My Analysis of 2013 Civil Services Exam Notification

Finally, the notification came, after eternity of waiting. 

And I understood, only towards the end, that why UPSC had to take a month of extra time, to put out the notification.

(Btw, UPSC made me troll, as soon as I opened their notification pdf. I felt sad and ridiculed, looking at the very first page. Take a peek at this Snap-Shot, at point 3. After a month of time that they borrowed, is this the way, to do the things ? )

Now that they have made it more 'General', lets look at the new pattern.

So the exam retained same old Prelims + Mains + Personal Interview pattern. (And I heard from someone, that they might totally change even this!)

Prelims will have, like last year, two papers.

2013 Civil Services Exam - Prelims in a Nut Shell

For Mains, we will have to give totally 9 papers. They are : 

Eight Written Papers :

General Studies (Four papers)                                     - 4

1 Optional Subject (Two papers)                                  - 2

Essay                                                                        - 1

English Comprehension & Precis Writing                      - 1

And at last, after getting through Mains (Written), "Personal Interview"

Weightage of papers in 2013 Civil Services (Mains) Exam

We can see, that GS, with four papers, now has almost half of the share of total marks.  Followed by the Optional Subject (We have to choose 1 from a list of 25), taking close to 25 % . 

If one scores decently in every paper (read it as 50 % plus) and cumulates morsels here and there, wherever possible, and towards the end, march to the range 55 - 60 % of total, ie, 1150 - 1250 on top of 2075, a double digit rank can be easily clinched. 

To quote from ToI article,

Officials feel that the unlike the earlier pattern which used to short-list candidates more on the basis of their score in specified subjects instead of their knowledge in general studies, the new pattern will focus more on testing candidates in their administrative and managerial potential and awareness of the country's socio-economic system.

विजयी भव !