Thanks Utsah!

Strategies/Hacks in his words:

Hello everybody, this is Utsah Chaudhary rank 599 this side. At the onset , its an absolute pleasure to write for Mudits blog and an absolute honour to have him as a batchmate. Im sure he’s explained everything in great detail, so i thought id write a few hacks and tips to sail you through the mains .

1. Bust a few myths in your head

• Remember this is an exam that you have to pass and is not a test of your intelligence , neither does it involve super human academic acumen.Just like the movie moneyball where brad pitt rejects superstars to create a baseball team based on stastical probability of success, you don’t have to be the best thinker here. Rather you have to solve 20 questions in 3 hours in a presentable manner.
• Practice can not be avoided. You need discipline to write a good practice essay in a fortnight or atleast 2 GS answers a day to be able to complete the paper with decent answers. As the story goes..a young violinist asks a New York cop how to get to Carnegie hall, the cop replies practice..!!
• I agree that yes some element of luck is involved in this exam, but I sincerely believe that if you work hard and cover the syllabus, nothing can stop you from an under 200 rank..!
• Working hard is not enough..!!. You have to work hard as well as work smart. That translates into finishing the entire syllabus.

2. Remember this paper is not about depth but breadth .Read the Syllabus..

Study each and every topic in the syllabus and dont study one topic disproportionately. Eg There were atleast 10 articles on The Right to Privacy judgement every week in 2017…Dont be drawn only to one topic .. focus on other topics like shgs, inclusive growth etc which are clearly mentioned in the syllabus.

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3. Read the previous years question papers and spot trends.

UPSC has a habit of repeating certain trends in GS papers eg Society -SC/ST , womens issues… inclusive growth …. Water… terrorism … cyber security.. etc . Mrunal has done an excellent analysis of the GS papers here.Make short template notes of one page on such trends and you’ll surely hit 3-4 questions in each GS paper with great quality.

4. Use facts and stats

Make a small register for varuous facts and figures which you may use in your answers or better yet stick them to a wall. Use them to improve your answer quality. Eg one could use Indias HDI or GHI rank in a question on inclusive growth or poverty.

Eco survey is a goldmine here.

5. Try to answer as many questions as you can.

I personally left a lot of marks in both GS and mains (around 100) . Dont make that mistake. Avoid writing perfect answers . Prioritize your questions and leave some time for the ones you have very little knowledge of for the end.Eg The WASH question in GS paper 2 could have been answered by using stats on odf districts, sanitation, water access etc, adding the Swacch Bharat prog etc.People with a writing speed problem, try to write short sentences and use the points format . Practice to improve writing speed..! (No substitute here😌)

6. Choose a Test series with a fixed time table.

Between everything that’s going on during the 5 months between pre and mains, it is very tempting to skip a test here or their and then finding you’ve only done 2/12 Vision tests.To avoid this chose a test series with a fixed schedule for both GS and Optional.

7. Don’t ignore the static portion.

By static, I mean GS1s history, geography and society portion , GS paper 4 ethics and parts of GS3 like national security.We have a tendency to be flooded by current affairs, which makes us lose focus on such topics . Respect the static part. Remember its your total marks rhat count.

8. Analysis case studies in GS4.

If you analyse case studies since 2013, ul find certain common patterns.Eg dealing with sexual harassmentPersonal security vs social responsibilityDealing with road accidents. (Too many in the last exam) etc.Mrunal has done an excellent analysis of this.Make generic flowchart answers of what you would do in such cases and use them in individual answers.

9. Limit your sources.

In GS one newspaper plus yojana nd kurukshetra is enough. You can add a coaching centres current material for updates, but nothing more.Remember time management is critical to this exam.

10. Maintain your confidence and grit.

Ultimately its grit and determination that’ll get you through 6 hours of papers in a day.Your level of preparation will only be an enabling factor.Find that inner personal motivation and use it for those 3 hours in one paper.From myside , the only thing I can say is that to get into the coveted services is worth it. All the low moments, sacrifices etc will be worth. Just work hard and work smart!!

Best of luck 😎