APSC 2021: Exam Dates, Eligibility, Application Form, Syllabus

APSC 2021: The full form of APSC is Assam Public Service Commission. This commission works directly under the government of India is authorized to recruit for civil service positions across the state of Assam. The headquarter of APSC is located in Jawahar Nagar, Khanapara, Guwahati. This article gives detail information about APSC 2021 notification that includes exam date, eligibility criteria, application process, admit card, exam pattern, syllabus, result and more. Official website of the commission is apsc.nic.in.

Please Note: Candidates are advised to check the official website for APSC 2021 Exam dates.

APSC 2021 Eligibility Criteria

All candidates are strictly advised to check their eligibility conditions fully and correctly before making an application to the commission. Fees once paid to the commission shall not be refundable under any circumstances. Below we have provided APSC Eligibility in detail.

• Nationality: The candidate must be a citizen of India
• Education Qualification: Candidates must have completed a minimum graduation degree by a recognized university of India. The commission also permits any degree/qualification equivalent to three years graduation provided it is done from a recognized university of India.
• Age Limit: The candidate age should be between 21 to 38 years of age as on January 01, 2021.
• Age Relaxation: Only reserved category students enjoy age relaxation in the upper age limit.
  • SC/ST categories – 5 years
  • OBC categories – 3 years.
  • Persons with disabilities – 10 years.
  • Ex-servicemen – 2 years.
• Number of Attempts: There are ‘No’ particulars regarding the number of attempts a candidate can make, but he should satisfy the age limit specified by the commission.

APSC 2021 Application Form

All candidates have to enter their details and submit an ONLINE application form to be eligible to attempt the APSC examination. Follow these steps to submit the online application form:

• Visit the official website – apsc.nic.in.
• Click on the activated link that provides the application for submission.
• Enter all personal information related to the candidate, like name, address, contact details, educational qualification, etc., these details are compulsory.
• Upload scanned the photograph and scanned signature of the candidate.
• Pay the requisite application fee and click on the submit button.
• Once the application is submitted successfully, the candidate shall receive an acknowledgement.
• The reference id thus received has to be carefully saved for future references.
• Print/save/download the submitted application.

Application Fee

The application fee can be paid via two modes – Online & Offline. In online mode, the candidate has to pay the fee through net banking facility/ debit card/ credit card usage. In offline mode, the candidate has to pay the fee in cash at any designated SBI branch and obtain challan acknowledgement for the same. Enter challan number later in the ONLINE application form. The APSC application fee varies between different categories.

• General Merit Candidates –  INR 250.
• SC/ST Candidates – INR 150.
• OBC and Minority OBC Candidates – INR 150.

APSC 2021 Exam Pattern

The Assam Civil Service Exam consists of three stages, i.e., Prelims, Mains, and Personality Test. Below we have provided the APSC Exam Pattern in detail.

Prelims Exam Pattern

• Prelims Exam consists of two Papers (General Studies-I & General Studies-II (CSAT)), each of 200 marks, for 2 hours each.
• Prelims papers are of objective type (multiple-choice questions)

Mains Examination

• Mains exam consists of eight papers.
• All papers of the main exam will be completely descriptive in nature.
• All papers will be conducted for a total duration of 3 hours.

Optional Subjects for Paper VII & VIII

Personality Test

• The last and final round of selection for the Assam Civil Service includes the interview round.
• Only those candidates who successfully clear the mains round will be called in for the interview round.
• The interview round is conducted for 275 marks.
• No minimum qualifying marks prescribed for the interview round.
• Candidates shall be questioned based on their academic performance and credentials.
• Total marks are taken by calculating the main exam (2000 marks) and interview (275 marks) decide the ranking of the candidate.

APSC 2021 Syllabus

Below we have provided the APSC Syllabus for Prelims, Mains and Interview in detail.

Prelims and Mains Syllabus

General Studies

• Current affairs and General knowledge
• Business studies and comprehensive case scenarios
• History, geography, and economics
• Politics and Indian constitution
• Culture, languages, and international relations.
• Science and technology in Indian sphere
• Growth of IT revolution and development of scientific research studies
• Indian financial and economic upholstery, budget news, and five year plans.
• Sports, entertainment, and fiscal allocation.

