12.8.2024
Where I stand today (writing the following down for myself):
- Optional:
SecAof Maths Optional (P1 and P2) over. Notes consolidated and organized on Notion. Sectional mocks given for both. - Solving ODE questions currently. Topics left to revise: PDE, CP&NA, VA, FD&Mech, S&D.
- Issues identified noted down in mistakes notebook.
GS:
- Given 2 mocks of GS4, 1 mock of GS1, 1 mock of GS2 and 2 mocks of Essay. Only GS3 mock left (Scheduled on 18th).
- PYQs brainstorming left for GS1, 2, 3 (Only partially done).
- Notes prepared properly but revision left.
What next?
- Completing PYQ brainstorming seems to be the way forward for now in GS along with answer writing and analysis.
- Need to consolidate notes and PYQs in GS. Mock evaluation seems pretty useless but the analysis videos & solution pdfs are a goldmine.
- Reasonably confident in Maths but I need to practice Modern Algebra daily. Need to start giving mocks for Maths every day after giving Abhyaas.
- Seems like a very difficult task for now. No idea if I will qualify Mains but I will strive to give my absolute best this time and leave rest to fate.
12.8.2024
Where I stand today (writing the following down for myself):
- Optional:
SecAof Maths Optional (P1 and P2) over. Notes consolidated and organized on Notion. Sectional mocks given for both.- Solving ODE questions currently. Topics left to revise: PDE, CP&NA, VA, FD&Mech, S&D.
- Issues identified noted down in mistakes notebook.
GS:
- Given 2 mocks of GS4, 1 mock of GS1, 1 mock of GS2 and 2 mocks of Essay. Only GS3 mock left (Scheduled on 18th).
- PYQs brainstorming left for GS1, 2, 3 (Only partially done).
- Notes prepared properly but revision left.
What next?
- Completing PYQ brainstorming seems to be the way forward for now in GS along with answer writing and analysis.
- Need to consolidate notes and PYQs in GS. Mock evaluation seems pretty useless but the analysis videos & solution pdfs are a goldmine.
- Reasonably confident in Maths but I need to practice Modern Algebra daily. Need to start giving mocks for Maths every day after giving Abhyaas.
- Seems like a very difficult task for now. No idea if I will qualify Mains but I will strive to give my absolute best this time and leave rest to fate.
[Update for myself (18.8.2024)]
- Maths: I think ODE and PDE are acting like South Africa [Chokers] of Sec B, mustering the courage to leave some sections in them now because time is less (Cauchy's method of characteristics is too long and some questions through the Charpit method are deliberately long). Need to accept that some questions in Q5 are made deliberately hard and time consuming. So just consolidating the other part.
- GS: Feeling quite lost in GS or maybe it's the exhaustion that has started to creep in. 13 hrs+ study time seems unsustainable. Also, I need to analyse my mock copies properly. The key to improvement lies there and not in giving more mocks mindlessly. I think I need to prepare a section wise strategy to tackle topics. A broad blueprint is ready but thanks to my optional, I am not getting much time to work on it.
- General: The problem for external validation is eternal but I think the only body which is capable to tell you whether you will qualify or not is UPSC itself. So maybe after all, just focus on the process. Do PYQs. Analyse topper copies. Mould your answer writing style.
Things will take time but it will happen.
In the end, my convergence is not uniform but it's important that I converge to my limit point and not diverge from it.
[Update: 27.08.2024]
Absolutely tanked in Abhyaas. I moved away from my old strategy to try something new in my answers. Couldn't manage my time plus lack of revision pulled my performance further down. So botched up my implementation. Missed almost 3 to 4 questions per GS paper! Again, I could not have time to finish Current Affairs because of my optional. Anyways, no excuses.. time to get back to work.
- Learning: Though I figured my mistakes out, I need to implement a strategy to remedy them somehow.
- Current mock status: Essay (3), GS1 (2), GS2 (2), GS3 (2), GS4 (3), Optional (2)
- New aim: Concretize my attempt strategy for GS in the next 7 days and give Forum simulators to see if I could implement them correctly.
- New aim for Optional: Manage 50:50 time between GS & Opt now and I need to increase mocks for Maths as well. I need to finish off CP&NA PYQs (The loss of almost 40 marks in this section last year hit me hard), FD & Mech and S&D notes consolidated, Torsion part left to practice in Vector Analysis. So aim is to get this work done.
