Today Manikandan Soundararajan will throw some light on how medical tests are actually conducted for IAS/IPS exam and share his UPSC interview experience with us. By the way, medical-standards are given in this PDF file click me

1. Medical Checkup
2. Medical tests conducted
3. Doctor’s final report
4. Interview: Outside the Hall:
5. Procedures
6. Profile of the candidate
7. Question answers

Medical Checkup

• Had my interview on 5th, medical test happened on 8th. For Medical Test, I was allotted to Guru Teg bahadur Hospital.
• I was required to report at 9.00 AM in the morning. Some 20 students who took interview with me on a day were allotted in the same hospital.
• If I recall correctly, three such hospitals are engaged in conducting the tests.
• Since it is a govt. hospital you are required to take your tests along with the people who turn up for check-ups, but you are given priority over them.
• When you enter your hospital you are required to fill up a form giving details of your earlier appearance before any medical board, earlier vaccinations you have been given, details of any surgery you have undergone[must if anything bed ridden], details of health conditions of your family- Father, Mother, Brothers, Sisters.

The form appears like this:

Medical tests conducted

1. A blood test.
2. A Urine test.
3. Check for your mental stability- we had a session like a stress interview wherein a doctor posed questions like:
   1. Are you healthy? How and why should I believe that?
   2. Your signature in the register looks complex, are you a complex personality?
   3. Why do you come for a civil service? Etc…
4. Opthalmic:

Normal vision check – asking you to identify letters at a distance.

Colour Vision – A book with colored pages as below:

You have to identify the character correctly, and there will be some mazes also where you have to trace the path according to the color correctly

5. BMI measurement- check for your height and weight.
6. Then a ENT Check happened – saw through our ears with some light.
7. Measure of your blood pressure for high tension, low tension happened then.
8. Then a doctor checked the lungs and heart with a stethoscope for normal breathing.
9. Then we had a chest X ray taken.
10. Followed by the X- ray was test for hernia and hydrocele and variocele. A scrotum examination is done for the purpose.
11. Finally an orthopedist tests your bones. This included simple tests like rising the arm, sitting down on the floor and standing up, walking on the toes etc.
12. Only the blood test, vision check-up happened along with general public rest of the tests happened in a separate room only for the interview candidates with experts coming there.

Doctor’s final report

The doctor’s report of a candidate appears as this:

• Corresponding to provisions in above columns all tests are done, but the reports may not be given to you including your X-ray report. It stays with the board. This is an account of medical test as it happened for us.
• Our medical tests started by 9.30 after initial formalities and got over by 4.00 in the evening.

Interview: Outside the Hall:

• Morning  8.30 AM we all line up before the gates of UPSC to get in, to fight our long awaited battles. The punctual UPSC open their gates sharp by 9.00 AM and the personnel at the gates let us in after verifying our call letters for the personality test.
• I tried to peek in to the sheet they were having in their hands containing the list of candidates for that day’s interview [listed in a tabular form containing the roll numbers of all candidates] and found my number in the last row of a column[and I was the last candidate in my board to be interviewed].
• Then we were made to enter through Gate No. 2 to the waiting hall. At the entrance our mobile phones, electronic devices are collected and we are issued tokens against them. Then as I enter the waiting hall a helping soul found me perplexed at the hall showed me a round table with six surrounding chairs after verifying a number [written on my call letter outside gate no 2].

Procedures

• Now my certificates: Tenth[SSLC], Degree, OBC/SC,ST [if applicable], Post-graduation[if any] are verified. Simultaneously a call for submitting your TA claims is made.And here I was given a letter containing  instructions about my medical test – date, hospital name.
• After this initial period you start settling down and start to take note of your surroundings, when the call for the interview is made. The very first candidate from your board is called for his interview. This exactly is the time you get to know your board.

