Hello,

There is nothing as such best course in UPSC, there are two ways in which you can appear for this exam, one is with a back up plan and another is without it, do this only when you're wholly and solely focused on cracking this exam only, as UPSC tends to be more humanities oriented ,you can choose subjects like political science, public administration, history, geography, economics etc.

Another thing is to appear with a back up plan, this year itself people with CA and electrical engineering background have cracked this exam, they have had few year of work experiences to their credit, so if you're unsure, you can take this route as well and then explore what's best for you.

UPSC doesn't discriminate among aspirants, hence it allows people from diverse backgrounds to appear for this prestigious exams, you have to remember that irrespective of what your graduation stream is eventually it's your planning and preparation that matters, the reason I say this if you look at the previous year trends of toppers ,they come from diverse backgrounds, there are many myths surrounding this exams as well for instance, people with electrical engineering having optional too have qualified the exam as well, this is because they have great knowledge of their graduation studies,although this may not be the case for every engineering aspirants, eventually it all depends on your interest when it comes to choosing optional and it's syllabus too is nothing short of graduation, hence if people chose their subject at graduation level it helps them a lot.

We may argue that humanities students are well acquainted with the syllabus comparatively to students from other stream, but then if this is the only criteria then we won't have toppers from other backgrounds, as I said eventually it's your dedication, single-minded focus works for you, and if you enjoy the process it will be less tiresome.

Preliminaries, Mains, and Interview are the three stages of the UPSC CSE.

The prelims examination is objective and the General studies paper is qualifying in nature. Both Hindi and English are used in the question paper. There are two papers in the UPSC IAS Prelims test.

General Studies paper I      Genral Studies paper II

Geography, history, economics, general science, environment & ecology, and current affairs are all included in the General Studies Paper I. The General Studies Paper-II consists of an aptitude test that tests students' capacity for logic, understanding, and mathematical reasoning. After passing the preliminary exam, candidates must complete a "Detailed Application form" (DAF). Nine descriptive papers, plus one optional subject, make up the mains examination (2 papers). This is regarded as the key phase that determines an applicant's fate. Candidates who pass the main exam are called to the final step, which may include an interview or a personality test. Your position on the final list is determined by this round.

Greetings aspirant!

For graduation it will be better if you choose government colleges over private. As you want to pursue IAS for that you are required to have an undergraduate degree, so best will be if you choose government colleges for it. Some of them are Delhi University, Indraprastha university, panjab University, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, etc.

If you will pursue BA from any private college it will cost you a lot, whereas in government college it will cost much less. Also government college follow curriculum approved by UGC which has a upper hand over private colleges.

https://university.careers360.com/colleges/list-of-ba-degree-colleges-in-india

Hope you find it helpful.
Thankyou.

The minimum educational qualification required to take on the IAS exam is graduation. You have to have a degree from a recognized university to attempt the IAS exam conducted by the UPSC every year.  It is advised to take up a graduation course that involves history and polity. These subjects are of immense importance to the UPSC syllabus. During your graduation, study these subjects really well keeping in mind the UPSC syllabus. Also, you should start reading public administration, economics, etc. You should study your graduation course sincerely.

However, you should not lose touch with basic maths that you learned in school. This is needed for the CSAT paper in the IAS Prelims. Introduce in yourself the habit of reading the daily newspaper and keep note of the latest happenings in the country and the world. You should also work on your interpersonal skills and communication skills. Try to develop a good personality that would help you in the IAS interview later. You will also be needing your  school NCERT textbooks. These are the basic books to study for the UPSC exam.  Practicing previous years IAS question papers is very important.

Wish you good Luck!

Hello,


UPSC Civil Service Exam consists of three stages-

Preliminary
Mains
Interview

To give you a brief about the exam;

Preliminary consists of 200 Marks for each paper. It mainly consists of GS Paper-I consists of the following topic such as History of India and Indian national movement, Indian and World geography, Economic and social development- sustainable development, poverty,inclusion demographics, social sector initiatives etc,Indian polity and governance-constitution,political system,Current Events nationally and Internationally, General Science,General Issues on environmental ecology,biodiversity and climate change. you just need to score the required cut offs against your category. And then we have qualifying CSAT(you need to score 33%) which includes topics such as basic numeracy, comprehension, logical reasoning and analytical ability, general mental ability, decision making and problem solving, interpersonal skills including communication skills. Both consists of 200 marks, MCQs based. Prelims is mcq based, but still it requires knowledge coupled with speed in order to ace it, it's numbers are not added in the final list,


Coming to Mains it's more of a subjective type, one needs to write answer for Four General Studies Paper such as
GS-I includes Indian Heritage and Culture,History and Geography of the World and Society,
GS-II includes Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations,
GS-III includes Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management,
GS-IV includes Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude
Two Optionals, One Essay, two language paper, there are total nine papers here. 250 marks for each paper, total is 1750 marks followed by Personality Test of 275 marks.


As of now your priority should be to complete your graduation with good marks, the preparation and planning more or less remains the same for every aspirant preparing for UPSC Civil Service Exam, you can go through the following steps to initiate the preparation in gradual manner.


The first and most important step towards preparation is to be well acquainted with UPSC Syllabus , learn it by heart, that's the most crucial step to crack this exam, to know what to read and what to skip. In addition to this, have an integrated approach towards preparation for Preliminary and Mains, as per previous year trends  even in prelims, UPSC frame questions based on Mains syllabus.

Another equally important part is to start reading any newspaper like The Hindu, or Indian Express on a regular basis to be updated as well as gaining knowledge which shall be highly useful to you in future exam preparation part. Put a more emphasis on editorial part, it will not only broaden your perspective but help a lot in answer writing,and make sure whatever opinion you form it should be well balanced. You can also make notes of this,it'll be very useful in answer writing at a later point.