- Anyhow, a story to share with the community (from the inventory of my stories)-
Mike "Iron" Tyson v. James "Buster" Douglas Tokyo Dome, Japan, 11 February 1990:
Tyson was the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world and was very popular at the time. Most considered this fight to be a warm-up bout as he had scored a 93-second knockout against Carl Williams in his previous fight. On the other hand, Douglas was considered an underdog going into this fight and up until that point, he had achieved mixed success. He was recovering from the loss of his mother who had died just twenty-three days before the fight.
HBO boxing analysts Larry Merchant and Jim Lampley expected to see "another 90-second annihilation." When asked by a Japanese customs official how long he expected to be working in Japan, Ed Schuyler of the Associated Press replied, "Oh, about ninety seconds."
Just before the fight, Tyson was seen partying with singer Bobby Brown and he refused to sleep early for the fight, deeming Douglas "an amateur" he could beat "if I didn't sleep for five weeks."
The fight:
From the outset, Douglas showed no fear. He moved with agility, throwing punches whenever he saw an opening, using quick jabs to keep Tyson at bay. Douglas finished the second round with a snappy uppercut to Tyson's chin. Seeming to regain his form, Tyson landed a punishing left to the body that had Douglas look at his corner, but still somehow Douglas seemed to dominate the middle rounds although Tyson managed to land a few of his signature uppercuts. Tyson was wobbled by a chopping right during the fifth round. Soon, Tyson's left eye began to swell from Douglas' right jabs, preventing him from seeing his opponent's punches well. Tyson's cornermen were caught unprepared; they were so confident Tyson would easily beat Douglas that they had not brought an endswell or ice packs, usually standard equipment for a fight. Instead, they filled a latex glove with ice water and held it on Tyson's eye between rounds.
Within the last ten seconds of the eighth round, Tyson, who had been backed onto the ropes, landed a big right uppercut that sent Douglas to the canvas. Although the knockdown timekeeper began when Douglas' backside touched the ring's surface, the referee was said to have started his own count behind by two beats. Douglas rose as the referee signaled nine, but the bell ended the round.
In the tenth round, Tyson pushed forward, but he was still hurting from the accumulation of punishment he had absorbed throughout the match. As Tyson advanced, Douglas measured him with a few jabs before landing an uppercut that snapped Tyson's head upward, stopping Tyson in his tracks. As Tyson reeled back, Douglas immediately followed with four punches to the head, knocking Tyson down for the first time in his career. In a famous scene, Tyson fumbled for his mouthpiece on the canvas before sticking one end in his mouth with the other end hanging out. The champion attempted to make it back to his feet, but referee Octavio Meyran counted him out. Buster Douglas thus became the new undisputed heavyweight champion, engineering one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
During the post-fight interview, Douglas broke down in tears when asked why he was able to win this fight when no one thought he could. "Because of my mother...God bless her heart," said the emotional new champion.
Each one of us has a Buster Douglas within us and each one of us is fighting their own demons. Let's fight hard for these last three weeks before Mains. All the best!
[Update: 02.09.2024]
- Gave yesterday's Abhyaas for Maths Optional. I made really small silly mistakes (Again in CP&NA and ODE). Identified that revising formulas and notes is the real problem for me. I have conceptual clarity in all the topics. So tackling random topics isn't the issue for me. Way ahead for Maths: Pinpoint formulas and problematic areas in Maths per section.
- For General studies, I think I have found my way. Implementation of these ideas in the exam conditions will matter now. The "hoga nahi hoga" question depends on that. Botched up my implementation in Abhyaas which actually reflected. I believe content matters but strategy matters even more.Way ahead: Work on finalizing an attempting strategy.
क्या हार में क्या जीत में
किंचित नहीं भयभीत मैं
संधर्ष पथ पर जो मिले यह भी सही वह भी सही।
वरदान माँगूँगा नहीं।
So I just wrote an Essay FLT The topic was interesting- "Too much democracy is detrimental to development".
However, I feel otherwise.
Although I've mentioned few points regarding democracy being detrimental to development (eg Plato and Aristotle called it mobocracy, policy paralysis and all), but I've given a substantial part of my essay to why this essay statement is only partially true by explaining slowing Chinese growth as highlighted by Hal Brands and Ruchir Sharma.
My question is, whether we can write an essay that argues otherwise, or we just have to stick rigidly to the "belief" imposed upon us by the essay topic?
