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What is Civil Services (Preliminary) Exam ?


Preliminary exam is the first step towards Civil Service Exam, which is followed by two important stages. The three stages of Civil Service Exams are:

  1. Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination
  2. Civil Services (Main) Examination
  3. Interview (Personality Test)

What is the scheme of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination?

The preliminary examination comprises of two compulsory papers General Studies (Paper -1) and General Studies (Paper 2). General Studies (GS-1) - This paper will be counted for qualifying to write the Civil Services Mains exam. General Studies (GS -2) - Aptitude test (CSAT) - This paper is of qualifying nature, but candidate must score at least 33 per cent marks in this paper. Each question paper carries 200 marks each. However, marks of this paper are not counted for writing the Mains examination.

Both the question papers will be of objective type (multiple choice questions). These question papers will be set both in Hindi and English languages. Duration of the exam will be two hours.

What is the syllabus of Civil Service (Preliminary) Examination ?

UPSC Syllabus for Paper I

  • 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, Bio-diversity, and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization.

UPSC Syllabus for Paper II

  • 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).
For more details : https://www.civilserviceindia.com/subject/preliminary-syllabus.html

Details of Civil Service Main Examination