No matter how much you may want one of these pre-employment types of exams to go away, it never will. And the best way to deal with an examination is to embrace it and give it your best shot. After all, careful preparation is required. And this type of pre-test prep can help you learn more about how to answer the various questions carefully and concisely; thus giving you the best chance of passing as possible.

A lot of people agree that the biggest issue you need to address when preparing for an exam is time to get some hands-on practice working with common test content and subject matter. And it is true that many of us simply don’t think we have the time to study and practice, but it’s important we make time. In fact, practice is critical to test success.

Plus, preparation shouldn’t be rushed, and there’s no use just scanning through a learning resource just before an exam. Rather, proper Civil Service test preparation and practice takes time and effort. And doing such but hard work can really pay off. As a result, Civil Service test practice can be an ideal method to score big.

In the end, you really do need to score big and pass if you want to get that new career. And in order to pass, you really do need to get some practice working with common test content as well as discovering general test structure.

So, if you’re serious about preparing for your particular examination, then getting some sort of Civil Service Test Practice is an excellent way to get ready for these types of examinations.

Civil services exams are one of the respectable exams. Each year, thousands of people take up this exam but only few are able to make it through preliminary exams. Cracking IAS examination is not a cakewalk. Aspiring candidates have to undergo a rigorous process for clearing the paper and being selected for preferred services. The number of students keeps dropping down with every round for admission in civil services.

Examination board for civil services tries to maintain a high standard to absorb best officers, capable of justifying their responsibilities. New style and patterns are implemented by the board to upgrade standard for civil services aspirants. Government has approved a proposal for introduction of aptitude test replacing present preliminary examination to shortlist candidates for main exam in future.

In the new pattern, students will have to take up two objective type exams. These tests will have emphasis on testing ethical and moral dimensions while taking decisions along with aptitude levels. With new pattern, equal weightage will be offered to various candidates instead of a common and an optional exam in existing pattern. As compared to the emphasis of present exam pattern on subject awareness and knowledge, new pattern will check the candidate’s decision-making capabilities and aptitude.

For time being, change will be made in preliminary stage from 2011 but second and third stages will take some more time to be altered. The new pattern of civil service exams will offer level playing equity and field, as candidates will not have to attempt one common exam like now.

Civil services aspirants should pull up there socks and prepare well if they are serious about clearing the exam. There are specialized coaching classes offered to these students. Sample papers are helped by the experts in the tuition centers. You can take help of the study books too. These guides give you mock questions so that you can prepare various sections of the test. By going through the guides, you will be acquainted with question formats relating to timed test sections.

With assistance of coaching classes and guides, learn to emphasize on the key strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Solve the practice tests regularly and crack the exam easily. Apart from this, you need to be aware about what is happening around you, to get through the exam. Complete devotion and concentration along with regular practice is what it takes to clear the civil services examination.

The current pattern of the civil services preliminary exams was conceived in 1979 on the recommendations of the Kothari Commission. Since then, for 41 years, the preliminary pattern sustained with only some minor changes once in ten or fifteen years. But from 2011 onwards, civil services aspirants should prepare themselves for a sea change in how they prepare for the preliminary examination as the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has received the Union Government’s approval for introducing the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) pattern.

So what will the CSAT be like?

* CSAT will have two papers common to all candidates with no optional paper
* There will be a paper to test the candidate’s aptitude for the prestigious civil services from the ethical and moral dimension
* The age limit could be lowered
* The number of attempts could also be reduced
* More emphasis on understanding and analysis than memorizing

What will be the impact of these changes?

* IAS candidates can no longer neglect the General Studies paper and rely solely on optionals to see them through
* UPSC might give preference to younger candidates with high motivation and zeal in the interview
* Coaching classes notes will not be enough to clear the CSAT exam
* Candidates with low moral and ethical aptitude will get weeded out, which is not happening currently

How should you prepare for the CSAT exams?

* Focus more on decision-oriented analytical questions
* Be prepared to answer situational questions faced in real life by the civil servants
* Questions will be more dynamic than at present
* Spruce up your general awareness and mental ability

Civil services exams are one of the respectable exams. Each year, thousands of people take up this exam but only few are able to make it through preliminary exams. Cracking IAS examination is not a cakewalk. Aspiring candidates have to undergo a rigorous process for clearing the paper and being selected for preferred services. The number of students keeps dropping down with every round for admission in civil services.

