How difficult it is to become an IAS officer?

Becoming an IAS officer is a dream of every aspirant who prepares for the Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC. But not everyone’s dreams turn into reality. That’s because of the limited positions available every year, and lakhs of candidates aspire to become Indian civil servants. 

Why it is difficult to clear UPSC Exam?

Here are a few reasons why it is difficult to become an IAS officer. 

• The process of the exam itself and the expectations of the exam from the candidates in different stages. 
• Complexity and vast nature of the UPSC Syllabus.
• Qualifying in the CSAT Paper for non-engineering students
• Qualifying in the compulsory papers of one Indian language and English papers in the Mains exam. 
• Uncertainty in the nature of questions asked in the exam. 
• Increased competition level  
• A limited number of vacancies (less than 1000 per year)
• Lakhs of people appear in the exam and only thousands get selected. 

Importance of CSAT Exam

Even though the CSAT paper is qualifying in nature, a few candidates struggle to clear this paper. It is equally important to clear this paper and the candidates have to devote time to prepare this paper as their hard work for GS Paper I will go waste if he/she couldn’t clear this paper 2 of the UPSC Prelims exam. 

To know more about the CSAT Syllabus And Strategy, check the linked article. 

Optional Papers

The prominent confusion among the aspirants is when they decide their optional subject. Those who are from Humanities background can find their related subject in the list of optional subjects. There are 25 optional subjects, and the literature of the given language papers also can be chosen as an optional. Choosing the right optional is itself a task, and aspirants often think which optional subject is easiest and most scoring in the exam before they decide on the optional. 

Non-IIT Engineering students, in general, do not prefer to choose their graduate subjects and are comfortable in choosing a humanities subject. Optional papers need an in-depth study of the subject, and these students frequently struggle because of the relative newness of the subjects. 

Moreover, aspirants who have done journalism, electronics and communication engineering, chemical engineering, etc., in their undergrad do not find their subject in the list of optional subjects. Even though the list of optional subjects is long, it is still missing on some popular subjects. This is also one of the aspects why it is considered to be a difficult exam to pass through.

To know the list of Optionals in the Mains Exam, check the linked article. 

Indian Language and English Papers

The candidates have to choose one of the Indian languages from a list of 22 languages, and the English language is compulsory.  After the 10th or 12th board, mostly during the graduation period, there is no language paper and there are chances that the candidates might have lost touch in the subject. Nowadays, there is a popular trend of learning Spanish, German and French as their second language in schools and for these particular students, it is even more difficult to learn and clear the compulsory Indian Language paper. Likewise, those aspirants who are from Hindi-medium, Tamil-medium or any other native language medium will find the compulsory English paper to be hard. 

To read Tips to Clear Compulsory Language Papers in UPSC Mains, check the linked article. 

Stages of the exam

There are three stages which the aspirant should clear to get selected for one of the posts in the civil service examination.

The candidates can read more about the three stages of the exam from the links below:

1. Prelims
2. Mains
3. Interview

All these stages are popularly known as rejection levels than selection levels. 

It is difficult to clear this exam because the candidate has to clear all the levels in one go and has to attain the highest marks to get IAS Cadre. Even if a candidate fails in the interview process, the person has to undergo the entire process once again and there is no significance that he/she has secured ‘x’ marks in any of the stages of the exam in his/her previous attempt. 

Cut-off Marks of IAS Exam

The aspirants have to clear the minimum cut-off marks set up by the commission to clear the particular level. If he/she attains the cut-off marks, the person can appear in the next level. Just attaining the cut-off marks is not enough to get the IAS Cadre or any other top cadres, the aspirants have to score more than the cut-off marks especially in Mains and Interview stage to get one of the desired services. 

Get an idea about UPSC Cut Off marks by the data given below for the year 2020. The expected cut-off for 2021 and previous years can be found in the linked article. 

The above marks are cut off marks on the basis of GS Paper-I only. GS Paper-II was of qualifying nature with 33% marks as per Rule-15 of Civil Services Examination, 2020.

The cut-off marks of the Mains exam 2020 for different categories of candidates are tabled below:

Getting these minimum cut-off marks will make the candidate eligible for the next level, but not secure a post. That’s because, while preparing the final merit list, the cumulative sum of Mains and Interview marks will be taken into account. Therefore, scoring 20-30+ marks above the cut-off marks is always safe. 

Even after clearing the cut-off marks of the final stage, the candidate is still unsure of which post he/she might get. That’s because a number of criteria such as date of birth, community category, etc are considered.

Approximately, 10 Lakh people applied for UPSC 2020, and almost 4 lakh plus candidates appeared in prelims and 761 made it to the final list. Out of which 545 male and 216 female candidates got qualified in the UPSC Civil Services Exam 2020. 

After clearing all the stages, approximately 120-180 people who have secured the highest marks get the prestigious and most desirable Indian Administrative Service post. 

For all these reasons, it is called one of the toughest exams in the country. 

To read more about the list of UPSC Posts, check the linked article. 

How many appear and how many clear the exam?

Almost 9 Lakh plus candidates appeared for Prelims 2021 and out of that only 9000+ candidates were able to clear the preliminary stage of the exam. Again, these candidates will be competing in the second stage, that is, Mains and finally only 700+ vacancies will be filled. Therefore, if we look at the proportion of the number of candidates who appear for the exam and the number of candidates who get into service is very minute, and the probability is also less. Also, it can’t be said that all these 9-10 lakh people prepare seriously for the exam.

Though it is difficult to become an IAS officer, however, not impossible. Motivate yourself with the articles linked below:

• How to Become an IAS Officer
• IAS Salary
• Last India Rank of IAS, IPS, IFS
• Life at LBSNAA 

Other related links: