IAS Exam Preparation Blog for IAS Preparation Tips, IAS Books, IAS Coaching and More-------------- ----------------Those of you planning to appear for the IAS exam in 2013 may be wondering ‘how do I start preparing for the IAS exam?’, ‘what books, materials are required’, what’s the syllabus of IAS 2013‘, ‘ Is coaching required?’, ‘What’s the perfect strategy to prepare for the IAS exam’, ‘How to select the optional subjects’ and so on. Good news; all your queries concerning the IAS exam 2013 will be answered in this post so read on. First Things First – What is the IAS Exam? I realize most of the readers of this blog are completely new to the Civil Services exam and so require some orientation about the basics of the IAS exam. In fact if you’ve subscribed to my free eBook, you will know all about the IAS exam by now. Even then I feel I should throw some light on this prestigious examination taken by over 1.5 lac candidates every year. (Source: UPSC). So I encourage you to first know what is the IAS exam. Next, if you might want to know about UPSC, the commission that conducts the IAS exam each year and will conduct it in 2013 as well. Now that you know about the fundamentals of the IAS exam, next comes the syllabus for IAS 2013 exam. By now you know that the Prelims consists of 2 papers common to all and carries negative penalty of 1/3rd marks for each incorrect answer. Also the number of questions in Paper 1 or Paper 2 are not fixed and can vary from year to year. What is fixed, however, are the marks (2oo marks each for paper 1 and paper 2) as also the duration which is 2 hours for each paper. Also in the past two Prelims questions on Decision Making in paper 2 carry no negative penalty. So one of the most profound changes UPSC has introduced in the IAS exam is unpredictability in the paper pattern. How to Start Preparation for IAS 2013 This is the most common query I receive in the comments and in the email from IAS aspirants; How do I start preparing for the IAS exam? To prepare for IAS 2013 exam you will require three things: a proper plan or approach, the right study materials, and commitment. Planning is imperative when you decide to appear for the Prelims. Deciding to take the exam 4 or 5 months before the Prelims is not a very smart strategy as you have to cover a wide syllabus and go through numerous books and magazines, even though it is possible to prepare for Prelims in 4 months. But I always advise you should start preparing at least 10 months prior to the next year’s Prelims and 12 months ideally, if possible. So if you are targeting IAS 2013 to be held in May 2013 then ideally start preparing from June 2012 itself. The first step is to know the paper 1 and paper 2 syllabus in detail. Many IAS aspirants get confused about Prelims preparation and subject selection for Mains at this stage which is quite wrong. You DON’T have to select optional subjects in Prelims, that task is for Mains exam. And quite frankly if you are just starting out don’t worry too much about selecting optionals for the Mains at this stage. Rather you should concentrate on the Prelims preparation. Optional selection comes later after you’ve gained some knowledge of the Prelims topics and have developed a basic understanding about the Civil Services exam. If and when you do decide to prepare for Mains, you can get my individual guidance for selecting optional subjects for Mains. Next, decide which topics from paper 1 and or paper 2 you will cover first. Let’s say you start with Indian History from paper 1 which you study in the morning and afternoon and in the evening you take up mental ability from Paper 2. I always suggest you should no prepare more than 2 topics simultaneously. Rather, you should first cover one or two topics completely before moving to the next. I suggest you go through this Prelims Preparation guide to understand the IAS Preparation steps and strategy in detail. Notification for IAS 2013 Exam The notification for the Civil Services Preliminary exam was released in February 2012. Usually the notification comes out in December every year. However, since online application for the Preliminary exam has been made mandatory the time required for UPSC to receive, classify applications and issue admit cards has reduced considerably. For this reason, it is expected that the notification for the 2013 IAS exam will be announced in February 2013 on the UPSC website and in Employment News. Eligibility for IAS Exam 2013 There are certain minimum eligibility criteria concerning educational qualifications, age, nationality and number of attempts for applying for the 2013 Prelims. I’ve summarized the eligibility criteria for 2013 Preliminary exam in the table below for easy reference.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 05:52:46 +0000
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