New vs Old UPSC Civil Services (IAS) Exam

You must be aware by now that UPSC has changed exam structure for Civil Services (and also for Indian Forest Services). Don't worry! Things are more on positive side. Lets see what has changes and what has not.

What is similar to old exam?

  • Age and limit on number of attempts have not changed.
  • Syllabus and exam pattern for preliminary exam is same.

What has changed?

Whatever changes have been made, only CSE Mains exam is affected.

  Old Civil Services (2012 & Before)  New Civil Services (2013 & After)
Regional Language Paper 300 Marks (Qualifying) Initially removed, then re-included as Indian Language; 300 Marks; (Qualifying)
General Studies 600 Marks - 2 Papers 1000 Marks - 4 papers
First Optional 600 Marks - 2 Papers 500 Marks - 2 Papers
Second Optional 600 Marks - 2 Papers Removed
Interview 300 Marks 275 Marks

Weigtage of optional papers in Civil Services Mains exam has been reduced from 52% to around 24% and at the same time weigtage of General Studies Papers has been increased from 26% to about 48% and English language increased from 0 to almost 5%. Thus candidates from all disciplines are going now to have a level-playing field.