It usually takes the next morning for the facts to sink in.<\/p>\n
The mornings, in my opinion, are the most terrible[1].<\/p>\n
Sometimes, its terribly lonely<\/em> too.<\/p>\n I mean you could be at home with all your family – or your preparation city with plenty of flatmates \/ people around – and sometimes you are the only one who has cleared the Prelims and written the Mains – and have been some kinda hero in your rented flat – until the results come – and yet it can be very lonely.<\/p>\n Being teary eyed and looking at the results screen has its own set of woes. Its blurry, you can’t see a thing.<\/p>\n And if there are people around, you cannot even close your eyes, because then – you run the risk of your tears rolling down.<\/p>\n And everyone now knows<\/em> you are crying<\/em>.<\/p>\n How unmanly<\/em>![2]<\/p>\n This is for those of you who heard that infamous ding[3] in the holy PDF that has roll numbers of students who cleared the Mains examination, and could not find theirs<\/em>.<\/p>\n First<\/em>, it’s perfectly alright if you feel terrible<\/em>, feel like crying<\/em> or even nauseated<\/em>.<\/p>\n And it is also perfectly alright if you feel nothing<\/em>.<\/p>\n Particularly if this is not the first time you have missed your name in the list.<\/p>\n That numb feeling.<\/p>\n People calling your phone and staring at your face, and yet – you feel nothing. [4]<\/p>\n You have relatives calling in sometimes. Asking you to fill up other govt exams instead<\/em>.<\/p>\n The results will take some time<\/em> to sink in.<\/p>\n Sometimes a day or two.<\/p>\n Sometimes a week later when you go through the Prelims grind.<\/p>\n Sometimes you may not feel a thing<\/em> – particularly if you have been through<\/em> this before. D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n You feel numb.<\/p>\n And then you feel guilty about not feeling anything, contrary to a lot of people around you who might want to see you devastated.<\/p>\n I want you to know that it is okay to be numb<\/em>. Not feel a thing.<\/p>\n We truly realize the implications of the results only after a few days. Not immediately.[5]<\/p>\n And the first implication, you have is to prepare for the Prelims again<\/em>.<\/p>\n One more time<\/em>.<\/p>\n I am not going to promise a silver lining for every cloud. But here is still something<\/em> you should know.<\/p>\n One<\/em>, nearly everyone happy, smiling, or cheerful with a winner smile you see there whose name is in the holy PDF have gone through exactly<\/em> the same emotional turmoil that you are going through.<\/p>\n And at some<\/em> point of time, did not find their names in the holy PDF.<\/p>\n You are not alone<\/em>, uniquely cursed<\/em> or unlucky<\/em>. You are regular<\/em>.<\/p>\n Two<\/em>, If you think that success would make you happy, you have understood life wrong.<\/p>\n Success merely makes others<\/em> feel that you are happy<\/em>. Your private life nearly remains the same. But a detailed post on that one is for later times.<\/p>\n Third<\/em>, our ability to succeed depends on our ability to sometimes assume that we are inadequate and more needs to be done to get what we want.<\/p>\n Nothing worth having comes easy.<\/p>\n Where is the glory in that!<\/p>\n Your assumptions could be wrong, and you could be closest to perfection – but for any<\/em> progress, acceptance to some extent – that we<\/em> missed the mark and there is<\/em> a lacuna because of which we<\/em> missed it – sets the stage for action<\/em>.<\/p>\n Because in the absence of an action plan<\/em>, we could be living at the crossroads of our lives, not knowing where<\/em> to go.<\/p>\n And I can tell you that some of us are so indecisive<\/em> that we build a home<\/em> at the crossroads of our lives<\/em>, and start<\/em> living there.<\/p>\n Some of us, even put a nameplate outside.<\/p>\n But crossroads are meant to be decision points.<\/p>\n Not comfort zones.<\/p>\n And here are some thoughts on an action plan.<\/p>\n #1 First, Accept that humanities is different from the Sciences.