According to Officers IAS Academy's Israel Jebasingh, the UPSC interview is more of a test of personality than it is of knowledge.
Aspirants for the Civil Services who passed the Preliminary and Main rounds of the UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE) in 2017 are excitedly anticipating passing the third and most crucial stage, the Personality Test, commonly known as the Interview round.
Israel Jebasingh worked as an IAS officer for almost ten years after successfully passing the CSE twice and earning the All India Rank 59 in 2004. He is currently in charge of Chennai's Officers IAS Academy. Mr. Jebasingh discusses his exam-cracking experience and offers advice to aspiring candidates on how to master the interview panel:
The process of interview of UPSC
An interview with the UPSC Civil Services takes roughly 30 minutes. The goal of the interview is to determine if the applicant is qualified for a position in the civil services. Specifically, whether the applicant has the capacity to exhibit strong administrative skills. 275 out of a possible 2025 points are awarded for the interview. Although the marks from both the Mains and Personality Test are taken into account for ranking, the candidate's performance in the Mains test has no bearing on how the interview will proceed.
Many students believe that the CSE interview is a simple knowledge exam. It is more of a personality exam than a knowledge test. No particular response is infallibly correct or incorrect. Simply by watching a candidate respond to a question, the interview panel evaluates them. The panel does not assess the candidates' knowledge. It evaluates a couple of the candidates' personality attributes instead. The notion that the panel assigns grades in an arbitrary manner is another. Candidates with low test scores sometimes accuse the interview panel or bad luck for their poor performance. The panel's members are quite impartial. I firmly think that each applicant determines their own grade based on performance and personality attributes.
How is the experience
I didn't place first in my class or win any awards at college, but I did pass the CSE twice. I first met the requirements for the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS). With an All India Rank of 59 the second time, I was eligible for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). I am convinced that the tactics I learned from a few gurus who had already passed the exam were the key to my success. These methods are a straightforward technique for all examination levels and don't require any advanced knowledge. I firmly think that effective methods are usually straightforward. Unfortunately, some applicants pass up success because they believe it to be too difficult.
The hiring committee
The panel is made up of the interview board chairman and four more people. The board's chairman is always a UPSC member. The remaining four members of the panel are typically specialists picked by UPSC from other disciplines. The panel evaluates whether the candidate possesses the personality qualities required for different Civil Services. According to what I've heard, many candidates take spoken English lessons in order to do better in CSE interviews. However, this is not an exam to hire English teachers for many key universities. Instead, the panel is choosing applicants who have the fundamental character qualities that a civil servant is supposed to have.
common inquiries and evaluation
The panel quizzes the applicants on the information provided in their thorough application forms. The questions will include the candidate's hometown, interests, local problems, current global problems, and more. The panellists pay close attention to the candidate's responses to each query. Any question can have more than one correct response. For instance, if a candidate from Tamil Nadu is asked about the Cauvery water issue, they are expected to take into account the difficulties encountered by the farmers in Karnataka, and vice versa for a candidate from Karnataka. The panel judges the candidate's responses based on whether they reflect an Indian perspective or a regional one.
Preparation
The candidates shouldn't waste their time trying to remember numbers and information. I advise them to take the time to understand the other viewpoint on any topic. Instead of adopting a narrow perspective on each problem, they should adopt a balanced one. For instance, rather than studying only about the issues of Punjabi farmers, a candidate from Punjab should read about the issues facing Haryana farmers and the building of the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal.
Instead of referring to biriyani when asked what is distinctive about Hyderabad, I advise candidates from Andhra Pradesh or Telengana to discuss notable local figures like Swami Ramananda Tirtha or Makhdoom Mohiuddin who fought against the Nizam and for the unification of Hyderabad State with our nation.
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