Rijul (AIR-322, CSE-21) Prelims Mains Sociology Strategy

Hi All,

Rijul has cleared CSE 3 out of 5 times! This tells that he is doing something right for sure. Following is his Prelims, Mains, Sociology and PT strategy that got him AIR-322 in CSE-21:

Hi all,

Proud to be part of this community where I would be sharing my UPSC journey and some strategies to guide the new aspirants.

You can contact Rijul on his instagram or Telegram Channel.

The background

My name is Rijul. I was born in dehradun and spent major portion of my life in Bajpur town of Udham singh nagar district, Uttarakhand. I did my schooling in the same town. I graduated in civil engineering in 2016 from Malviya national Institute of technology, Jaipur. This was my 5th attempt in upsc cse and 3rd selection. I have secured AIR-322 this year. My optional is Sociology. In 2018, I was also selected in CAPF AC where I secured AIR-77.

The motivation

Motivation is very important for upsc cse. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Patience, perseverance, dedication, hard work, smart work etc are required. But motivation will keep your head high when you will fall. Either one prelims, 3 prelims, 2 mains, missing final list by 3 marks, etc etc. Short term motivation can be a song/a movie/ a character/ a failure/ a realisation etc. But keep a long term motivation to guide you in failures.

My motivation was always IPS. The power to reduce crime, maintain law and order, provide justice to people, the charm of uniform. This is what kept me alive in this battle for 5 attempts even after clearing the whole thing twice.

What to do / not to do

Avoid negativity from anyone. Your friends/relatives etc. Keep calm and believe in yourself.
Make medium term goals. I. e for a week.
Avoid myths. Eg. One has to study for 13-15 hours, this optional will guarantee me this, this coaching will guarantee me this.
Take time for yourself. Develop a hobby or do yoga / meditation / physical activity. For improving your personality and making good use of free time.
Don’t believe in any particular topper. Not even me. Every topper might have different background and strategy. Look for few toppers, see the common things between them, then decide for yourself what strategy suits you.
Take proper sleep before every paper be it prelims, mains or personality test. Change your sleep cycle a month before exam if you are a night owl. Proper sleep will boost your productivity and allow you to think properly with a clear mind.

The filter

Prelims, especially in the last 2-3 years has been acting as a filter rather than a selector.

After failing to clear first prelims and getting 100+ marks in the next attempts, I can provide you some tips:

For static portion, take 1 source for one area. Revise it as much as you can. Till now, I might have revised lakshmikant for more than 100 times.
For current affairs, I made some notes from newspaper and supplemented it with last year pt365 and current year’s pt365
Don’t look for hundreds of sources for current affairs. Static portion still holds the key. Use two sources max for current affairs.
Don’t separate the preparation of pre and mains. Do them simultaneously. In last 3 months, you can dedicate only for prelims.
Elimination techniques work. But they need to be applied with rational mind. The funda of eliminating extreme worded statements without thinking or knowledge is long gone.
Practice mock tests. I practised around 50 in my second attempt. But take a mix of test papers. Eg after sectional mocks, few full length from vision, few from forum, few from ias baba etc
Learn speed, accuracy and your ideal attempts from mocks. Rather than going for marks. Also, I used to avoid spending 2-3 hours in explanation part. Rather, note the areas where you lack and read from the same source. That will help you revise and memorize things on D day.
Most importantly, solve pyq of upsc cse prelims. Specially 15 days before pre, leave any mocks and solve only pyq. That will help you getting into the mindset of upsc.
Don’t leave CSAT. I won’t be able to tell you much because I never dedicated even single minute for it. But I have seen people failing in csat even after getting selected in previous years.

Join Decode Civils Telegram Group For Free UPSC CSE Guidance From Mudit Jain, IRS CSE 2017 (Ex-IPS CSE 2014 & 2015), Author of Decode GS-2 1.0, Decode Ethics 4.0 Part-A, Decode Ethics 4.0 Part-B and Decode History 1.0 Books

You can reach me at Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Telegram.

All My Notes

Sample PDFs of Decode Ethics 4.0 Part-A & Part-B Books, Decode GS-2 Book & Decode History Book:

decode-ethics-4.0-sample

decode-gs-2-sample

decode-history-sample

The selector

If prelims filters out, mains provides you opportunity to have your name in the holy list.

