On May 4, the UPSC officially declared that the exams as scheduled on May 3 stand postponed. It said two other things<\/p>\n
One<\/strong>, that fresh up’dates’ will be announced on May 20th.<\/p>\n Two<\/strong>, exam dates, when notified would ensure that at least 30 days time is given to students to prepare.<\/p>\n Most people would argue that our Strategy has to be guided by one single data point – when UPSC declares the date for Prelims.<\/p>\n However, I would like to make a point that the above decision is not pivoted around a single fact, but there are other factors which must be kept in mind to devise a strategy.<\/p>\n Let me begin, by asking you three questions?<\/p>\n #1 What should be the strategy of people, who are fairly comfortable with Prelims, right now?<\/p>\n #2 What should be the strategy of people, who are NOT comfortable with Prelims, and are aware of gaping holes in Prelims preparation.<\/p>\n #3 What should be the strategy of people, who are neither so much prepared for Prelims, nor so much for Mains either?<\/p>\n #4 Should the strategy of all the three people be the same?<\/p>\n The answer to what your strategy should be right now, depends on your answer to Question #4.<\/p>\n Let me argue that, there cannot be one single strategy for everyone, as not everyone is at the same preparation stage.<\/p>\n This brings us to the grand conclusion that then our strategy should depend on who we really are – in terms of our preparation.<\/p>\n I will strongly argue that only<\/em> we truly know our position. Your Test Series marks are a good indicator, but deep inside you know where you stand.<\/p>\n That’s the antar-atma ki awaj, and you gotta listen to it. And this voice, is not the voices in your head – which is the noise created by anxiety, panic, and sometimes an element of self-doubt.<\/p>\n ( Self Doubt is not unique to your preparation status. It is a function of being in your twenties. Its something that you uniquely have now, and you will not have all the answers right now. And just about half a decade from now, you will know all the correct answers. Of course, by that time, you won’t have the problems you are having now. More on that later. )<\/p>\n Here is my take on it, and you can take a cue out of it.<\/p>\n ( But I still need revision though )<\/p>\n If you are doing\u00a0 average or above in your Prelims Test Series, and you more or less feel the need for revision, but have done 3-4-5 revisions, you can think of preparing a bit for the Mains.<\/p>\n A bit of Optional+ GS Paper IV would not hurt right now. If you have not done enough Answer Writing Practice, it is a good idea to take up a Mains Test Series and get started selectively<\/em> for a few papers. Even if you are able to finish off 1-2 papers in the next month, you will be in good shoes.<\/p>\n The call has to be finally yours.<\/p>\n If you are in this category, I would urge beg you to stick to prelims preparation.<\/p>\n I can tell you that there is no bigger regret in life than having missed a golden opportunity, trust me.<\/p>\n You don’t want to be the guy who would recall years from now that in 2020 – the magical leap year humanity will remember forever- the prelims was delayed by a few months – and I was still<\/em> not able to benefit from God’s plan for me.<\/p>\n At this point, you should take a deep breath, and quietly, cleverly focus on prelims – doing just two things till the next.<\/p>\n I have devoted a significant part of my life with people who have worked their arses off and gotten what they wanted –\u00a0 their name on the holy PDF – and I am not even talking about the Academy Students – I am talking about folks on the forum before the academy existed.<\/p>\n And I can tell you that there is nothing like normal<\/em>. Normal is just another name for not mediocrity. And by mediocrity, I do not mean mediocre people – because there are no mediocre people<\/em>.<\/p>\n And if you plan to take only one<\/em> lesson from today’s post – it is this.<\/p>\n There are no mediocre people, there are only mediocre efforts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So do not let anyone tell you to be normal. Be a little maniacal and ace the Prelims. This is a God sent opportunity for you. Thrive on it.<\/p>\n Do not complain of the noise when opportunity knocks at your door.<\/p>\n Look, these COVID-19 times, have given us at least one<\/em> thing.<\/p>\n And that is solitary time with ourselves<\/em> ( unless you are a healthcare professional and one of the Corona Warriors ) .