The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts various examinations in India to recruit candidates for the country’s civil services. The most well-known of these is the Civil Services Examination (CSE), which is conducted annually to select candidates for the prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and other allied civil services.
The UPSC exam is renowned as one of the toughest and most competitive exams globally due to several reasons:
Extremely Low Success Rate
The UPSC exam has an exceptionally low success rate, which continues to drop further each year. For instance, in 2022, around 749,000 candidates appeared for the preliminary exam. However, only 8575 candidates cleared the mains exam and were interviewed.
Finally, only 685 candidates were recommended for various civil services. This puts the overall success rate at 0.09% or even lower. The unbelievably low success rate makes it extremely challenging for aspirants to get selected.
Vast and Exhaustive Syllabus
The UPSC CSE preliminary and main exam syllabus is vast, diverse, and exhaustive. For the prelims, candidates must prepare for subjects like current affairs, history, geography, polity, economy, environment, general science, and aptitude.
The main exam has wider optional subjects, including language papers, mathematics, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, geology, commerce, law, and more. Candidates must gain expert-level knowledge across this vast syllabus spanning school-level to graduate-level topics. Such extensive preparation is required to crack the exams.
Multi-Stage Examination
The UPSC exam process comprises three critical stages – Preliminary, Main, and Personality Test, which assess candidates intensely over diverse parameters. The prelims stage has two objective-type papers testing general awareness and aptitude. Candidates need in-depth knowledge and strategic thinking to clear this round.
The main exam has nine descriptive papers testing academic knowledge, analytical skills, problem-solving, language proficiency, and more over five days. Finally, the personality test or interview examines a candidate’s mental acuity, etiquette, suitability for civil services, leadership skills, and social awareness. Excelling in all three stages requires thorough preparation.
Negative Marking
UPSC exams follow negative markings for incorrect answers, which increases the difficulty level. In the preliminary exam, 1/3rd marks are deducted for each wrong answer. In the main exam, too, there is a penalty for irrelevant content or wrong facts.
Due to negative marking, aspirants cannot attempt questions randomly without thorough reading and understanding. They have to be tactical in their approach for every single question attempted. Any casualness can lead to losing precious marks and jeopardize the final selection.
Competition from Lakhs of Aspirants
The UPSC exam attracts lakhs of highly educated and diligent candidates annually from across India. Many aspirants prepare rigorously for 1-2 years or even more. The competition is extremely intense, especially in the main exam, where only a fraction of preliminary qualified candidates get to appear.
Fighting for limited vacancies (around 800) against the best aspirants in the country makes the UPSC exam highly competitive. Candidates have to perform among the toppers to get the final selection consistently.
Multi-lingual Paper Setting & Evaluation
The UPSC exam papers are set simultaneously in English, Hindi, and official regional languages. Candidates can choose their preferred language medium. However, the examiners and evaluators are not language-specific.
The candidate’s answer script may be checked by someone unfamiliar with their language. Hence, those opting for regional languages must write exceptionally clear and standard-oriented content to score well. This multi-lingual evaluation pattern adds difficulties for some candidates.
No Predictability or Set Pattern
UPSC exam questions are never predictable or from any set pattern. Question papers are designed randomly, covering the vast syllabus. Every year, the difficulty level, topics coverage, and type of questions change.
Candidates cannot assume what may be asked or not asked based on previous years. The dynamic nature of the exam makes preparatory strategies extremely tricky. Aspirants must gain conceptual clarity across topics and develop adaptation skills for unfamiliar questions.
Psychological Pressure
The UPSC exam puts immense psychological pressure on candidates due to its do-or-die nature for many aspirants. The extensive time, effort, and money invested in preparation, tough competition, and low success ratio create huge performance anxiety.
Many candidates succumb to the stress and cannot take exams optimally despite extensive preparation. Managing the stress so that it does not impede performance is essential. This adds to the exam difficulty.
Lengthy Exam Preparation
Preparing for the UPSC exam typically takes 1-2 years of rigorous preparation, even for gifted candidates. However, many aspirants make multiple attempts to clear this exam over several years.
Staining momentum and determination over such a prolonged period increases the exam’s difficulty. Candidates need to manage their time efficiently, remain motivated, and keep expanding their knowledge consistently to emerge successful eventually.
Dynamic Current Affairs Component
The UPSC exam emphasizes testing candidates’ knowledge of current affairs across diverse topics. But current events change daily and cannot be predicted. Through extensive reading, aspirants need to stay updated with the latest happenings and their backgrounds.
They must know the latest policies, bills, Supreme Court judgments, global events, people in the news, etc. Preparing current affairs daily over a lengthy period is challenging.
No Option to Select Exam Centres
UPSC candidates do not have the flexibility to choose their preferred exam city or center. Candidates are allocated a random exam center, which may require traveling to a new city and adjusting to an unfamiliar location just before the exam.
For some candidates, especially from rural areas, managing transport and lodging to reach the allotted center poses difficulties and affects exam performance.
In conclusion
The UPSC Civil Services Examination is considered the most challenging in India and globally because it tests candidates’ mettle on all fronts – in-depth knowledge across a vast syllabus, understanding of concepts, analytical skills, language proficiency, mental alertness, and ability to handle immense pressure.
Despite lakhs of brilliant aspirants competing fiercely, the extremely low success ratio makes this exam an extraordinarily tough nut to crack. Those who ultimately succeed demonstrate remarkable skill, determination, consistency, and confidence.
