OPSC 2021: Exam Date, Eligibility, Application, Syllabus, Pattern

OPSC 2021: The OPSC conducts the State Civil Services Exams to fill up vacant Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ positions every year. This year the commission is expected to fill up around 153 seats in the state administrative department. The recruitment process is conducted in three stages – the prelims, mains and personality test. This article gives detail information about OPSC 2021 notification that includes OAS exam dates, eligibility criteria, application form, admit card, exam pattern, syllabus, result and more. Examinations taken by the Odisha Public Service Commission include:

• Junior Lecturers in O.E.S.
• Odisha Civil Service Examination
• Odisha Judicial Service Examination
• Odisha Education Services
• Odisha Municipality Administration Service
• Asst. Section Officer
• Tourist Officer
• Assistant Executive Engineer (Civil & Mechanical)
• Assistant Executive Engineer (Electrical)
• Junior Assistant in the Office of OPSC

OPSC 2021 Important Dates

Candidates can check below all the tentative OPSC Exam Dates for various events:

OPSC 2021 Eligibility Criteria

The Odisha Public Service Commission lays down important eligibility conditions that every candidate should abide by. All candidates should check these conditions thoroughly before applying.

• Nationality: Candidates desirous to apply should be a citizen of India.
• Education Qualification: Candidates must have a Bachelors’ Degree in relevant Subjects from the recognized Board.Other requirements are:
  • Candidates should have successfully completed middle school course in Odia language.
  • Also, candidates should have successfully completed higher secondary school with Odia as one of the languages
  • Candidates should have studied Odia as one of the primary subjects in high school.
  • Candidates should have studied recognised by the central government or government of Odisha. OR
  • Candidates should have completed middle school in English medium or mass education department provided Odia is one of the primary languages.
• Age Limit: Minimum age [as on Jan 2021] – 21 years. Maximum age [as on Jan 2021] – 32 years
• Age Relaxation: The reserved categories enjoy relaxation in the upper age limit, and the same is provided in the list below:
  • Candidates belonging to SC/ST/ SEBC – 5 years
  • Female applicants – 5 years
  • Persons with disabilities [ disability rate being more than 40%] – 10 years
• Number of Attempts: General Merit and Unreserved Categories – 4 attempts. For SC/ST – Unlimited number of attempts till they reach the upper age limit.

OPSC 2021 Application Form

Candidates require basic academic details, personal details, contact details and scanned copies of photograph and signature to fill-up the form. Below we have provided steps by step procedure to fill OPSC 2021 Application Form

• Visit the official website – ww.opsc.gov.in.
• Click on the link Check “Odisha Civil Services Notification”
• Complete candidate registration and obtain a login ID and password details.
• Once credentials are obtained, enter the application form and fill up all details correctly.
• Candidates have to provide their basic information, academic and educational details, contact details etc.
• Review the application form for the correctness of entered information.
• Scan candidate’s photograph and signature.
• Upload them in the application form.
• Submit the form and save the acknowledgement for future purposes.
• Finish the application formalities by paying application fees.

Application Fee

• For General Merit and Unreserved Categories – INR 500
• For SC/ST Categories – No Fees.

Procedure to Pay Application Fee

• Visit the official website – ww.opsc.gov.in.
• Download the online challan form to pay the fees.
• Fill up the challan form and pay requisite fees at the nearest and recognised SBI branch.
• Obtain acknowledgement of challan form from the bank and preserve a copy for future references.

OPSC 2021 Admit Card

Candidates will receive OPSC 2021 Admit card for prelims, mains and the personality test round separately. The basic minimum details required to download admit card are the candidate’s applicant ID and date of birth. All candidates who have successfully submitted the application form in the online mode shall receive admit cards. For the examination, candidates have to carry their photo ID card along with the admit card. The admit card is an essential document that contains candidate details like name, parents name, date of birth, registration number, exam time and venue details. After downloading the admit card, candidates should immediately report any discrepancies to the commission without further delay. Following are the steps to download the Odisha Civil Service Admit card from the official website:

• Visit the official website – ww.opsc.gov.in.
• Login using your ID and password.
• Click on the link that will provide you access to download admit card.
• Enter your application number and date of birth.
• Click on the download button.
• Upon validation, the admit card shall be downloaded.
• Check for correctness of the information on the admit card.
• If any discrepancy is found, then contact the commission immediately.

