How to Prepare for IAS Exam

Posted by shilpa sahani on June 2nd, 2018

IAS is a dream career of many candidates in India. To fulfill this dream, one has to put a lot of hard work and dedication while preparing for IAS exam. It is one of the strictest exams in India and consists of Preliminary Exam, Main Exam and Interview or Personality test. It is vital to clear all the three stages of the exam to fulfill your dream of becoming an IAS officer. Candidates seeking to know how to prepare for IAS exam, here we have exposed the IAS exam strategy for you which assists you to understand the exam pattern, IAS Syllabus, IAS study material and how to prepare for the examination. It will help you to clear your IAS exam.

Know the exam pattern

It is essential to know the pattern of the civil service examination. The examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission each year in three stages.

• Stage 1: Preliminary Examination

There are two papers namely Paper I and paper II. Paper I is related to general studies and paper II is conducted to know your Aptitude. Qualifying paper I allow you to appear in the main examination. However, the purpose of paper II is to analyze you i.e. it is only of qualifying nature. The marks scored in paper II is not added for overall merit CSAT(Civil Services Preliminary Examination). One should buy IAS prelims books to clear the examination.

• Stage 2: Main Examination

It consists of written examination. The written exam has nine papers. Each written paper have conventional essay type questions.

• Stage 3: Personal Interview

Candidates who scored minimum qualifying marks in the main Examination appears for an interview for personality test.

Know the Syllabus

Candidates must know the whole syllabus of the examination.

Buy good UPSC exam books for the preparation

If you are straightforward towards your goal then you must buy good IAS book for preparation. You can also purchase online UPSC study material. 

Read Newspapers and Magazines

Make a habit of reading newspapers and magazines. You can go for The Hindu or Indian Express newspapers for quality articles. In the context of the magazine, EPW is perfect for getting current perspectives.

Keep Writing

In UPSC CSE Mains exam, the speed of writing is vital to complete the exam. You should practice writing on the subjects needed in the examination.

Analyze and go through previous question papers

Going through previous years question papers help you to know what kind of questions can be asked in the examination i.e. you will get a basic idea of the examination. However, it is also important to know that UPSC will never repeat its question. So, you have to take the idea of the questions from the question papers.

Follow the above guidelines to clear your examination. All the best!