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
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.
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.
