Aptitude paper, as the measure of skipping this year may help them to overcome the difficulty of taking a risk of one more attempt.
Applicants to Post Ratio or APR
In the year 2008 the total numbers of aspirants or posts were 369 where it was 455 in the year 2007. In the year 2008 out of 5,366 tertiary degree candidates appeared only 346 has been recommended hence the success rate was approximately 6.4%, out of total tertiary degrees Humanities took the major share of 3,943 out of which 240 were recommended and it was 6.1% share, next discipline was Science and candidates from this discipline were 1,182 out of which 76 were recommended and the success rate was 6.4%, next is Medical Science out of 66 appeared only 7 recommended and success rate was 10.6% and lastly from Engineering discipline it was 175 appeared and 23 recommended and this discipline stands tall in success ratio with 13.1%.What basic qualification required to appear for Civil Service Examinations?
The figures till last year have indicated that the probability of selection goes with those with having degree, as the candidates with professional degrees have varied choices, hence the attempts in the Civil Service Examination is much more relatively focused and driven.
With the introduction of the new system i.e., Aptitude tests as the candidates from engineering stream are more capable to face the questions on analytical and quantitative system, as this new system makes candidates from humanity stream have to increase their efforts if they are to be competitive, but overall it is expected that the candidates from humanity stream may be marginalized this time.Number of attempts by candidates in the Civil Service Examinations
The introduction of Aptitude tests has put everybody to expect a dramatic change, as the number of candidates who were successful in their first attempt may come down this time as the very reason for lowing down is the introduction of the new system and most of the candidates are not aware of the difficulties and even those who appeared for the fourth time may also skip this time as they are not ready to risk an attempt due to the introduction of the new system as they are unaware of the level of the difficulty.Location factor for Civil Service Examinations
With the introduction of new pattern the location factor is not considered as a decisive factor, as few institutions of local fame have already traditionally geared up to train the candidates, but the latest introduction of the new system insists candidates to have proficiency in English and for success this may become a crucial factor, as in the initial stages two factors i.e., medium of study and also location will play a vital part in the success, to overcome this many candidates who have come from vernacular medium of instructions have joined JNU campus as this process may help them to overcome linguistic barrier up to certain extent.Test pattern for Civil Service Examinations
The prevailing examination pattern has been already modified by the UPSC. Till last year i.e., 2010 there was only one general studies paper and one optional paper, the optional paper had twice the marks than the general studies and few subjects got more popularity due to high scoring methodology, now the system have uniform marking scheme.
The present preliminary examination comprising of two papers they are Paper-I es on general studies and it have the same syllabus and in addition to that inclusion of general issues on environment, biodiversity, ecology and climatic change, as these subjects required a general concentration than the expert level knowledge, but the papers were set by UPSC in a masterly way which needs an understanding of the issues in an sophisticated way.
Where as Paper-II of which for two hours duration comprising of comprehension, communications skills which comes along with interpersonal skills, logical reasoning with analytical ability specifically non-verbal, and decision making, general mental ability, numbers and their relations as basic numeracy, order of magnitude, data interpretation levels comprising of graphs, charts, data sufficiency and tables which is of Class X level and lastly language of English which is also on Class X level on comprehensive skills.
In all the total syllabus can be classified in to analytical, verbal ability and quantitative aptitude. To get a high score candidates required to compete in each and every domain of subjects with a systematic manner, as the types of questions to be appeared for this year is yet to be informed to the candidates.
Hence to overcome this problem candidates can test and examine the papers which are set for Combined Defence Service Examination which is also conducted by UPSC.
The time is just over hundred days to go, the strategic preparation requires to be done by the candidates, the ideal way to get prepared is to practice the practice papers everyday as Paper-I requires more time because of its heavy information which consumes more time of aspiring candidates.Conclusion
Analyze the work done on everyday basis, point out the weak points, lay more stress on such weak points, no time to relax as the time is short.