FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS(FAQs)

It comes out usually during the first week of December/January every year. The notification is published in Employment News and Rozgar Samachar.

Any graduation degree. It may be regular or distant. The candidate must hold a degree of any of Universities incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section-3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification.

Degrees (graduation) from any of the Universities incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature or University approved by University Grants Commission are alone considered valid and eligible for UPSC Exam.

Yes, physically handicapped candidates belonging to the general category shall be eligible for 7 attempts.

Wrong. This is just another exam. The mother of all exams is Life. You can afford to fail in IAS, but not in Life. So, take IAS preparation as a phase in your Life, not as Life itself.

It is a three stage exam, with only successful candidates eligible to apply in subsequent stages. The first stage is the Preliminary Exam, open for all applicants. Upon clearing this, the successful candidate has to apply again to sit for the Mains Exam. Successful candidates at this stage are called for the Personality Test or Interview. Those passing the Personality Test are the ultimate successful candidates.

Check out the syllabus properly. Decide how much and what you have to study for each topic. Divide the course into subjects and then divide the subjects into small bits. The current syllabus is very topic wise. Decide the relevant books/material you will study for each topic. Then plan the number of days you will finish each topic in. Now divide the material for each topic into days, as in what will you finish on what day. Make daily targets of course and finish those! Make an easy schedule. Do not burden yourself too much. Also, keep a loose schedule so that if you are not able to finish any topic properly, then you have an extra day to run through it. Also keep enough time for revision.

If you are a beginner, then the best place to start should be the article Aspire IAS has already solved your problem by introducing PT Planner, click here to view PT Planner.

Complete booklist for UPSC Exam preparation is given on our website. Click here for complete booklist.

Yes, we offer free online study materials, mock tests, YouTube Videos (Topic wise, Newspaper Analysis) toppers interview etc. in addition to the numerous articles on guidance. Aspire IAS was started with a vision of quality, but affordable online education. Aspire IAS Free Tutorials.

Yes. You can, particularly if you are good at self-study but Aspire IAS classes will make your conceptual base strong and unbeatable in the competition of UPSC Exam. Our institute and teachers are there to help to save your time and effort. It should also be noted that with the advent of technology, guidance and study materials can be sought online. Our website (www.AspireIAS.com) provides free guidance and study materials to lakhs of aspirants who can’t afford classroom coaching. You can also learn and compete with thousands of aspirants across India by attempting Aspire IAS online mock test series with negative marking for UPSC Prelims. Click on the UPSC classes Tab on our home page for details about our courses.

You can start your preparation as long as you can balance things and not lose out on your graduation. But be very clear on balancing! We are not saying you need to ace your graduation exams but you need to do decently so you don’t mess up your future.

Yes. Check the link

UPSC Previous Year Question Papers Prelims Mains.

Maximum number of attempts allowed:
General Category- FOUR (4)
OBC- SEVEN (7)
SC/ST- No restriction

Prelims exam is objective in nature. There will be two papers – 200 marks each. Paper 1 is related to General Studies and Paper 2 is related to Mental Ability and Aptitude. For selection to the Mains exam, only marks of Paper 1 will be counted, provided the candidate has secured 33 percent marks in Paper 2. For detailed structure click here.

The preparation for IAS exam should start in a focused manner at 20 – 21 years of age. This is the time student is able to focus on the goal properly and is in a position to peak at the right time. Starting too early (immediately after school or early graduation) has the likelihood of aspirant tiring during the course of preparation or loosing focus mid-way whereas starting too late has disadvantage in terms of competitive edge of early start. Preferably the preparation should start in a focused manner around 20 years of age. This is the time student is able to focus on the goal properly and is in a position to peak at the right time.

No, Candidates have the option to write all their papers either in English or in any one of the Eighth schedule languages.

UPSC has given a list of around 50 optional subjects to choose from. Click here for detailed article on how to choose optional.

There is an increasing trend that engineering graduates are shifting towards humanities. They preferably take one of the optional from science background. As far as popular trend is concerned large number of engineering students find it comfortable to opt either Geography or Public Administration. Both these optional are having small seep in time and can be comfortably picked up in a short span of time.

