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I am still in the senior secondary and want to appear for Civil Services Exam in the future. What tips do you have for me?

  • Categories
    UPSC CSE FAQs
  • Published
    20th Nov, 2021

“You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.” ― Dale Carnegie

Above quote is very much in the line and applicable for all those civil service aspirants, who want to start preparation of upsc examination at very early stage.

  • India’s education system after 12th varies according to the stream which one choose. Time period to complete the graduation varies from three years to five years depending upon the type of courses. Most of the professional courses like Engineering, medicine etc. are between four to five years whereas most of the graduation programs offered by Universities are for three years. During this process of graduation, aspirants can prepare themselves by acquiring new skills or understanding the key demand of the question. This time period of graduation is very important in terms of the Civil service preparation point of view. Aspirants during the graduation time period can focus on:

Completing Basic Books:

  • During the graduation time period, aspirants should focus on completing basic books in which major emphasis should be on completing the NCERT books.
  • As college is the best place to start preparation for IAS exam. Three years of college will provide more than enough time to prepare well and one can reap the benefits of starting early. For that to happen, aspirants has to decide in which stream he/ she has to do graduation.
  • As the majority of the syllabus is humanities so, aspirants who are doing graduation from the humanities subject will have certain edge especially in optional subject in terms of understanding the demand of the examination and subject matter

If any aspirant has started preparation of Civil services examination during the graduation year then aspirant will have 3+ years’ time to prepare. The plan for an undergraduate student should be to prepare for GS subjects in the first two years of graduation and to prepare for Optional Subject in the final, third year.

Preparation of Civil Services Examination after school:

Develop a good Reading Habit: 

  • Apart from understanding the NCERT books, Current Affairs should be your most important component of CSE syllabus. Gone are the days when UPSC was asking current affairs from last 1 year, nowadays UPSC is asking even 2-year-old current affairs. Having a stronghold of current affairs means half of the battle done. Aspirants must inculcate a habit to read newspapers, magazines on a daily basis. However, you should remember that there is need to do selective readings by identifying the topics related to examination.

Develop skill of forming opinion: 

  • Your skill of having an opinion and that too balanced one on issues will be tested in Mains paper and in Personality test. Developing this skill of having an opinion can’t be developed overnight. It will need consistent practice then ultimately slowly but gradually you will acquire this skill. An aspirant must think on how, when and why pattern to develop this habit. We all have opinions on the issues. Our opinion could be at divergence from the majority however, it is important that opinion is based on sound logic and rationality component. It should be remembered that; having an opinion is one thing and able to articulate opinion well on paper or through speaking is another thing.

Work on Writing Skill: 

  • Without working on your answer writing skill it will be very difficult to clear the Second leg of the Civil services Examination. The second stage of CSE i.e. the Mains exam is purely subjective in nature in which aspirant has to write subjective answers.
  • From the outside world it looks very easy in nature that anyone can write answers. It is also advisable to aspirants that they should either evaluate their answers from their experienced peers or through the renowned coaching mentors like ours “GS Score”. Without proper feedback that what needs to be done and how and which sectors you need to improve you will find it difficult to clear this examination.
  • If you have understand the terminology “writing skill”, it means aspirants who are clearing this examination are not natural-born with gift of answer writing, it is skill that has to be acquired over the period of the time by writing practices time and again. So, it is important that one must develop writing speed and also write on a diverse range of topic so as to develop your writing abilities on a variety of topics.

Preparation Strategy for Civil services Examination in College:

  • During the first and second year of your college your focus should be devoted to preparing for General Studies (GS) subjects of UPSC Prelims and Mains exam through a GS Integrated course
  • In second year or third-year aspirants should start focusing on Optional subject or for that matter should identify which optional subject he/she can tackle well. By that time, after having studied GS subjects, one would also get clarity on what Optional Subject one should take.
  • Last year of your graduation should be devoted to revising, practicing answer writing and taking mock test Series to practice and to know about grey areas in your preparations.

You can go for Coaching to Provide Edge to Your Answer:

  • GS Score’s General Studies Integrated course – Weekend Batch (available both in Hybrid/Online and On-Campus modes of teaching) has been specifically designed keeping in view the learning requirements of college students.
  • College students prefer to study in weekend batches through online classes to manage both college as well as IAS preparation. Online classes lend college students flexibility to attend all IAS classes and complete all coursework comfortably.

Having said that, you should remember that; to clear any exam, first you should make a goal.

You should gather all the information about the exam pattern, syllabus, and make a strategy.

Moreover, you need to devote your time. It would be better to study as per timetable. Good Luck.

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