Manappuram Civil Service Academy

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Mains

The Civil Services Mains Examination consists of a written examination and an interview.

Mains Examination

The Civil Services Main written examination consists of nine papers, two qualifying and seven ranking in nature. The range of questions may vary from just one mark to sixty marks, twenty words to 600 words answers. Each paper is of a duration of 3 hours. Candidates who pass qualifying papers are ranked according to marks and a selected number of candidates are called for interview or a personality test at the Commission’s discretion.
According to the new marks allocations in Civil Service Examination 2013 there are some changes made in the examination according to the suggestion of the Prof. Arun. S. Nigavekar Committee. However, after some controversy, the qualifying papers for Indian languages and English were restored.

Civil Service  Mains  Exam Pattern 

Paper

Subject

Marks

Paper A

(One of the Indian languages listed below, to be selected by the candidate (from the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India) (Qualifying)

300

Paper B

English (Qualifying)

300

Paper I

Essay

250

Paper II

General Studies I (Indian heritage and culture, history and geography of the world and society)

250

Paper III

General Studies II (Governance, constitution, polity, social justice and international relations)

250

Paper IV

General Studies III (Technology, economic development, bio-diversity, environment, security and disaster management)

250

Paper V

General Studies IV (ethics, integrity and aptitude)

250

Papers VI, VII

Two papers on one subject to be selected by the candidate from the list of optional subjects below (250 marks for each paper)

500

Sub Total (Written Test)

1750

Personality Test (Interview)

275

Total Marks

2025

The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.

List of languages

The examination is available in the following languages, with the name of the script in parenthesis:
• Assamese (Assamese)
• Bengali (Bengali)
• Bodo (Devanagari)
• Dogri (Devanagari)
• English (English)
• Gujarati (Gujarati)
• Hindi (Devanagari)
• Kannada (Kannada)
• Kashmiri (Persian)
• Konkani (Devanagari)
• Maithili (Devanagari)
• Malayalam (Malayalam)
• Manipuri (Bengali)
• Marathi (Devanagari)
• Nepali (Devanagari)
• Odia (Odia)
• Punjabi (Gurumukhi)
• Sanskrit (Devanagari)
• Santhali (Devanagari or Ol Chiki)
• Sindhi (Devanagari or Arabic)
• Tamil (Tamil)
• Telugu (Telugu)
• Urdu (Persian)

Optional subjects

The subjects available for Papers VI and VII are:
• Agriculture
• Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
• Anthropology
• Botany
• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Commerce and Accountancy
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering
• Geography
• Geology
• History
• Law
• Literature of any one of the languages listed above
• Management
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Medical Science
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Political Science and International Relations
• Psychology
• Public Administration
• Sociology
• Urdu
• Statistics
• Zoology

Personality Test

Unofficially called the “Interview”, the objective of the Interview is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for a career in public service by a board of competent and unbiased observers. The test is intended to evaluate the mental caliber of a candidate. In broad terms, this is really an assessment of not only a candidate’s intellectual qualities, but also social traits and interest in current affairs. Some of the qualities to be judged are mental alertness, critical powers of assimilation, clear and logical exposition, balance of judgement, variety and depth of interest, ability for social cohesion and leadership, and intellectual and moral integrity. The technique of the Interview is not that of a strict cross-examination, but of a natural, though directed and purposeful conversation that is intended to reveal the mental qualities of the candidate.
The Interview is not intended to test either of the specialized or general knowledge of the candidate, which has been already tested through written papers. Candidates are expected to have taken an intelligent interest not only in their special subjects of academic study, but also in the events which are happening around them both within and outside their own state or country as well as in modern currents of thought and in new discoveries which should rouse the curiosity of all well-educated youth. The interview standards are very high and require thorough preparation as well as commitment.
The Preliminary Examination for Civil Services Examination of Union Public Service Commission is also popularly called CSAT or Civil Services Aptitude Test. The CSAT is actually the second paper of General Studies that was introduced in 2011. The preliminary examination of UPSC is for screening purpose only. The marks obtained in the UPSC prelims examination amount to a qualification to take the UPSC Main examination and will not be counted for determining a candidate’s final order of merit.
According to the new marks allocations in Civil Service Examination 2013 there are some changes made in the examination according to the suggestion of the Prof. Arun. S. Nigavekar Committee. However, after some controversy, the qualifying papers for Indian languages and English were restored.
Syllabus