Why Do Engineers Dominate UPSC CSE? Decoding The Secret

With over 10 Lakhs applicants every year, The Union Public Service Commission conducts civil services examination to recruit graduates across various government departments such as the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Revenue Service, etc. Owing to the success rate of less than 1.5%, many international exams conducting bodies have ranked this examination as the second most difficult examination in the world. In the latest version of the UPSC civil service exam, there were more than 10 lakhs applicants for as few as 761 vacancies in the government services across various public administration departments.

A trend that has been observed in the UPSC civil service examination is that the number of engineering graduates have dominated this examination for a decade now. According to the latest data released by the Department of Personnel and Training, 245, or 57.25 per cent, of the 428 civil servants from the 2020 batch who attended the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie for training had a degree in engineering. Eight others have backgrounds in engineering and management. Only 84 civil servants from the humanities background are in the batch, accounting for 19.6% of the total.

IITs/NITs get the bigger pie

Interestingly, the data indicates that the number of aspirants from engineering background getting into the civil services are predominantly from one of the top engineering colleges such as IITs, NITs of this country. On September 24, 2021, UPSC declared the final results of the Civil Service 2020 examination and, six out of the top 10 rankers are from engineering backgrounds predominantly from one of the branches of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

Except for two (2011 All India Rank 1 Shena Agarwal and 2015 Tina Dabi), all UPSC CSE toppers in the recent decade have been engineers, defying the widespread belief that the exam is easier to pass for those with a humanities academic background. Apart from these, a total of 17 students from IIT-BHU (Varanasi) qualified for the Civil Services Exam 2020.

Why engineers top the charts?

There are numerous reasons behind engineering students getting into the civil services. Union Public Service Commission tests for certain skills/traits in an eligible or deserving aspirant. These can broadly be grouped into two categories:

Circumscribing persistence, emotional quotient, patience, and the like;
The second that includes making a well-enough strategy, good analytical skills, time management, etc.

Image Credits: Indian Express

Engineers tend to have an edge when it comes to most of these prerequisites during the preparations stage. The following points fit into either one or both of these categories.

Cornerstone Of Engineering Entrance Examination

Indian engineering graduates more often than not, have previous experience in writing competitive examinations. Many of them would have gone through the rigours of taking entrance tests like the IIT-JEE, BITSAT, etc. All this is a valuable experience for it makes them efficient with regards to a variety of factors.

The entire process of studying for the Civil Services Examination, let alone writing the paper on exam day, tends to be nerve-wracking and exhausting. Many successful aspirants now claim to have gone through periods of anxiety, self-doubting and fatigue. In such a context, engineers, having been in a comparable predicament before (the pains that they undergo for entrance exams), have better prospects at enduring the challenges this exam entails.

Besides, UPSC expects from aspirants time management, selective studying, and paper strategizing. Engineers tend to have an upper hand in this aspect, too. Having previously undergone hours of paper solving, note-making, and formulating techniques for entrance examinations, the complications that CSE presents are not entirely alien to them. On the contrary, the students of humanities and commerce stream do not experience such tribulations of entrance exams as compared to their science counterparts. The university admissions for these courses are largely based on high school marks, hence dividing them from facing any source of competition right after their school.

Analytical Ability, Systematic approach and Right Mindset

Most of the top engineering colleges in India follow a very rigorous and diversified curriculum both inside and outside the classroom. These colleges have the best pedagogical design and a very research curriculum. The “teaching-learning process” at the IITs are fundamentally different from most other institutions. Here, the senior-most professor is assigned to take classes for the junior-most students — the first-year students. This is to ensure that the senior-most professors and icons of specific subjects are easily accessible to the beginner at IIT. This helps in building a healthy teacher-student interaction which in turn leads to proper career guidance.

During the B.Tech degree, an Engineering student has to study more than 40 subjects of different tech and non-tech fields and has to write more than 20 exams, which leads to the development of a systemic approach in a student which in turn helps in answer writing in CSE Mains examination. All of these factors contribute towards developing good analytical skills and a great attitude which is required for clearing the most competitive exam of this country. After all, it is the attitude that decides the altitude.

Peer-to-peer learning, Alumni network and CSAT

Another important aspect is that these top engineering colleges have a very mature and beneficial peer-to-peer learning environment. There would be more students in an engineering college who would share the same aspiration to become a civil servant. Also, the top engineering colleges have one of the best alumni networks which focus on nation-building efforts besides helping each other. Most of these students are already in touch with bureaucrats who are their college seniors. They act as an authentic source of guidance for them. Additionally, the UPSC CSE prelims exam has one paper which is CSAT. The nature of the civil services aptitude test is inclined to test the analytical abilities and general aptitude of a candidate. The difficulty level of this paper has increased significantly favouring the candidates from the engineering background.

In conclusion, the high percentage of students who have degrees in engineering becoming civil servants do not instigate any sort of disadvantage for the students from art or commerce background. UPSC has created an equal ground for all the candidates and it is a candidate’s hard work and determination, irrespective of their background that leads to success in this examination.

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