When it comes to reading books ,start with basics, for each subject, you can do with NCERTs for this. This will build your foundation strong,as you progress, move on to other relevant books as mentioned below;

For Prelims, refer the following books:

History ;

NCERT Class XI and XII
India's Struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra
For Indian Culture, refer art and culture by Nitin Singhania

Geography ;

NCERT Class VI to XII
GC Leong's Physical Geography
World Atlas

Economics ;

NCERT Class XI
Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh

International Relations & Polity ;

NCERT XII Political Science with current affairs
Indian Polity by Laxmikanth

CSAT ;

Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning by RS Agarwal
M Tyra's Quicker Maths

Coming to Mains Exam, you can refer the following books for four General Studies Paper;

GS I - For History , Class XI NCERT book with India's struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra,India after Independence by Bipan Chandra,History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra

For Geography refer World Geography and Geography of India by Majid Hussain, GC Leong's Physical and Human Geography with NCERT Class XI book.

For GS II - Polity and International Relations , refer Indian Polity by Lamikanth,India's Foreign Policy by Rajiv Sikri

For GS III - For Economics refer Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh, read ARC report along with Economic Survey and Fiscal Budget.

For GS IV - For Ethics refer a book named Lexicon by Niraj Kumar, also you can go through study material of IGNOU.

Remember to keep resources minimal always, read one book many a times instead of many a book one time

Start practicing answer writing in advance, even in a little way, Writing mains is a huge task, for nine paper it requires immense practice along with knowledge. There are many sites which provide questions on daily basis you can avail that. Try to give a holistic viewpoint while answer writing by providing political,economical and social aspect. You can get topper's answer sheets online, you can also go through it.

Practice previous year question paper which you can get from the site of UPSC,in addition mock papers, and test series which you can get it from any of the sites exclusively dedicated to UPSC, it's highly important to evaluate your performance while doing so.

As you still have three to four years for UPSC, so the most things is for you is to know the syllabus, read The Hindu on a daily basis ,and start with NCERTs book, these are the basic yet important steps, for instance getting used to read The Hindu will take considerable time, especially if one is not used to reading but build this habit from now onwards, this will help you a lot in the time to come, you can also read Pratiyogita Darpan, that's an excellent magazine with lots of input and even topper's interviews are there, so you may also get to know many things, YouTube channels will help you a lot.

If your overall result is "PASS" and by the vvirtue of that if you moved to BCA, upon successful completion of BCA, you are eligible to appear for UPSC, which is the examination for becoming IAS officers. Once you are selected in Prelims, Mains and Interview, your 12th results wont be a problem. Because you passed "Overall". So do not worry about it. But if you are preparing for UPSC, this might help you:

UPSC is a 3 stage   selection process involving Prelims, Mains and Interview which tests your personality test. Prelims has 2 Papers namely General Studies and CSAT.

General Studies has Current Events, History of India and Indian National Movement, Indian and World Geography, Indian Polity and Governance, Economic and Social Development, Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Change and General Science.

CSAT has Comprehension, Interpersonal skills including communication skills, Logical Reasoning and Analytical ability, Decision making and problem solving, General Mental Ability, Basic numeracy and Data Interpretation.

You will need atleast to start preparing ahead of 1- 2 years. If you are preparing at home, you need to keep yourself away from distractions and focus on the goal ahead. Gather as much as information as you can on each topic and keep yourself updated. Practise mock test papers.

Indian Polity for Civil Services bby M. Laxmikanth

Indian Art and Culture by Nitin Singhania

Certificate Physical and Human Geography by Gog Cheng Leong

Oxford School Atlas by Oxford Publishers

Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh

Economic Survey by Ministry of Finance

India Year Book

A Brief History of Modern India by Rajiv Ahir

Dear candidate

There is no eligibility Percentage in graduation for appearing in IAS exam you just need to pass your graduation from a recognized board or those who are writing examination are also eligible to apply and it doesn't matter if you took a gap year or once failed and passed again and all you need is to pass your graduation.

For more Information about the eligibility criteria for IAS exam visit the below mentioned link

https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-eligibility-criteria

Hope this Information is helpful

Hii!
See, you become IAS via the UPSC entrance exam. Similarly there's entrance exam for becoming KAS. But, the general Eligibility criteria for both the fields is that you need to have completed a graduation Degree, in any subject subject combination, with minimum 50% marks from a recognised University.
So, after class 12th, go for graduation in a relevant field and then, after graduation, apply for the exams.
Hope this helps.
Good luck!

Hello,

There are two ways to decide your career path regarding your query, if you're completely focused towards only cracking Civil Service Exams, then choosing humanities stream will give an edge undoubtedly, as UPSC is more humanities oriented, so you may choose to pursue graduation in political science, public administration, law, economics, geography, history etc. Another thing is to have a back up plan regarding this, you have to remember that right now you're only in class 10th, so there's lot to explore for you in terms of your skillsets, aptitude, interest areas, if you have any preference for other streams such as engineering or medical, then it even after pursuing these fields you can appear for UPSC, for example many engineering/medical or for that matter any other working professional they gain few experiences in their respective field and then apply for UPSC, and let me tell you one thing very honestly, the success of UPSC is dependent entirely on the dedication, planning, preparation of the candidates, yes we may argue humanities candidates are well acquainted with the subjects unlike in case of say science or other field students, but then they do the work from the scratch, and if you have single-minded focus, determination and perseverance, you'll sail through this no matter what stream you belong, what subject combinations you've at 10+2 or graduation level, so think through this all and then take a decision with clear mindset.