Education and Career Forum

Respected Sir, I have completed M.Tech in Telecommunication (ECE).I am weak in G.K and I want to apply for UPSC exam to become an IAS officer. I want to know which subject should I choose in UPSC exam? Please answer as soon as possible.

1. You have done Master of Technology in telecommunication and now you want to become IAS officer. You will have to work very hard if you are weak in General Knowledge because general knowledge and awareness is backbone of preparation of Civil Services examination. Read daily newspapers and take help of Atlas to locate places mentioned in daily newspapers.

2. The maximum age of for general category candidate is 32 years, for OBC is 35 years and for SC/ST candidate is 37 years.

3. You can select any subject of your interest as an optional subject. Do not take subjects on suggestion of others. In which every subject you will comfortable, you can opt for that.

UPSC conducts Civil Service examination every year for recruitment of candidates as I.A.S, I.P.S, I.F.S etc.

The eligibility to appear for entrance examination is :-

Candidate must have passed bachelor degree from a recognised university.

Candidate's age must be between 21-32 years.

The examination is conducted in three stages as Preliminary, Mains and Interview. The candidates are free to select the optional paper other than discipline of bachelor degree or master's degree.

So, you can select any paper in which you have interest but you need to improve your General Awareness and Current Affairs for final selection in Preliminary stage.

To get details about examination visit at www.upsc.gov.in.

General awareness is an important section and contains almost 60% weightage of Civil Services examination. Without general knowledge and awareness, you can not even think to clear this examination. You need to read first basic books of Civics, Geography, Economics and History. The best basic books are NCERT books. Complete all NCERT books from standard 6th to 10+2. Do not leave any book and understanding basic fundamentals.

After completion of basic books, you can read standard books like Polity by DD Basu, Geography by Leong, Economics by Sanjiv Verma, History by Bipan Chandra etc. You should complete all these books. Along with books, read daily newspapers. You can read "The Hindu newspaper". You can select any subject as per your interest. If you are not interested in technical subjects, you can select any arts stream subject which you like and have interest in it.

There are many streams (optional subjects) in UPSC to become an IAS officer. You may go with any one of the below mentioned subjects. Some of the major backgrounds that are available are,
* Medical Background
* Science
* Engineering
* Literature
* Law
* Commerce
* Management

As you are from Engineering background, you may choose any of the streams available in Engineering. Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Economics, Civil Engineering, Management, Physics, Philosphy ..etc., are optional subjects. I suggest you to go with Electrical Engineering subject as an Optional subject.

It is very much important to have candidates better knowledge of General Knowledge, Current Affairs and General Studies.

As, these are most important to appear and qualify in all three stages of examination which is Preliminary, Mains and Interview.

So, you need to do better by going through newspaper, new channels and magazines.