1. Talk to some mentor in-person. Get some one-on-one guidance, from someone who has cleared (preferably many times), who knows you, and is sympathetic/non-judgemental. keep the mentor in loop for one attempt by keeping in touch. Online forums/topper-videos may not be as helpful at this point. .
2. Introspect on previous attempts : weak topics/subjects, do source analysis of questions...where they are coming from....try to make changes....invest in weakest and important subjects and topics. .... Also introspect if u had hurried through some topics and mugged
them up just to clear prelims without understanding them conceptually
i.e. if u took any unwholsome shortcuts. That can be an irritant
especially in subjects like geography , science-tech etc. Compare your
strongest areas with your weakest and introspect why does a topic feel
strong and other feels weak.
3. You also need to know the competition broadly...everyone in strong in : polity, modern, science-tech, etc....bcos of close overlap in sources and questions asked....and most people are weak in : environment, agriculture, economic geography, some parts of economy, sometimes in ancient-medival etc....you cannot keep working just on strong areas.
3. Sometimes solving other exam questions like ghatnachakra books can also help. You can use them selectively for weak topics as they give you good command on facts.
