Share marksheet - with Ranks

handwriting. There is time. Work on it. Dont take 2 years to understand something that is simpler. These are the lowest marks, generally awarded when everything is made up in answers and the person has no clue. or has poor handwriting.

This does not reflect your IQ or the IQ of those who were sitting in the class with you.

Being blunt.

I will tell you how to avoid getting distracted by foreign / startup / other ideas. Tell yourself there has to be pursuit of excellence. You may not value the job that comes at the end of the exam, but what is stopping you from pursuing excellence in what you are doing?

There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be doing your best, ( even if you don't want to do it ) if you are doing something.

Show copy to@Rashmirathi or@GaneshGaitonde or anyone experienced. And write down what you have studied at least once before Mains.

The game is on.

Absolutely yes, work hard on each part of the answer writing. Since this struck the right cord, let me brief you my story. I have written 4 CSE mains and 3 Forest mains and never been able to make it! Reason? I targeted bare minimum marks in GS as my optional and essay were sorted. I used to score with little effort average or above average marks in these with essay 110-120 each time(this time 117) and optional( 260-300, this time 291). Despite this I have not qualified for interview even once. Reason? In GS i always get marks between 260-280 and never improved upon answer writing aspects thinking it's good enough to get into 350s. In first mains i got only 267 in GS and four years down the line, in fourth mains i got only 265. So please do not curse commission or be reluctant to your GS preparation. Prepare it relentlessly ticking all the boxes. Sadly I have to say goodbye to UPSC since attempts are over now:(

I will just add to what @Neyawn had to say- please start your prep from zero base. Don't ever think you will get more than this, next time. Don't ever think "Arre 1st hi toh mains tha, next time improve ho hi jayega". Focus on "How?". 

Following is my marksheet for ref- 

    '22; '23

E: 126; 119 

1: 82; 70 

2: 112; 97 

3: 60;80 

4: 101;106

M1: 96; 91 

M2: 96; 105 

After failing 2 mains consecutively, I think the missing pieces have always been lack of mocks, a proper strategy, and less emphasis on PYQs (for Maths). This is true for almost everyone. If you do not know how to tackle a question on frequently asked topics then you are going to write a terrible answer for sure. Thanks to several online initiatives, people already know the IBC and the SPECIEL-H format. That has become the basic norm. So if you are missing conclusions or a proper intro (like in your case), you are bound to get low marks. 

For me, I am a history nerd with immense love for polity too (apart from Maths). This year, these three areas were the reason for my downfall simply because instead of practicing, I enjoyed "reading" more about them. I really thought knowledge matters but I think it is much about how well you present your content and how easy you make your answers to be evaluated by the examiner. It is about strategy to achieve it. For ex- In GS3, I saw a jump of 20 marks even after writing terrible answers in Economy section. The reason was simple, I took my friends advice to make proper facts and figures. In S&T, I had anticipated Chandrayaan and wrote an answer using technical terms with a proper flowchart. 

If you know your mistakes then just take remedial measures and start focusing on implementing them. Talk to people who scored well in GS. 

I think the golden triangle of UPSC is mocks, PYQs and revision. I am honest enough to say that I neglected mocks and revision for a very long time and as a consequence I have paid the price with my attempt. 

@NajdorfLast year I had 47 marks in the first Abhyas and in the Prelims I ended up scoring 110+. Certain perspective I can give you with respect to prelims and giving mock tests:

•  Give mocks tests with the view of how you fair when you don't know things ->Like questions which you didn't know or hadn't read ever or read long back what was your thinking process because on the final day a large majority of questions will be of a similar vein
• Study for prelims as much possible but don't miss out on PYQs
• Specific for Abhyas ->If you haveproperlyread the current affairs magazine and still missing out on things, need of the hour is ensuring proper revision (static is sometimes very random, don't fret but rather note down stuff that is wrong and makes part of static portion)
• Considering you're anxious with regard to the exam ->Try meditating and also remember ->a slight level of stress is desirable but not anxiety
  Good video on why you should try meditating:
  
  

Focus on incremental progess everyday, Tata bhai. That'll take you far in life and not just the exam. ✨

Did not appear in 2023, therefore this was my last mark sheet (not exactly relevant maybe but still). GS3 has remained a major hurdle for me despite doing fairly well in MGP FLTs (100-105 range), hoping to improve that this year. Also need to work on Paper 2 optional and GS4. Co-incidentally my GS aggregate score was exactly the same in Mains 2021 and Mains 2022

Take a look at last years mgp questions for mains 2023, and make short notes. This should be sorted. If you dont feel lazy, take a look at the answer writing focus group - it helps you cover the static part pretty well.

Also do not ignore areas where you had a fair score. For instance in essay if you have a fairs score does not mean you will neglect it this year. In Mains, UPSC has a way of ensuring same total score - gains in one subject are balanced by losses in others. 

In short, prepare like a fresher, and you will get through. And focus on content. The level of content has been upped in past 3 years.

The score is generally what some people would get in first mains when people do not have much preparation. Across subjects, thete is average marks. However, generally it will happen ( even with freshers ) is that in some subjects there will be a spike. But that spike is missing.

Also, get opinion on handwriting from people around you, not yourself.

For maths, there is a student with 109 rank or so. Ayush Shrotriya. I met him yesterday. He has a score of 310+ in maths. Speak to peers.

Make immediate action plan. Do not waste time. You are here to top the exam, not make it to the list.

Speak to experienced candidates like @ra

To be blunt these marks are below average needs improvement in every part be it writing (which I don’t know ) and content ,@Tata  bhai you need to work hard a lot ,be blunt honest with yourself and analyse your learning and work upon them 

I agree with what you mentioned about UPSC balancing the score total is something I experienced myself between 2021 and 22 mains. I only got an interview call last time because I increased my score in optional by 35 marks. About the content, yes definitely things were far easier when I wrote my first mains in 2019 compared to now, but I have tried to work on that over the past few months so looking forward to testing them out in the coming days. Right now the priority is Prelims only, once that is done maybe AWFG could be good for me, I anyway don't have any issues with laziness, the reason I believe I was able to improve my score in optional was the rigorous practice of PYQs that I did along with daily study sessions. For GS, other than that I have been associated with MGP in each of my mains so yes probably will look at it again. Writing tests in the Karol Bagh Centre without any disturbances always helped me with preparing for exam-like scenarios.

Please give review

Rank - He's famous

@Rashmirathi 

Duniye me ek se ek tej log Hain. Today I met one student from Hindi medium. He was from mukherji nagar center. In a time when people are struggling to get 80-90 marks in gs paper 1, he is getting 110.

I didn't believe him. Here is the scorecard.

I have not seen many of my brightest students do so well.

( Just hope it's not edited , it's so incredible )

Thank you community for all the feedbacks and support. Biggest thing I learned is to fail, fail happily, fail forward. 

scored poorly in all the papers, a few things which I think were blunders - 

1. Missing conclusions in many questions.

2. Ugly looking answer scripts - mains answer sheets were little broad and being a lefty has disadvantages keeping a line straight - especially in GS 4 where first few questions were written like a nursery kid's copy

3. Less number of points written in answers. 

Baki would want a review from diligent people on this community 

I have texted you on telegram. The Forum messenger doesn’t seem to work at all !

Thank you so much@Neyawn @GaneshGaitonde  will work harder