Prelims 2025 - Support Group
Dear All,
Let us have a thread for Prelims 2025 where people who have gotten through share mistakes to avoid, so that people can benefit from experience from others and we have a vibrant community of people who are writing Mains
You can use this thread to
1. Seek help and guidance
2. Share two cents about your own experience
No negativity, no criticism of person, place or thing, no coaching review, just plain discussion for clearing prelims from the community.
Prelims Score -
55 (2023) - 1st Attempt , 89-94 (2024) - 2nd Attempt; did not join SFG, despite giving entrance, costed me.
3rd Attempt—story so far
Joined MGP and writing mains test, also decided to do both phases of SFG this time.
My friend and one of your FRC student asked me to meet you, but serious health problems and this string of failures never kept me confident enough to reach out to you. I will try my luck to meet you post completion of phase 1 of SFG. Till then, Ineed your POV on the following:
1. The SFG schedule mentions secondary resources that I did not follow, for instance, Ramesh Singh for the Economy. So should I stick to what I was doing and do it better or follow what is required?
2. How to handle remaining MGP, while going for SFGs daily?
3. Also, I have heard that last time you asked FRC students to complete Forum IAS toolkits twice; when should I start with those books: post-Feb or from Jan onwards?
4. Last year I started prelims-specific prep in mid-Dec, but I observed my performance peaked at the wrong time around May, and post that, things went downhill only. How to avoid this pattern?
In my five years of engagement with UPSC, I've failed the prelims thrice(twice due to CSAT) and written mains twice(2020,2024). I've cleared GS cutoff by a good margin in four of my attempts and missed one by 2 marks. This is what I've learnt in my journey so far.
1) Static is king - in all of my attempts I've stuck to attempting 73-75 odd questions which has been my magic number. Why? Because I've made static my armour. I've revised it maybe more than 100 times in these five years and most of it has been in the first year itself and subsequently I only revise whatever I think is necessary. The credit to getting my static buisness in order goes solely to forum ias. In 2019 I joined forum pre and mains test series. Solved all their papers plus sfg as well and wrote all my mistakes in a book. Now I only revise those before prelims to get a clarity of the scope and breadth of static syllabus.
2) current is an ego train - no matter what you do and how much you do, you'll always feel like you're missing out on something which creates doubt and confusion during the D-day. I try and stick to one source and that too follow it only till December. Than preferable I read a yearly compilation of whichever institute that is the least in size. This covers most of the topics and is easy to revise plus gives an added boost to the confidence. This confidence equips me to attempt only those questions which I feel most confident in while reducing the attrition rates due to negative marking.
Also while attempting the paper, I always keep in mind what my father reminds me before every exam. He says "remember that you are a lion, not a power hungry one. A lion dare not kill an elephant just because its hungry." Just guage what type of question(elephant or a gazelle) is in front of you and try not be overly optimistic about your abilities. Patience and keen presence of mind is what gets you through in the end.
Do not over complicate anything. Be busy, be sane !
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