Hello everyone, I am Pawan Kumar Goel. I started my preparation after completing B.Tech in EEE from DTU (Delhi Technological University) in 2017. I had secured AIR 131 in UPSC CSE’19 Exam and got selected into IRS(IT). Post this, I was working as an IRS(IT) officer and cleared the exam this year with an AIR of 28.
How and When to Start Preparation?
Well, there is no right time to start preparation, one should start when he or she has the conviction to write this exam. Some of my friends had started their preparation right from the beginning of the college, while others after completion of college or after working for a year or two, and in all these scenarios some could make it while others couldn’t. So, in a nutshell there is no “best time” to start preparing for the exam. Preparing in each phase comes with its own set of advantages and challenges. Now coming to the second part, how to start preparing for the exam.
In my opinion, one should first of all familiarize themselves with the pattern and syllabus of the exam. One should start with reading newspaper along with basic books. I have reproduced below, the basic books followed by me for ready reference of the aspirants: –
Polity- Laxmikant
Geography- Class 6to 12 NCERT, YouTube videos and PMF IAS website for clarity
Art and Culture- Nitin Singhania
Modern History- Spectrum and New NCERT
Ancient and Medieval – New NCERT
Economy -Mrunal videos
Environment- Vision pre and mains 365
World history and post-independence history- Vision study material
Indian Society- Vision value addition material + YouTube videos of vision
Current Affairs- Newspaper, Vision IAS prelims/ Mains 365
The best timetable is one that suits an individual and the one which can be followed consistently. Instead of sharing a minute-to-minute timetable, I will share a broad framework which governed my preparation as I feel that it will better for each aspirant to draw timetable as per their own strategy and convenience and they can take some pointers from my broad framework instead of just blindly copying my timetable. Since I have given and cleared the exam both while working and while full time preparation, so I will share my timetable for both the routine.
When I was preparing full time, I used to divide my day in 3 slots of 8 hours each. 8 hours for studying, 8 hours for sleeping and the rest of 8 hours were for doing rest of daily activity. Now many times aspirants have doubt when to study, whether to study late at night or wake up early in the morning. I tried have both, but I personally felt that my productivity was better in the morning than in the night. However, one should study at any time as per their own convenience.
While working, I used to wake up early in the morning as I realized that I was too tired to study after returning from office. So, my focus was to maximize early hours of the day in order to study with a fresh mind.
So would wake up early and try to study 2-3 hours before going to office. After returning from office. Normally I would study for another 2 hours. So during weekdays I could take out 4 to 5 hours for studying. This made my weekends even more important. I used to try and maximize as much as possible during the weekends. However, honestly speaking it was difficult to study for more than 7 to 8 hours during weekends as one also needs some time to relax and unwind, given that doing job and preparing for exam together tend to take its own toll both physically as well as mentally.
I had selected sociology as my optional subject. One can start sociology by having a quick read of the NCERTs. Further I will recommend going through videos of “sleepy classes” on YouTube. The way of teaching is quite lucid, and it offers a nice overview of the subject. Further, I also referred to Nitin Sangwan book. It is as close to a one stop source for entire sociology syllabus as possible and provides all the necessary information in a concise manner.
Further for paper 2 I also referred to notes of Mahapatra Sir, sir has given lots of case studies and examples especially regarding topics in part A and B of paper 2 be it village studies, Indian Tribes etc.
Also to make your answers stand out from the rest, one needs to use data, name of committee, try to give a contemporary example to support your claim or theory in question. Further mentioning thinkers of one paper in another also helps to score better marks. For example, while writing about Marxism in paper 1, one can also mention about AR Desai’s work on “Social background of Indian Nationalism” which one reads in paper 2
Whether to Make Notes or Not?
Whether an aspirant wants to make notes or not is a personal choice. However, I will STRONGLY suggest aspirants to make notes, be it handwritten or digital. I used to make handwritten notes as I felt it was easier for me to revise from my notes again and again instead of reading the same book multiple times. Further making handwritten notes helped me to retain whatever I had read for a longer period of time.
Also, while preparing notes on a topic, I used to make 1-2 page note on that topic and usually my note was divided into following subheading:
Facts
Pros and Cons/ Advantage and Disadvantage
Steps taken
Way forward
conclusion
This format of making notes, helped me to retain a topic in the same format in which in as going to write my answers in the mains
Also, I had 2 types of notes. One a longer version and another a shorter version and I used to revise the shorter version of notes one day before the examination. This shorter version consisted of things I felt that are important and I won’t be able to recall during the examination. For example, in modern history I had prepared list of newspaper and organisations founded by prominent freedom fighters which I used to revise a day before prelims exam or list of important articles of constitution which I used to revise a day before GS2 paper during main examination.
Role of PYQs in Prelims and Mains
Previous Year question play an important role in both the stages of examination especially in prelims and in optional. Solving as many PYQs is very important from prelims perspective as it gives one idea about important topics which are generally asked by UPSC at the prelims level. This helps the aspirant to focus more on important topics as the syllabus is virtually endless at prelims stage. Further by solving PYQs , one is able to develop a knack of eliminating wrong options in the paper. In any prelims paper, normally a serious aspirant might know 30-45 sure shot questions. However, still one will have to attempt more questions by eliminating options or by making intelligent guess or in some questions by simply following one’s intuition. Accuracy of one’s guesses will improve, if one solves more MCQs especially PYQs.
Now, coming to the importance of PYQs in mains. Here again, PYQs can help aspirant to separate wheat from the chaff, so that more time and focus can be given to important topics. For example, in GS1 there has hardly been any question from world history and Post Independent India. Though there was one question in 2023 GS1 paper which can be categorized from post-independence period, however the question was so generic that one could answer it even without specifically reading about it. On the other hand, geography forms the biggest chunk of GS1. Thus, by going through PYQs one can prioritize more important subjects over the other.
Having discussed importance of PYQs from GS perspective, lets delve into its importance from the perspective of optional subject. PYQs play an integral role while preparing for any optional. It acts as a compass to stir aspirant in the right direction. Be it prioritizing which topic to study more to understanding the demand of the paper to in how much depth a particular subject has to be read. Infact solving PYQs will help an aspirant to become much more confident in writing the optional paper.
How and Which Test to Practice?
What I have learnt from my CSE journey is that practice is more important than knowledge in this exam. Not to undermine the importance of knowledge as one can’t clear the exam without having knowledge. However, practicing mock tests at both prelims and mains stage helps one to reproduce that knowledge in the examination hall within the given time frame
For Prelims- I will suggest one to practice as many MCQs as possible. This can be done by solving daily MCQs on any of the websites related to civil services preparation such as be it insights on India, IASbaba etc. Apart from solving daily MCQs, one should also aim to write at least 35-40 mock tests. I personally used to solve mock test of Vision IAS, Vajiram for prelims.
For mains- I feel that mains in all about being able to complete the paper while being able to write as good an answer as possible in the given time frame. One has to write 50 pages in a span of 3 hours and there is hardly any time to think. So one needs to have content and answers on their fingertips and this is only possible through sufficient answer writing. So one needs to write as many mocks test at mains level as possible so that one is comfortable in completing the paper within a span of 3 hours without comprising on the quality of answers. I have written mock tests of Vision IAS and Forum IAS and also used the model answer given I n the solution as a source of content enrichment.
Let me thank you for staying with me till the end of this lengthy article and wishing all of you all the best the exam and life. May health, happiness and success all be with you.
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