Don't write about what you "feel" like is my view on Essay writing. Objectively address the topic. Support the viewpoint given in the topic by giving arguments and justifying them using examples. Give a counter viewpoint to balance the Essay and that's it.
If there was a tailword "comment" then I would have written my viewpoint and balanced it with the shortcomings of "too much democracy". Though that's in the context of GS answer writing.
That's how I view it, others can weigh in.
Update: 14.09.24
Scored quite above average in Maths. Made really silly mistakes in formulas and lost almost 20 marks in both the papers. Lack of formula revision is the culprit.
Reasonably confident in Essay, Opt and GS4.
What I improved this year?
- Studied with absolute discipline with an average of 12 hrs+
- My mock status: Essay- 4, GS1-2, GS2- 2, GS3- 2, GS4- 3, Opt- 4.
- I think I could have given more mocks for Opt but I tried my level best to balance between GS and Maths.
- Solved PYQs diligently.
- Improved my sleep schedule
- Did mock analysis and strategized per paper.
Certain shortcomings (with honesty):
- I wasn't mains ready before Abhyaas. It was one of my targets but I couldn't as I was preoccupied with Maths opt.
- I couldn't give simulators this time around because I had to remedy my mistakes I had identified in Abhyaas and ofcourse, the revision part.
- Couldn't do modern algebra everyday as planned.
With just 6 days left for Mains, if my future self looks back to this day and wonders if I did my best during prep. My reply is "Yes, I did". I have pulled off 15 hrs study sessions as well. Finished 3 answer writing notebooks for GS and finished almost 4 large notebooks for Maths. Analysed PYQs and mocks diligently for GS and Opt.
So today when I look back to the broken person in Jan 2024, I can't believe I got through that phase. The question of hoga-nahi-hoga is something I will leave to the future because I am happy I could make it this far. Picking myself up after Mains 2023 rejection was not easy but still somehow I pushed through all of this one day at a time. At this stage, my fear of rejection is gone. [This is my 7th year of prep (I started at 19 by self-prep) so the thought of "what if I get selected" and external validation of someone telling me that I will get selected is long gone].
So my final message to people attempting Mains 2024 and my future self is "Itne durr tak aa gaye ho toh aage bhi hojayega.. bass ladte rehena hai". All the best.
Update: 22.09.2024
Phase 1 GS papers over.
- I was a bit slow in GS1 and 2. Attempted all the questions and I did not completely bluff in the unknown ones so I partially attempted them (Twister wala). But I implemented my strategy to the point.
- Satisfied with GS3 and 4. Completed both the papers and executed my strategy properly.
- I wrote on topic 4 and 8 for Essay. I am completely satisfied after attempting the paper.
Overall, I am completely satisfied with my efforts and performance in the exam hall. This is the max I could do at the moment. The battle is not over. Now time for maths optional. All the best everyone!
डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है
जा जाकर "खाली हाथ" लौटकर आता है
मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में
बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में
मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती....
कोशिश करने वालों की "हार" नहीं होती...
Update: 29.09.2024
Mains over. Maths optional papers were extremely tough. I had scored nearly 300 in Abhyaas in opt and I had worked extremely hard in this attempt.
I don't think any number of mocks would have prepared me for this kind of paper. It was extremely difficult.
But anyhow, I gave my best. That's all I could do this time around. If I fail this time, I am ready to start again.
@tedmosby how many attempts ?
It was my 5th attempt and 3rd Mains.
In recent days, I've noticed two types of people when it comes to preparing for the Mains exam. One set (we'll call them Group A) says, that Mains requires average content with good answer writing practice. They don't have the best content. If you read their answer scripts you'll find nothing special, yet you find some of them clearing this exam. The other group of people (Group B), are the ones who are usually in their senior attempts and who have gone above and beyond and prepared their own 1-2 pager notes for the entire syllabus, list of special keywords, written multiple tests etc. They, too, clear the exam, usually with very good ranks, but not always. We have seen many brilliant candidates (from forum community itself) not getting through despite their efforts.
And here lie aspirants like myself. This person who is very weak at answer writing, is struggling to complete the paper, or has not yet revised his own notes multiple times assumes that once he reaches the level of Group A, he will get through mains. He convinces himself that mains is easy, by following the perception built by Group A. But, slowly, a fear grows inside them, too. A fear of losing out to Group B. And, so they too end up collecting more value addition, nicer keywords, attending specialist module courses, current affair classes etc. This, of course, comes at a cost.
