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(Getting Started) Strategy To Improve UPSC Mains Score by Chirag Jain (AIR-160)

(Getting Started) Strategy To Improve UPSC Mains Score by Chirag Jain (AIR-160)

Chirag Jain is one of the toppers of the prestigious UPSC Civil Services Examination of 2019. He is a  native of Bharatpur, Rajasthan, and a Mechanical Engineer from the National Institute of Technology, Jaipur. 2019 was his 3rd attempt. To date, he has cleared all his upsc prelims attempts, and his mains two out of three times. He has also worked in Tata Motors, Pune before finally achieving his long set dream of becoming a Civil Servant. Currently, he is training as an Indian Police Service officer with the UP cadre.

Strategy For UPSC MAINS GS-I 

  • Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society

GS-I is very academic. Starting with culture, Chirag made study notes from Nitin Singhania. Notes for culture are not just factual like it is for prelims. Notes for Art and Culture in mains need to have examples and detailed stylistic discussions. For History, however, both prelims and mains require a similar level of in-depth note making. Chirag’s optional was Geography, so he didn’t have to study it separately for mains.

Strategy For UPSC MAINS GS-II and GS-III

  • Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations

  • Technology, Economic Development, Bio‐diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management

Unlike the static nature of GS-I, GS-II and GS-III are not only very dynamic but also more vague and vast. So instead of diving in head-on, Chirag made notes as per the topics mentioned in the UPSC syllabus. The major focus was on current affairs as UPSC tends to push recent news items for this part of the syllabus. Other than that, questions are directly asked from topics mentioned in the syllabus. He referred to Vision IAS value-added study material. Mains-365 by Vision IAS helped in internal security and environment aspects.

Strategy For UPSC MAINS GS-IV

Chirag suggests going through topper’s answer scripts for Ethics. Pick up examples, diagrams, flowcharts, structure, presentation, etc. from them and use them in your answers. Chirag used the Lexicon to make topic-wise notes for the whole syllabus in just about 50 pages. He highly recommends it.

Ethics Notes Structure

Make an excel sheet. Make columns 

  • – 1st column should have the term, 
  • 2nd column will have the definition, 
  • 3rd column an international example, 
  • 4th column a national example, 
  • 5th column related personality, 
  • 6th and final column a quote.

Answer Writing

Chirag highly recommends joining a test series. The challenge in UPSC mains is completing a well-written paper within 3 hours. For this, you should have the structure and content so well grasped that you need not think about it in the exam hall. Joining a test series allows you to do just that. Revision is another important aspect of ensuring you can recall all relevant points during the exam.

Top Tip : UPSC-PNR

This is Chirag’s most important tip for IAS Aspirants. Start with researching all you can about the exam. Follow it up by going through UPSC Mains previous years’ questions to understand the pattern. Then look at the syllabus and memorize it to the best you can. Go through toppers’ copies to pick up writing tips. Take mock tests religiously. Make short and crisp notes, and finally revise as many times as you can.

Essay

Chirag missed out on his first and second attempts largely due to poor scores in the Essay paper. On analyzing, he realized he used to miss out due to a lack of depth and variety of dimensions in his essays. On this attempt he added more arguments and examples, leading to in-depth analysis which pushed his scores higher. Using anecdotes or real-life examples in introductions and conclusions also helps make interesting answers. Ensure your conclusion is optimistic and has a connection to your introduction.

Message To Aspirants

UPSC is unpredictable so it is a matter of patience and hard work. Keep your sources limited, revise as many times as you can, and keep practicing. 

Surely you will make it to the final list. 

Best of luck.

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(Getting Started) Strategy For UPSC Current Affairs Preparation by IAS Topper Priyank Kishore (AIR-61)

(Getting Started) Strategy For UPSC Current Affairs Preparation by IAS Topper Priyank Kishore (AIR-61)

Priyank Kishore has had the rare pleasure of making it to the final list of UPSC Civil Services Examination results, two years in a row. In his first attempt in 2018, he secured a rank of 274. He was undergoing training in Shimla as an IAAS officer when he received the good news of having cracked UPSC a second time with rank 61 in 2019. Priyank is a graduate from Ramdas College under Delhi University and holds a Postgraduate Degree in Economics.

Importance Of Current Affairs In UPSC

Over the past few years, current affairs have been given a lot of importance in UPSC, even more so in the prelims stage. However, UPSC maintains its trend of being unpredictable which means it is difficult to crack this portion of the paper by just reading monthly compilations. It is important to give it a little more time and effort.

