Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC) conducts the Himachal Pradesh Administrative Service (HPAS) exam every year to recruit the candidates for the most coveted administrative services of the state.
The HPAS exam is conducted offline in the following three stages
- Preliminary Examination
- Main Examination
- Interview/Viva-voce
All three stages are important and essential to pass to appear in the next phase
HPAS 2020 Exam Pattern–Preliminary Exam
The HPAS preliminary exam is the first stage of the HPPSC HPAS exam.
The HPAS prelims exam serves as the screening exam only and acts as a filter for the main exam.
The HPAS exam comprises two objective type multiple answer papers conducted offline at various centres across the state. The marks secured in the HPAS prelims exam are not considered for the final HPAS result.
The HPAS Prelims exam pattern is as follows:
| Subject | No. of Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| General Studies | 100 | 200 |
| Aptitude Test | 100 | 200 |
| Total
|
400 | |
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 in the year in the Posts / Service.
Only those candidates who have been declared to have qualified the preliminary examination by the H.P. Public Service Commission in a year will be eligible for admission to the main examination of that year provided they are otherwise eligible for admission to the Main Examination.
Note: There will be penalty (Negative Marking) for wrong answers marked by a candidate in the objective type question papers.
(i) There are four alternatives for the answers to every question. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate, one third of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty.
(ii) If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer even if one of the given answers happen to be correct and there will be same penalty as above for that question.
(iii) If a question is left blank i.e. no answer is given by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.
The time duration for both the papers is two hours
. The candidates need to score more than or equal to the HPAS cut-off marks as decided by the HPPSC after the exam.
HPAS 2020 Exam Pattern – Main Exam
The HPAS main exam is the critical stage of the HPAS exam because the marks secured in the main exam are considered for the final result. The HPAS main exam is a descriptive exam conducted offline in a pen and paper mode. The structure of the HPAS Main exam is as follows
| Paper No. | Subject | Maximum Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | 100(Qualifying Only) |
| 2 | Hindi | 100(Qualifying Only) |
| Paper Counted for Merit | ||
| 3 | Essay | 100 |
| 4 | General Studies – I | 200 |
| 5 | General Studies – II | 200 |
| 6 | General Studies – III | 200 |
| Optional Subject | ||
| 7 | Optional Subject – Paper I | 100 |
| 8 | Optional Subject – Paper II | 100 |
| Main Exam | 900 | |
| Viva-voce | 150 | |
| Total | 1050 | |
All paper shall be of three hours only.
The standard and the questions asked in the English and Hindi paper will be of 10+2 level.
It is necessary to secure 40% marks in the English and Hindi compulsory papers. Credit will be given for good English/Hindi including orderly, effective and exact expression combined with the economy of words, in all subjects of the examination.