And therein emerges a set of aspirants who are not even at the level of Group A but aspire to be like Group B. They are what I'd call half-baked goods. Not good enough to fight alongside Group B, and not even skilled enough to keep pace with Group A.
In my opinion, such candidates are the ones who do not stop and introspect. And they are a lot. And so they take a bite so big that they can't even chew it. And so they end up throwing up that unchewed bite onto their Mains paper, and then they wonder why they didn't get rewarded. Or if they do get rewarded for that big bite, they get it only after they have chewed and digested it all, which is only after a couple of attempts and when their head is slightly greyer than before.
So, in the opinion of the esteemed readers of this post,@Neyawn @Rashmirathi @Ganesh_Gaitonde @tedmosby and others, do you resonate with the above line of reasoning? Will it be better to block out Group B from our minds, and try to become as good as Group A? Or is Mains really that difficult that we have to reach the level of competence of Group B, to even stand a chance at winning this race?
I will say that don't classify people. Everyone has their own set of circumstances and the reality is quite complex. People don't understand a simple fact that it is one thing to "know" and another thing to "write and reproduce" in the exam conditions. For ex- everyone knew that CAG was from PYQs and they have asked about the body twice. But the twist is- you have to write the content in such a way that it will fit the demand of the question under 7-9 mins for 10M and 9-11 mins for 15M while having good presentation. Answer writing is important for this very reason.
For the diligent aspirants, they know that the content is essentially coming from the PYQs and nothing else. The need is to do PYQ brainstorming "properly" and write answers from forum for PRACTICE. But still out of sheer FOMO, people start reading mountains of content to get that "unique edge" over others. I believe knowledge is like an infinite ocean and what you know is just a drop. So how well you use that drop of knowledge is the thing that matters the most. How well you express your knowledge matters.
In my opinion, being logical and having a broad perspective matters more in GS rather than specialised content.
Next, people want external validation for their preparation a lot so they think that scoring in mocks is an absolute indicator of that. In reality, it is only partially true. If you give a mock and do not analyze it, it was a waste of your time. Getting a 100+ score is irrelevant. It doesn't matter how much you scored, it matters how well you strategized after overcoming the mistakes you felt during that mock. But still aspirants are running behind "guarantee" which doesn't exist in real life. There's no guarantee for anything in life. We are trying to introduce objectivity in an exam which is based on subjectivity.
Everyone learns all of these things at their own pace. Developing a logical mindset is not everyone's cup of tea which is why you would see very knowledgeable people not being able to crack this exam in their 6th attempt while some people are able to crack it in their 1st attempt.
Again, that's how I view the aspirant community and demand of UPSC. It is subject to interpretation.
How was the anthropology optional ? People are saying optionals this year were easier compared to gs papers. Can anyone give their views on this, especially anthropology optional ? Thank you.
"People are saying optionals this year were quite easier".
I don't know about other optionals but I can say that Maths opt was very tough. PYQs were scarce. Unconventional themes were present everywhere. There's a small debate regarding one question too.
All in all, both the papers were tough.
@siddharthdwivedi9418851 Yuval Noah Harari's new book "Nexus" talks about Information networks over the years and AI (I know opt is not just about reading books but still :P) plus AI has been a dominant theme in the past year. In GS4, we had Ethics of AI too. So I think the topic was predictable to a reasonable extent for you Anthro guys? Did any TS cover it beforehand?
For people having Maths Optional, I have analyzed both the papers question by question here: https://forumias.com/post/detail/Mathematics-Optional-2024-Paper-Analysis-1727851791
You can comment your views down below there.
Hii all,
Need some suggestions from the community....I have written mains this year it was my 2nd attempt and first mains , after every paper in mains I felt I have not done enough justice to it and I know there are many loopholes in my answer writing....so what shall I do next? Join mgp again or focus on pyq brainstorming and enriching my notes ...just muddled up in confusion where to start from again for mains prep. Any advice from Seniors who have gone through this phase would be a huge help🙏🙏
@Neyawn @Steph_Curry @Ganesh_Gaitonde @tedmosby @Rashmirathi
I would say- do PYQ brainstorming properly and give forum mocks for "practice" and "analysis". Do not take the marks given as an indicator of how you would perform in Mains. Every year I have seen people complaining about how well they "scored" in MGP but not in the real exam. You can establish a direct correlation for objective subjects. Ex: Getting 2xx score in JEE mocks translating to good rank in JEE-A. This is not true for UPSC as it is subjective. Once you get this idea right, just follow this space: https://forumias.com/post/detail/Gaitondes-Den-1727638216?page=1
Guys in a dilemma, i gave upsc mains 2024, i got a job offer that I want to take up, starting this month 10th.
