UPSC CSE 2025 Related Discussion

Hi, I'm new here. I took prelims twice in '23 (with no prep, to understand the pattern) and in '24 (serious, but haphazard with poor revision; ended up attempting only 55 qns >scored 66 ish; cleared CSAT comfortably).  I spent all of 2023 disproportionately focusing on CA from different sources and ignored the static content. And I've paid the price for it 

Since July, I've worked on my optional (law) and ethics. I'm 90% done with both. I now want to get back to the static GS books and work through them properly. 

I find SFG very promising. I desperately need the rigour and consistency it'll bring to my schedule. But I'm confused b/w the forum prelims test series and SFG. Should I enrol in the upcoming PTS October batch? Can I enrol in both?  I'm honestly itching for some order in my prelims prep. 

@Neyawn I know quality matters than the no of hrs, but having a tangible target feels better. So, after the unnecessary context. I wanna ask that when you say a student study for say 8 hrs or whatever, do you count the time we spend in note making too? cause I don't consider those hrs as study hrs.

Having said that, note making consume lot of hrs of mine. I scroll through multiple sources. So, basically going through few sources, making notes do take a lot of my time but somehow I don't feel that I have studied anything, only a very small part of my day is spent in learning (read ratta) which is the only thing that makes me feel-yes I did something. 

Can we call note making studying?

How to reduce time in making notes? If I try and write it off quickly, just writing basic points and whatever generally available, I feel that it'll cost me in mains when I'll be trying to make notes instead of writing answers or will be writing average answers (and won't be able to improve much cause will not be able to sit and go through few sources to enrich my notes - cause lack of time) And if I put in few more efforts now then it takes a lot of my time? What's the madhyam marga? And may be I am going completely wrong, if so, plz tell that too.

 Any suggested time prd for ratta and note making for the day?

P.S. - I am taking foundation at forum, so busy till 1'o clock with classes

Note making is like sharpening the axe. It takes time, but it saves you in the end. If you are ding foundation, take class notes. Leave 1/3rd margin in the pages and summarise or add points in that 1/3rd margin. 

Notemaking counts as studying, by all means - what else would you do.

Also there are some people who love making notes. I meet folks who have made such pretty notes I wanna buy it from them. But too pretty notes is usually a sign of person having a thing for making notes but not using them - like revision and re-revision.

On the other hand there are folks, who dont make notes and like reading from the book. They think making notes in own handwriting is a waste of time.

Success often lies in the sweet spot between the two.

And three golden rules of note making

1. they should be rough and not pretty. Only you should make 100% sense of it

2. they should be brief and synoptic, not huge spread over pages. In short they should be a summary which you can consume just before exam.

3. Do not be afraid of re- summarising and quickly making fresh notes for the purpose of exam.

I had my classmate for TISS join Forum Foundation. She cleared it in the first attempt. It gives a huge kick when people who have studied with you in the same class join your academy and then successfully clear the exam in one go. And the best compliments come from them. ( You see your friends and family and relatives will only come to you when they have heard from OTHER people you are good. No matter how much you tell them in the beginning, they won't come to you. )

She was the rebel kind in college too and at the academy. But one thing I observed in her CSE attempt was she was fully conformist to what was told. As in she implemented what was told very religiously.

And she made like really good rough notes. quick revision things.

In fact ForumIAS may not have gotten the best testimonial from her, but I personally got the best pat on the back from her ( a validation from friends and family helps. everyone.)

( after that so many of my friends selected in other services called saying is it advisable to give paper at 31-32 years to get IAS, lol )

Quantity of hours at some number is also a measure of quality of effort. 

PTS is like a regular thing. SFG is not like a regular test series. As in if you miss the test, you miss it forever. If you do not have the discipline, you go for PTS. They are not substitutes for each other.

Gutted

Thats because I believe in the community.

Plus there is a selfish motive.

You see when the first version of the community was built, there was this dude who guided people well

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ips-officers-twinning-with-brother-post-reminds-twitter-of-singham-2800648

The elder one guided a lot of people and the younger was a student with forum many years later.

The one thing that happened was that noise-free good guidance was available, so many people cleared prelims.

You had live Rank 1,3,4,5,6,8,9,11 from the people participating in the discussions. Very civil, very censored.

Once that happens ( people clear prelims ) , there is some positivity on the platform.

The quality of questions and kind of crowd improves. 

Those things are infectious. 

For people to get selected the right environment has a bigger role than anything else. We tried doing that in FRC, but it is too expensive. Digitally let us see how far we can go.

what app is this?

@Neyawn  Hello sir,

I am writing this because I am feeling lost, I am enrolled in forum pts 2025,

mgp alt 12(starting oct4) and had also done CA classes from forum.

This is gonna be my 4th attempt (2022-68 marks, 2023-76 marks failed in csat, was scoring 85+ this yr-bodernline on csat) (sc category)-Never cleared prelims.
currently prepping for upcoming mgp test and some gs3 backlogs.
sir plz rah dikhaiye... 

1. It has 2784 questions
2. Its free
3. Can search multiple words
4. Results can be sorted or filtered by year

People joined mgp 12 cohort( Alt )

If any group link pls.

Hey guys  ,though this  discussion is for 2025 but I have to give in 2026 so I am in dilemma how to prepare optional but I have selected psir because I am doing political science honours from kirori mal college of delhi university..so what should the approach .

*Should I solely restrict on shubhra ranjan notes and classes or I should read  standard books for each .

*In course of 3years I have read some standard books.

@Neyawn  I was reading the notice for PSIR optional AWFG to join the same.

Do we get any model answers or any contemporary affairs-related value addition material after the tests? If not, is it possible as an add-on from now? Like, a half-page of collated pointers for each test?!