UPSC Civil Services prelims to be held in October

The civil services preliminary examination for this year, postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, now will be held on October 4, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) declared on Friday. It also stated that the personality test or the interviews of the contenders nominated through the last year’s preliminary and mains will resume from July 20. The exams will be conducted, as per the revised schedule released by the UPSC.

Candidates can sign in on to the official website to check the revised schedule: upsc.gov.in

Also, the Civil Services (Main) Exam will be held from January 8, 2021.

This comes after the commission has learnt in a previous notice that the exam dates would be declared after the coronavirus outbreak situation in the nation is measured on June 5, 2020.

The examination (pre) was earlier scheduled to be held on May 31. However, it was postponed in light of the lockdown imposed in the entire country in order to curtail the spread of coronavirus. According to some reports, this year, around 10 lakh civil services candidates have registered for the UPSC prelims.

HOW EXAMS ARE CONDUCTED

• The exams are conducted in three stages. The first is the initial exams which are called as prelims which contain objective or multiple-choice questions. It has two papers-- the General Ability Test (GAT) and the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), both are mandatory. Only those aspirants who clear the prelims are eligible for the next round.
• The next stage is the main examination: The Civil Services (Main) Examination, with the number of papers to be conducted in a span of five days.
• The third and last stage is the personality test or interview or personality test, which is totalled as a part of the Main exam.