<\/p>\n A time to reflect. To know ourselves better.<\/p>\n If you are nowhere in competition, and whether you have been writing this exam for 4 times or you have never prepared for this exam, there is one piece of life changing advice I shall give you.<\/p>\n If deep inside you think you need a year to prepare, just drop<\/em> the year.<\/p>\n Don’t blame me for this. I could offer you inspiration porn, by saying that yes you can do it – and give you a false sense of motivation.<\/p>\n But I would rather be hated for saying the truth than be loved for tellies lies.<\/p>\n Look, the easiest thing for an IAS aspirant is to write<\/em> the exam.<\/p>\n Its easy. About 4 lakh people will do so.<\/p>\n And its not the same as “clear the exam”<\/em>.<\/p>\n The more difficult thing, however,\u00a0 is to be honest to\u00a0 oneself, and NOT write the exam. If you have not been able to give the exam about a year or so of serious preparation – because of whatever reason, and you think your preparation is less than 50% of what you wanted to do, this is a fairly good option.<\/p>\n I can assure you that writing prelims adds little your experience unless you write the Mains. And if you have not been able to devote about 8-10 months\u00a0 of serious preparation time to this exam – you either start with 10 hours a day or give yourself a year.<\/p>\n ( However, if you think you can clear Prelims, and mains may<\/em> be hurdle, by all means write the exam and clear Prelims. We’ll invent<\/em> a way to clear Mains with little preparation )<\/p>\n And speak to your parents. You will be surprised by how much they already know<\/em> about you.<\/p>\n The final decision with respect to what your strategy has to be has to be decided by one person.<\/p>\n And that one person is you.<\/p>\n Here are a few things I will tell you that, while I complete this Sunday Post for you.<\/p>\n #1 Where we end up in life depends more on what we choose to do, and less on what we are capable of doing. Make good decisions.<\/em><\/p>\n #2 Making a choice is not as much a challenge, as sticking to our choices and accepting our choices, is. That’s the harder part.<\/p>\n #3 Decisions are good or bad only in hindsight. Every decision has its pros and cons. The goal should be to have maximum pros and minimum cons.<\/p>\n #4 There are no mediocre people, only mediocre efforts.<\/p>\n #5 Whatever has happened once, may not happen again. But whatever has happened twice, is likely to happen a third time, unless you do something about it.<\/p>\n #6 Treat yourself as if you were your younger sibling. Give yourself some slack. And don’t be a bad sibling.<\/p>\n #7 Remember that whatever you decide to do – that is always the best decision.<\/p>\n #8 You will always over estimate what you can do in a day. And underestimate what you have can do in a few months or a year. Give yourself time. And some fresh air.<\/p>\n #9 Outside of love, faith is the most powerful thing. Have faith in yourself.<\/p>\n #10 Focus on progress, not on perfection. The world is not perfect. And we are still surviving.<\/p>\n #11 If something is important enough for you, you will do it even if you don’t like doing it.<\/p>\n #12 To do what you want to do later in life, you must do what you should do, now.<\/p>\n #13 You don’t get to chose if you will fail at something in this world. But we do have some say in what we fail at. You must like your choices.<\/p>\n #14 Greater the obstacle, greater is the glory in achieving it.<\/p>\n #15 Talent, like beauty is an unmerited gift given to people randomly, often stupidly. Luck however, is evenly distributed over a period of time. And it comes to those who don’t bank on it.<\/p>\n Until next time,<\/p>\n \u2764 There is no “ONE” right strategy. What you need is this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-60206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","category-public","tag-motivation","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Happy-birthday-Virgo.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":22402,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}There is no ONE strategy<\/h3>\n
#1 I am-a-little-comfortble-with-prelims-and-am-doing well -in-test series<\/h3>\n
#2 I am not doing well in prelims Test Series \/ prelims preparation<\/h3>\n
\n
# I am neither prepared for Prelims, nor Optional, nor GS Mains. And I can’t Study.<\/h3>\n
The Final Decision<\/h3>\n
\nNeyawn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"