As you’re aware, UPSC is not releasing the notification for 2013’s civil service exam (CSE) and market is full of rumor bombs. But according to the official PDF file posted on Indian Forest Service (IFoS) website:

  1. Notification for Civil Service and IFoS will come on same day, that is 9th March, 2013.
  2. Last date to apply, will be 8th April, 2013
  3. The preliminary exam will be common for both type of candidates (CSE + IFoS). (Date 26th May, 2013)
  4. But mains, interview and final merit list will be separate for CSE and IFoS.

Anyways, If you’re preparing sincerely, there is no need to loose sleep over this. Just keep preparing General studies, current affairs until notification comes. Not many days left before the exam, so every day, every hour is precious.

Copy pasting the full PDF here:

http://ifs.nic.in/main/New%20Scheme_IFSE2013.pdf

Title: NEW SCHEME OF EXAMINATION FOR INDIAN FOREST SERVICE EXAMINATION, 2013

The salient features of the scheme are as under:-

  1. Indian Forest Service (IFoS) Exam will be of a two-tier examination similar to that of the Civil Services Examination. The Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination shall serve as the Screening Test for both the Civil Services as well as the Indian Forest Service Examinations.
  2. Notification of Indian Forest Service Examination will be done simultaneously with the Civil Services Examination. The application form will be called as Combined Online application Form for Civil Services and Indian Forest Service Examinations.  In the notifications for both Indian Forest Service Examination as well as Civil Services Examination, candidates will be asked to exercise their option to either choose Civil Services or Indian Forest Service or both, as per their eligibility conditions.
  3. There will be no change in the eligibility of the candidates in the Indian Forest Service Examination.
  4. The candidates who will be applying for Indian Forest Service, Civil Services or both will be asked to appear in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination which will be a Screening Test for short-listing the candidates for Indian Forest Service and Civil Services (Main) Examinations. Otherwise these two examinations will be separate in all respects
  5. Based on the performance of the candidates in the CS(P) Examination, the candidates for the Indian Forest Service as well as the Civil Services examinations, will be short-listed separately for the IFS(Main) as well as the Civil Services (Main) Examination. The same principle of short listing 12 to 13 times the number of posts could be used at this stage. However, the criteria for selection of candidates for Civil Services (Main) Examination and Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination will be different – based on relevant functional matrices. The Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination and the Civil Services (Main) Examination could then be conducted on different dates in order to accommodate candidates who may be short-listed separately for both the examinations. The interviews and merit list for both these examinations could be drawn up separately.

The tentative schedule for IFoS Examination, 2013 is as under:-

Date of notification 9th march 2013
Last date to apply 8th April
Date of prelims exam 26th May 2013
Date of IFoS mains exam 21st September

Hard to believe?

Go to the official website of Indian Forest Services: http://ifs.nic.in/main/intro.htm and there, check the first PDF titled New Scheme of Examination for Indian Forest Service Examination, 2013″ (or click me)
By the way I did not “discover” ^this, it was posted by some readers sent me this info via email and comments.