Planning to attempt UPSC exam this year? UPSC
Civil Services Preliminary Exam 2018 is scheduled to be held on 3rd June 2018
(Sunday). The official notification will be published on 7th February 2018.
Here are tips from an expert, a strategy that will help you kickstart your UPSC
exam preparation. The strategy is shared by Rishav Jha who is an Oliveboard user and has cleared the UPSC CSE 2016 with AIR
162.
In his own words,
“My typical day would start around 11 in the morning and go up to
4-5 in the morning. I have always been a night owl (the rigorous IPS training
here in NPA, Hyderabad has unfortunately ended this habit of mine) as I believe
that peaceful nights are the most productive time of a day. I never studied for
more than 12 hours on any given day and I used to study for around 10 hours on
an average. You have to keep in mind that quantity doesn’t matter at all. I
would try to sit for an hour and study with the maximum amount of concentration
that I could conjure, and then take a 15-minute break. I would repeat this
cycle many times a day. During evenings, I would take hour-long breaks, hangout
with my extremely limited number of friends, watch a movie or simply take a
nap.
Obviously, things were not as smooth and there were times when I
would face seemingly insurmountable challenges. The most important challenge
was trying and being consistent. There were times when I would feel that my preparation
was not going as intended and I would spiral down into phases of depression. To
overcome this, I started making plans- long, medium and short term. Long term
plan was solely focused on first clearing Prelims and then Mains and
Interviews. Medium term plans would be for the next two to three months. But
the most important for me were my short-term plans, where I would chalk out in
detail what I needed to achieve in the next 15 days. Obviously, there were days
when I would achieve my target well within deadline and then there were days
when I would miss my target completely. But I would take my successes and
failures in my stride and learn whatever I could from them and try and improve
myself. Another challenge I faced was to overcome my appetite for instant
gratifications. For example, there would be days when I would want to just
sleep throughout the day or roam around aimlessly or watch movies back-to-back.
But then I would try to remind myself about my goal and I would conjure all the
mental strength I could and get back to my work as soon as possible.
Now when I look back to those days, I feel I didn’t do anything
special that others didn’t do. I didn’t read anything that others didn’t.
Rather I tried to be consistent throughout my preparation phase and never lost
sight of my target. I guess I executed my plans quite well through my short and
medium terms goals. The result was that a day before my paper, I was quite sure
I would do well and then, on the day of the paper, I surpassed my own expectations.
You have to always remember that Civil Service is all about being
“Jack of all trades, master of one” (one refers to your optional subject here).
You have to always keep a balance between the depth and the range. For example,
when you prepare for the current affairs part and you find a piece of news
about PSLV launch of ISRO, try and make a short 10-point notes about the PSLV
and ISRO so that any probable question with 4 options can be easily handled.
Another point is regarding what to keep in mind and what not to.
Don’t go after facts, barring the crucial ones, e.g. number of successful PSLV
launches till date. Focus mainly on concepts and get a fair idea about the
historical background of any piece of news. If the newspaper or any other source
doesn’t provide you with adequate information, go to Google immediately and
clarify your concepts.
Always maintain notes. Human mind is extremely volatile and if you
just go on reading, you won’t even remember 5% by the time you take your paper.
I would make detailed notes of current affairs, both online (in word files) and
offline (in notebooks) depending on the source. If I would read something
online, I would just copy and paste it in a word file after necessary deletions
and additions. Make current affairs notes month-wise so that revisions can be
chronologically correct which will help you in getting a holistic and clear
concept.
Don’t make notes out of books like Laxmikanth which need to be
read cover-to-cover as it is a huge wastage of time and energy. Compile notes
out of weight-losing sources like newspapers, because if you don’t, you will
end with around 350 newspapers before the exam and trust me, you won’t like the
sight of it.
Plan, plan and plan. If 15 minutes of your day is not going into planning,
you are not planning enough. Plan for the next 15 days, for the next three
months and for the doomsday. Then execute your plans as honestly as you can. If
you have to defer your plans for 2-3 consecutive times, know that you are out
of the race and you need to pack your bags and leave. To get a feel of how
tough the competition is, go to any tea-stall in Mukherjee Nagar or Rajinder
Nagar during evenings and look at all the dreamy eyes. More people prepare for
Civil Services each year than the combined population of Kiribati and Maldives.
While taking the exam, if you are completely unsure about all the
four options, leave the question. But if you can confidently eliminate even one
or two options, take the attempt because the probability of getting positive
marks from all such questions combined is quite high. Don’t be overtly safe or
foolhardy. Given the last few years’ cut-off, it would be prudent to attempt
85-95 questions in General Studies.
Be motivated. Study hard. Have faith in yourself and the almighty.
See you in the services-ciao!”
Hope this helps! Now, gear up for the preparation and ace the UPSC
CSE 2018 Exam with Oliveboard Mocks!
