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Coachings

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Aspirant : Papa I want to become an IAS. Papa : Son, my ears have waited so long to hear this. Aspirant : I have decided to give UPSC next year. Papa : Great, so when are you moving to Delhi, what coaching are you joining in, what will be the expenses? You see this is a general trend, the thought that comes to our mind immediately after UPSC is COACHING. And the questions that are asked by father are definitely legitimate, but also raise a doubt on aspirants capabilities. There is a misconception that one needs to join a coaching, shift to delhi ,etc to clear this exam, but every year you will find numerous toppers who have cleared the exam without spending lakhs in an institute. Even toppers who had enrolled in some coaching will seldom have a positive feedback regarding the coaching. Note: I didnt join any coaching or foundational course, yet took some help in form of: Dr. Shivin Chaudhary's GS3 Crash course for topics like agriculture, SnT, Disaster, security  PSIR test series a...
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Essay : A missed Opportunity

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Essay is a paper where one enjoys maximum freedom of expressing opinions.  I have scored 125 marks in essay, way more than what I expected, hence I am writing my thoughts on how to attempt essay in this post. We generally start the essay prepration after prelims but this decision must be taken according to one's capacity.   One has to write two essays, one is genrally GS related and the other philosophical. You will get 3 hours to write two essays, hence divide your time like 25 minutes for brainsorming(rough outline of essay, given below) and 1 hour to write each essay. Essay's structure (For ex. topic is- " Discrimination against women in India ") 1) Start by an introduction from any of the following:-      Anecdote- A real short story (Malala      Fictional story      Incident from history (Struggle of Savitri Bai Phule)      Poem Introduction must not  exceed 2 pages or 200 words, be to the point such that yo...
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Developing a Winner's Mindset

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 The journey of a successful candidate of any competitive exam, be it SSC, UPSC, JEE, etc is usually defined by their hardwork, determination, patience, consistency, etc. The least talked and perhaps the most important aspect is the mindset, training yourself mentally and psychologically is equally important, if you aspire to succeed in the crowd of lakhs. In this post lets decode my mental preparation for this exam. Develop a positive pressure I met many people after the results got declared. They all had this one question " How did you clear such a difficult exam in first attempt?" . But let me tell you this was not my first attempt, I always considered this as my last attempt. For an aspirant who has already given 4 attempts, try this mental exercise, treat your next attempt not as 5th but your last attempt. Pour all your hardwork, concentration and time to finally make it in the list. The Power of Imagination We all may belong to different backgrounds but we all do have a...
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Upload the syllabus to your brain : REVISION

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 UPSC CSE Mains has total 7 scoring subjects including GS, Essay and Optional. If you print the syllabus itself on A4 papers , it would take more than 8 pages to complete this task. Hence one can only imagine the resources a candidate has to read to complete this vast syllabus. Once you have downloaded all your books/resources, in your notes, its time to upload them in your brain. Hence in this post I will explain my method of revising the syllabus before final exam. The Two most popular ways are revising syllabus directly from books or from hand written notes prepared by candidates themselves. I am not a fan of revision done from books, due to following reasons :- Psychological= Books appear way more bulkier than notes Efforts= I find it difficult turning 700 pages of Spectrum(modern History) to revise the entire syllabus before tests Time= more the pages more is the time required Even if you highlight in books, it will always be unstructured and not in a flow unlike the notes Met...
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Optional. PSIR

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This post will walk you through how I selected my optional for UPSC, resources for PSIR, its strategy ,answer writing, etc. Selecting the right Optional. UPSC has provided a list of 26 optional of which a candidate has to choose one. Often considered as kingmaker, optional determines your chances of getting into the list. THE THREE CHECKPOINTS FOR CHOOSING AN OPTIONAL IN THE ORDER OF IMPORTANCE -: Your interest Availability of Resources/Guidance Time required to complete the syllabus Overlap with GS Print the list of all available optional and eliminate the ones which do not qualify the above three checkpoints. You will now have very few optionals to select from, then rate all the left ones according to your interest>resources>time>overlap. This exercise will decide your optional in the most rational way. You can talk to some friends, see Toppers video/blog of that particular optional to better assess your choice. POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. Coming from an e...
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Entering The Maze of UPSC

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Hello, Lets discuss how to prepare for this exam that I often refer to as a MAZE. Most of the first timers will start their preparation, a year before the prelims hence the following post delves into my strategy to escape this maze that is full of confusion. Consider this as my 1 year roadmap and journey ahead. I highly suggest you to see multiple toppers' blog and videos and then finalize your own strategy for clearing this exam. Early Warmup. In my last semester I decided to start the prep immediately after graduation. I finalized the booklist during this period gave them an initial reading to become more familiar. This was also the time when I chose my optional i.e. PSIR. You must use these initial days to understand the exam and its demand, this includes analysis of syllabus, pyq, trends of prelims and mains. Entering the maze. I was totally clueless on what direction to choose, given the uncertainty about questions like "Which topic to be read first?", "Should I...
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