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CSE 2021: Plan / Strategy / Daily Routine

Hello 2021 aspirants. I thought it would be nice if we can share what we are doing and intend to do with one another here.

This could be a thread for discussing everything prep for 2021. 

No one method fits all but to see the plans and progress made by fellow aspirants might help with the finer details of preparation and also keep one on track. 

Moderator Update: This thread has crossed 1 million views and has thousands of comments slowing down the website. We are closing this and moving to the next thread

https://forumias.com/post/detail/Official-How-was-Mains-2021-Paper-Essay-and-GS-Discussion-1641542963#main_comment


jack_Sparrow,rootand121 otherslike this
1.6m views

6.6k comments

Hi, 2021 is going to be my first attempt. I have a decent background on basics (or so I think!) and here's my plan: 

1. Oct to January: Mains cycle (cover optional, cover major topics for mains) 

2. Jan to June: Pre cycle (revision and tests, because that's what I hear people do) 

Points of uncertainty:

1. Is it okay if mains cycle stretches till Feb, cause my optional is huge? 


Nomadic_mahn15,brook
336.5k views
Just gave my second prelims this year. Missed on CSAT in the first and might clear both this time. I want to share two things-
1- Please never ever compromise on newspapers and NCERT.
2- CSAT is getting tougher by the year. Those who rely only on RC, please do enough practise so that you do at least 25 questions from Quants and Reasoning(the remaining 50). 
All the best! I hope all goes well for me else I'll be a regular here too in a month's time! :P
Pam123,Nomadic_mahn15and1 otherslike this
336.8k views

Till January- Cover Full optional and Mains major topics for once at least. (will try to incorporate revision in between once a major chunk of syllabus is done)

Feb-April- Optional revision once with tests +  GS Revision Pre(With tests) +GS Revision for Mains(With tests) --'AMBITIOUS'

May-June: PT 365 + Idhar udhar ka sochna😄 +  Full tests off course 

point of concern: How to go about small topics of Mains? though everybody says to do them from Value addition material of institutes.  When and How ,yet to figure.

Nomadic_mahn15,
336k views

Much needed thread. we have just 2020 everywhere.

by the way plan is :

1. Jan- complete mains and optional

2. feb-june - prelims specific 

pretty same for everyone. But is anyone hearing doing daily MCQs? I m not doing. 

Nomadic_mahn15,
336.7k views
Good to see so many people here! So what you guys intend to do here? Update your daily progress or something else? 
336.2k views
@sstarrr thought of doing them but could not, so will do at later stage only.


335.6k views

@adivasi just wanted to know how have you completed economics? the kind of questions being asked are certainly not to be done from the traditional sources.

336.6k views
@sstarrr I am doing economics these days only. After going through the Mrunal videos available on telegram whice were made for CSP 20, I finalised that I will do it from the Mrunal Old videos only(Youtube waale) + NCERT. Once I get acquainted well with terminology, then either will go through a book (Sanjiv Verma or Sriram IAS’s one) or may be Value addition material as per time permits.

And regarding your question, I guess writing tests and Monthly Magazine’s economic CA sections will be of major help, though they need consolidation.



Nomadic_mahn15,
335.6k views
@sstarrr thought of doing them but could not, so will do at later stage only.


Same here. I had thought of doing them too, but I feel if I am not doing it now I shall certainly not be able to do it later on either. 

336k views

@adivasi have you joined any test series per se? i have done mrunal once, sri ram half kiya. I dont think usse mains hojayega. Even though I am an economic graduate(galti se) , couldn't do them. I have started. need to fidure out way ahead.

@Gaurav I am not doing now. Not even possible, itna kuch krne ko hai.

336.5k views

@adivasi have you joined any test series per se? i have done mrunal once, sri ram half kiya. I dont think usse mains hojayega. Even though I am an economic graduate(galti se) , couldn't do them. I have started. need to fidure out way ahead.

@Gaurav I am not doing now. Not even possible, itna kuch krne ko hai.

@sstarrr Haan wahi, same here. Not possible. Moreover, after much deliberations I decided to do Current Affairs from newspaper only, and thus dropped the idea of daily MCQs solving. 

336k views
@sstarrr I have joined but haven't been able to write a single test yet, hope so soon I will start to write in a month or so.
I guess these are the only sources aur agar fir bhi nhi ho rha hai, toh sirf test dena hi option hai along with solved PYQ.

And yes, I am aso not doing any MCQs as of now. Itna sara hai karne ko😄😬🙅


Nomadic_mahn15,
335.5k views

@adivasi which test series? forum or vision

336.4k views
@Gaurav cool, it took me more than a month to set a pattern for CA.
1.Now I am reading Vision's Daily PDFs, and reading newspaper (jyada ache se nahi, I dunno I never feel like reading most of the editorials or read them completely )
2. Also I have started to do monthly magazines from May 2020 as of now, will be able to do the ones of few months before that also but only when this will be finished. 
And that's it for CA.


335.4k views

@adivasi which test series? forum or vision

Forum. I don't think kuch farak padega choice se, pehle syllabus pura karna, ya major chunk finish Krna is necessary for once.

335.4k views
joined Forum already. have written pretty much phele ke tests. economy mei I am stuck
336.4k views
I think would have to take 1 month to complete economy ache se
336.3k views
@Gaurav cool, it took me more than a month to set a pattern for CA.
1.Now I am reading Vision's Daily PDFs, and reading newspaper (jyada ache se nahi, I dunno I never feel like reading most of the editorials or read them completely )
2. Also I have started to do monthly magazines from May 2020 as of now, will be able to do the ones of few months before that also but only when this will be finished. 
And that's it for CA.


Nice, and I feel these are quite enough. What is needed is just to stick to these sources and follow them consistently. 

brook,
335.9k views
joined Forum already. have written pretty much phele ke tests. economy mei I am stuck

I think everyone does more or less from same sources. Usually people do it from Mrunal, Sriram, Economic Survey, Economy page (The Hindu/IE). I think you will certainly be able to gain confidence in Economics once you start covering these sources well. 

335.8k views
I think would have to take 1 month to complete economy ache se

Arey yaar, I dunno 1 month me bhi hoga ya nhi, the video series is very big. Though just 47 hours, but I am.making notes out it too , so taking time.

335.3k views
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