It is ok. Everyone gets nervous. That is natural. Don’t worry about getting wrong answers in tests. Just revise those topics more thoroughly. It is better to get wrong answers now than in the exam. And these tests don’t matter. What matters is the final exam. Don’t get demotivated. The point of giving the tests is to become better. If these tests are instead making you nervous then please do not give them! Forget what you scored there! Keep trying till the last moment. You never know what will happen!

Only physically handicapped candidates belonging to SC, ST and OBC categories are eligible for relaxation in number of attempts provided to such categories.

Most of the questions in the General Studies Paper in Prelims and Mains are related to Humanities background. But it is neither necessary nor advisable to take Humanities as your graduation stream just to clear UPSC exam. Graduation should be based on your interest in the subject – it can be Humanities, Science, Engineering, Literature or Management. For graduation, select any stream you like to study for 3-4 years. You are free to choose any optional subject for UPSC Mains and it may not be the one you studied for graduation. Click here for detailed article on how to choose optional.

After the Mains exams, the answer books that are collected from different centers is brought to the UPSC office in New Delhi. The answers books are then first mixed and then reshuffled. After that computerized randomized fictitious code number is given to each answer-book. It is only when this process is over the answer books are sent for evaluation.

NCERTs are the most important books. Without reading NCERT you will never have the basics. Everything else comes after that. NCERTs also are the only truly reliable source. Sometimes there would be conflicting knowledge in different books. At that time, whatever is written in NCERT is the most correct. Also they tell you what topics are important and what topics you need to learn in detail. A lot of the times, questions comes directly from NCERT.

If a candidate’s handwriting is not easily legible, a deduction will be made on this account from the total marks otherwise accruing to him.

How does clearing or not clearing UPSC make you a winner or a loser?? This is just one exam for a particular type of job! So what if you didn’t clear this?? Maybe you are meant to do something else with your life! How can everyone be destined for the same job? If you are really keen on it, then instead of getting depressed and blaming life, try to analyse what exactly it is that you are doing wrong. And be brutally honest with yourself.

Civil Service Mains Application Form (DAF) details are explained by our Director sir Mr. Ankit Kumar in the following video.

Why do you consider other things in your life as distraction? No one can study continuously. And you would hate your studies if that is all you did! You should go out and have a life beside this study! Make time for hobbies and everything else! And specially for friends and family. Just make daily course targets and finish them and do all the other things when you are done with the course! As long as you keep your course on track, please make time for everything else as well!

Not for UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam. But candidates will be allowed the use of Scientific (Non-Programmable type) Calculators at the conventional (Essay) type examination of UPSC, i.e. Mains Exam.

If a candidate opts an Eighth schedule language for the Civil Services (Main) Examination he will have the option to take the interview in same language or in English.

'Tie-breaking' principles are applied to decide inter se merit among candidates having the same overall marks. Candidate securing more marks in the Compulsory Papers and the Personality Test put together is to be ranked higher; In case where the marks mentioned at

• (i) above are equal, the candidate senior in age is to be ranked higher; and
• (ii) In case where the (i) and (ii) above are same, then the candidate getting more marks in the compulsory papers is to be ranked higher.

To kill you? First, kill your ego, not yourself. You took a journey but couldn’t reach the destination. It doesn’t mean the end of your life or the end of the road – start a new phase in your Life from where you are now. What matters in the end is how well you lived your Life, not how many successes you achieved.

The Civil Services is the toughest exams not because of complex study material or syllabus but because the questions are based on the practical and dynamic current events. There are many tough exams in India but the syllabus of those exams is static. As a result it’s not necessary that toppers will get through this one. This means there is a good chance for non-toppers to crack it if they follow current affairs keenly.

After the filling up of the various columns in part I of the online application, the system displays a message whether an applicant desires to change/update any of the information which has been filled in by him and if so, he is required to click on the Update button. In case, changes are to be made this facility may be utilized. Thereafter, no more changes are accepted by the system and in case revised information is to be filled up, an applicant may submit a fresh online application. For part-II of the online application, a candidate must satisfy himself about the quality of the image of the photograph and the signature uploaded by him. After uploading the photograph and the signature a fresh page shows the preview of the uploaded images. If, one is satisfied with the uploaded images he may click on Confirm Upload button. In case one is not satisfied with the uploaded images, he may click on the Reload Photograph or Reload Signature button. The reloaded photograph/ signature can again be viewed by clicking on the Image refresh button. The process can be repeated till satisfaction. After having clicked on the Confirm Upload button, the system will not allow any changes in the photograph/signature.
The candidates may note that in case the quality of photograph/signature is not acceptable/poor, then their application is liable to be rejected by the commission.
In case you have submitted the application form successfully and later on you come to know that you have committed a grave mistake, then you should resubmit your application afresh duly correcting the errors/omissions/mistakes/quality of photo or sign. However in this case you will have to make the requisite fee payment again and upload the Part-II information again with new RID allotted to you at the resubmission of Part-I information.

