All Updates About The IFS 2017 Exam: Important Exam Dates, Application Form, Eligibility Criteria, Exam Pattern, Admit Card, Result, Selection Procedure.

UPSC (Union Public Service Commission), a constitutional body which is entrusted with such powers and functions, under the Article 315 to 323, Part -14 of the Constitution of India. It is given duty to conduct various important exams including Civil Services Examination, Indian Forest service examination, Engineering Services, Combined defense services exam, Indian Economic services/Indian Statistical Services, National Defense Academy Examination, etc.

The UPSC conducts IFS exam every year to select candidates for the Indian forest services. It is one among the three All India Services just like IAS and IPS services are. Hence it is also one among the tough exams to qualify. The IFS officers after selection are assigned State Cadres or Joint Cadres of State and the centre. They are required to serve both the centre government and the state governments from time to time as per the requirement of the hour. Their prime responsibility is to implement the government plans and programmes under the ambit of the National Forest Policy. They function as the administrative head of the forest area for which they are posted. They have mandate to function independent of the district administration.  

For further details of the IFS Exam, 2017, read the article below.

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Eligibility for IFS Exam

Age Limit

• The candidate should be between the age group of 21years and 32 years. He should not be less than 21 years of age and must not be more than 32 years of age. It means he should not have been born earlier than 2nd August 1984 and not later than the date of 1995.
• Age relaxation – The reserved category of candidates is given age relaxation. Those belonging to the SC/ST category have 5 years of age relaxation in the upper age limit. While the OBC candidates are given maximum of 3 years of age relaxation in the upper age limit category.

Nationality

• The candidate should be a citizen of India. The candidates with nationality of the countries of Nepal or Bhutan are also eligible for the exam.
• Also those candidates who are from the nation of Tibet, but has migrated to India as a refugee before the 1st January 1962, are also eligible for the exam.
• In addition, candidates who are essentially a People of Indian origin from some countries of the world are also considered eligible for the exam if they have migrated to India with an intension to permanently settle down in India. Such candidates should be from the nations of Vietnam, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri-Lanka, or from the East African nations of, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Kenya. It is required that that the government of India should have issued a certificate in their favour.

Educational Qualifications

• The candidate should have done his Bachelor’s degree from any recognized university of the central or state legislature. Or else if he has obtained his Bachelor’s degree from any institution then it should be recognized under the section 3rd of the UGC act, 1956.
• Further the candidate should possess Bachelor’s degree in the following subjects of –

1. Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science,
2. Agriculture,
3. Forestry
4. Botany,
5. Geology,
6. Mathematics,
7. Geology,
8. Physics,
9. Zoology
10. Engineering.

Number of Attempts for the exam

The General candidate are given 6 attempts for the exam. While the OBC candidates can take 9 attempts of the exam. The SC/ST candidates can take this exam for an unlimited time in the given upper age limit.

Physical Standards

The candidates should fulfill criteria of Physical fitness to be a forest officer.

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IFS Exam Admission Process

Application Form

Candidates can visit the official website of the UPSC for filling the form of the IFS 2017 Exam. Here they will be provided the link which will direct them to the authentic source of Application form.

How To Apply

• Candidates should first of all reach the official website or portal of the commission, http://www.upsconline.nic.in.
• They must try to fill the Application form without making any mistake. For which they are required to read the instructions carefully. They must understand what is to be filled and in which format.
• Candidates are required to register themselves first on the official website of the Commission. For this they are required to provide information about their basic details like name, address, mobile number and their valid email id.
• The commission sends updates and communicates with the candidate through his email id. So candidates must keep their email id till the end of the process of the exam.  
• They must upload their photo and signature in the given size. They are required to keep the scanned copy of their photo and signature in the jpg format. The size of which should not be less than 3kb and must not exceed 40kb. This is to validate the Application of the candidate to the commission.
• They must pay the requisite amount of Application fee to the Commission.