How To Prepare Current Affairs For UPSC

Daily Newspapers

The most important step is to start reading the newspaper daily. However, you need to read it and not research each article in the news. You need not spend 2 or 3 hours each day just for news. Instead, try and read through it within 45 minutes to an hour. Do not debate which newspaper is better, or try to read more than one. Stick to either The Hindu or The Indian Express.

Current Affairs Compilations

In addition to reading the newspaper every day, Priyank also read the daily compilations. It acted as a mode of revision for him as well as a tool to make short digital notes. Moreover, although he did not rely on monthly magazines, he did use them as revision tools. Monthly magazines usually are compiled with a backlog of 10-15 days. Reading daily helped him avoid that.

UPSC Mains Specific Preparation

Although not a fan of compilations in general, Priyank did read the Mains365 compilation by Vision IAS between his prelims and mains. He also watched the show “The Big Picture” by RSTV for the 7 to 8 months before mains. He made very short notes from the show and tried to incorporate as much of the information he found relevant in his mains answers.

FAQs

Can we substitute newspaper-reading with compilations?

If you are in the initial phases of your preparation, newspaper reading is not only a source of current affairs but also a tool to improve your reading and comprehension skills, grammar, vocabulary, and writing skills. So you mustn't remove it completely from your preparation.

How should we revise current affairs?

In his first attempt, Priyank had subscribed to test series which had revision tests scheduled regularly that helped him revise his current affairs. Thereon he got into the habit of revising his current affairs using the notes he made every 3 weeks. He highly recommends this method. Every 3 months, he would set aside a day to revise just the current affairs of the past few months. Revising the current affairs 3 to 4 times throughout the year is important.

Priyank wishes all aspirants the very best!

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(Getting Started) Last Few Months Preparation Strategy For UPSC Pre Exams

(Getting Started) Last Few Months Preparation Strategy For UPSC Pre Exams

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With just a few months left for the UPSC Civil Services Prelims examination, aspirants are clamoring for last-minute preparation and prelims specific study plans. Many have been working on this exam for years, some for months, and there are still some who just started and hope to still get across the preliminary barrier. For all of you, here is a comprehensive plan to help you improve your chances of cracking prelims.

FEB-MARCH

Beginners

This is going to be hard. You are trying to cram in 12 to 24 months of preparation into 5 months. So brace yourself to work very hard and relentlessly. Start with NCERT Books for History, Geography, Polity, Economy, Society and Arts and Culture. Aim to complete the class 11 and 12 NCERTs. You do not have the time to delve deeper. Use the internet to look up concepts you are having difficulty grasping. There are roughly 20 books you need to finish up in a month.

NCERT Books Study Notes (Class-6 to 12, Old & New) for IAS, UPSC Exams

This has to be followed by completing the main sources for History and Polity. So do not do a deep dive at this point. Keep an hour aside to catch up on Current Affairs alongside this. Also, try to complete the current affairs for October 2020 to January 2021 in this window.

Experienced IAS Aspirants

It is revision time for those who have already been preparing for a while and now need to start with their prelims-centric revision. Start with revisiting the NCERTs or notes you may have made from them and with the aid of previous years’ questions, make separate notes for facts that are relevant precisely for your prelims preparation.

Now is also the right time to pay attention to the government schemes declared over the past year, alongside the budget and economic survey implications. Towards the end of March is also the right time to start taking upsc prelims based mock tests. Ensure you take at least 6 tests this month.

Image result for upsc books

Long List of Books To Cover

April-May

Beginners

Now that you have completed almost half the upsc syllabus, it is time to move on to completing the rest. Pick up Geography, Environment, Economics and the other elements still left. Go through the budget and economic survey presented. 

Finish up the current affairs for June to September of Last Year.

May is the ideal time to start taking mock tests as well. Do not get discouraged by your scores. Instead, use the mock questions to improve your knowledge. Pay attention to the last 10 years of prelims questions as well. Continue reading daily current affairs. Make sure you take at least 6 tests in May.

Serious Aspirants

Now is the time when your preparation becomes completely mock test centric. In these two months, you should complete at least 20 to 25 mock tests. Taking a test is not enough. Analyze your performance and look up answers you got wrong or questions you could not attempt. Make notes from these questions.

By May, yearly current affairs compilations should be out for your current affairs and you should start seriously completing them. There isn’t much to add to your knowledge anymore. Just keep taking tests, improving your elimination skills, and thus bettering your probable prelims scores.

June

Beginners

You have roughly 25 days before the examination. Utilize it to the fullest by taking at least 10 mock tests in exam settings. Try to solve another 15-20 test papers or at least going through the questions and solutions. Solve around 2 to 3 CSAT papers to ensure you qualify. Read up annual current affairs compilations and keep revising all the notes you have made. 