General English Paper

• General Grammar
• Comprehension and language
• Idioms and phrases
• Translation
• Sentence completion
• Paragraph writing
• Precise writing, etc

Interview Syllabus

There is no specific range of syllabus prescribed for the interview round.

• Candidates shall be questioned based on their choice of academic qualification.
• They may be questioned about the choice of optional subjects.
• Questions could be framed from current political topics of interest.
• Candidates are generally expected to have a good and detailed knowledge of the state of Assam.
• Questions are asked to assess the interpersonal skills, communication skills, and personality of the candidate.
• The suitability of the candidate, if inducted into the civil service cadres, is tested in this round.

APSC 2021 Admit Card

The admit card is an important document and carries all necessary and relevant information of the candidate like name, address, exam venue, timings, etc. The admit card should be carried to the exam hall without fail. Along with admit card, candidates are also requested to carry any valid government-issued ID proof to the exam hall. Without the admit card, candidates may not be allowed to enter the exam hall or take up the examination. For any discrepancies in the details mentioned on the admit card, candidates have to report to the commission without fail immediately. The step by step process to download APSC Admit Card 2021 is given below

• Visit the official website – apsc.nic.in.
• Click the link to download Admit Card
• In this window, enter all particulars of the candidate asked like name, registration number, and date of birth. Enter captcha code, if any.
• Once all details are validated, and the student application is qualified, his admit card will be displayed.
• Download the admit card for examination.

APSC 2021 Cut off

• The cut off marks for each round of the exam, namely prelims and mains, will be displayed on the official website after the results are out. Candidates can check the cut off marks decided by the commission by looking out for timely updates on the official website
• The cut off marks vary every year, and they are purely based on many factors like the number of applicants for the current year, number of applicants cleared the exam, total number of vacant positions, difficulty level of exam etc.

APSC 2021 Result

Results are displayed after every round of the examination. Results can be checked from the official website. Follow these guidelines to check the APSC result on the website:

• Visit the official website – apsc.nic.in.
• Traverse to the results section.
• Click on the link “Results – APSC Civil Services Exam 2021”.
• Enter valid details like candidate name, registration id, and date of birth.
• Upon successful validation, results will be displayed.
• Candidates can download/print the result card.

APSC 2021 Vacancy

The exact number of vacancies for the posts that are vacant for the current year shall be quite different from other years. Candidates can check the number of vacancies on the official site before applying for the same. Below we have given a brief breakdown of the vacant positions for the year 2021.

• Exploration Officer
• Assistant Conservator
• Forest Range Officer
• Junior Information Public Relation Officer
• Fishery Development Officer
• Medical Inspector
• Veterinary Officer/ Block Veterinary Officer
• Assistant Geologist

APSC 2021 Preparation Tips

• There are two General Studies papers, one in prelims and other in mains. So candidates are advised to allot longer time duration so that over time, they would have covered a substantial portion of GS papers. Choose optional subjects carefully.
• You have to choose three subjects as your optional (both prelims and mains). Choose the subjects that you have mastered during your graduation. For the other two, choose related subjects or the ones that you are confident at.
• Along with subject preparation for the exam, do not ignore current affairs and general knowledge preparation from books, internet sources, and newspapers.
• Refer to NCERT textbooks right from 6th to 12th standard.
• Refer to online study resources / PDF/ e-books and prescribed standard books for studies.
• After the prelims exam, concentrate more on optional subject preparation rather than general studies, which was already there for prelims too.
• Read articles in newspapers regularly to spruce up English knowledge.
• Analyse the breakdown of different sections/subjects in previous year question papers.

Recommended books for Assam Civil Service Exam 2021

• Indian Polity by M. Laxmikanth
• Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
• India’s Struggle For Independence by Bipin Chandra
• Assam 2020 Yearbook
• Geography of India by author Majid Hussain
• India After Gandhi by historian Ramachandra Guha.
• History of the World by Arjun Dev
• Physical and Human Geography by author Goh Cheng Leong
• Indian Social System by author Ram Ahuja