Examination board for civil services tries to maintain a high standard to absorb best officers, capable of justifying their responsibilities. New style and patterns are implemented by the board to upgrade standard for civil services aspirants. Government has approved a proposal for introduction of aptitude test replacing present preliminary examination to shortlist candidates for main exam in future.

In the new pattern, students will have to take up two objective type exams. These tests will have emphasis on testing ethical and moral dimensions while taking decisions along with aptitude levels. With new pattern, equal weightage will be offered to various candidates instead of a common and an optional exam in existing pattern. As compared to the emphasis of present exam pattern on subject awareness and knowledge, new pattern will check the candidate’s decision-making capabilities and aptitude.

For time being, change will be made in preliminary stage from 2011 but second and third stages will take some more time to be altered. The new pattern of civil service exams will offer level playing equity and field, as candidates will not have to attempt one common exam like now.

Civil services aspirants should pull up there socks and prepare well if they are serious about clearing the exam. There are specialized coaching classes offered to these students. Sample papers are helped by the experts in the tuition centers. You can take help of the study books too. These guides give you mock questions so that you can prepare various sections of the test. By going through the guides, you will be acquainted with question formats relating to timed test sections.

With assistance of coaching classes and guides, learn to emphasize on the key strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Solve the practice tests regularly and crack the exam easily. Apart from this, you need to be aware about what is happening around you, to get through the exam. Complete devotion and concentration along with regular practice is what it takes to clear the civil services examination.

a) Dictionary of Economics – Ghaham Bannock; T.E. Baxter, Ray Rees (Penguin)
b) Economics (Read Relevant Chapters) – Paul A. Samuelson
c) The Hindu: Survey of Agriculture & Survey of Industry
d) An Introduction to Economics – A.W. Stonier and D.C. Hauge
e) Monetary Theory and Public Policy – Kenneth Kurihara
f) Economic Survey : Eighth Five Year Plan: New Industrial Policy – Government of India
g) Outline of Monetary Economics (Read Relevant Chapters) – A.C.I. Day
h) Public Finance – H.L. Bhatia
i) Modern Banking(Read Relevant Chapters) – R.S. Sayers
j) Indian Economy – Mishra and Puri
k) Macro Economic Analysis – Edward Shepiro
l) Indian Economy – R. Dutt and KPM Sundaram
m) Money Supply in India: Concepts, Compilation and Analysis (Sec.1-3 New Series only): Functions and Working (Read Relevant Chapters) – Reserve Bank of India
n) Economic Growth and Development – Mayer and Baldwin
o) Public Finance – K.K. Andley and Sundharam
p) International Economics – Bo Soderston
q) National Income Accounting – Bakerman
r) Economics Choice – Koutsweanik
s) Banking – S.B. Gupta
t) International Trade – Bo Soderston

Everyday people are required to take a civil service examination as part of the pre-employment conditions required by different government organizations.

So how do you make sure you pass your examination and get a lucrative job in government? For starters, you really need to prepare. Study after study proves that those candidates who do study score much better than those who do not study. As a result, in order to make sure you pass your civil service test, get some practice.

There are many civil service study guides available for you to choose from. Most include civil service sample questions. Practicing for the civil service exam is a great way to get prepared for the exam.

Take practice tests that “mirror” the actual test you will be taking. Learn from credible people that know the “ins and outs” of the civil service test. And get your hands on an ethical, and legal cheat-sheet to help with your civil service exam prep. By knowing what to study and actual material that will be on the civil service exam, you can virtually guarantee that you pass the test the first time around! No more wasted hours and high test prep fees. Your testing woes will be gone and you will be able to move on to bigger and better things, like starting your new, high paying job.

Here are some ways to aid your preparation, straight from the experts. First is to find the easy ways to pass the exam. Familiarize yourself with the time tested question formats that will be on the test.

Time allowed: Three hours
Maximum marks: 300

Instructions
Candidates should attempt all questions.
The number of marks carried by each question is indicated at the end of the question.

1. Write an essay in about 300 words on any one of the following: (100)

(a) The ways to enrich our regional languages.

(b) Whither Indian democracy today?

