There were around 5 lakh candidates who appeared in the IAS Exam 2018. Out of those only 759 were finally recommended by UPSC in the recently announced final result of Civil Services(IAS) Exam 2018. Kanishak Kataria secured 1st rank among all and Srushti Jayant Deshmukh became the topper in the female category.
One important consideration also came to light that the UPSC had 812 vacancies under the Civil Services Exam 2018 but against that number only 759 were recommended. All the vacancies were not filled and the reason is unknown or best known to UPSC.
| Category | Vacancy | Recommendation of PwBD Candidates |
Vacancy after recommendation of PwBD candidates |
Recommendation of candidates (Non‐PwBD) |
Minimum qualifying standards* [CS(P)] (Out of 200) |
| General | 414 | 28 | 386 | 333 | 98.00 |
| OBC | 209 | 05 | 204 | 204 | 96.66 |
| SC | 128 | 02 | 126 | 126 | 84.00 |
| ST | 61 | 01 | 60 | 60 | 83.34 |
| Total | 812 | 36 | 776 | 723 |
* Cut off marks on the basis of GS Paper‐I only. However, GS Paper‐II was of qualifying nature with 33% marks as per Rule 15 of Civil Services Examination,
2018.
In 2018, the cutoff marks for the IAS Prelims was declined to new Low of 98 marks for the General Category. It is further reduced each of the other categories. The lowest was for the Physically Disabled category that is 45 for the PwB D-5.
In 2017, the IAS Prelims cutoff was 105.34. for the general category. IN 2016, the IAS Prelims Cutoff was 116 marks for the general category. There is a continuous decline in the IAS Prelims Cutoff and this shows that the IAS Prelims questions paper is becoming more and more difficult in each passing year.
So we can say that for clearing the IAS Prelims Exam, the IAS aspirants need to score less than 50% marks in the IAS Prelims Exam.
The IAS Main Exam 2018 cutoff was also released with the IAS Prelims Cutoff 2018. The IAS Main 2018 cutoff was 774 Marks for the General category out of 1750 marks. It means that getting selected for the IAS Interview required only a score of 44 % marks in the IAS Main (written) Exam.
Another interesting fact which came to light was the final marks. The final cutoff for the IAS Exam 2018 was 992 out of 2025. It means that 49% marks are required to be selected in the covenant Civil Services Exam. It does not mean that the candidate will get the IAS but surely he or she will be selected in the Civil Services Exam.
| Category |
Vacancy |
Recommendation of PwBD Candidates |
Vacancy after recommendation of PwBD candidates |
Recommendation of candidates (Non‐PwBD) |
Minimum Qualifying Standards# [Written Exam ] (Out of 1750) |
Marks secured by the last recommended Candidate [Final Stage] (Out of 2025) |
| General |
414 |
28 |
386 |
333 |
774 |
982 |
| OBC |
209 |
05 |
204 |
204 |
732 |
938 |
| SC |
128 | 02 |
126 |
126 |
719 |
912 |
| ST |
61 |
01 |
60 |
60 |
719 |
912 |
| Total |
812 |
36 |
776 |
723 |
# Subject to 10% marks in each of the seven competitive papers i.e. Essay, GS‐I, GS‐II, GS‐III, GS‐IV, Optional‐I and Optional‐II.
For the Physically Backward Classes the lowest cutoff was 460 marks in the IAS Main(written) Examination 460 marks out of 1750.
Moreover, number of candidates in the reserve list was also mentioned in the IAS Exam Cutoff notification.