OPSC 2021 Exam Pattern

The OPSC 2021 has three phases – Prelims, Mains and Interview round. The notification contains the exact specimen of all the three phases of the exam. In this section below, we provide complete details of OPSC OAS Exam pattern, marks distribution, exam duration, maximum marks of each paper and type of paper.

Preliminary Exam Pattern

• The prelims round consists of two papers – General Studies Paper I and General Studies Paper II.
• Each paper carries 200 marks.
• Each paper is conducted for a duration of 2 hours.
• All questions are objective based types only.

Mains Exam Pattern

• The mains exam will have totally 9 papers.
• Among the 9 papers, 5 papers are compulsory and 4 are optional.
• For the optional papers, candidates have to choose any two subjects.
• Total marks of mains exam is 2700.
• Compulsory papers are credited 300 marks each.
• Optional papers carry total of 1200 marks each.

Personality Test

• All candidates who score above the cut off marks in the mains exam shall be shortlisted for a personal interview round.
• Total marks of interview round are 250.
• Total score is finalised after considering both mains exam and personality test round marks.

OPSC 2021 Syllabus

The detailed OPSC syllabus provides complete knowledge about the important topics covered in the exam. All students need to focus on the depth of each topic mentioned in the syllabus. Below we have provided OAS syllabus in detail.

Prelims Syllabus

Prelims Paper I

• History of India with greater focus on freedom struggle movement.
• World Geography and Indian Geography
• Current affairs from local, national and international events.
• Indian Constitution and Policy making.
• Indian Economy and Developmental reforms.
• Science and Technology.
• Environment and Ecological Studies.

Prelims Paper II

• Communication and interpersonal skills.
• Logical reasoning and analytical thinking.
• Decision making skills and problem solving abilities
• General maths skills.
• Numerical and mental maths aptitude.
• Comprehension and unseen passages.

Mains Syllabus

Paper I: General Odia Language

• Language comprehension
• Precise writing
• Translation
• Grammar and vocabulary questions
• Short essays
• Descriptive type of questions

Paper II: General English

• Comprehension
• Grammar
• Letter writing
• Unseen passage
• Translation
• Short and brief essay writing
• Expansion of topics with word limits

Paper III: Essay Writing

• Candidates have to write essays in English language
• They have to make a choice between topics.
• Essays should be clear and concise.
• They should relate to the central theme of the topic.

Paper IV: General Studies-I

• Indian culture and history
• Geography of India
• Indian polity
• National issues
• Legal studies
• Environmental concerns

Paper V: General Studies-II

• India on the world map
• Indian economy and planning commission
• International News and events
• Science and technology
• IT and telecommunications
• Space technology
• Statistics and graphs

Optional Subjects

Personality Test

Some of the important aspects concentrated by the panel of examiners during the interview round are given below:

• Intellectual thinking capacity and mental grasping.
• Current affairs knowledge.
• General awareness and social behaviour
• Alertness and critical thinking.
• Depth of understanding in fundamental subjects
• Moral values and ethical integrity.

OPSC 2021 Answer Key

The state commission releases two types of OPSC answer keys for prelims and mains round; they are Provisional and Final answer keys. Answer keys shall be published in PDF format. Candidates can raise objections for answers in the provisional answer keys. Candidates can also calculate their probable scores from the final answer keys.

OPSC 2021 Result

The Odisha Civil Services displays results for all the three stages of the exam – Prelims, Mains and Interview rounds. Candidates have to successfully clear all the three rounds of the exam to get access to the final result. Steps to check OPSC result on the official website is given below:

• Visit the official website – ww.opsc.gov.in.
• After that click on the ‘Result’ option available on the right side of the page.
• Click on the link that will take you to the result window.
• Enter application number/ registration number and date of birth.
• Results shall be displayed in PDF format.

OPSC 2021 Cut Off

The OPSC 2021 displays cut off marks separately depending on the category and gender of the candidate. It also depends on the number of applicants, the number of students attempting the exam, toughness level of the exam etc.

OPSC 2021 Exam Centres

There are five important zones which are declared as exam centres for OPSC 2021. Candidates have the option to choose the exam centre that is near to their residence; this optional is provided in the application form. The five exam zones are given below:

• Balasore
• Berhampur
• Bhubaneswar
• Cuttack
• Sambalpur