Profile of the candidate

• Name: Manikandan S
• Graduation: Electrical and Electronics engineering
• Hobbies: Photography, Blogging [none of the questions were from this part].
• Optionals: Geography and Public Administration.
• Date of the Interview: 05.04.2013
• Session: Forenoon[Last candidate of my board in the morning session]
• Board: Dr. Purushottam Agarwal
• Note: Here I am giving a gist of my interview. I have tried to recollect and reproduce maximum possible questions. The answers given are a brief reproduction of what I answered there, not an exact reproduction [Vocabulary and construct were different then].
• I entered the hall at around 12.40 PM, wished good afternoon to the Chairman and other board members, and got a good afternoon in reply from almost all the members. Then I was offered a seat where I sat thanking the chairman.

Question answers

• Chairman: Gesturing the member on his right to start the interview….
• M1: Why did you choose public administration and geography as your optional when you could have taken electrical and electronics?
• Me: In to Civil services considered public administration an obvious choice, as for geography which I last studied at my school level, so thought a recollection was essential since geography with environment is basic science affecting human life.
• M1: So was this the reason and not mark constraints?
• Me: No sir, that was not my primary concern.
• M1: ok, what do you know about Public sector broadcasting?
• Me: explained about DD, AIR. [In my answer gave a term ‘telecast Programs in Public interest…’]
• M1: what are public interest programs? Can you give some examples?
• Me: Talked about education awareness, disaster awareness programs, information about schemes of govt etc…
• M2: What is the difference between physics and applied physics, math and applied math[being an engineering candidate you can answer this question was his statement]?
• Me: Physics basic principles and laws, applied physics a vertical specialization studying practical to the point applications.
• M2: have heard of the term Cyber Knife?
• Me: Sorry sir, I have not heard of it. [But it is “actually a robot guided system for performing radiotherapy with much higher precision than standard radiotherapy- associated with medical field” ]
• M2: Do you know anything about Parkinson syndrome?
• Me: Yes sir, a condition of degeneration of brain cells with age resulting in loss of memory and other complexities.
• M2: What is a green field airport?
• Me: Sir, generally when we establish an infrastructure for the first time afresh we call it a green field project, if we are adding to an established infrastructure or repair works are done to existing projects are called brownfield projects.
• M2: why don’t we call it a new airport?
• Me: Sorry sir, I don’t know the exact reason [In my search the most returned answer for this – The new project being fresh has no constraints due to prior projects. Eg: If Microsoft develops an update for its existing OS like XP service pack 3 it has to see to that the software working in earlier version work on this too. But if develops an altogether new OS like windows 7/8, this new one has no constraints, it develops all sets of programs also new, from scratch ].
• M2: What do you think are special features given to Jammu and Kashmir?
• Me: Explained everything from article 370, to right to property, to residuary powers etc….
• M2: Do you know about the recent demands of Dalai Lama?
• With this he passed the Baton to Member 3.
• M3: Now I will list some personalities. Tell me if you know them and if Yes identify their fields.
• The list went: [couldn’t remember many] Bismillah Khan, Satyajit ray etc….
• Finally identify: Pandit Ravishankar, Ravishankar Shukla, Sri Sri Ravishankar….
• M3: Draw a line from Delhi downwards – Tell me whether the places I list fall to its right or left?
• Again a list : Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai etc…
• M3: What do you know about Genetically Modified organisms?
• Me: sir, the technology of genetic modification, which allows the flexibility to modify the gene make up of an organism helps us engineer desired characteristics like pest resistance, nutrient fortification in plants.
• M3: what is the current position of GMO crops [he was referring to the legislation]
• Me: sir, as of now we have permitted GM in commercial crops, but in case of food crops it has been suspended as of now. We need strict monitoring and field trials before permitting them.
• M4: What do you think of India China Relations? Are we enemies as projected?
• Me: No sir, I think we are rather competing nations which at times makes us take different stands. And then talked about improved cultural relations, rising economic interdependence etc.,
• M4: Why do you think China cannot settle its boundary disputes with India alone?
• Me: Sir, In my opinion I think we both are placed in equivalent status in size and economy, that may be a reason for both us to have some inertia to get down from our initial positions, but with a new leadership taking helm at china and showing interest in settling boundary disputes we can settle them in near future.
• Finally chairman: Ok, manikandan your interview is over.
• Me : Thank You sir.