IAS Exam 2019 Dates, Eligibility and Exam Pattern

By: Aveek Pal Chaudhuri | Wednesday, 20 Feb 2019, 10:31 IST

What do you mean by IAS?

Indian Administrative Services examination or commonly known as IAS examination is one of the most competitive examination in India for qualifying into prestigious service brackets like Indian Revenue Service (IRS), Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS), Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IAAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) etc. Every year, nearly 2 lakh candidates appear for the Civil Services Examination.

For this calendar year of 2019, the IAS examination board – Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has recently released its notification for eligibility, syllabus, registration, and examination that can be checked in the official UPSC website - https://upsc.gov.in/.

Release of Application Form

The UPSC board has already released the application form, which can be filled in https://upsconline.nic.in/upsc/mainmenu2.php. The examination is conducted in two rounds – prelims and mains. The application fee for IAS prelims is INR 100 and IAS Mains is INR 200. The reserved categories are exempted from any application fee. Every aspirant has to register separately in IAS Prelims and IAS Mains. Please follow the below steps for filling up the IAS prelims form.

Step – I

1. Go to the official UPSC website (https://upsconline.nic.in/upsc/mainmenu2.php) and click on the link for Part I Registration.

2. After that click on yes and the link will redirect you to the next page of the registration.

3. In the new page, enter your Name, Gender, Category, Nationality, and other required personal details.

4. Click on the submit button and you will be redirected to the payment gateway.

Step – II

1. You will have options of choosing online or the offline mode of payments, select any one.

2. For paying fees offline, download the pay-in-slip that is available on the page and deposit the cash at the nearest State Bank of India branch.

3. For online payment, you have options of paying via Debit Card, Credit Card or Net Banking.

4. If you’re using Debit Card as a payment option, enter your Card number, the Validity, and CVV number.

5. If you are using Credit Card as a payment option, enter your Card number, the Validity and the special PIN number of 6 digits.

6. If you’re using Net Banking as a payment option, enter your bank account details.

7. Now, click on pay now after you have filled all the details.

8. From this step, you will be redirected to Part II of the online application form.

Step – III

1. After fee payment, fill the other required details of IAS Application form. You will get the receipt of fee payment. Keep it safe with you.

2. Choose your convenient examination centre

3. Enter your qualification details and other communication details.

4. After that, click on submit and proceed to the next step of the registration.

Step – IV

1. You have to click on the link or blank space provided for uploading your photograph.

2. Select your image and upload.

3. Please repeat the same steps for uploading your image of the signature.

4. Then click on “I Agree” so that the declaration is approved and then submit to complete the registration procedure.

Eligibility Criteria

Citizenship:

1. Candidates must be a citizen of India for IAS and IPS.

2. For other services candidates can be*:

i) A citizen of India.

ii) A subject of Bhutan.

iii) A subject of Nepal.

iv) Tibetan refugee who had come to India prior 1st January 1962 and settled permanently*.

v) Can be an Indian origin migrant from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia, Vietnam – Who came to India and settled permanently.

*Candidates need to produce the eligibility certificate that has been issued by the Government of India.

Education Qualification

Candidates opting for IAS need to have a graduation degree from any recognized University that has been incorporated by Act of Parliament or declared Deemed University by UGC (University Grants Commission). Exemptions are only made for the following cases:

a) Candidates yet to receive the graduation result are eligible for the prelims round, however, they will need to present the degree certificate at the time of mains examination.

b) Eligibility is also considered on the basis that the candidate has passed the examination conducted by any other institutions.

c) Candidates with professional and technical degrees as recognized by the Government of India are also eligible to appear in the IAS Examination.

d) The board will provisionally admit candidate with professional MBBS degree and candidates who have passed other medical examination but yet to complete an internship. However, this is applicable only if the candidate submits a copy of the certificate from the concerned authority of University/Institution at the time of IAS online application.

Age Criteria:

a) The age limit for 2019 IAS is within a limit of 21 years to 32 years, in which candidates must not be born earlier than August 2nd, 1987 and not later than August 1st, 1998.

b) Candidates who fall under scheduled caste or tribe category will be given a maximum of five years age relaxation.

c) Candidates under Other Backward Classes category will be given age relaxation of up to three years.

d) Candidates domiciled in the state of Jammu and Kashmir from January 1st of 1981 to December 31st of 1990 will be given age relaxation of five years.

e) Three years age relaxation is sanctioned for candidates belonging into the Defence Service, who are disabled in the operations during hostilities with any foreign country or in a disturbed area.

f) Age relaxation of five years is granted to candidates who are ex-servicemen in Commissioned officers, ECOs/SSCOs, Military services for at least five years (as on August 1st, 2018) and thereafter have been released.

IAS Prelims Examination

The UPSC board is set to conduct the IAS prelims examination on June 2nd of 2019. The examination will have two compulsory papers of 200 marks each. The Paper I General Studies and Paper II General Studies both will have multiple choice objective type questions, the marks of which will not be counted for the final ranking. It will only be for qualification. The Paper I general studies will have questions from areas like Indian National Movement, Indian Polity, Basic Economic Understanding, Geography of India and the world, current affairs of Indian and rest of the world, static and dynamic general knowledge. Paper II is for qualifying purposes, where students need to secure 33percent marks for passing the examination. This paper will test the candidates’ mathematical skills, interpersonal skills, logical and reasoning skills. One-Third of marks will be deducted for every wrong answer. The examination will be conducted for 2 hours.

IAS Mains Examination

In the IAS mains examination, candidates will be evaluated on a 1750 marks examination, which will be divided into qualifying and merit papers, in which both subjective and objective type questions will be there. The qualifying papers two language papers, one from the candidate’s choice and the other one is English. The merit papers will have seven papers and will have almost 300 questions each. The seven papers are divided into Essay Writing, General Studies I (Indian history and culture, History and Geography of the world & society), General Studies II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations), General Studies III (Technology Economic Development, Bioâ€diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management), General Studies IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) and two optional papers. Every paper will have 250 marks. The optional papers can be selected from Agriculture, Geography, Commerce and Accountancy, Mathematics, Public Administration, Physics, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Geology, Statistics, Anthropology, History, Economics, Mechanical Engineering, Sociology, Zoology, Law, Chemistry, Political Science and International Relations, Management, Psychology, Electrical Engineering, Medical Science, Civil Engineering and Philosophy.

Personality Test

The third and final round will be for the qualified candidates, in which a candidate will be evaluated on the psychometric test, assessment test, and personal interview. The interviewer will check the candidate’s critical thinking, logical and clear decision-making capabilities, and mental alertness, leadership capabilities, intellectual and moral integrity. The test will be conducted on candidate’s choice language and it will be of 250 marks.

Vacancy and Expected Cut-off

The number of vacant position for the 2019 civil services is 896. And for getting a post in any one of the 896 positions, candidates need to score:

a) Preliminary Examination:

Category	Range
General	150-200
OBC	140-200
SC	101-185
ST	103-180
PH1	101-170
PH2	80-120
PH3	60-125

b) Mains Examination:

Category	Range
General	665-679
OBC	602-631
SC	615-633
ST	610-620
PH1	550-615
PH2	550-630
PH3	450-515

c) Final Cut-off:

Category	Range
General	850-889
OBC	810-845
SC	815-835
ST	800-815
PH1	800-820
PH2	780-835
PH3	690-726

Important Dates:

EVENTS	DATES
Availability of Application Form	19th February 2019
Last Date of Registration	18th March 2019, 6:00 pm
Admit Card Release Dates for Prelims (e-Admits)	3 Weeks Before Commencement of Examination
IAS Prelims Examination Date	2nd June, 2019