<\/strong><\/p>\n And there are things that you may<\/em> not know.<\/p>\n And we don’t<\/em> always know what we don’t know<\/em>.<\/p>\n And also that you can never<\/em> know everything<\/em>.<\/p>\n One of the biggest pains I have is when I hear someone say – I have reached the end of my preparation for GS 2.<\/p>\n I mean I adored this kid<\/a> sometime back because she never said she was finished<\/em> with a subject.<\/p>\n She merely<\/em> said she was done with Atul<\/em> Sir’s notes for Ethics<\/em>. Or Dipin Sir<\/em>‘s 22 <\/em>classes.<\/p>\n Or what Anudeep<\/em> has posted on his<\/em> blog.<\/p>\n Specific<\/em> things.<\/p>\n Trackable<\/em> things.<\/p>\n Things you could ask<\/em> questions to her on, and she would answer or not<\/em> answer it.<\/p>\n Things that could be verified<\/em> to be true or false.<\/p>\n Please know that in humanities, every book on a topic will say different<\/em> things. And while they are all<\/em> correct, they may not<\/em> be adequate.<\/p>\n Humanities have three<\/em> specific differences from the sciences\/ maths.<\/p>\n Which makes the Civil Services Examination ( and our preparedness assessment a bit tricky )<\/p>\n One<\/em>, a 10 -15 mark ( or %tage )\u00a0 difference in humanities is a huge<\/em> gap. It’s usually a gap between the topper and the lowest scorer.<\/p>\n On the other hand,\u00a0 in sciences or Maths, a topper may score 99 and a person who knows nothing may score 20 out of 100.<\/p>\n It is always easier to separate the chaff from the grain in Sciences and Maths.<\/p>\n In humanities?<\/p>\n Not so much.<\/em><\/p>\n And just because the score gaps do not look very big, it does not mean that the score gap is not<\/em> massive. A 10% score gap in Sciences and Maths is not<\/em> huge, but the same score gap in humanities is a Big one<\/em>!<\/p>\n Two<\/em>, humanities is a collection<\/em> of ideas. Nearly every<\/em> teacher or book can teach you something<\/em> new.<\/p>\n Some damn new idea, theory or interlinkages.<\/p>\n So while fluid dynamics in HC Verma will nearly have the same formulae as in Irodov, a book on poverty by Abhijeet Bannerjee<\/a> will have quite unfamiliar ideas compared to the book by Utsa Patnaik.<\/a><\/p>\n And yet you need both<\/em> their ideas in your answers<\/em>.<\/p>\n Three<\/em>, in Maths or Sciences, you actually want<\/em> to reach a plateau<\/em> in your preparation.<\/p>\n A Plateau is a point where all progress is halted. The good news is that once you are on a plateau – \u00a0 you are no longer on a cliff.<\/p>\n That also means that you can relax because you will no longer roll back to the valley.<\/p>\n Believe me you, a plateau in your humanities paper \/ or civil services in general – is not<\/em> good news.<\/p>\n A plateau in humanities means you are not<\/em> getting fresh ideas. And in humanities, fresh ideas always<\/em> exist. It is just that you don’t know<\/em> them.<\/p>\n [ We all know of some senior who has been appearing for the interview for like four years. They clear the Mains with ease, and that is it<\/em>. Make sure you locate your plateau and don’t build a home there. If you are not making progress, you are going back<\/em>. Do not let the plateau confuse you. ]<\/p>\n #2 Life is not all fair<\/em>, but its also not all luck either.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n And you will know it when you get<\/em> lucky. That it wasn’t all luck.<\/p>\n Alright.<\/p>\n So, I read this whole book from Zero to One<\/em> and What Got you here won’t get you there<\/em> – and both the bestsellers said that we cannot deny the role of luck<\/em> in our success or failure.<\/p>\n In fact, they even argued<\/em> that most successful people do not<\/em> thank their good luck for their success –\u00a0 in the same manner and to the same degree – as most of the time when we fail, we invariably blame<\/em> luck for it.<\/p>\n However, to assume that it’s all luck<\/em> closes the door for progress and effort. And for introspection.<\/p>\n We are then – only left to look at the sky – and blame it on the fault in our stars<\/em>.