But UPSC interview preparation also need to be done.
In a dilemma to accept offer or not.
two things i'm sure is
1. I will take 1 full month leave before my interview date
2. can give 5hours per day for interview preparation starting from november 1st week
should i take up the offer, will it be problematic ?
experienced people like@tedmosby @Neyawn @Rashmirathi @DM can kindly help
also please suggest some courses that we may have to follow for interview
PS: without loss of generality, reasonable and hopeful assumptions are made
To be honest, even I am looking for jobs post Mains filhaal toh. In my opinion, you should take the job offer because sab kuch itna uncertain hai ye process mai ki we do not know what will be the outcome of this year's Mains and ofcourse, jobs are scarce currently. So for the purpose of financial/psychological security, you should take up the job.
P.S. I was in the same situation last year. Idk why was I so happy about my Mains 2023 performance that I left a very good job opportunity in AI just because I was thinking that I would get an interview call. After I didn't get an interview call, I was cursing myself about not preparing well enough for Plan B. [Apr 16 ko samjha ki interview call toh bhai deserve karte hi nahi thhe :P i.e. I didn't have enough marks to deserve that interview call and I had hinged all my hopes to it because I was highly deluded back then]
@ScarredEngineer @S_Singhh Giving IFoS this year?
Mai toh kuch bolunga nahi with regards to strategy because I haven't appeared even once for IFoS Mains (I have stopped filling it since my 2nd attempt). But macha ke aana hai ye baar bas :D
I know post Mains fatigue hogaya hoga (especially because of Maths) but I have "heard" a lot of people say that competition kam hai udhar so it's your chance to shine. Maths ke liye toh I would say ek baar Shivraj sir se baat kar lena.
Can't answer that in one word!
Optional experience-
Before giving Mains- Now I had done 4 full length tests properly between Pre and Mains. Before that, I had already given some tests in the month of Jan-Feb (But those don't count as I had not analysed them). I had realised that focusing on analysis is more important than mindlessly solving mocks. So I had identified that I was making small + - mistakes. I had identified that some questions in Section B were chokers and for some reason, since 2022, ODE had been that topic for P1. So I had a strategy ready- whatever be the case, I need to solve the questions I knew in 2 hrs 15 mins and leave 45 mins for questions which I did not know. During mocks, this strategy was proving effective for me and my major problem was that I had high hopes and expectations from Maths opt.
During Mains-
I just grabbed the paper and without filling my details (I did them afterwards), I started to read the questions one by one. I had put in extra efforts for Section A, so I knew I had to choose questions from that section. Section A was fairly easy but again some questions like Taylor series rattled me a bit (because that topic had never been asked for numerical analysis - did one small silly mistake but concept was right). Now coming to Section B. I attempted Q6 out of 6,7,8 because imo it was like choosing the lesser evil. After seeing the paper, I knew that whatever choice I took, UPSC had strategically placed a tough question with two other doable questions which made the paper very tough! I left 20 marks blank in Paper 1. When I came out of the hall, I was not happy with some silly mistakes I committed - I couldn't recheck 4b (15 marks gone straightaway) and 4c (I started the question nicely but for some reason I couldn't recall the concept! Heartbreaking tbh). So in Sec A- Q2c, 4b, 4c pulled me down. Sec B - 5b (I knew it was convolution but again couldn't get it right), 5c (Got vectorial volume correct - couldn't complete it), 5e(ii) (I was going to do it later on but couldn't do it), 6a (Blank).
I knew that I had to perform well in Paper 2. I revised all the formulas properly and after learning from Paper 1, I knew that I need my A-game here. I had already revised Modern several times now and I had shortlisted some theorems like Cayley's theorem to appear in the paper (which did not happen :/). Now as soon as my revision got over, I just went in at 1.30 pm. I closed my eyes and started to mentally revise all the formulas. I knew that Paper 1 did not go according to my expectations but now doing well in Paper 2 was in my hands.
