Hi Kanwaljeet, Begin your IAS preparations thinking that you have already cleared your Prelims. It puts you in a better situation mentally, as the pressure of the Civil can be huge! We recommend that you start your preparation at least 18 months before the Mains exam. So from February/ March of the previous year, start with the optional papers and wrap it up in about 6 months. Then about a year before the Main exams, start preparing for GS (both for Mains and Prelims), the General Essay paper and Prelims optional preparation and continue till 6 months before the Prelims.

At 6 months before the Prelims, slow down your GS for Mains and General Essay paper and continue with the GS Prelims and Optional Prelims preparation. Write the Prelims and continue with your Mains preparation in full swing for GS, General Essay and Optional. Whatever might be the Prelims result, keep preparing this way till the Mains time. And the cycle continues.

Once you clear the Mains, you need to start preparing for the difficult Interview. Concentrate mainly on GS and OLQ (Officer Like Qualities) – read published interviews of successful candidates to understand the behaviour and pattern. Besides this, keep yourself updated with the latest happenings, the controversial ones for sure! It can give you a chance to steer the interview your way. It is a tough job, even if you don’t perform well in the interview; don’t lose heart, ultimately only your total score matters. Plus, for anybody who has performed well in the Prelims and Mains, it is very tough to foul it up! And on that note, all I will say is that you should keep up your winning stride and you will realise that it is a cake walk!

More on Civil Service Exams

Civil Service Exams are conducted in 3 parts - Preliminary, Mains & Interview.

You can choose from a range of subjects for your Prelims - Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Vetinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Civil or Electronic or Mechanical Engineering, Commerce, Economics, Geography, Indian History, Geology, Law, Mathematics, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Public Administration, Sociology, Statistics & Zoology.

If you clear the Prelims, you will be eligible for the Mains and the subjects you can choose from include:
•    Paper I - One of the Indian Languages to be selected by the candidate from the 18 languages included in the VIIIth Schedule to the Constitution (Qualifying Paper) – 300 marks
•    Paper II - English (Qualifying Paper) – 300 marks
•    Paper III – Essay – 200 marks
•    Paper IV & V - General Studies (300 Marks for each paper)
•    Paper VI, VII, VIII & IX - Any two subjects (each having 2 papers) to be selected from the prescribed optional subjects (300 marks for each paper)

Literature subjects include: Arabic, Assamese, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Marathi, Malayalam, Manipuri, Nepali, Oriya, Pali, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telegu & Urdu.

For your benefit, here is a free sample test paper for the IAS exam. We advise you to take the test only when you are prepared because you can take it only once. You will get the result in your inbox. Also take a look into the career of an IAS officer and IPS officer.

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