<\/p>\n Let me not lie<\/em> to you.<\/p>\n Life isn’t all fair<\/em>.<\/p>\n Some of the most deserving people I worked with\u00a0 – and whom we expected to break into Top 50 – may\u00a0 have not been able to break into top 100 and have settled with ranks ( and in their lives ) in 200s and 300s ranks\u00a0 – and I often wonder on sleepless nights what went wrong.[6]<\/p>\n ( Sometimes, I kinda cold call<\/em> them trying to convince them at 1AM to write the exam one more time.\u00a0 [7] )<\/p>\n To the point that I often<\/em> worry if they think I am demeaning their current<\/em> achievements.<\/p>\n The intentions<\/em> – trust me – are only in the direction of bringing<\/em> the best out of people I meet – even if I don’t quite get there all<\/em> the time.<\/p>\n #3 Mind the gap.<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of times, we are unable to identify the gaps adequately. So for example, when we do not get an Interview call by 2-3 marks – we think that the gap is only of 2-3 marks.<\/p>\n That is a very Banking<\/em> \/ SSC<\/em> way of thinking.<\/p>\n This is Civil Services Examination.<\/p>\n Our benchmark is – and should be<\/em> – the top scorer, not the last man in the queue.<\/p>\n You have to imagine the gaps to be big enough<\/em>, such that you can have an ambitious<\/em> plan to make<\/em> the jump. Even if the gaps look minuscule at first<\/em>.<\/p>\n #4 Believe in the power of dreams.<\/strong><\/p>\n Often we are too afraid to dream. The pain of failure is so deep<\/em> that we are scared to dream any longer.<\/p>\n What if we fail?<\/em><\/p>\n In a popular movie of the last decade – The Dark Knight Rises<\/a>, Bruce Wayne or the Batman –\u00a0 is locked in a well full of prisoners<\/em>.<\/p>\n He has to climb out of the well if he has to save Gotham. Or escape to freedom.<\/p>\n He has some ropes to help him out in his endeavour.<\/p>\n The story goes among the prisoners that years ago, a child had been able to climb out of the well into freedom.<\/p>\n However, after that,\u00a0 none<\/em> of the prisoners in the well have been able to make the climb successfully<\/em>.<\/p>\n The well is deep<\/em> and if someone reached high<\/em> enough, but didn’t quite reach out<\/em> of the well, the fall from that height could kill<\/em> him.<\/p>\n This made trying to climb out of the well a risky<\/em> business.<\/p>\n Bruce Wayne, being Batman, prides<\/em> himself in saying that he does not fear<\/em> death. He tries hard<\/em>, taking the help of ropes, but no matter how hard<\/em> he tries, he is unable to move fast enough to climb<\/em> out of the well.<\/p>\n A blind<\/em> prisoner asks him –<\/p>\n “You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak.”<\/p>\n “Why?” asks a bewildered Bruce Wayne.<\/p>\n “How can you move faster<\/em> than possible, fight longer<\/em> than possible without the most powerful<\/em> impulse of the spirit: the fear of death?”, says the blind prisoner.<\/p>\n “I do fear death. I fear dying in here, while my city burns, and there’s no one there to save it.” says Wayne.<\/p>\n “Then make the climb.” retorts the blind prisoner.<\/p>\n “How?”<\/p>\n “As the child did<\/em>.<\/p>\n Years<\/em> ago.<\/p>\n Without<\/em> the rope.<\/p>\n Then fear will find you<\/em> again.”<\/p>\n said the blind prisoner.<\/p>\n While I would not go to the extent of asking you to be afraid, I would indeed ask you to dream<\/em>.<\/p>\n A few years ago, I met a vivacious lady. She was writing her 5th attempt, and was appearing for her first<\/em> Mains. She was a working lady and her relentless effort amazed me.<\/p>\n She would travel all the way from Gurgaon to Karol Bagh just for writing tests and paper discussions with a Mentor.[8]<\/p>\n When I asked her what sustained<\/em> her motivation, she shared something<\/em> I would like to share with you<\/em>.<\/p>\n The wallpaper of her mobile phone<\/em><\/p>\n She had edited out last year’s ranklist to put her name in the final list<\/em>, when the Commission would not select her.<\/p>\n Until the Universe conspired<\/em>, and the Commission admitted her into the hold PDF with a rank under 30., next year.