10 advices would have saved my lost attempt

Lakhs of people in India grow up with the dream of becoming an IAS officer. But such is the nature and difficulty of this prestigious exam that only 0.1% of the aspirants get to live their dream. What distinguish successful candidates from other aspirants are not extraordinary skills but knowing what to do and when. After all, it is a competitive exam and we have to assess what the competition is doing and do it better than them. The success mantra of any competitive exam lies in knowing what we are doing wrong and rectifying it as soon as possible.

Here we have compiled a list of 10 tips that can help you avoid general mistakes and be successful in this distinguished examination.

1. Importance of NCERT Books: Many students ignore NCERTs and give preference to the trend books in the market. For the strong building of UPSC civil services exam preparation, NCERTs are the base. UPSC tests candidates’ conceptual knowledge and NCERT books are crucial to get conceptual clarity.

2. Constant Guidance: Being new to the exam, candidates do not know the pattern and need of the examination inside out. They rely on trial and error to perfect their preparation strategy. But the time is limited and students need to have a mentor who can guide them and provide valuable insights into the preparation.

3. Importance of Notes Making: Students these days highlight the important points in books to save time. However, this is a major mistake, notes are not only necessary for last minute quick revision but also help in remembering the concept in a better manner.

4. Don’t ignore the CSAT paper: There are many aspirants who clear the paper- 1 but fail to qualify the cut-off of CSAT. Ignoring CSAT because of its qualifying nature is a major mistake most students make. CSAT is getting difficult year by year and it is crucial to practice for it well beforehand.

5. Time Management: Time management is not only required while preparation but also during the actual examination. In the exam environment, many people feel anxious. Due to heightened anxiety, they are unable to manage time effectively and fail to attempt many questions. Therefore, it is required that candidates take mock tests before the actual exam.

6. Practicing mock tests: Practice tests are a new and interesting way of learning new information and data. They not only help in testing the acquired knowledge but also supplement the preparation by covering additional concepts and topics.

7. Revise, revise and revise: Aspirants cannot undermine the importance of revising what they have read especially for the prelims. One should stick to limited number of books and do repeated revision. It is necessary to quickly recall the facts and figures and this is where note making becomes crucial.

8. Spacing out Current Affairs Preparation: UPSC exam is highly current affairs based. Even the static questions are inspired from events in the news. Students need to revise current affair simultaneously with the static preparation and avoid putting it last on the list.

9. Proper Planning for last days of exam: Like students plan their days, weeks, and months to cover vast syllabus. Similarly, candidates need to have a robust 2 months and last 30 days strategy. It is the most crucial part of exam preparation as you need to revise the entire syllabus along with mocks in a time constraint manner.

10. Balanced Attempting of questions: It is true that students need to attempt a certain number of questions to qualify for the Prelims. But art of attempting the number of questions lie in assessing the difficulty of the examination and adjusting accordingly.