STRATEGIES TO CRACK UPSC

 How to Crack UPSC Exam?

सबसे पहली बात - UPSC सिलेबस और पैटर्न को समझें

The chief difference between the UPSC prelims and the mains is in the type of questions. The prelims are objective and the other descriptive in nature. Hence, there is no need to go too much in detail for the prelims. Read NCERT textbooks to get your basics right. Go through previous year test papers to understand the pattern.

Multiple Sources

Every UPSC civil services aspirant knows that study material must be sourced from various places but don’t make the mistake of trying to read too many books and end up getting confused and frustrated. Decide on a few books and stick to them.

Current Affairs

Read one or two good newspapers to keep yourselves up to date on current affairs. The Hindu and The Indian Express are recommended. Also go through news websites for the latest on topics of national and international politics, science and technology and socio-economic issues.

Plans & Goals

This is clichéd but true. ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail.’ If you want to clear the civil services prelims in the first attempt itself, you must plan and study. To cover the vast UPSC syllabus, you must plan your day, your week and your month. You ought to have a daily routine where you spend a fixed number of hours to study. Have daily or weekly goals and strive to achieve them. This is the only way to cover the entire syllabus.

Revise

The importance of revising what you have learned cannot be undermined especially for the prelims since it involves being able to recall a lot of facts. This is where making notes come into the picture. With well-made notes, you could revise the whole syllabus.

Aptitude Test

Covering aspects like comprehension, mental ability, logical reasoning, etc. acing this test requires intense practice. To know more about how to crack the CSAT (GS Paper II), click here.

Mock Tests

Answering previous year question papers can give you an idea of the type of questions asked by the UPSC and also helps you assess your own preparation level well in advance. In addition, you can time your answers optimally. It also helps you know how much time you can spend on each question.

Do not Waver

Finally, you must work hard with a passion and perseverance and think of your dream. You might be tempted to give up because of the sheer enormity of the task before you. Remember the prelims are only half the battle. You cannot afford to lose enthusiasm at this stage itself. So buck up, study hard, will yourself to go that extra mile. Do not look at the exams as a burden but as a golden opportunity to improve and showcase your talent and intelligence. Let us sum up the eight steps to conquer the UPSC civil services prelims.

• Study as per exam pattern
• Source wisely
• Focus on current affairs
• Plan
• Have goals
• Revise
• Practice test paper
• Have dedication and passion                                          

 

Need of a strategy :

To clear this exam, the candidate has to have a cogent and a coherent i.e, a right strategy. Often, candidates who put in the hard-work as well as the candidates who are academically strong, find this first stage of Preliminary Exam as difficult encounter. The sole reason behind this inability to realise their potential is the lack of or adoption of a strategy that doesn’t suit the person in question.

Here are some of the strategies whose adoption might come in handy. You may call them Success/Winning strategies. You may ingrain one of them as a strategy or make a combination that really works for you. But always keep in mind that others’ strategies, including topper’s strategies, do not completely work for you. A simple logic behind this is that there exist Individual differences—be it intellectually, emotionally, socially or otherwise.

👇  RECOMMENDED BOOKS BY TOPPER  👇