Kshitij Gurbhele

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...

 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...

 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...