Both are acceptable as long as they are as per the given specifications and quality of photograph is good enough to be identifiable and acceptable.

The candidate should scan his/her signature which has been put on white paper with black ink pen. Each of the scanned images of the photograph/signature should not exceed 300 KB maximum and 20 KB minimum in size (for photograph, the pixel size is 350 pixels (Width) X 350 pixels (Height) minimum and 1000 pixels (Width) X 1000 pixels (Height) maximum and for signature it should be 350 pixels (Width) X 350 pixels (Height) minimum and 1000 pixels (Width) X 1000 pixels (Height) maximum and also to be ensured that the uploaded photograph/signature are proper.

Wrong. Most of those who qualify the civil service exams are no longer from Delhi. They come from even the remotest corners of India. It all depends upon how disciplined and focused you are in your studies.

For those who are not able to crack the exam in any of their attempts, it is their wrong decision. Please keep in mind that the UPSC expects to take the best of the talent not everyone. So, even if someone is highly committed, sincere, honest etc., UPSC might still won’t take him. One has to be really good at assessing himself, and improve. Anyways, for those who get it more than once, it’s easy, they know they can do it, they are ready to improve and learn, they are ready to invest time and efforts, they have a plan and they approach it with utmost commitment.

No. You are still part of the race. Now you have figured out the problem – that you’re English is poor. Work on it. All you need is basic English. Moreover, you can write this exam and give the interview in your mother-tongue. Buy a basic Grammar book – read it, listen to English news on TV and radio, try to write something in English, everyday (don’t worry if it is very bad, keep trying) Necessity should push you to learn. Push yourself. Win the race.

Note this. Leo Tolstoy writes in Anna Karenina “If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.” Also someone said, “Perfection is the child of time”. When you scout too many sources to make that perfect notes, you end up both loosing invaluable time and discontented. Managing time during the preparation is the most important aspect of this examination. Read one or two books for a topic. Re-read the same book ten times even if you see 10 different books on the same topic.

The successful submission of the online application requires the completion of two parts of the application correctly. After completing the part-I of the application the system generates a unique number which is known as the Registration ID (RID). After the completion of all the columns in part-II, a fresh page displays the message that the application has been submitted successfully. The generation of the unique registration ID number combined with the display of this message indicates that the application has been registered.

No, wrong. UPSC strictly adheres to the syllabus. Though sometimes it seems like question are asked from outside of the syllabus, they are actually in some ways related to it.

For example, if there is a question like this, ‘Opportunity on Mars’, one should not get bedazzled why UPSC is asking questions from ET source and start answering like, ‘If Nuclear war takes place and the Earth is destroyed, the opportunities on Mars are immense for the Humankind…...’

Opportunity is the name of a Robot that was sent to mars in 2003. Awareness on Robotics and Space is part of the UPSC syllabus (GS Paper 3).

FIR is not hindrance for any candidate to write UPSC Exam. After the final selection, UPSC makes police verification about the candidate. Those clearing the verification alone will be selected. So the candidate must ensure the police case against him closed/ acquitted.

Honestly, some guidance would help learn from their experiences in a quicker way. But there need be no regrets. Being poor is disadvantageous only in its financial aspects. Rest assured, you have all the chances of making it to the merit list, just like anyone else. To make your study cost effective you can join our qualitative yet cost effective courses by

HThese relate to the moral behavior of a person, a civil servant in the examination’s perspective, and they are essential for the working of all the civil servants. Ethics in work, in governance, in politics is the prime topic of discussion and controversy in the country at the moment. Integrity is in peril with many scams and corrupt practices. The need of the hour is a bunch of young, honest and efficient men who has the right aptitude to deliver. Such ideas are all to be tested through the recently added GS paper.