Paper 2 was distributed at 2.25 pm, during the reading time I numbered which questions I had to attempt. I saw this trend- easy questions from topics which were ignored by aspirants and tough questions from traditionally easy areas. In Section A, 1e was an inconvenient question for me because I had not practiced it but still I got the answer correct. Q2 was a ruthless massacre! I setup Q2a properly but proved it to be divergent (last few steps were wrong. In hindsight, I should have revised the series expansion part properly), Q2c (I got the logic correct but again couldn't complete it), Q3a (Got the residues part partially correct), 3b (I am not sure about all steps being correct but by PYQ knowledge I just somehow proved it). Overall, Section A was tough according to me. In Section B even after revising so many times, I still got confused between Gauss Elimination and Gauss-Jordan. Got the whole question correct but I am not sure which method did I apply. Next, I got 6a partially correct because lord knows what the other half was xD.
I surprisingly got the MoI question exactly correct!
So paper 2 was relatively better for me.
Post Mains-
Overall, I wasnot quite satisfiedwith Mathematics Optional because as you can see, one silly mistake and you lose alot of marks even if you know the concept. When you know a question, you know it else you have to leave it. Also balancing it with GS is extremely difficult plus you tend to have high expectations of high rewards from this optional but UPSC has stopped rewarding it that much (360-370 type scores). So yes, satisfied with my own efforts but still I don't see what else I can do for next year. Solving random questions from reference books is not the solution (I know this because I had committed this blunder in 2023. Picked up Gallian for Modern and MDR for FD among others. Wrote a beautiful Essay on "Mathematics is the music of reason" which fetched me 119. I have a lot of gyaan to give on physical significance of concepts asked in these papers but they are not enough for scoring). I have realised that solving UPSC Mathematics is like following a standard operating procedure with essentially no scope for creativity and innovation (like one can do for Humanities opt). You cannot write a generic answer if you do not know a question.
Anyways, I have done whatever I could now. It is for the Commission to decide the result. [I am done with the debate on scaling and normalisation (We do not know if there's a system in place or not). Raw marks ka bhi, we can't say anything because we do not know the marking scheme. Finally, not making comments on hoga nahi hoga butI am done with this optional].
@tedmosby I have shared my attempt in blog u created for maths. Though mains is done and nothing can be changed now , but ur choices in P2 could have been better ( personal opinion and mostly everyone I know ) , to choose q2 from sec A and q6 from sec b is very courageous. I was shivering seeing those questions.Anyways best of luck , baki koi baat ho , we can discuss on maths blog !
My advantage has been that I am good in tough topics so that's why I chose those questions. Plus I had practiced that so that's the reason behind my choice.
I commit a lot of silly mistakes in easy questions which is why I have lost a lot of marks in previous attempts.
Last year 37 marks in essay waki marksheet kidhar hai ?Ye sab insiders maximum dates bata skte uske aage everything is their man ki baat.
My take- Don't take any info seriously bas mazze lo. Abhi mohol banna bas chalu hua hai. Result aayega end November ya early December mai hi.
I remember "insiders" claiming so many things in the last two years and they were incorrect most of the times.
@tedmosby bhai ye wala thread ekdum dead ho rakha tha to socha thoda masala lagaa du, kuchh discussion to kare log
Baat toh sahi hai. Post-Mains time kaisa Jaa Raha hai sabka?
studying for IFoS but not that efficiently
I can only imagine how you are studying post-Mains bhai. I didn't fill IFoS because I knew I would be damn exhausted post-Mains and also ab strength nahi bachi hai kuch toofani karne ke liye. Also tired of the Pre-Mains cycle honestly.
I still remember studying Analytic Geometry just when Pre got over. I didn't even feel like studying anything but started studying irrespective of what I felt. I think Jul 1, 2024 will be etched in my memory for causing a lot of "upsets" that day. Most of my friends who wrote 2023 Mains with me were not in the list this time. I felt bad. Surprisingly, I found many first attempters this time and also some people who were giving their first Mains. Idk what the trend is at the national level but certainly ye mujhe thoda odd laga tha.
Anyways with the Mains result coming soon we will again have some upsets. Again, some deserving candidates would be out of the list. Again vohi bakkar and frustration about Mains marksheet not being released sooner. I remember my rants after Mains 2022 and 2023 results ab toh naa energy hai aur na hi utna hu utna involvement. Mehnat toh iss baar utni ki hai jitni shayad pichle 6 yrs mai nahi ki thhi. Accepted a lot of my mistakes and tried improving on them.
