UPSC's Changes In Civil Service 2013 Examination

As we all know, recently the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) was under discussion in order to change the pattern for Civil Service Main 2013 examination, which was approved by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. And thus UPSC has now come up with the final notification on the change taken place.

On Tuesday, the UPSC assured the changes in Civil Service Examination. Bringing into effect from this year it gives more wightage to General Studies as well as Aptitude Skills. It has also introduced an English Language paper, and this marks shall count in final selection of aspirants for elite services like IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS and more.

Under this new pattern, the commission continued with the easy paper having 200 marks, but it also introduced an additional English Language Paper worth 100 marks. The English Language paper will test aspirants in their comprehensive and writing ability, in tune with the demand of modern-day administration, where English has become a main language of official communication across the nation.

Also, for the first time the General Studies paper will also include components testing aspirants on "Ethics, integrity and aptitude". This new paper having 250 marks will use the case study approach to determine ethics, integrity and aptitude of the candidates.

A senior official from the UPSC said "This paper will include questions to test the candidate's attitude and approach to issues relating to integrity, probity in public life and his problem solving approach to various issues and conflicts faced by him in dealing with the society".

There is no change in the date of examination. As announced in the notification, the exam shall be conducted on 26th of May, 2013. Candidates can fill applications Online till 4th of April.

Advantage of the new pattern:

The new pattern will also spare candidates of compulsorily qualifying other language papers like Hindi or any of the VIII Schedule language. Moreover, Earlier, the candidates had to qualify in English and other language paper whose marks were, not counted for short-listing the candidates.

Inspite of all these, there will be two optional papers of 250 marks each instead of four papers of 300 marks each earlier. The weightage of the optional papers will also be reduced from 1500 to 500 marks. And the total marks for the main examination will be 1800 where as personality test carries 275 marks.