(c) Terrorism in India

(d) Science and religion

(e) If I were the Prime minister of India

2. Read the following passage and answer in your own words the questions that follow (5×15=75)

The scientific and technological revolution has brought that fundamental changes in the socio-economic sphere.  The use of diesel engine and electricity and the beginning of the application of atomic energy have changed the modes of production.  These things have led to the concentration of capital in a few hands.  Great enterprises are replacing cottage industries and small firms.  The working classes have certainly benefited economically.  The miracle of production has necessitated the miracle of consumption.  Better amenities are available at a lower cost.  A man can buy anything he wants today, if e can only afford.  But what kind of men are needed today for our society? Men who can co-operate in large groups, men whose tasks are standardized, men who feel free and independent and at the same time are willing to fit in the social machine without any friction.

Modern man is faced with a sort of moral and spiritual dilemma.  The crisis of values yawns before him.  Today the old values are in the melting pot, and the new values have not found their foothold.  Man has become the automaton he has contrived; he has lost ownership of himself.  The discord between the development of positive science on the one hand and the dehumanization of man on the other is the worst crisis of the modern age.

Apart from the economic sphere, the socio-political sphere has not escaped this stratification and the congruent crisis of values.  Since the Renaissance, man has been striving for individual rights and self-dignity.  But under the present set-up, only two types of men are found the conditioner and the conditioned.  The propaganda officers and the planning bureaus have almost crushed the ‘individual self’, and it has resulted in the rise of the ’social self’. Due to this pressure, the personality fulfillment or its all-round development is denied to many.

(a) What has changed the modes of production today?

(b) What things are being replaced by great enterprises?

(c) What kind of men are needed today for our society?

(d) Why has man become the automaton of his own creation?

(e) Is modern man able to attain personality fulfillment?

3. Make a precise of the following passage in your own language, in about 230 words on the special precise-sheets provided.  The precise-sheets should be securely fastened inside the answer book.  Indicate the number of words used by you in your precise.

N.B.: Marks will be deducted if your precise is much longer and shorter than the prescribed length. (75)

“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” asked Henry David Thoreau.  More than a century later, the Earth seems to be literally falling to pieces – recent environmental set-backs include billions of tones of ices shelves breaking off in the Antarctic and unusually warm temperatures in different part of the world.  Panic reactions range from predictions of sinking islands to lamenting the ill-effects of global warming induced by release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  The trouble is that we are too much obsessed with the problem of climatic change to even acknowledge the fact that the state of the planet hinges on much more.  Climatic change is at best a symptom of a far more complex malaise, just as a fever is most often only an indicator of something that’s gone awry in our body.  It is time for a complete and comprehensive planetary health check, that will examine the impacts of change in land use, loss of biodiversity, use of fertilizers and pesticides and consistent pollution of water bodies.  This would overcome the limitations of evaluating how ecosystems work by reacting to just one major environmental concern as is happening in the case of global warming.  These considerations have been responsible for the setting up of an international panel, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.  Financed by four major international bodies, including the UNO and the World Bank, the eco-panel was set up without much fuss last June (2001), and is expected to determine, over a period of our years and at a cost of $21 million, the state of the Earth’s ecosystems.

The eco-panel will have source inputs from more than 2,000 natural and social scientists the world over.  Put simply, the earth will go through the equivalent of a through physical analysis, so that biological, economic and social information can be collated to help scientists arrive at a final diagnosis.  What is crucial, says one of the scientists, is that “no one has previously tried to work out how all of these conflicting pressures interact”.  The other important factor is how well we can orchestrate tread-offs and interactions in order to maintain ecological balance.  Scientific bodies like the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have access to vast amounts of baseline data relating to the subject – although critics point out that the information available is mostly from the North, leaving the concerns of the South largely unpresented.  The newly-constituted eco-panel will have to take all these aspects into account.  For instance, it will have to ensure that data collection is more representative of the regions of the world.  Today, we have the advantage of sourcing data from remote sensing satellites as well. The information thus gathered would have to be sorted out and analyzed by specialists and also by generalists – before the panel comes out with specific periodic predictions, prescriptions and warnings.  the e\healing process can begin only if all the scientific evidence and direction is made available to a wide audience and not just restricted to policy makers.  Rather than depending solely upon governments to listen to and take corrective action, the focus should now be on convincing individuals and communities whose collective or individual action will eventually make the difference between regression and recovery.

