The UPSC IFS exam consists of two stages. The first one is the Civil Services Preliminary Exam which is an objective type test. The second one is the Indian Forest Service Main Examination which consists of Written and an Interview test. As per the UPSC IFS exam pattern, the Preliminary exam is conducted for a total of 400 marks, while the Main written exam for 1400 marks and the Interview for 300 marks. There will be negative marking only in the preliminary exam.
Indian Forest Services Exam is conducted every year to select candidates for the post in the department of Ministry of Environment and Climate Change
| Name of the exam | Indian Forest Service (IFS) |
| Conducting body | Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) |
| Negative Marking | Yes in Prelims, No in Mains |
| Total Marks | Prelims – 400 marks, Mains – 1400 marks |
| Total Duration | Prelims – 4 hours, Mains – 3 hours |
| Total Number of Questions | Prelims – 400 marks, Mains – 1400 marks |
The candidate must be an Indian citizen.
The Preliminary exam is an objective type paper. There will be two compulsory papers: Paper 1 and Paper 2. Both the papers comprise of 200 marks each and a 2-hour duration will be assigned for each paper (For Blind candidates, extra 20 minutes will be provided). That means a total of 400 marks is there in the Preliminary Exam as per the UPSC IFS exam pattern.
Civil Services Preliminary exam act as a screening test for both the Indian Forest Service Examination as well as the Civil Services Examination. Since this is a screening test, the marks scored in this exam will not be considered for consideration of a candidate for the final merit list.
According to the UPSC IFS exam pattern, the medium of the question paper would be English and Hindi. However, the English Language Comprehension section will be in English no matter whether the medium is English or Hindi.
There will be a total of 4 papers where you need to write essays. The first two paper comprises of 300 marks while the remaining papers are of 200 marks. There is an option between Paper III and Paper IV as well as the option between Paper V and Paper VI. Duration of 3 hours will be given for every paper. Each of the question paper will be in the English language. Only blind candidates can take the help of a scribe to write the exam and also they will be given an extra of 30 minutes.
| Paper | Subject | Marks |
| Paper I | General English | 300 |
| Paper II | General Knowledge | 300 |
| Paper III | Optional Subject 1 | 200 |
| Paper IV | Optional Subject 2 | 200 |
| Paper V | Optional Subject 3 | 200 |
| Paper VI | Optional Subject 4 | 200 |
| Total | 1400 |
According to the UPSC IFS exam pattern, marks will be deducted if the candidate’s handwriting is not clear and easy to read. It is advisable that a candidate maintains orderly, effective and exact expression combined with due economy of words in all subjects of the examination. Candidate must use only the international form of Indian Numerals (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.) while answering question papers. SI units should be used wherever required. Scientific calculators should be used only at the conventional type examination of UPSC. Programmable calculators are not allowed.
Please note that the candidates can’t take the following combination of subjects:
Candidate will be interviewed by the board and will be tested whether they are the right person for this service or not. The board will asses the personality of the candidates by asking some questions which can be difficult or easy (depending on the individual). The candidate from their answer should be able to impress the board irrespective of his/her academic or past achievements.
An ideal candidate should have these following traits. However, if you don’t have these traits then you should not let yourself down. Try to be natural. Don’t try to become somebody else in an interview.
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