Looking back to the kid who started UPSC prep on his own in Dec 2017, I have come a long way. Toh ab jo hoga dekhi jayegi.
@Averageaspirant Forest mai Jaan laga dena bhai bas. All the very best. I wish you get out of this cycle with IFoS atleast.
@Jesse_pinkman Leave AWFG Intense out - I am just eating & sleeping all day. xD
Also last 2 Mains results experience reminds me of the following scene:
Barney: "Ted, this moment is already gone. The whole Minnesota Tidal wave incident happened 5 years ago. It's just a memory. You have been sitting here all night staring at a single ticket of Robots vs Wrestlers because the rest of us couldn't come out". *Pauses for a second* "Look around Ted, you are all alone".
*Bob Saget narrating*: "Kids, you can't cling to the Past *pause* because no matter how tightly you hold on, it's already gone".
The same goes for UPSC, the same goes for any past memory in our life.
@tedmosby HIMYM ke bade wale fan ho bro. I remember this scene.... too deep .. too sad...I hope aapki Robin aapko jaldi mil jaaye
Filhaal ke liye toh meri Robin ye exam hi hai. xD
@tedmosby Is there any correlation between the marks scored in MGP and the actual marks in the UPSC Mains exam?
Definitely not bhai. Marks scored in any mock doesn't have any correlation with actual marks scored in UPSC. Mocks ka toh main aim hai strategy test karna.
@Averageaspirant Iska matlab koi correlation nhi hai. Sab ishwar ki kripa hai.
UPSC* ki kripa hai bhai.
There's a huge difference between UPSC evaluators and mock evaluators. You cannot possibly trust mock evaluation comments because there's a huge communication barrier as the evaluator cannot encompass all his comments in a few lines. Plus marks ka kya hai. I remember my mock evaluation comments were "Brilliant and well done" and then I got marks in 80s. I was like "Tell me where I am going wrong?".
Best way to get mock evaluations is through the medium of audio. Ask your peer/mentor comment on your answers through audio and suggest improvements. One of my really good friends helped me with that in GS1 and 2.
Good evening everyone.
Wasnt feeling so well.
Was going through some old pics and found this.
In an aspirants room. Had clicked it back then. Like 5 years.
Made my day.
To all those going through tough times.
Sharing.
And happy Diwali!
This is extremely relatable! On the occasion of Diwali, I would like to share my journey in this context-
As a 19 yr old "kid", I used to get excited to study more because of this dream I had once seen. I remember writing answers in the freezing winters of Dehradun. I clearly remember writing one answer every day (bare minimum). I would deliberately write answers at night because my hand would get cramped due to the cold weather and I would challenge my own self to overcome that. All of this in the anticipation of that dream coming true some day. I used to be excited to solve mocks and see how much I would score.
I remember scoring 41/200 when I first attempted the Pre 2018 paper at home. Surely I was demoralised but I would get excited thinking about how I can improve, what more things I could learn and the subsequent effect on score. Next year, I scored 98/200 in Pre 2019 when I attempted it at my home. I was happy that I had improved. I would often get excited thinking about being closer to "the dream". In my final year, I had three job offers in hand, I had cleared GATE and CAT (with a decent percentile). I gave up all of it thinking that I am closer to that dream now so why waste time in side quests? Excited, I would slog harder and harder every single day, scoring 120s in GS mocks. All my focus was on Pre 2020. But then CoVID happened and my mental health took a nose dive. I panicked during Pre 2020 and scored 79. I was out of the list. The dream which seemed so near was now pushed further away by one year. But still in the excitement that one day I will achieve this dream, I picked up my pen again and wrote an Essay FLT the next day of the Pre results. I was among the top scorers. I was pumped. The excitement was back!
