Procedure and Scheme [ Punjab Civil Services ] Examination

Essential steps involved in the selection process are:

• Preliminary Competitive Examination
• Main Competitive Examination (written and Interview)

Procedure and scheme for the Preliminary Examination:

The preliminary competitive examination will consist of two papers of 200 marks each and shall comprise of objective type (multiple choice) questions. The detail is as follows:-

• Paper –I General Studies - 100 Questions – 200 Marks
• Paper – II Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) - 80 Questions – 200 Marks

Note:

• Both the papers will be of objective type multiple choice questions.
• Duration of each paper for preliminary examination will be two hours. However, visually impaired candidates will be given additional 40 minutes.
• There will be no negative marking.
• The question paper shall be bilingual and shall be printed in English (Roman script) and Punjabi (Gurumukhi script) except for questions where candidates’ proficiency in language is to be tested.
• The standard of questions would be to test the knowledge as is expected of a person who has attained education at least up to graduation level.
• Preliminary Examination is only a screening test for selecting candidates who would be eligible to take the Main Examination and the marks obtained in this Examination shall not be counted towards the merit of the candidates arrived at after the Main Examination.
• Candidates equal to 12 to 13 times of the vacancies advertised in each category would qualify from amongst those appearing in the Preliminary Examination for the Main Examination, provided that, such number of candidates are available and, are otherwise eligible for admission to the Main Examination.

Procedure and scheme for the Main Examination:

Note:

• All papers shall be descriptive in nature and duration of each paper will be three hours. As per guidelines of the Government, Visually impaired candidates will, however, be allowed an extra time of One Hour in each paper.
• The main competitive examination shall include seven compulsory papers.
• Candidates will have the option to attempt all the papers except the language papers in Punjabi or English medium.
• Candidates exercising the option to answer Papers in Punjabi language may, if they so desire, give English version within brackets of only the description of the technical terms, if any, in addition to the version in Punjabi language.
• The question papers other than language papers will be set in English. However, when any candidate opts for attempting any paper(s) in Punjabi medium, the question papers shall be printed in Punjabi accordingly.
• Interview shall be conducted for only those candidates who qualify on the basis of their performance in the main competitive examination and who fulfil the criteria of eligibility.
• No candidate shall be eligible to appear in the interview unless he/she obtains 45% marks in the aggregate of all the papers (read 40 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) including at least 25% marks in each paper provided that if in any main competitive examination, a sufficient number of candidates do not obtain 45% marks in the aggregate (read 40 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes), the Commission may at their discretion lower this percentage to not below 40% (read 35 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes), however, the minimum percentage for each paper shall remain unchanged.
• No candidate shall be considered to have qualified the competitive examination unless he obtains at least 45% marks in the aggregate in the main examination including interview marks (read 40 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) except in the case of any main competitive examination for which this percentage has been lowered to not less than 40% (read 35 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) by the Commission in which case the qualifying percentage shall be as determined by the Commission.
• From amongst the candidates who have appeared for the Main written examination, candidates not more than three times the number of vacancies advertised in each category shall be called for the interview, provided that, such number of candidates are available and, are otherwise eligible for the Interview.
• Names of qualified candidates shall be arranged in order of merit according to the aggregate marks obtained in the main written examination and the interview.

Note: In the event that the aggregate marks obtained in the Written and Interview parts of the Main Examination taken together of two or more candidates are equal, the candidate securing higher marks in the written part of the Main Examination shall be ranked higher. Should the marks in the written part of the Main Examination of such candidates are still equal, the candidate securing higher marks in the aggregate of the General Studies papers in the written part of the Main Examination shall rank higher. Should those also be equal, the candidate older in age shall rank higher.