How to Know the Schedule of the Civil Service Exams

The Civil Service Commission of the Philippines, abbreviated as CSC is tendering the community and the examinations needed implemented in various countries for recruitment and admission to the civil service. Moreover, it is the first step in the process of selecting prospective civil servants. The CSC as well is made as a method to achieve effective and rational public administration on a merit system.

The Civil Service Examination is open to all Filipino citizens who want to be eligible to work in local government positions. Although, like any other exams, there are certain requirements applicants must comply to:

Duly accomplished application form

You can download the form yourself by clicking here. You will see the Right Thumb Mark and the Signature in the application form. NOTE: Do not accomplish those yet; you will finish this in presence of a CSC representative/officer.

Photos

Four (4) pieces of valid ID photos.

White background
Collared shirt
Handwritten name tag showing signature over printed full name

TIP: You can tell people in the studio that you’ll be needing it for the Civil Service Exam. They would already know what to do.

Valid ID

You can check the list of the accepted valid IDs in the Philippines in our previous post. To be sure, bring at least two (2); both originals and photocopies.

NSO (PSA) certified birth certificate
Examination fee of Php500.00

The examination system is as old as Philippine Civil Service System. Every year since 1900, the CSC has been administering examinations for entrance to the government.

In case of failure, applicants may still continuously take the same level of examination once; only every three (3) months.

As per the CSC, applications must be personally done at CSC Regional Offices (CSCRO); where the applicant wishes to take the examination.

Schedule of the Civil Service Exams

The schedules of examinations are often given by the organization through the CSC’s own site: (http://comex.csc.gov.ph). Under the Examination Schedules tab you will see the list of schedules including the type of exam, date, testing centers, etc.

The details there are posted. Included in the announcements are the dates of the application and its deadline and also the assigned testing centers. There are also particular websites announcing the examination details. Most television news and entertainment also provides details about the examination. Aside from these, social media is also ardent in announcing the schedules given by the CSC. Thus, dates are not really a challenge when it comes to the CSC examination. You have tons of sources you can cling onto.

The website is announcing the schedule of the nationwide conduction the of Career Service Examination; both the Paper and Pencil Test (CSE-PPT) and the Computerized Examination (CSC-COMEX) both for Professional and Sub-professional Levels.

Read: Civil Service Exam Guide

For paper and pencil test examination dates are usually March and August of every year, and the start of filing for the exam is typically four months before the exam date that usually last for two months.

The application will be First Come, First Serve. According to the Civil Service Commission (CSC), applications may close prior to the deadline if the Regional Offices or the Field Offices have already reached the target number of applicants.

Not all provinces or municipalities have testing centers. For example, there will be a testing center in Boac, Marinduque for the March exam but none for the August exam. Thus, it depends on the schedule and the announcement which is again will be seen in the website.

For those who opt to take the CSC Exams through the new computerized system, they can find the schedules on the CSC site. The CSC-COMEX’s role is to unite all previous stand-alone examination processes into a single, automated examination system.

Before taking the test through the COMEX, you have to:

1. First, you have to register an account in the COMEX website. The system will ask you to supply personal and other pertinent information. For the confirmation, you need to have an active and valid email address. This is where you’ll receive feedback with your account.

2. Second, you will receive an email notification of examination offerings including the type of examination, number of slots, date, and time of personal appearance, date, and time of examination, and examination venue. You can choose from any of the available examination and reserve an examination slot.

3. Lastly, on the day of your personal appearance, you have to present yourself at the CSC Testing Center for the verification of your identity, payment of examination fee, and capturing of your photo, fingerprints, and digital signature.

The COMEX is administered in sixteen (16) Testing Centers across the country. All CSC Regional Offices (CSCROs) and the Central Office serve as Testing Centers. You can take the COMEX in your preferred Testing Center. Twenty slots are available in each Regional Testing Center while fifty slots are available in the Central Office per examination schedule.

The COMEX is available at the following regional testing centers:

Regions 1 (San Fernando City),
Region 2 (Tuguegarao City),
Region 4 (Panay Ave., Quezon City),
Region 5 (Legazpi City),
Region 7 (Cebu City),
Region 10 (Cagayan de Oro City),
Region 11 (Davao City), and
Cordillera Administrative Region (Baguio City)

Now that you have an idea on how you can get a hold of CSC schedules, you can now try and be a worker of the Philippine government! However, take note of the following requirements and exemptions in taking the CSC examination.