*Few ways down the road* Oct 2021 - "0 results found" flashed on my screen. I had failed Prelims again. My friends told me "Bhai 0.3% baccho ka hota hai yaar. Shayad luck saath nahi diya hoga". I replied "Arre toh ye luck mera saath kyu nahi deta?". I later found out that I had failed Prelims by 2 marks that year. The dream I once saw felt like a Mirage. No matter how much I ran towards it, it just goes farther away. I sat down and found out the blunder I was not acknowledging was my emotional impulsiveness. In the last 5 mins of Pre 2021, I had marked 5 extra questions which turned out to be wrong. That year I learnt the importance of emotional intelligence. I knew I had to learn the art of emotional self-regulation. I was excited to know if I was correct. I formulated strategy for that. When I came out of the exam hall after CSAT, I told my friend "Bhai lagta hai mai cutoff hi chase karta rehe jaunga". The result of Pre 2022 came soon enough and this time I had cleared.
The excitement of writing Mains 2022 was immense. I got UPSC Bhavan as my centre!!! The feeling of standing in front of the Dholpur House was unimaginable. I thought the dream of that 19 yr old kid will come true. My batchmates in PG thought I would leave the course midway.
*Fast forward to Dec 6 2022* "0 Results found". I looked at my admit card and tore it in half. Still next day, I was in the institute library slogging hard again thinking about the dream coming true "some" day.
*Fast forward to Dec 8, 2023* Placement season was on and I was rejected from a job because of a small technicality. Almost everyone was placed in my batch. Now in this context, I desperately needed a "win". I needed the Mains result in my favour. I opened the pdf. "0 results found". I turned to my friend, nodded my head and mouthed "No". My friend shouted "Arre bhai, galat roll number daala hoga wapas se check kar". I re-entered and the result was the same. Then my friend said "Apni girlfriend ka check kar". I entered her roll number (as I remembered it) and she had cleared (now ex and got selected eventually).
I hit rock bottom that day. I was left behind. I was not jealous of my then gf clearing Mains (I had always supported her in this regard) but I was sad that I couldn't clear. The dream flashed before me. I thought that I would never achieve that dream "ever". I had lost faith in myself. My confidence was at an all-time low. I had lost my appetite.
So when I sat down to analyze my mistakes, I could clearly see where I was going wrong (Discussed in another forum comment after final results of 2023). The excitement to improve upon them and implement them motivated me to try again. I wanted to see if I do improve upon all of my mistakes and formulate a strategy then will I be able to achieve that dream?
In this context, I really liked this quote: "Failure only means we are one step closer to success" - Rocket Boys (2022)
So for the last 6 months, I worked for more than 11 hours per day hoping that some day I will get closer to that dream.@Neyawn 's image just made me recall all of this.
During my preparation days, I was happy simply because of this element of "excitement". Charting out strategy on my whiteboard, passionately debating on how I could implement innovative ideas in an effective way, listening to my friend criticizing the quality of answers in my mocks and getting tips from him etc. Everything was in the pursuit of this possibility of having a dream come true.
When I look back, I am happy how far I have come while pursuing this dream of mine.
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय
(From the Darkness (of Ignorance), make me go towards the Light)
Happy Diwali everyone!
@Jesse_pinkman Bhai what's cooking?
Result ka mohol bann gaya?
Hey I have a doubt which is troubling me can someone share their insights or similar experience
So in civil engineering optional I attempted Q 1/3/5/7/8 but by mistake I attempted Q 2(b) partly,wrote around less than a page and left it
I didn't attempt other parts of Q 2 but forgot to strike it off.
Now the rules say that attempt will be counted sequentially.Technically even if I wrote less than a page it is an attempt but are there any chances that the examiner might show humane considerations?
In other questions, without scaling,I would be getting 35-45 marks out of 50 but in Q 2 I would be getting only 2 marks
Anyone having similar experience or want to give any input?
TIA
It's going to be sequential. People have lost marks due to this unfortunately afaik.
@JaiBabaKi Good to see that you qualified bhai. :) My best wishes to you.
I am really happy that some of my friends qualified Mains this time after so long.
For others who couldn't, I won't say much but I will say that all of you fought well. It takes a lot of courage to prepare for this exam year-after-year.
I knew that my Maths Opt papers didn't go as per my expectations, I ranted quite a bit about it on Forum and I had told some of my friends that I am counting myself out this time.
I am glad that I got a job right after Mains which is why the shock felt a little less.
After my trial-and-error for seven years (a journey which would have been shorter obviously), it is time to step back for some time. I need to live life a bit and then I will get back to this prep after a break. I don't believe in giving up but I think I need time to switch my optional subject and regain the strength for another attempt at this exam. But I will come back strong. I was happy with my efforts in Mains 2024 and surely, I need to get the implementation right.
That's my final take on this.
