10 IAS Interview Tips for Success
Your performance in the Interview can make a considerable change in your score and hence your career. Besides, if you aim at joining the Indian Administrative Services, you not only need to compete, but compete in a manner so that you beat all the competition with great success.
What is it that UPSC actually aims at in the Interview?
The UPSC Interview aka Personality Test aims at making an assessment of your overall personality. It’s the complete personality of an individual that counts when he is faced with a problem in life. Needless to say, if you can think in a practical, yet justifiable and unprejudiced manner with respect to all concerned, you can be a capable administrator in future, if allowed to join the Indian Administrative Services, by UPSC.
Why Prepare for the Interview?
Though the UPSC Interview does not run for long, the half an hour that it usually takes is definitely worth preparing for. If you take the preparation for the Interview lightly, you are definitely jeopardizing your entire preparation for the IAS Exam, and the success that you gained after qualifying the Prelims and scoring well in the Mains.
However, if you perform well at the Interview, you may find that another 100 marks would be added to your score! And that would definitely move you ahead of the competition. And that too, in the hardest of the hard competitions called the Civil Services Exam.
And with this unbeatable lead in the score, UPSC might even ask you to join your favourite cadre i.e., IAS. And that’s what you had been aiming at when you began with the preparation for the IAS Exam.
Tips to Clear and Score High in the Interview
It’s not very unusual that the candidate who scores well in the Interview tops the list of the highest rank holders when UPSC declares the CSE results. Though it should not be taken for granted that the total score and hence, the rank in the CSE results is declared by CSE only after adding the score in the Mains and the Interview. However, the point to be noted is that your performance in the Interview can push your score and the rank higher than you what you might have anticipated.
Here are quite a few relevant tips to clear and score higher in the Interview
First of all, do not take your preparation for the IAS Interview lightly. The major reasons for preparing with great sincerity for the Personality Test have already been specified above. Anyway, you are free to add your own to the same.
The tips described below would help you prepare well and perform well at the Personality Test
1. Begin early!
It’s highly crucial not to waste any time. Begin at the earliest. Start grooming your personality. There is no point waiting for the Mains results to be declared by UPSC first. It will only result into a waste of time.
2. Know thyself
Well, by now, you are fully aware that UPSC is going to make an assessment of your personality in order to find if you can be a capable administrator. But the point to be noted is whether you know yourself well. Unless and until you know yourself well, how can you convey yourself in a logically convincing manner to UPSC?
It’s advisable to do an honest soul searching? Ask yourself, if you have all the qualities required to function as a capable administrator. If not, cultivate the missing ones. And that is another big advantage of beginning early. By doing so, you can cultivate even those qualities that you did not possess earlier.
3. Read the DAF repeatedly
The UPSC Interview Board comprises five members. And the details that you provide in the DAF are decoded by the Interview Board well. And, as a result, quite a number of the questions in the Interview are likely to be based on the same.
The DAF reveals a lot about you. So, be ready to answer the questions based upon your home state, hobby etc. Besides, be truthful while providing details in the DAF. For example, do not fill in gardening as your hobby if it is not so.
4. Be positive
Prepare in the best possible manner. Aim at performing in the best possible manner. Also, hope for the best. There is no point in getting unnerved even if you have already faced the UPSC Interview earlier, but without succeeding. If you have failed once, it does not imply that you would fail again. So, be positive. Believe in yourself. And do your best.
5. Do not tell lies
It’s in the best of your own interests if you abstain from telling lies. The UPSC Interview Board would realize instantly if you begin to tell lies. It’s not going to serve any purpose. It might make you lose a few marks that you might have gained otherwise.
6. Your communication skills count well
Try to express yourself well. You should not be at a loss of words while conveying your thoughts. Improve your vocabulary lest you may find yourself at a loss looking for the right word during the Interview!
Thus, it’s advisable to listen to the news at various TV channels, not ignoring the debates concerning various current affairs either. It would not only enhance your communication skills, but would also improve and update your knowledge of the current affairs, concerning what goes on at the national and international platform. And no IAS aspirant can deny that the knowledge and what’s more, the regularly updated knowledge of current affairs is highly crucial to perform well at all the three stages of the Civil Services Exam including Interview.
7. Be Precise
Be precise. Answer to the point. It’s a brief and precise answer that counts more rather than a lengthy and meaningless jargon.
8. Read The Hindu regularly
It only stands in the best of your own interests if you read a flawlessly competent newspaper, say The Hindu regularly. Be thorough with the current affairs. And keep your knowledge of the same updated. It should always be kept in the mind that gaining and updating the knowledge of current affairs is simply indispensable at all the stages of the Civil Services Exam.
9. Revise your optional subject
It’s advisable to be thorough with the recent developments, in case, there have been any, related to your Optional subject. And it’s only logical that you revise your Optional subject. UPSC might ask the questions to assess your personality, be they based on the DAF or your Optional Subject etc.
10. Stay away from any prejudice
A candidate who allows himself to be prejudiced is far from being a good administrator. And UPSC is a body that is known for being impartial. All the three stages of the Civil Services Exam, specifically the Interview aims at assessing your personality.
In case, your answers in the Interview reflect that you are a prejudiced individual, you yourself would be reducing the probability of your being selected by UPSC, no matter, howsoever well you might have scored in the Mains.
Thus, apart from your knowledge, it’s your personality that UPSC aims at making an assessment of. Thus, you should have an unprejudiced bent of the mind.
Conclusion
Finally, all major aspects concerning a logical preparation for the Interview have been talked of. However, it should not be forgotten that you are to communicate in a confident, and yet stay calm, even if you feel that UPSC should not have asked some of the questions. Thus, you should be able to analyze what the question actually aims at and answer accordingly.
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How to read The Hindu Effectively in Order to Clear the IAS Exam?
How To Clear The Ias Exam In The Very First Attempt Itself
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