( Shruti Bhatia, B.A. (Hons.), 1st Year, Patiala, Via: E-Mail )
Dear Shruti, you are an undergraduate student of 19 yrs. The eligibility for Civil Services Examination is 21 yrs. You want to study further and complete your post-graduation first and then later on give an attempt. However, there is no hard and fast rule which tells you when to start reading or studying for this examination. You can start at any age. Many aspirants start preparing for this examination even when they are still at school. Since it is your childhood dream, I hope that you must have been studying newspapers or relevant magazines to keep you abreast of the current affairs. This will help you cover most of your syllabus. Your choice of the optional will decide on your other half of the preparation. If you take your undergraduate and post grad subject as optional, vast majority of the syllabus will be completed simultaneously. Civil Services Examination is a tough examination. It requires extensive preparation. If you have made your mind to compete for this examination, it will be better if you start preparing at the earliest even though if you would like to give the exam at a later stage. It is rightly said that ‘early bird gets the worm’.