Introduction to civil services exam will give an idea to the aspirants to prepare for this exam.

1. INTRODUCTION TO CIVIL SERVICES EXAM
Dr.N.Ramakrishnan
Co-ordinator
Centre For Civil Serivces & TNPSC Coaching
Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University
Chennai-60097

2. WELCOMES YOU ALL

3. Name of the Examination Civil Services Exam (UPSC CSE)
Exam Level All India / National Level
Conducting Body Union Public Service Commission
Exam mode Offline / Pen and paper mode
Number of vacancies Yet to be declared
Eligibility The Civil Services Age Limit for Indian Citizens is
between 21 – 32 years.
Number of attempts 6 attempts are allowed for General Category
aspirants in UPSC Civil Services
Civil Service Exam Date 2020 UPSC CSE Prelims – May 31st, 2020

4. ALL INDIA SERVICES
(i) Indian Administrative Services (IAS)
(ii) Indian Forest Services (IFoS)
(iii) Indian Police Services (IPS)
Civil Service Exam Posts:
The civil services exam posts are categorized into two categories:
Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’.
Group ‘A’ services include three All India Services
(the IAS, IPS and the IFS)
and 18 other services as indicated in the table below.

5. GROUP ‘A’ SERVICES
(i) Indian Foreign Service (IFS)
(ii) Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Service
(iii) Indian Audit and Accounts Service
(iv) Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise)
(v) Indian Defence Accounts Service
(vi) Indian Revenue Service (I.T.)
(vii) Indian Ordnance Factories Service (Assistant Works Manager, Administration)
(viii) Indian Postal Service
(ix) Indian Civil Accounts Service
(x) Indian Railway Traffic Service
(xi) Indian Railway Accounts Service
(xii) Indian Railway Personnel Service
(xiii) Post of Assistant Security Commissioner in Railway Protection Force
(xiv) Indian Defence Estates Service
(xv) Indian Information Service (Junior Grade)
(xvi) Indian Trade Service
(xvii) Indian Corporate Law Service
(xviii) Indian Revenue Service (CBEC)

6. GROUP ‘B’ SERVICES
(i) Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service (Section Officer’s Grade)
(ii) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and
Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Service
(iii) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and
Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Service
(iv) Pondicherry Civil Service
(v) Pondicherry Police Service

8. Civil Services Exam Pattern 2020
Prelims Exam:
Prelims is the first stage of the Civil Services Exam process. It is a screening
test to select the students for the further selection process. Prelims exam
comprises of two objective type papers of 200 marks each. Only those who
manage to score more than the cut off declared by the UPSC for that particular
year will be summoned for the next level of examination. However, the marks
scored in Prelims will not be counted for arriving at the final merit list.

9. UPSC Prelims 2020 – Exam Pattern
The UPSC Prelims comprises of two objective type papers (General
Studies I and General Studies II or CSAT) for a total of 400 marks.
Both papers are usually held on the same day in two sessions via
offline mode (pen-paper).
The Prelims Admit Card would be released on the official website
of UPSC 2-3 weeks before the date of the exam.

10. UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern General
Studies I
General
Studies II or
CSAT
Number of questions 100 80
Negative Marking Yes (1/3rd of
the maximum
marks for the
question)
-0.66 marks for
every incorrect
answer
Yes (1/3rd of
the maximum
marks for the
question)
-0.83 marks for
every incorrect
answer
Duration of exam 2 hours 2 hours
UPSC Prelims 2020 Date of exam May 31, 2020 May 31, 2020
Language of exam English/Hindi English/Hindi
Maximum marks 200 200
Cut Off marks Counted for
Merit. Cutoff
varies every
year.
33% qualifying
criteria (66
marks)
The UPSC Prelims cut off 2018 was 98 marks for General Category aspirants
in GS 1.

11. UPSC Prelims 2020 – Syllabus
The detailed UPSC Prelims syllabus for 2020 Exam is given below:
General Studies Paper-1 Syllabus:
• 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, Biodiversity and Climate
Change- that do not require subject specialization.
• General Science.

12. General Studies Paper-2 (CSAT) Syllabus:
• 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).
• English language comprehension skills – Class X level.

14. Subject Number of questions
History 17
Economy 14
Polity 15
Environment & Ecology 11
Geography 14
Science & Technology 7
Current Affairs 22
Total 100
UPSC Prelims – Trend Analysis
UPSC has established itself to be predictably unpredictable.
So, candidates should only see the trends as a reference and
not draw too much inference. In the table given below, we
have broken down the UPSC Prelims 2019
GS 1 paper:

15. Mains Exam:
Mains Exam is the second level in the Civil Services Selection
Process. Mains exam comprises 9 descriptive type papers:
1 Essay paper,
4 General Studies Papers,
2 Optional Papers (of your choice to be selected from the Civil
Services Exam Optional Subjects),
2 language papers (marks scored in language papers will not be
included to arrive at the final ranking order – however, candidates
need to score at least 25% in each paper in order to qualify).

16. Civil Services Exam Pattern For Mains
Papers Subjects Marks
Paper A One of the Indian languages (listed in the Eighth Schedule to
the Constitution of India) mentioned below to be selected by
the candidate (Qualifying)
300
Paper B English (Qualifying) 300
Paper I Essay 250
Paper II General Studies I (Indian heritage and culture, history and
geography of the world and society)
250
Paper III General Studies II (Governance, constitution, polity, social
justice and international relations)
250
Paper IV General Studies III (Technology, economic development,
biodiversity, environment, security and disaster
management)
250
Paper V General Studies IV(ethics, integrity and aptitude) 250
Papers VI,
VII
Two papers on subjects to be selected by the candidate from
the list of optional subjects below (250 marks for each paper)
250
Sub Total (Written Test) 1750
Personality Test (Interview) 275
Total Marks 2025

17. Interview:
Personality test, commonly known as the interview is the final
round in the Civil Services Exam selection process. It is the gateway to
your dream service. Only those candidates who manage to clear the
mains exam cutoff are allowed to attend the interview. Purpose of the
interview is to assess the suitability of the candidate to the Civil
Services. At this stage, the candidates are tested for their mental
alertness, the balance of judgement, intellectual and moral integrity, etc
out of 275 marks. Marks scored by the candidate in the interview will
be added to the marks scored by him/her in the mains exam for
arriving at the final merit list.

18. Dr. N.Ramakrishnan
Co-ordinator
Centre foe Civil Services&TNPSC Coaching
Member Syndicate
Prof.& Head
Dept. of Educationl Technology
Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University
Chennai