sir mam I am class 12th commerce student I my aim is to crack UPSC . But sir I want to take arts in graduation and also I want to take admission in IGNOU because I don't want to do regular class. I want to give my time in upsc preparation. is this helpful for me ?

Hello,

Yes,you can go graduation arts from IGNOU, you can take admission in the July Cycle of this year,usually application process commence in the month of May onwards but due to ongoing covid 19 pandemic there may be a delay.

Coming to UPSC, in order to appear for this exam, you  need to be 21 years old and passed graduation in any discipline from a recognized university,you can apply even in your final year.

The best thing about UPSC is it doesn't discriminate among aspirants and hence allow people from all background to appear for this exam, and we see people from diverse fields appearing as well as qualifying for this prestigious exam.

To give you a brief of this exam;

UPSC Civil Service Exam consists of three level

• Preliminary
• Mains
• Interview

Preliminary mainly consists of two paper GS Paper-I with  following topic such as History of India and Indian national movement, Indian and World geography, Economic and social development- sustainable development, poverty,inclusion demographics, social sector initiatives etc,Indian polity and governance-constitution,political system,Current Events nationally and Internationally, General Science,General Issues on environmental ecology,biodiversity and climate change.

and CSAT includes topics such as basic numeracy, comprehension, logical reasoning and analytical ability, general mental ability, decision making and problem solving, interpersonal skills including communication skills. It's a qualifying paper, you need to secure 33% in order to pass.

Both the paper consists of 200 marks and are MCQs based. Preliminary numbers are not added in the final list, you just need to score the required cut offs against your category

Coming to Mains it's more of a subjective type, it has Four General Studies Paper such as
GS-I includes Indian Heritage and Culture,History and Geography of the World and Society,
GS-II includes Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations,
GS-III includes Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management,
GS-IV includes Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude,
Two Optionals,
One Essay,
Two language paper,

There are total nine papers here. 250 marks for each paper, total is 1750 marks followed by Personality Test of 275 marks.

Your biggest advantage right now is time and if you use it wisely, you'll succeed in your first attempt but also remember that this exam tests perseverance like no other exam, it takes one year to prepare and another one to appear for the three stages, so perseverance is the key to success in UPSC.

You can start your preparation in gradual manner by first building your foundation strong by going through the steps mentioned below:


Be well acquainted with UPSC Syllabus, learn it by heart, that's the most crucial step to crack this exam, to know what to read and what to skip.
Have an integrated approach while preparing because nowadays even in prelims UPSC frame questions  based on Mains Syllabus.
SRead any newspaper like The Hindu, or Indian Express on a regular basis to be updated as well as gaining knowledge which shall be highly useful to you in future exam preparation part with special emphasis on editorial part, it'll not only broaden your perspective, but while answer writing you can connect any question with that of current relevance by providing answer economically,politically etc more so in a wider perspective so to speak.
When it comes to reading books,start with basics, for each subject, you can do with NCERTs for this. As you progress, move on to other relevant books, keep your resources minimum like Polity by Laxmikanth, History of Modern India by Bipin Chandra etc.
Start practicing answer writing in advance, even in a little way, writing mains is a huge task for nine paper, it requires immense practice along with knowledge.
Practice previous year question paper which you can get from the site of UPSC,in addition mock papers, and test series which you can get it from any of the sites extensively dedicated to UPSC, , it's highly important to evaluate your performance while doing so.