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Civil services is considered the Great Indian Middle Class Dream and rightly so, because it enhances the social status of a family drastically. Bureaucracy plays a prominent role in delivery of services to households in a welfare state like India and is a significant way to serve the nation.
Based on inputs from successful candidates and coaching institutes, we have compiled a list of things to do for those who want to start early preparation of UPSC examinations.
1 . Newspaper Reading
First thing to do is to get hold of a good newspaper daily. The Hindu and Indian Express remain the current favorites of aspirants preparing for the exams.
Newspaper reading should not be a mere habit but an addiction. Plethora of raw information gets packed in one’s mind which helps one in linking theories with current affairs and helps in farming a good answer in Mains and Personality test stages of the examination process. It also helps in clearing Preliminary exam in which the most crucial paper is General Studies.
If you know more,you answer more ,correctly !
2. Daily Writing Practice
Mains stage of the exam has subjective papers for consecutive days which requires aspirants to write continuously for hours every day. Many aspirants with good knowledge but poor writing practice are unable to write long legible answers and therefore,fail to clear the exam despite hard work.
Daily writing practice also improves a student’s handwriting which gives an edge in subjective papers marking. After all, good handwriting is considered impressive part of one’s personality and most examiners do have a bias towards good writing.
3. Magazine reading
Not necessary to read magazines if one has started too early for preparation and is regular with newspapers. But a good habit to develop. Magazines like Yojana, Kurukshetra ,EPW etc give students in-depth knowledge about socio-economic conditions and effectiveness of government’s policies. Some websites like IDSA help students in preparing topics of Internal security and International Relations,while Down to Earth portal helps in Environment related topics. Magazines released by coaching institutes which give a synopsis of current affairs in preceding months are also prepared by aspirants for quick revision of monthly/yearly current affairs.
4. Prepare One Optional Subject
UPSC Mains exams consist of an optional subject apart from 4 papers of General Studies, Essay paper, and language papers- namely English and one more language (language papers are only qualifying in nature). Most popular optional subjects taken by students are Public Administration ,Sociology, Geography, Political Science ,History and Anthropology. Many engineering and management graduates too opt for Humanities/ Social Sciences subjects while few stick to Science subjects or their Engineering disciplines.
Students starting early preparation have an advantage that they can skim through the syllabus and books of various subjects and then decide which subject suits their interest and can be their strong scoring subject in Mains exam. Once a candidate enters the exam cycle, changing optional subject becomes a very difficult task.
5. Concentration and Focus
Civil services exam syllabus is vast and in-depth and one needs to read and remember a lot of information. It can only be prepared nicely with deep concentration and intense focus while reading. Distractions like social media and binge watching web series, etc are strictly advised to be avoided during preparation phase.The aim should be to read and revise a particular topic without rushing every other second for phone notifications.
6. Discussion Groups
A small group of good aspirants will benefit in exam preparation as it will enthuse a spirit of competition in completing the topics in syllabus. Discussions among group members will help aspirants in memorizing important pointers from a topic for a long time. Group discussions serve as Mnemonics technique.
To conclude, sincerity and dedication with a good reading and writing practice can yield success to candidates in the civil services exam.
