Prelims 2021 Results Declared - In or Out ?

Everyone studied when exam comes. The goal is to take a leap of faith and study when others are in the guessing game.

LET IT GO 

@Neyawn 

Sir , saw the youtube notification of your session today .

Sir please guide me with a way ahead. I have exhausted all my Civil services attempts.  I'm 30 year old . So technically I have two more attempts of IFoS. For two years I have worked  as a state govt employee( currently not).  Is it practical to give one more attempt of IFoS? Or is it wise to stop this preparation and see what( other opportunities) lies outside ?

Please through some light Sir. 

Thanks! 🙏 

Make it count !

@Neyawn  I failed prelims even this year. This was my 5th attempt. 2022 will be last. 

Had done previous year papers atleast 3 times and basic fundamentals atleast 10 times. Though, I concede, had done less mocks. 

Please guide. What course of action can be taken now?

Now as the forest results are out, prelims marks for 2020 should be available for all right?

Still not there, anyone able to get that?

@Truthseeker9  Small suggestion to do the PYQs mindfully, that might help (saying this without knowing at all how you're using them).

There's 3 different uses I have personally found for the PYQs for someone who has written past attempts:

1.  to mop up repeat questions (e.g. places the Buddha visited being repeated back-to-back, Money Multiplier, etc).  

2. To understand what the general trend of accepted answers is. All the fundas e.g. "just blindly tick D" or "organisations are usually wrong" concept arose because of successive years of UPSC taking the most general statements for science questions as correct. Attempting PYQs can help you develop your gut understanding of when those rules work or not, e.g. in a 50-50 situation. This is why it's also v v important to use the actual original answer keys and not any coaching centre's ones (to catch awkward situations like the Gypsum wala questions).  2020 and 2021 answer keys will be v useful for future attempts depending on answers for AI and Magnetite as it will give an indication of what direction UPSC will go for such questions in the future. 

3. Actual measure of your gut-check ability. One trick you might want to try is to attempt all your last few papers fresh in test-conditions using your old question booklet and a blank piece of paper. While you're attempting, circle the questions in which you took a blind guess. Then compare your previous answer (when you had written the attempt), vs your present answer, vs what's the correct answer. Doing this with all 5 papers can help you understand whether your guessing ability has improved, whether you can trust your gut, and whether you've retained the information fully. 

https://t.me/joinchat/vFlZ5Bf5U3Q3NTll

Plz join for mains 2021 answer writing and peer review

Hello friends,

I have seen many of ur comments which just forced me to give advice for prelims:-

MY OPINION ON PRELIMS

1. Don't make notes of too many things because:-

 -Certain people like me will eventually fall into dilemna that maybe book contains more things than I have written and in the end revise from book(thus wasting the whole purpose of making notes that too after putting so much efforts)

2. Read static 3 times more than the current. Since I have seen that ppl who are well with static no matter what they clear prelims every time.

3. I believe doing ratta is of utmost necessity whether it is in static or current. It doesnot matter whether it comes from writing/reading 10 times/understanding the concept.

4. One already knows which areas are weak so in place of focussing on the entire chapter one should read those chapters which are more beneficial and the one in which there are more confusion. Although it is difficult since we get satisfaction only when we read entire book but then repeating the same mistakes leads one to failure.

5.  Make some small notes of purely factual things aur rat k ghot lo(jubaan pe hona chahiye)such as parks,rivers, wildlife sanctuary, tiger reserves,tribes, reports. 

6. Prelims is tricky and believe it or not there is an element of luck but your time will come. But your hardwork can beat it when you are overprepared for it. Revise ur static book such that u beat ur competitors here in tests itself. Whether the rank in test is good or bad is not at all your concern. But if you consistently score less in the tests here, believe me you will not have confidence in the actual exam and your tukkas wont be right. Practise it here and apply it.

7. No matter what you do here the day of exam is important. The only way to remain calm and fast in applying your mind is to do meditation and exercise on a daily basis. So practise it and your memory will improve.

8. Discuss with your peers(Pucha-puchi karo) or someone who you know is good enough. It forces your mind to recall. Moreover the person with whom you discuss slowly knows what are your weak or strong areas so they will hammer your weak areas and you will improve.(Best way to do revision)

9. Highlight current affairs/static in first go with blue pen,2nd with yellow highlighter, 3rd with green highlighter and from 4th have a highlighter which can merge both yellow and green,in my case it is orange--make the imp things very dark(either with highlighter or red pen or putting a/many stars) and then revise the dark waala during last days. 

(There are some exceptions to above strategy-like they study 10-12 hours on daily basis in last 3-4 months before  prelims.They will clear  without meditation/exercise.They actually dont need anyone to tell them a strategy. They are tharki people-madly obsessed and driven. They have to and they will clear this exam. All they need is  30 years question bank, Revise static(with minimum books) for 5-7 times, one current affairs magazine of last(12 months),50-60(with minimun 15 full length) tests. They don't listen to naysayers who says tera nahi hoga es saal ya ye wo falana dhimkaana. These people are ruthless and dangerously dedicated to their goal-they will clear not because of your taana baana but because they have a stronger reason to pursue it, a deep rooted desire which has already taken everything from them and this forces them to perform beyond their limits.)

Note:- Luck chahiye kyunki randomness bahut jyada hai prelims mein right from 2018. But believe me you can increase your chances by fair margin if u become monomaniac for prelims in last 5 months. And I believe that I would have told you earlier never to study lucent but now i will say that please read it for history and science.... 

These are my personal opinion

A bit late but I think I had to say it@Neyawn sir your advice of revising the stock books n number of times worked best for me this year and luck followed next. Going to give it all for mains since i know the price of falling short in efffort.

I did SFG this year, and cleared IFoS prelims (GE). So, the strategy worked for me.