UPSC Preliminary Examination

The first stage of the exam is the Preliminary stage.
The Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will consist of
two papers of Objective type (multiple choice questions)
and carry a maximum of 400 marks.

This examination is meant to serve as a screening test only;
the marks obtained in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination by the candidates
who are declared qualified for admission to the Civil Services (Main) Examination
will not be counted for determining their final order of merit.

Selection Ratio

The number of candidates to be admitted to the Civil Services (Main) Examination
will be about twelve to thirteen times the total approximate number
of vacancies to be filled in the year through this Examination.

Only those candidates who are declared by the Commission to have qualified
in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination in the year will be eligible
for admission to the Civil Services (Main) Examination of that year,
provided they are otherwise eligible.

Negative Marking (Note II)

• There are four alternatives for the answers to every question.
  For each question for which a wrong answer has been given,
  one-third (0.33) of the marks assigned to that question
  will be deducted as penalty.
• If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer
  even if one of the given answers happens to be correct and there will be
  the same penalty.
• If a question is left blank (no answer given), there will be
  no penalty for that question.

Examination Structure:

The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory Papers
of 200 marks each.

Important Notes

• Both the question papers will be of the objective type
  (multiple choice questions) and each will be of
  two hours duration.
• The General Studies Paper-II (CSAT) will be a
  qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at
  33%.
• The question papers will be set in both
  Hindi and English.