Recently the Civil Services Mains result 2017 has been declared and a total number of 2,568 candidates have been selected for the final stage of Personality assessment test. Now, this hurdle of Interview Test is the only barrier remained between you and your goal of becoming the part of a coveted Indian bureaucracy. The Civil Services examination, conducted by Union Public Service Commission, is one of the most arduous and keenest competitions in India, involving over ten lakh aspirants vying for a mere thousand odd seats. Spread over a period of nearly a year, the Preliminary, Mains and Interview phases of this examination is a systematic process of assessment of your personality traits for the civil servants’ appointments. The personality test, which is the final gateway to the so-called corridors of power – to the foreign services, administrative services, police services and various types of Group A and Group B civil services, is perceived as the proverbial X-factor in the success story of a candidate. The 275 marks of the Personality test (out of a total of 2025 marks) are significant as UPSC can award as high as 80% or as low as 30% of the budgeted marks. This implies a range of nearly 140 marks, which can catapult an aspirant to the top 100 or simply chuck him or her out of reckoning.

The Personality Test schedule for Civil Services Examination 2017 has been declared and the eligible candidates have already received their e-summon letters for the same. The Interview Schedule for this year extends from 19^th Feb 2018 to 20^th April 2018. These interviews would be conducted by a number of boards of UPSC, each headed by a UPSC member and comprising of four to five other members, usually experts from different fields. The board conducts the interview by posing questions, seeking views and assessing the objective appreciation of a candidate regarding different issues of national and international significance. It also tests the candidates in areas related to their personal profile as disclosed in their ‘Detailed Application Form’ (DAF) submitted to the UPSC. The tenor of the interview is that of a purposeful conversation. The objective is the assessment of thoughts and overall personality of a candidate and not merely bookish knowledge or even theoretical concepts, with the latter already being an area of evaluation in the Civil Services Mains examination. What the board usually endeavours to assess in the aspirants, is her/his sincerity of purpose, clarity of thoughts and expression, balance of judgement, ability to reason, to think critically, analytically in a holistic way, positivity in approach, awareness and concern for socio-economic issues and problems, inter alia other attributes. But what is of utmost importance is the ability to think with an honest approach, sincerity of purpose and willingness to toil hard.

             The issues of national and international importance and even those of regional or local significance often form the nucleus, around which the interview revolves. Getting a good grasp of such issues is of essence. However, the focus in interview is not on mere facts and figures, but more on issues, their appreciation, analysis and solution to the problem. Such articles are often found in the editorial pages of the top national dailies, which must be perused properly and comprehended fully by the aspirants. To give a wider coverage to interview preparation, aspirants should go through a couple of national dailies regularly. Political gossips, page three news, sports trivia and other such news items do not add any value to the interview preparation and should be avoided. It is advisable to collect the old issues or net archives of good monthly magazines atleast for last six months. The habit of making precise and concise notes of all these issues would be handy in this final stage of interview preparation. In the recent years, internet has emerged as a viable option for gathering all the relevant information on any topic. Besides reading newspapers, magazines, watching/hearing news programmes etc, internet resources can be handy in developing material related to your personal profile (DAF). Additionally, interaction with some of the successful candidates of UPSC personality test of previous years or experts from certain fields of your interest or study, could be of great help in value addition towards interview preparation. The role of practice and mock interviews can’t be underestimated and one must attend quality mock interview sessions for gaining the confidence for the final interview.

The self confidence is the key towards your success in this final stage of Personality Assessment Test of Civil Services Examination. Arthur Ashe, three times Grand Slam Winner, believes that one important key to success is self-confidence and important key to self-confidence is preparation! So believe in yourself, let your original positivity emerge out and prepare systematically to achieve your professional goal…

(The author of this article ,Lt Col (Dr) Satish Dhage, is an ex Army officer and has been qualified for IPS (Indian Police Services) through IPS LCE 2012. Presently, he is Director, MGM Institute of Competitive Exams Aurangabad. For any queries or feedback, he can be contacted on email id : drsatishdhage@gmail.com