Mains 2019 Preparation and Discussion Thread

In the question cum answer booklet there was an instruction asking us to strike off blank pages and spaces. Is it meant to be taken seriously? Will I be penalised?

@ChampakEven I left many blank pages. I did not want to cross all those pages as they were signalling the examiner aggressively that I did not write very well. That is why I left the blank pages stay blank.

@LeoMessiI joined lukmaan for essay test series in september 2018. Correction was good. Wrote 4 of their 7 tests I think.

Dar ka mahaul hai

A senior player who has now opened a coaching center has confided in me that results can be expected sooner than later as this time the pen strokes of the examiners are being monitored by India's eye in the sky, the Cartosat. Apart from making sure that the examiners are doing their job without doodling it will also send a warning signal whenever they mark an answer too high or too low thereby bringing much needed objectivity to the entire process. I could not independently verify this information.

I wrote how media can be used by enemies to conduct psy-ops on India. Is this point more relevant for compromised media and not biased media?

@TETRACYCLINE+1. I wasted nearly 60 hours doing current affairs booklets in the month of march. Glad I could revise them only once again and not 3 or 4 times. What did I gain from this effort?

Every stage of this exam is a round of Russian Roulette. One never knows which stage is going to take him down. Too dark?

Look what I found in NCERT World History on page 182.

Am I the only one who is getting troubled by their local barber? Everytime I go he asks me to get married.

If you search for my phone number in trucaller, its shows as myname_ias. Someone who knew me must have saved it as such in their phone from where trucaller got it. With new technology come new ways of making CSE aspirants embarrassed.

This was my 3rd attempt and first mains. I did not do well and pretty sure that I won't make it. But I can still feel the excitement while waiting for the result.

From the movie Troy

Messenger Boy: Are the stories true? They say your mother was an immortal godess. They say you can't be killed.

Achilles: I wouldn't be bothering with the shield then, would I?

Messenger Boy: The Thesselonian you're fighting... he's the biggest man i've ever seen. I wouldn't want to fight him.

Achilles: Thats why no-one will remember your name.

@KatsumotoI never really felt bad about failing 2 prelims before until I wrote the mains exam this year. The atmosphere was unreal to me. I've seen aspirants with dengue take injections right before they entered the exam hall. There was hope all around. Parents helping their children out with this and that. Spouses encouraging each other to do well. Aspirants who were trying to utilize the lunch break. Aspirants who have written 3 or 4 mains. If I had seen all this during my first attempt itself, I would have definitely worked much harder. I am a changed man after the mains exam regardless of the result.

@ChanakyaYou put forth your views without coming across as too ideological.

I am thinking of skipping current affairs monthly booklets and depending mostly on my notes for 2020. Is this a good strategy? What do you feel? And how are some toppers saying that they did insights secure multiple revisions? How is it humanly possible to revise such mammoth compilations? What is going to be your current affairs strategy?

@The_Powerpuff_girlsearch for prajit nair blog post on forumias. There he has linked to a summary of arc reports which he has followed. They may guide and help you further.

@Kira0705I hope results come today itself. Monday is a good day to start studying again.

Why did the Bhakti movement first start in South India and then followed by North India? Any guesses?

@abhishek_pUPSC has made me so numb I am not even getting this joke.

@Caesar@ST@abhishek_pThank you guys. Combining all your views, i wrote down a good answer in my notes.

Afghanistan was put in the list because it has a state religion and shares border with POK ie India.

@duster2019What is the risk of getting penalised in the Mains Exam if one mentions these unpopular views? I think CAB and NRC are needed but don't want to lose marks by antagonizing the examiner.

@TheOptimistI have one suggestion for you regarding answer writing practice. I qualified prelims this time after 2 failures and just like you did not have any answer writing practice. There are quite a few topics which are exclusive to mains exam and I had no idea about these. I had built up so much pressure that I gave up studying atleast 10 days before the mains exam started. So, please cover some mains exclusive topics and do answer writing practice for a few months. Without these, even if you qualify prelims there is a high probability that you are going succumb under pressure and fail to break out of the notorious UPSC exam cycle. This is just my view.

@dancingminionThis is the best suggestion. I listen to 'Lost but won' from the climax whenever i want to feel thrilled.

Any chance of Prelims 2020 getting postponed due to this delay in announcing results?

@abhinav23raj436The wait must have been brutal and must have also derailed aspirants's plans for 2016.

I am hoping for an after midnight result like in 2014.

Mains 2018 results were out on December 20.

Why do we check UPSC attendance and number of devices online? Do we really know that results get uploaded from there?

Those who man UPSC phones don't even know when the result is going to be out till it is actually out and here we have some of us worrying over a fakepdf generated in a telegram group primarily meant for doing bakchodi.

UPSC after seeing fake pdfs and related discussion:

The people who answer our calls at UPSC are all Jon Snows. The truth is that result may come today, tomorrow or next year and this is what they keep telling us.

@DerekWalcottSir what is your opinion on the view that senior aspirants are at a disadvantage during interview stage?

@DerekWalcottSir what about a case where the aspirant is senior+unemployed/no job experience? Would you still say that they are treated equally?

Who is Pradeep Singh?

This does not look like it is the mains result.

I have heard atleast one coaching centre faculty who asked to strictly stick to writing in the medium of the examination only. Even sanskrit quotes need to be written in Latin script to not risk deduction of marks.

@Caesarsaid inMains 2019 Preparation and Discussion Thread:

Indian Railway Protection Force Service

Why dangal?

OUT. 3rd attempt. 1st mains.

Congratulations and all the best to all those who cleared.

@WelcomeHomeFrankhttps://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/rly-withdraws-request-to-upsc-to-recruit-gr-a-officers-under-various-cadres/1709389