Application Fee

• Candidates should pay an Application Fee of Rs.100/.
• However, the reserved category of candidates is exempted from paying any Application fee. They are candidates belonging to the category of SC/ST and Physically handicapped. Female candidates are also not required to pay any Application fee. For Net Banking candidates can use the following banks – State Bank of India/ State Bank of Hyderabad/ State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur / State Bank of Mysore / State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore.
• They can pay offline by paying through cash in any branch of the SBI.  They should also take the print of the Slip 

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IFS Exam Pattern (Syllabus)

The IFS exam has a following number of stages-

1. The Civil Services Preliminary exam.
2. The IFS Mains exam.
3. Interview or Personality Test.

It consists of 3 stages. The 1st stage is the Preliminary exam of the civil services exam, the 2nd stage is the Mains exam and the final and the 3rd stage is the Interview or Personality Test.

Details about the Preliminary stage of the exam

Preliminary Exam	Details about it
Number of question papers	2, Paper-1 and Paper-2
Type of questions	Objective type
Total marks	400 marks. Paper-1-200 marks Paper-2- 200 marks.
Duration of the exam	2 hours for each paper. For blind candidates an extra of 20 minutes will be given.
Language of the exam	Hindi as well as English.
Scheme of negative marking	Yes. For very incorrect response 1/3rd marks will be deducted.

Some important details about the Preliminary exam question papers.

Paper-1	General studies – The marks of this Paper-1 is counted to get selected for the Mains exams.	2 hours	200 marks
Paper-2	CSAT- Civil Services Aptitude test. The candidate is required only to qualify in this paper by scoring 33% of the marks.	2 hours	200marks

 Note – The marks scored by candidates in the Paper-1 of the Preliminary stage is counted while passing the candidate for the Mains stage of the exam. The Paper-2 of the exam is only qualifying in nature. The candidate is required to score minimum of 33 % of marks to be declared as qualified for the Mains exam.

Details about the Mains Exam of IFS,

Mains Exam IFS, 2017 Exam	Details of it
Number of question papers	6
Type of question paper	Descriptive or subjective in nature
Duration of the exam	3 hours for each question paper.
Language of the exam	English only.
Total marks	1400 marks.

The Mains Exam of IFS 2017, Exam consists of total numbers of 6 questions papers.

S.no.	Paper	Subject	Marks	Duration
1	Paper-1	General Knowledge	300	3 hours
2	Paper-2	General English	300	3 hours
3	Paper-3	Optional subject -1, Question Paper-1	200	3 hours
4	Paper-4	Optional subject -1, Question Paper-2	200	3 hours
5	Paper-5	Optional Subject-2, Question Paper-1	200	3 hours
6	Paper-6	Optional Subject-2, Question Paper-2	200	3 hours
Total			1400

Candidates are required to select two optional subjects from the given list of subjects for the Mains exam. Each optional subjects have 2 question papers. Thus there are total of 4 question papers for the exam.

Each question paper of the optional subject contains 8 questions of descriptive type. It has two sections, ‘A’ and ‘B’. Each section contains 4 questions. The candidates are required to answer only 5 questions of the question paper.

Subject list from which candidate should choose two optional subjects-

 

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science,	Agriculture Engineering	Chemistry	Chemical Engineering
Agriculture,	Geology,	Civil Engineering	Mathematics
Forestry	Physics,	Mechanical Engineering
Botany,	Zoology	Statistics

It should be noted that candidates are not allowed to have following combination of subjects – 

Optional -1	Optional-2	Not Allowed
Agriculture and	Agriculture Engineering	Not Allowed
Agriculture	Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science,	Not Allowed
Agriculture	Forestry	Not Allowed
Chemistry	Chemical Engineering	Not Allowed
Mathematics	Statistics	Not Allowed
Candidate cannot take more than one Engineering subject at a time.	Agriculture Engineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering	Not Allowed

Interview/ Personality Test

The candidates who qualify in the Mains exam are selected for the next stage of the exam i.e. the Interview/Personality test. This stage of the exam carries 200 marks. The candidate is tested for his overall personality orientation. The board checks candidate for his leadership quality, decision making skill, morality, problem solving skill etc. The board tries to reveal the various aspects of personality of the candidate through their questions. The marks scored during interview by the candidate plays a crucial role while determining the ranking of the candidate. 