Practice, practice and practice is the only key for mains.
Start with single question. Try to improve the quality within time limits. I used to do single ques after taking test paper home. Eg 7 mins for a 10 marker. I used to complete the test by doing questions one by one and then get checked. Then 3 questions together in fixed time, then 5 ques, then 10 ques. Then I used to give full length test.
Improve your quality with that. Then your speed. Then try to add extra marks. Eg. Constitutional amendment acts, supreme Court judgements, reports, facts, etc.
Structure is same- intro, body, conclusion. I used points format.
Have some openings, conclusions ready before hand. Either from newspaper articles or from toppers answers. So that those can be used during the paper. That will save your time as well.
Try to use maximum points in each question. Also try to fill each page during your mains.
Some psychological aspects- I always did first few question with utmost quality. It’s said, first impression is the last impression.
Always number the figures / diagrams / flowcharts. Imagine you made 7 diagrams. And you numbered them. Examiner will know about the exact number of diagrams and how much efforts you put in the paper.
Also, try practising 10 markers in 3-4 mins as well. During mains, you might face time crunch in last mins. This practise will help you in completing the pages.

The game changer

Optional is the game changer for everyone. You loose out on optional, and you will suffer. My optional was sociology.

In my last 2 attempts, I focussed on compaction of syllabus and notes. I read Nitin sangwan extensively. I watched Sleepy classes videos on YouTube. Then read few topics from Haralambos. I compiled all these in nitin sangwan book itself. I used all the extra spaces in nitin sangwan and made notes there itself. And then revised it again and again and again.

Use names of books, sociologists, etc extensively. Eg, in suicide use Durkheim’s book “Le suicide” along with the year it came out.
Use exact definition of some terms given by sociologists. Eg- sanskiritization. Use exact definition by M N Srinivas rather than a made up one.

If you can, make short notes exclusively of sociologists, their saying, their definitions, etc. And sprinkle them in your answer.
To make it sociological, try to focus on syllabus keywords. Eg climate change effect (sounds like a gs ques) but focus on its effect on women, tribes, marriage, religion, social disharmony, labour, class relations etc
But dont try to just flood your answers with them even where not required.. for those answers where you dont find thinkers, use facts, data, examples, reports. (Eg. You wont find thinkers in current affair ques like covid 19 related ques, or new education policy)
Use thinkers exchangeably in paper 1 and 2.. eg. Use A m shah, pauline kolenda in paper 1 ques of household.. you can use stratification theories of different thinkers if any ques of inequality, gender, class or such appears in paper 2.
For examples, you can use them from gs 1,2,3 current affairs. Or from your own understanding of current affairs. Like – recent sologamy in gujarat can be quoted as emerging form of marriage. #metoo, hong kong protests, shadow pandemic during covid, rise of tinder marriages etc..

I used diagrams which are given in books..either nitin sangwan or haralambos.
Rest about openings and endings, you can follow the same which I told earlier in gs answers.
Solve PYQ. Around 30-40% ques are repeated. Have them ready beforehand. It will give you an edge during time crunch.
Most important, choose the questions wisely. Take time, then select the questions which you can write the best.

Sociology has smaller syllabus comparatively. Revise it as many times as you can. Mug up what thinkers have quoted, their books, etc. Use facts, reports, etc from gs in socio. Complete the paper. Answer every part of the question appropriately. And you will get very good marks.

For test series, I would recommend Ritesh sir’s Topper ias Or Praveen dahiya sir.

The rank decider

Interview, the most subjective also the most variable part of this journey. It is crucial in making you either ias/ips/irs/or other services. Your rank can vary greatly depending on personality test marks.

I have secured average in almost all the interviews I have give in upsc. So other toppers would be more suitable to guide you for interview.

Thanks mudit sir for providing me this opportunity.

Upsc journey can be very long for many. Just remember these few words from Martin Luther King-

If you can’t fly, run

If you can’t run, walk

If you can’t walk, crawl

But never stop moving forward.

You can contact Rijul on his instagram or Telegram Channel.

Other CSE 21 Topper Strategies:

DecodeCivils by Mudit Jain