Any graduate can take the Civil Services exam. However, at least a year’s focused preparation with stress on strengthening general knowledge, language skills and cognitive abilities is needed to crack it. Not surprisingly, only the best candidates possessing the highest degree of patience taste success.
There are around 1,000 all-India seats for which at least 10 lakh candidates apply for the preliminary test. However, only around five lakh candidates normally appear for the prelims and among them, a miniscule percentage win. In other words, a large majority of applicants fail to clear the test.
However, the failed candidates have many similarities with the legendary explorer Christopher Columbus. Columbus had started his sea voyage from Spain apparently towards the spice-rich Malabar Coast, but failed. However, he made other crucial discoveries such as the continent of South America, where no European had set foot on, till then. In other words, Columbus’s journey was a success in another way and he attained immortality.
The fate of a candidate preparing seriously for Civil Service is much like that of Columbus. He or she would be tuned to tackle not only Civil Service but also any other exam. This, in itself, is a big achievement.
A silver lining for candidates who pass the preliminary and main exams, but fail to clear the interview is the publication of the marks on the website of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). So, even if they do not gain entry to Civil Service, their marks in the exam and interview would be visible to employers in the public as well as private sector. Such employers are likely to utilize the talents of the highly-competent youngsters.
For the interview, only around 2,000 candidates are selected from the initial five lakh applicants. Not surprisingly, all of them would be extremely talented.
(Marks of candidates are uploaded only with their consent)