Hello Aspirant,

Thanks for writing to us. We will be pleased to answer you. It looks great to see you thinking to be in ICS. Your interest can be channelized if you follow the right path. So instead of wasting time, let's get into the answer straightway:-

• INTRODUCTION:

ICS is a dream career for many young aspirants like you. It is the highest administrative post among other 24 government services like IPS, IFS. Every year approximately more than 8 Lakh students sit for the examination. Vacancies are near about 900. Before going into the main matter, it's important to take note of a few basics yet important things:

EXAM LEVEL National

CONDUCTING BODY Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)

EXAM TYPE Pen and Paper Based(Offline)

NUMBER OF ATTEMPTs 6 ATTEMPTS(FOR GENERAL)

• IMPORTANT DATES:
• Online Application Form                  19th Feb to 18th March
• Preliminary Admit Card                    4th week of May
• Exam Date                                             2nd June
• Preliminary Result                              July
• Main Exam Date                                  20th Sept
• Main Exam Result                               December
• Personality Test/ interview                Feb/ March 2020
• Final result                                             April 2020

So as you can see the time schedule its a long process you have to keep patient.

• EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION

To seat for the exam Candidate must hold a graduate degree from any of the recognized University of India. the degree can be of any discipline. Even final year candidates waiting for their results can also sit for the prelims. But they have to present the certificate before the mains exam. In the case of MBBS students, they can also sit without doing their internship they need to submit have a permission letter from the medical college.

• PREPARATION:

First, you need to clear the prelims. it consists of 2 papers based on General Studies and Aptitude respectively. Each paper is of 200 marks each(total 400).GS includes History, geography, polity, governance, economics, environment, general science. As you can see the subjects are from different so it is not possible to graduate at the subject which will help you to get there. Besides, these subjects are very basic in any govt. job exams so you have prepared it earlier then it is fine to go through this.

In Aptitude section includes Speed Maths, Logical reasoning, Vocabulary, analytical Ability, Decision Making. These subjects are not in any degree course, you have to learn it on your own. You have to master it very quickly.in the future, it will help you to secure more competitive exams.

The main exam carries 2025 marks(including PI). There are a total of 9 papers. Language papers are there. General studies are more in an elaborative way. 2 optional subjects are there also. in this optional; paper you can choose your subject in which you hold the bachelor degree if the subject is available in the list.

So as you can see there is such no paper which is on ICS. But I suggest you gain knowledge about our country, current affairs, governance. If you are from Arts Dept. you may have a knowledge of this things, but I can still tell you that these things are very basic in ICS what you will get is much tougher what you have studied earlier. So if you want to gove the exam seriously it's better to start preparing immediately. Don't wait for your graduation, what everybody does is that they start preparing after graduation but if you start it now, by the end of your graduation you will be far away from your friends. it will help you for sure to understand the exam and the syllabus in a better way.

Best of Luck !

Dear Nitish, To clear Civils and become an IAS officer, you have to cross 3 steps i.e. Preliminary Examination, Mains Examination and Personal Interview. First off you need to complete your Graduation because the basic eligibility criteria to apply for Preliminary examinations that you should have a Bachelor's degree. The Prelims exam has 2 papers which test your General Knowledge and Aptitude. You move on to the 2nd round which is Mains only if you clear the Prelims. The subjects that you have studied in your Graduation help when you have to take 2 optional subjects during your Mains exam. Because Prelims is all about General awareness and aptitude, say you have cleared it, now you get to choose 2 subjects of your choice in Mains. Now this is where your Graduation degree will help you. Candidates get to choose a language of their choice. Fir example,  if you have done your BA in English, you have a chance in this section to score good. Even if your Graduation has any of the subjects among Economics/Geography/Geology/Indian History/Philosophy/Psychology/Sociology, you have an upper hand among many other aspirants because with proper preparation and the ability to produce your thoughts on the paper, you can score better. That is why most aspirants pick up art subjects.