- A number of IAS aspirants ask this question pertaining to the level of English required in the UPSC examination. we think UPSC is conscious of the fact that IAS is an All India Services, and after your selection, you can be posted in any part of the country. Hindi is definitely the largest spoken language in the country.
- Yet it is not a very widely spread language to date, and for that matter, neither is any other language. On the other hand, despite being spoken by a very small portion of the Indian population, English is the most thinly spread language in the country. So, in that context and at that level only UPSC likes to see your proficiency in English.
- Consequently, in UPSC examination, English figures only as a part of your qualifying paper, in the Mains Examination ‘Paper B’. That too, at only the Matriculation level .
- This is because you are required to know at least the working level of the English language so that it can help you connect with the people and other officials if you are posted in any remote part of the country.
- If knowing English was a major issue with the UPSC, they would have assigned higher marks for this language or tested you at a higher level in this language. So we suggest that you should not be concerned unduly about your English while preparing for the UPSC examination.
- Do not think that if you do not know English well you are in any way disadvantaged as compared to other candidates or to that extent, you are advantaged because of your proficiency in English. The important thing to be kept in mind is that you should be in a position to comprehend English, understand English, make sense out of some writing in English and be able to express in English to the extent it is part of a general school curriculum.
- So we think that is something which is to be important, not thinking that somebody who knows English better would have a higher chance to clear this examination. If it were so, UPSC would have definitely made English a part of the compulsory marks-weighted segment of the General Studies. But it is not, is it? Therefore, you should not worry too much on this count.
- But then I would also like to mention here that simply by ignoring English completely, candidates could find themselves in a position where their main papers are not evaluated largely because of the reason they could not pass the qualifying paper.
- So, please check what is your current level of English and I would like you to go to the website and search for those qualifying papers and see for yourself that you are able to do them to the expected level or not.
- If not, you better work around them as this would also help you reading and understanding a lot of additional study material that are available only in English.
- This way you would not be disadvantaged in any manner in terms of the resource material as compared to the people who have taken English as a medium of instruction.
- Another thing, a few years ago, observing that a lot of students who were good at writing but were not very expressive as far as spoken English is concerned, UPSC gave an option that even if you have written Mains in English, you have a choice of giving your Interview in another language like Hindi.
- So we think that option is also available for you to feel relieved from the concerns of English. If you are not very proficient in speaking English, still don’t worry. You can have an option of giving your Interview in the language of your proficiency. But then that has to be notified while filling up the form of UPSC.
- We believe in the fact that if English were the basis of IAS examination, only the students from English medium schools would have cleared this examination. But that is not the case. We have people succeeding in this examination from all possible diverse background and they also get very high ranks. In short, English definitely is not the major differentiating factor in UPSC examination.
- Further to improve your English, we provide English classes to improve your English and make it more expressive.
- So stop worrying unduly and instead work towards meeting the minimal requirements of English while simultaneously preparing for more important subjects such as General Studies.