<\/p>\n Here, take a look<\/em> below<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dreams are made of these<\/em>.<\/p>\n I want you to know that all success stories start with apparent failures.<\/p>\n Outside of hard work, a good plan and the will power to execute it is the key to success.<\/p>\n #5 Take a well deserved break Right now.<\/p>\n If you had been waiting for the result all these days, it is a good decision right now, to not take any decision, and take a break.<\/p>\n Break from studies.<\/p>\n Break from ORN<\/p>\n Break fromUPSC friends.<\/p>\n Break from family whom you have been staying with.<\/p>\n Take a trip to the mountains.\u00a0 Or a trek. Or the beach, if you live down South.<\/p>\n Let us not make a decision about the future course of action when our judgement is clouded by our immeduate failure.<\/p>\n Take a week’s break. You may or may not deserve it, but you need<\/em> it right now.<\/p>\n Get out of your mind, and just get up from your desk and go out.<\/p>\n The Universe will wait<\/em> for you.<\/p>\n The exam isn’t going anywhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n And when you are back, let us sit down and make a plan that is impossible<\/em> to fail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Until next time,<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Neyawn<\/p>\n P.S. Views expressed are personal views of the author. You can reach out to the author by writing an email at ravi@forumias.com. He reads every email even if he is not able to reply to all of them.<\/p>\n [1] Especially<\/em> if you are a morning person.<\/p>\n [2] How soft \/ delicate\/ sensitive! if you are a woman<\/em>.<\/p>\n [3] Ding is the stupid sound a laptop makes when you Ctrl+F your roll number in a PDF file.Holy PDF is the name given to the PDF file that declares results of the Civil Service Examination.<\/p>\n [4] The feeling of numbness, emptiness , strangely also surrounds you when you see your name in the final list, and you are left with no one to share it with.<\/p>\n [5] Your world is not over with the results. Your parents will not disown you. At worst, you may get dumped, and it’s okay<\/em> to be dumped in a relationship if you are a member of the Homo sapiens species in your twenties.<\/p>\n The worst implications are the fact that you need to deal with the laxmikants, the spectrums, the art and culture stuff again<\/em>. And the SFGs \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n [ 6] Some years the GS Paper 4 goes awry, some years the Essay pulls them down, some years its the Optional Paper 2!<\/p>\n [7] In return, I promise them that I will share the burden of the hair fall that comes with each attempt.<\/p>\n [8] At GGN, when we conducted an Open Test for Mains , the first time –\u00a0 like five years back –\u00a0 only three people turned up. It was a shabby but an expensive arrangement we had in a cheap basement.\u00a0 And yet, each<\/a> of<\/a> them<\/a> gave us a rank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few hours ago, the Union Public Service Commission declared the Civil Services Mains 2020 results. The finality of the PDF – and I can say that from my vicarious experiences if not personal experiences – take some time to sink in. Especially if we have not been able to make it to the list.… Continue reading Getting the Best out of Mains 2020 Results – and handling failure<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,9],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-97423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motivation","category-public","tag-neyawn","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Screenshot-2021-03-23-at-11.08.46-PM-768x313-1-1.png?fit=506%2C422&ssl=1","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97423","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=97423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The difference between humanities and sciences \/ maths<\/h3>\n
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