Make sure you relax your mind a day before the exam.

Experienced IAS Aspirants

You are done with your tests. You are done with accumulating new information or adding on. For the weeks preceding the exam you will simply revise your notes and brush up on any topic you feel less confident about. 

Try to relax before the exam date to better your performance.

Image result for upsc prelims beginners

Give it your best shot. 

With hard work and perseverance, you too can fulfill your IAS dream.

BEST OF LUCK.

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(Download) 2022 यूपीएससी आईएएस (प्री) सामान्य अध्ययन परीक्षा (पेपर-1) UPSC IAS HINDI PAPER General Studies Paper-1

IAS EXAM

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UPSC IAS HINDI PAPER General Studies Paper-1

परीक्षा का नाम: UPSC PRE 2022 आईएएस (प्री)

विषय(Subject) : सामान्य अध्ययन (पेपर -1) General Studies (GS) Paper -1

साल (Year) : 2022

UPSC PRE परीक्षा - G.S. Papers (HINDI Medium PDF)

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(Download) UPSC IAS Prelims 2010 : General Studies - Question Paper

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(Download) UPSC Prelims 2010 : General Studies
Question Paper and Answer Key

Subject: General Studies
Exam Date: 23rd May 2010
Booklet Series: C
File Size: 2.8 Mb
File Type: PDF

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Contributed By: Prem Kumar

(Getting Started) Increase Your UPSC Prelims Score by Option Elimination Techniques

(Getting Started) Increase Your UPSC Prelims Score by Option Elimination Techniques

 

UPSC Civil Services Prelims is just a days away and aspirants across the country are now focusing their attention on it. As anyone who has looked through enough topper interviews as well as gone through previous years’ questions will know, not all questions in UPSC prelims can be answered directly from knowledge. Some need deliberation. Almost half of the questions require one to eliminate the improbable answers and choose the one that remains. 

This is where Option Elimination Techniques come into play.

Top 5 Option Elimination Techniques

There are quite a few techniques one can use. These techniques are effective in solving UPSC papers. However, keep in mind UPSC likes to be unpredictable and shake things up quite often, so practice each of these techniques only when you are sure you can accept the fallout.

  1. Extreme Choices Are Seldom Right

Whenever an option mentions either “always”, “never”, “all”, “any” “drastically”, “enormously”, “exponentially” or conveys any such extreme stands, there is a good chance that the option is incorrect. Unless such an option is based on a historical or scientific fact, you can rest assured it is not the option you need to choose. 

  1. Deliberately Complicated Statements Are Most Probably Wrong

Some options given will deliberately use complicated jargon or have long-wounded sentences that serve no purpose. Given that answers are usually either facts or logical conclusions, these kinds of statements are meant to confuse aspirants. Such options are usually incorrect.

Postal Test Series for IAS PRE Exam (GS+CSAT) with OMR Sheets

  1. Options With Unnecessary Numerical Values Included

Look at this from the point of view of an examiner. The easiest way to provide a wrong option is to take an otherwise correct fact and slightly change the numbers. So until and unless the options have very obvious statistics, chances are it is going to be incorrect.

  1. One Of Two Opposite Choices Should Be Right

If two options are mirror opposites of each other, one of those will possibly be right. Even if you are not sure which one is correct, being able to shortlist 2 out of 4 options increases your chance of marking the correct answer from 25% to 50% automatically.

  1. One Of The Most Similar Choices Can Be Right

This again comes back to the mindset of the person setting the paper. The easiest way to shape incorrect options is to mimic the correct one and alter it partly. So chances are, of the 2 or 3 similar-sounding options, one would be correct. This again brings up your chance of choosing the right one up from 25% to 33% or 50% even.

Practice These Techniques With Caution

How Intelligent Guessing Works

Please remember the key – blind guesswork is not the answer, intelligent guesswork with proper logical backing is. UPSC awards 2 marks for a correct answer and deducts 0.66 for an incorrect answer. So, 3 incorrect answers cancel out the one answer you have correctly marked. This is why option elimination is considered a fair practice. However, taking random guesses will drastically bring down your chances.

Also, do not attempt these techniques directly in the exam hall without having tried them out in mocks. The reason is not everyone can make guesses 100% accurately. You need to know your accuracy before you attempt these techniques. You also need to practice them beforehand to understand exactly how they work and how to employ each technique properly. Otherwise, it is as good as blind guesswork.

Practice these techniques with the right blend of knowledge and logical reasoning, while knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and you will surely find your prelims score increase significantly.

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