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IFS Exam Important Dates

About the Exam	Important Date of Exam.
Issue of Official notification of the exam	22nd of February, 2017.
Closing date of Application form	17th March, 2017.
Prelim Exam date	18th June, 2017.
Mains Exam date	3rd December,2017.

Admit card

The Commission issues the Admit cards to candidates around one month earlier. Commission does not send any hard copy of Admit card at the postal address of the candidates. They can download the Admit card from the official website of the commission. They are required to enter their ‘Application number’ and ‘Date of Birth’ to download their Admit card. The Admit card carries the Roll number, Centre of exam, name and address of the candidate, by which the commission identifies them. It is mandatory to carry the Admit card at the centre of exam. If candidate owing to any reason or circumstances fails to produce the admit card at the centre of the exam, then he might not be allowed to take up his exam.

Result

The result of the IFS Exam comes in various stages. First comes the Preliminary exam result and there after the Mains exam result. The qualified candidates are required to appear for the personal interview at the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). After adding up the aggregate marks of the candidates in the Mains exam and the Interview the final merit list of successful candidates is prepared. Students can check their results online at the official website of the UPSC.

Also Read :

• How To Prepare For IPS Exam Without Coaching?

FAQ

Q. What is the date of exam of IFS (Indian Forest Service )2017 Exam?

The Prelims exam of IFS exam is essentially the preliminary exam of civil services examination. It is scheduled to be held on 18th June, 2017.

Q. What is the date of Mains exam of IFS 2017 Exam?

The Mains exam will be held on 3rd December, 2017.

Q. When one can obtain Application form of the IFS exam?

Candidate can get the Application form from 22nd February, 2017. They can get their Application form online.

Q. How many stages are there for the IFS 2017, Exam?

There are mainly 3 stages of the exam. The Preliminary exam, the Mains exam and the Personality test or the Interview stage.

Q. How many papers are there in the Preliminary exam of the IFS?

The Preliminary stage of the IFS exam has two question papers of General studies, namely Paper-1, General Studies and Paper-2, CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test). The marks scored by candidates in the Paper-1 is counted while their marks in the Paper-2, should be only qualifying in nature. They are required to score at least 33% of marks to get cleared for taking up their Mains exam.

Q. What is the question pattern of Prelims exam of IFS?

It is mainly objective type in nature.

Q. What is the total marks for which the Prelims exam of IFS is conducted?

There are two papers of General studies and General Awareness in the IFS prelims exam. Each paper is of 200 marks counting to total of 400 marks.

Q. Is there any scheme of negative of marking in the Prelims exam of IFS?

Yes, there is a scheme of negative marking in the IFS exam. For every incorrect answer 1/3rd marks are deducted.

Q. What is the question pattern of the Mains exam of IFS?

The Mains exam is descriptive in nature.

Q. How many papers are there for the Mains exam of IFS, 2017 exam?

There are 6 question papers in the Mains Exam of IFS. There is 1 question paper of General knowledge and one question paper of General English, each of which has 300 marks. In addition, there are four question papers of two optional subjects. Each optional subject has 2 question papers carrying 200 marks. The total marks of Mains exam are 1400.

Q. What is the age limit for the IFS 2017, exam?

The candidate should be between the age group of 21 years to 32 years. It means he should not have been born earlier than the 2nd August, 1984 and should not have been born later than 1995.

Q. If the candidates who are the People of Indian origin are eligible for the exam?

Yes, candidates of People of Indian origin from some countries of the world are eligible for the exam. For further details about it check the above article in its eligibility section.

Q. What should be the educational qualification of the candidate for the IFS 2017, Exam?

The candidate should have done his Bachelor’s degree from any recognized university or institution under the section 3 of the UGC act. To know further details about the Subjects of Bachelor’s degree, read the above article.

Q. What is the total marks for which the Interview of the IFS exam is conducted?

The interview is the final stage of the exam and it carries 200 marks.

Q. What is the Application fee for the IFS,2017 Exam?

The candidate should pay Rs.100 as the Application fee for the IFS Exam. However, the reserved category candidate SC/ST/PH and the Female candidate are exempted from paying any Application fee for the exam.