With hardly 30 days left for prelims, these are anxious times in the lives of UPSC Civil services aspirants. What to read, what to revise, and how to maximize your marks using the remaining time are the questions that regularly come to one’s mind. As the D Day nears, you must be feeling the heat of preparation as well as of the weather.
So, whether you are a beginner who has just started or an experienced aspirant who has cleared Pre multiple times, let’s discuss the importance of these 30 odd days to increase your chances of clearing UPSC CSE Pre 2017.
For the next 30 days focus on the Mantra of “Simplify, Streamline, Succeed”
How to Simplify your preparation?
Stick to the core topics
Firstly, do not try to do overshoot at this moment and increase your coverage. Instead do the opposite, and focus on the most important areas of the syllabus. Current Affairs (CA), Environment & Ecology, Geography, Modern History, Art & Culture, Polity and Economy are important areas. In these areas, focus on the high value topics first for example, in Environment focus on Ecosystems, Ecological Concepts & Environmental Issues; in Geography focus on Physical Geo & Climatology as well as Indian Geo; in Modern History focus on Freedom Struggle; in Art & Culture focus on Religious Movements, Paintings & Architecture; in Polity focus mainly on the Constitutional Structure, Union and on Schemes and in Economy focus on Economics Basics as well as on issues that are in news. Once you gain utmost confidence on these topics, move to other topics one by one.
Don’t add new sources of reference
De clutter your preparation by revising whatever sources you have already been referring to. Read standard reference books apart from the NCERTs which should be covered thoroughly. NCERTs become important because they help in clearing basic concepts as well UPSC asks direct questions from them. Do not try to read from new sources as they might lead to confusion in your mind.
Don’t skip the newspaper
Newspaper reading should not be sacrificed at the cost of preparing static portion in any case. Even though one can follow any good Current Affairs supplement, they should not replace newspapers. From newspapers you get more time to reflect on the news and you read it in a spaced out (rather than condensed format). That makes it easier to internalise a certain information if one has seen it in different places and contexts.
How to Streamline your preparation?
Stay disciplined
It is important to create a time table and then stick to it. Do not keep on changing it every day. Follow 60:40 Strategy and divide your time in this manner. Use 60 % of your time to revise what you have already read. In the remaining 40 %, cover balance topics one by one. Gradually as you approach the exam keep reducing this percentage so that in the last few weeks or so you are not reading anything new. Just revise what you have already read till then. In the actual exam, the nature of the questions is such that you can only answer if you know that topic thoroughly. If you have half-baked knowledge, you will end up making many mistakes which will negatively affect your chances.
Practice leads to consistency
This is also the time to do a lot of practice. To find out your strength and weaknesses, you must attempt as many mock tests as possible during this time. Try to maximise your strengths and minimise your weaknesses. It is very important to analyse your practice tests once you’ve completed them to know about the areas to focus on . Do course correction as required.
Don’t let yourself get stressed out
Since there is limited time left and a lot to read and revise, stress is inevitable. To cope with the pressure, take frequent breaks. It is okay if you don’t feel like studying for some time. Take half a day off. Watch movies or read something unrelated to the exam. Watch videos. But come back to studies as soon as possible. Maintain the focus. Don’t get into the negative loop of guilt and realize that you’ve already done a lot of hard work, and have learned a lot.
Final words: While Mains is a “Recall & Reproduce” Test, Prelims is a “Recall & Recognise” Test. So, the focus should be on familiarising oneself with important topics and understanding concepts, and not on remembering facts. Because UPSC asks a lot of conceptual questions in addition to the factual questions which they have started recently. Also, therein lies the importance of revision and solving mock tests because they help you in remembering facts easily.
Even though Paper 2 (CSAT) is now qualifying, but don’t make the mistake of taking it lightly. Every year, many aspirants fail in this paper even when they have scored well above cut off in paper 1. Moreover, UPSC has started to ask tricky questions in CSAT Paper and that makes it relatively difficult to score the qualifying marks in it. So, one should solve previous year CSAT papers to get enough practice. A lack of practice can easily bog you down in the exam hall and you will commit “silly mistakes” which will bring your score down.
Also in the exam hall, don’t commit the folly of following hacks & shortcuts and don’t go with a preconceived notion of a cut off. Because that puts undue pressure on you to solve a certain no of questions leading to many mistakes. At first solve questions you are relatively sure of. Then solve questions in which you are 50% confident. Don’t resort to blind guessing under any case.
Believe in yourself and get into the habit of scoring consistently high in your mock tests, you shall surely come out with flying colours in this exam.
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