General Trend of Scores for Preliminary Examination (with negative marking), Main Examination and Interview

The Indian Civil Services examinations conducted before the year 2011 had no negative marking. With the introduction of the system of negative marking for the IAS exams from the year 2011, the cut-off marks has gone down further. The basic trick to score well in the IAS examinations is to not risk answering those questions which you are not completely sure of. Instead of guessing the answer and losing marks, it is better to gain the maximum score by only answering the questions for which you are sure about the correct answer.

Going by the trend during the recent years, a score of more than 1050 is recommended to ensure a decent place in the final listing of selected candidates. The range of scores for the Main examination is between 50% - 55%. The key here is to choose an optional subject of your interest and score well to be the top segment of those subjects that you have chosen. The qualifying scores vary between optionals and the number of students finally selected from each optional subject is proportionate to the number of students appearing for a particular optional subject.

Note: Since the UPSC has changed its Preliminary Examination pattern of Indian Forest Services by introducing a component of Screening Mechanism through Civil Services Preliminary Examination, the Preliminary exam will be common for both Civil Services Aspirants and as well as for Indian Forest Services Aspirants. Hence we assume that the Cut Off Marks will be around 220+ out of 400 for General Category, keeping in mind that the Preliminary Examination 2013 is easier because of the integration of Civil Services and Indian Forest Services.

In the case of personality test (interview), a decent score ranges between 150 to 180. The final interview plays a vital role in your final ranking and also in the placement process for a particular civil service. The interview scores generally vary between 50 to 240.

Cut-Off Marks for the Preliminary Examination (with negative marking)

Toppers' Marks - Civil Service Mains Examination 2003

Percentage of marks obtained by Toppers

Statistical Trend - Vacancies (vs) Selection

The following table highlights the number of candidates who applied for the preliminary examination (vs) the number of candidates who actually appeared for the examination from 1995 - 2002.

The following table highlights the number of vacancies for various posts against the number of candidates recommended for various civil services from 1995 - 2002.