UPSC IAS 2020: Exam Date, Eligibility, Admit Card, Syllabus, Pattern, Vacancies

UPSC IAS 2020: Union Public Service Commission has announced UPSC Civil Services Prelims exam date for the recruitment of 796 vacancies in Indian Civil Services of IAS/IPS/IFS/other posts. In this article, we have shared the complete details of UPSC Civil Services IAS Notification 2020 including IAS Selection Process, IAS Syllabus for Prelims/Mains, Exam Pattern, Preparation Tips & Strategy and Previous Year's Question Papers. IAS Aspirants who have filled the UPSC IAS Application Form 2020 cshould go through the given details and start preparations now for the UPSC Civil Services Exam 2020.

UPSC conducts the Civil Services exam every year to recruit IAS/IPS/IFS officers at all India level. The recruitment is carried out through two different phases - IAS Prelims Exam and IAS Mains Exam & Interview Round.

The IAS 2020 Recruitment will be carried out through exams. The IAS Exam Date 2020 is already out. UPSC Civil Services IAS Prelims Exam will be held on 4th October 2020 and IAS Mains will be held on 8 January 2021. Candidates need to qualify all the three rounds to get recruited in the Civil Services. Getting through the Interview and fetching that renowned post of IAS/IPS/IFS is a dream of every IAS Aspirant. We have tried to make it a little easy for you to prepare for the IAS exam by providing you with all the important details that you need to know. So, have a look at the IAS Exam Dates, Eligibility Criteria, Exam Pattern, Syllabus and selection process and prepare a complete study plan now for IAS Preparations.

UPSC IAS 2020: Important Dates

Event	Date
Release of IAS Notification 2020 PDF	12 February 2020
Start Date of IAS Application 2020	12 February 2020
Last Date of IAS Application 2020	3 March 2020
Release of IAS Admit Card 2020	September 2020 (Tentative)
IAS Prelims 2020 Exam Date	4 October 2020
IAS Mains 2020 Exam Date	8 January 2021

IAS Selection Process 2020

Candidates who want to seek recruitment in Civil Services IAS/IPS/IFS need to undertake:

• IAS Prelims

• IAS Mains & Interview

UPSC IAS Preliminary Exam is qualifying in nature. The marks of IAS Prelims are not considered in final merit list, from which the selection of candidates is made. The UPSC prepares the final merit list on the basis of marks secured by candidates in IAS Mains exam and Interview.

IAS Prelims Exam Pattern 2020

Paper	Total Questions	Marks	Time Duration
Paper I: General Studies	100	200	2 Hours
Paper II: GS (CSAT)	80	200	2 Hours

• In IAS Prelims exam, questions will be asked in Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) format

• There will be Negative Marking of 1/3rd marks (0.66) for each wrong answer

• GS Paper II (CSAT) is qualifying in nature; you need only 33 percent marks to clear this paper

• In the PwD category, blind candidates are allotted 20 minutes extra for each paper

IAS Mains Exam Pattern 2020

Paper	Name of Paper	Nature of Paper	Time Duration	Marks
Paper – A	Any Indian Language (objective)	Qualifying	3 Hours	300
Paper – B	English (objective)		3 Hours	300
Paper I	Essay	Merit Ranking	3 Hours	250
Paper II	General Studies I		3 Hours	250
Paper III	General Studies II		3 Hours	250
Paper IV	General Studies III		3 Hours	250
Paper V	General Studies IV		3 Hours	250
Paper VI	Optional Paper I		3 Hours	250
Paper VII	Optional Paper-II		3 Hours	250
Total				1750
Interview Round				275
Grand Total				2025

• IAS Mains exam is objective as well as descriptive in nature

• Candidates need to obtain IAS Cut off marks to qualify this round

•  The cut off is decided on the basis of total vacancies, the difficulty level of paper and candidates appearing for the exam.

- There will be Negative Marking of 1/3rd marks (0.66) for each wrong answer in objective paper only.

IAS Exam Preparation Tips & Strategy

1. - Read Newspaper daily such as The Hindu, Economic Times, others
2. - Get yourself acquainted with the most important Current Affairs topics by going through reliable sources such as Jagranjosh.com; Yojana & Frontline magazines; PIB, News on Air.
3. - Keep an eye on the latest happenings and try to link them with the UPSC IAS Syllabus. If you find it relevant, then prepare it thoroughly.
4. - Go through the IAS Previous Years’ Question Papers to brush up your preparations
5. - Read complete NCERT books from 9^th to 12^th standard of subjects link Geography, Polity, Economics, History, Science, and Maths.
6. - Prepare notes every time you are reading. For IAS Prelims, prepare short notes in bullet points and for IAS Mains, prepare descriptive notes.
7. - Prepare for General Studies CSAT by practising more and more mock tests and important questions. CSAT paper tests your accuracy and time management.
8. - Revise the sample papers or practice sets you have already attempted. This will help you in knowing your weak and strong areas.