Following is Kalpesh Sharma’s (IAS CSE 2020; AIR-73) Prelims strategy in his own words.

Make your UPSC CSE Prelims preparation FOOLPROOF

Year by Year CSE prelims is becoming more and more unpredictable. However there are few things which can help you secure your seat for mains. There are two levels of preparation for the prelims exam. One at the preparation stage and second at the Paper attempting stage.

At preparation stage:

1. Your fundamentals should be very strong. You can’t afford to miss any question coming from basic books like NCERTs, Laxmikanth etc. Do revise these books again and again. Prefer to revise these books over reading a new material for the same subject.
2. Attempt many mocks from all the subjects of the prelims syllabus. First attempt sectional tests, so that you can have an in-depth knowledge base for each of these subjects.
3. Make notes out these mock tests, wherever you get any new information.
4. Also attempt UPSC Previous year question papers and identify the pattern in questions like from which areas the questions are being asked frequently e.g. Buddhism and Jainism. Have more in-depth knowledge about them.
5. Then attempt full length mocks from different coachings so that you don’t have biases in your approach towards marking answers.
6. For current affairs, read the newspaper regularly. You cant afford to miss even a single day. It can be The Hindu or Indian Express.
7. Read a monthly magazine for the coverage of current affairs which you might have missed in the newspaper. Make notes out of it in one liner statements and revise them.
8. Attempt any one monthly compilation of quiz based on daily current affairs. Don’t do it on a daily basis. Do it monthly. Make notes out of it, which may be one liners. Revise these notes again and again, particularly during the last leg of your prelims preparation.
9. Revise all these notes multiple times, before going to attempt the UPSC paper.
10. Apart from this, keep your eyes and ears open. Be curious about things happening in your surroundings. Google things which you think might me relevant for the Prelims exam.
11. Don’t ignore your CSAT paper preparation. Attempt at least 2-3 previous year papers at least 4-5 months before the UPSC exam date.. If you are comfortably scoring above 110-100 then no worry you can clear CSAT paper very comfortably. But if you are getting below 70-80 consistently, you need to prepare for it also.
12. Attempt a few mocks, both GS and CSAT, in the time bound manner, to simulate the actual exam like conditions.
13. One more thing, don’t over-analyse your preparation.

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At UPSC Paper attempt stage:

1. First of all, don’t stress yourself with a lot of facts on the previous day of the exam. It may hamper your common sense which is required to attempt the UPSC Paper.
2. Try to avoid revising things after 5 pm on the previous day of the exam. And do things which relax you like watching a movie, comedy scenes, talking to your friends/family members etc.
3. On the previous night of the exam, have a very sound sleep without worrying about the next day’s exam paper.
4. On the day of the exam, reach the exam venue well in time. If you have an extreme urge to read a few things then go through the things at which you are most comfortable but ensure that you don’t lose your calm and common sense, which is needed the most in the prelims exam.
5. Attempt paper in a very calm manner and preferably attempt it in three rounds.
6. Keep marking your answers in the OMR sheet, to avoid last minute rush where you might mark wrong bubbles.

You can reach out to me on TG for further clarification of doubts.

All the best for your upcoming attempt !!

Regards,

Kalpesh Sharma @kalpesh_ias

AIR 73, CSE 2020