There will be two papers for HPAS (Preliminary) Examination i.e. General Studies and General Aptitude Test. The syllabus has been adopted as per UPSC pattern and also includes questions on Himachal Pradesh.
Both the papers of preliminary examination will consist of 200 marks each. This examination is meant to serve as a screening test only and the marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination by the candidates who are declared qualified for the Main Examination will not be counted for final merit. The number of candidates to be admitted to the Main Examination will be about 20 times the total approximate number of vacancies to be filled. Only those candidates who have been declared by the Commission to have qualified the Preliminary Examination will be eligible for admission to the Main Examination.
Aptitude Test (Paper-II) of the Preliminary Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33% and, therefore, marks obtained in this paper shall not be counted for determining the merit for the eligibility for Main Examination That means Cut off for the Main Examination will be decided on the basis of marks obtained in General Studies (Paper-I) of the Preliminary Examination only.
Detailed syllabus for Preliminary Examination:-
Paper –I: General Studies (Code No. 01)
Max. Marks: 200
Total question: 100 MCQs.
Time duration: 2 hours.
Areas covered:
- History, Geography, Political Science, Art & Culture and Socio Economic development of Himachal Pradesh.
- Current events of national and international importance.
- History of India and Indian independence movement.
- Indian and World Geography, physical, social, economic details.
- Indian politics and governance–Constitution, political system, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights issues, etc.
- Economic and social development – sustainable development, poverty, inclusion, demographics, social sector initiatives, etc.
- General issues related to environmental ecology, bio-diversity and climate Change (do not require subject specialization.)
- General science.
Paper -II: Aptitude Test (Code No. 02)
Max. Marks: 200
Qualification Marks: 33%
Total question: 100 MCQs.
Time duration: 2 hours.
Areas covered:
- Comprehension
- Interpersonal skills, including communication skills
- Logical reasoning and analytical ability
- Decision making
- Problem solving
- General mental ability
- Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc. (Class X level)
- Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)
- English Language comprehension skills (Class X level).
Note:
There will be Negative Marking for wrong answers marked by a candidate from this year. Marking details:
- There are four alternatives for the answer to every question. For every wrong answer one third of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty.
- If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer one third of the mark will be deducted.
- If a question is left blank i.e. No answer is given by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.