4. (a) Fill in the blanks using appropriate forms of the words given below:

ride, diminish, devotion, shout, watch, contest, disastrous, pleasure, philosophizing, finance (10)

(i) Mohan is _________________ to his father

(ii) None seems to have been ______________ with his speech.

(iii) She ________ at the peon when he sat down.

(iv) His _________ condition is at a low ebb now.

(v) Several candidates are _________________ the Panchayat elections.

(vi) The boy was frightened to __________ the movie.

(vii) What does Samkara’s _________ teach us?

(viii) Hariharan’s suspicious moves herald a _______

(ix) In the circus show, I saw a bear _____________ a bicycle.

(x) The chances of starvation deaths have __________ today.

4 (b) Use each of the following words in two separate sentences first as a noun and then as a verb:  (10)

(i) race (ii) hit (iii) play (iv) touch, (v) experiment.

4 (c) Rewrite the following sentences as directed parenthetically: (5)

(i) “Do not make a noise”, said the teacher to his students. (Change into indirect form)

(ii) Hari is so short that he cannot touch the ceiling. (Replace ’so’ by ‘too’)

(iii) I gave him a ten-rupee note yesterday. (change into passive voice)

(iv) She bought a house last year.  the house is white. (Change into simple sentence).

(v) Hard as as he worked, he failed in the examination. (Use ‘though’).

5. (a) Correct the following sentences:  (10)

(i) He boasts his achievements now and then.

(ii) She is living in this flat since 1995.

(iii) The principal was angry upon the boys.

(iv) Character is more preferable than intelligence.

(v) Krishna hanged all the pictures on the wall.

(vi) The sceneries of Kashmir move me most.

(vii) Cattle is grazing in the field.

(viii) Hari is going foreign next month.

(ix) She knew that I am leaving the place.

(x) His elder brother gave him many good advices.

5. (b) Of the words given in brackets, choose the one you think appropriate to fill in the blanks: (10)

(i) The road accident proved to be ______ (fateful, fatal)

(ii) He got a ________ opportunity to qualify in the test. (gold, golden)

(iii) Faridabad is an ______ city. (industrial, industrious)

(iv) An ashram is a ________ place. (quiet, quite)

(v) Sohan’s handwriting is _________ (eligible, illegible)

(vi) We should not disturb the ___________ of his mind. (piece, peace)

(vii) You should ____ an example to strengthen your viewpoint. (site, cite)

(viii) Akbar was an ______ to Humayun. (hair, heir)

(ix) Rajasthan is a well known ___________ (desert, dessert)

(x) The _______ turned me out of the class. (principle, principal).

5. (c) Use of the following phrases in sentences so as to bring out their meaning: (5)

(i) bring about

(ii) call names

(iii) run out

(iv) by leaps and bounds

(v) lame excuse

The second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), in its latest report has suggested a number of radical changes for revamping the Civil Services Examination system.

ARC, headed by Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, has suggested bringing a new civil services law with provisions of performance-based continuation of service, accountability and new system of promotion and cadre allotment. The 377-page report also talks about mandatory training at different stages of a civil servant’s career.

Major recommendations for Civil Services Examination aspirants

1. Permissible age for appearing in the Civil Services Examination should be 21 to 25 years for general candidates, 21 to 28 years for OBCs and 21 to 29 for SC/STs and physically challenged as against existing upper age limit of 30 for general, 33 for OBCs and 35 for SC/STs.

2.  Number of permissible attempts should be 3, 5, 6 and 6 for general, OBC, SC/ST and physically challenged as against existing 4, 7 and unlimited (subject to age limit) for general, OBC and SC/ST respectively.

3. Present cut-off date for determining eligibility in terms of age (August 1 in the year of exam) may continue.

4. Number of short-listed candidates after preliminary exam should be two to three times of the number of vacancies.

5.  Preliminary Examination – Only one or two general studies papers (including Constitution of India, Indian legal system, Indian economy, polity, history and culture). There should be no optional subject — as is the current practice.

6. Main Examination — Only compulsory subjects (2 papers) and essay
(one paper); no optional subject. Currently, aspirants have to appear in two optional subjects — two papers each — besides essay and general studies.

7. DoPT should finalise the syllabi of compulsory subjects for both the preliminary and main examination for the recruitment cycle of 2010.

8. Compulsory induction of officers of State Civil Services into IAS.

9.  Compulsory cadre allocation for north-eastern states.