UPSC vs IIT JEE: Anand Mahindra’s post on India’s toughest exam sparks debate

Chairperson of the Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra’s post has sparked a debate on whether the Civil Services Examination (CSE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) or the IIT JEE entrance is India’s toughest exam.

Mahindra mentioned that after watching the movie “12th Fail,” he spoke to young people to gauge the difficulty levels of entrance exams in India.

He wrote, “One of them was a graduate of IIT who is involved in a business startup but who has also taken the UPSC exam. He stated EMPHATICALLY that UPSC is much tougher than the IIT JEE.”

After revealing his findings and retweeting a list of the top toughest exams in the world, he added, “I wonder if this is a commonly held perception, in which case this ranking needs to change!”

Netizens’ reactions

Following the tweet on India’s toughest exam, many netizens joined the debate and started sharing their views.

IPS officer Archit Chandak wrote, “Sir, having given both, can say that UPSC CSE is ‘more’ tough to clear because of

1. Very few seats (Rank above 1000 easily gives you a seat in a IIT, unlike in UPSC CSE)
2. Unpredictable nature of the exam (Question formats, pattern etc change regularly)
3. Subjectivity of the exam (JEE is based more on logical reasoning and the exam itself is largely objective in nature, while in UPSC questions are thought provoking and require your own analysis)
4. Only self study can get you through (You join a good coaching in JEE – they can guide you very well, just do as they say unlike in UPSC where one has to be self driven & make notes for self)
5. Vastness of the syllabus and understanding current events (JEE syllabus is PCM & static)”

Another netizen wrote, “One of my relative cleared IIT in first attempt and cracked UPSC in 4th attempt. He always says that UPSC is the “mother of all exams”.”

Following are some other reactions of the netizens on India’s toughest exam

IIT JEE, UPSC CSE among India’s toughest exams

Both IIT JEE and UPSC CSE are on the list of the toughest exams in India. However, according to most top institutions that provide coaching for both courses, UPSC CSE is tougher than IIT JEE.

As per Byjus, here is the list of the top 10 toughest exams in India

1. UPSC
2. IIT JEE
3. NDA
4. UGC-NET
5. IES
6. CLAT
7. CA exam
8. NEET
9. CAT
10. GATE.
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