What worked for you (as you think) allowing to qualify CSE(P) 2020 ..Your takes on what to do or not for CSE 21 ? Kindly comment as this time period is reaching high time to start pelim prep ..
Prelims strategy for CSE 2021
I want to ask all the seniors here and@Neyawn sir that do you think this years gap(70 days) between prelims and mains will be good enough for first timers for exclusive mains preparation? Am I at a disadvantage?
Samurai_jack,
Jainrahul2910,
The first thing that I started doing is stopped listening to people who haven't cleared the exam or who have not repeatedly cleared prelims. I quickly exited the Prelims groups on Telegram and stopped relying on advices written in good English.
If a number of topper say something worked for them, it will work for you. Just stay away fromMISGUIDANCE. Every 2nd person on social media platform has started acting like they are an expert and we tend to believe them. Avoid that. Follow toppers, follow people whom you know personally, follow the credible mentors in this field.
As far as strategy is concerned, a lot of people have already written about it. I believe prelims is a very intense stage that demands a lot. I personallydidn't benefit much from mocks of coaching institutes.Last year Vision made one of the worst papers. I found them totally irrelevant
But I did keep practicing questions especially PYQs repeatedly trying to understand the favorite themes. I also revised a lot, around 6 iterations (Thanks to the lockdown) of the entire syllabus. In my opinion you can have the following strategy
1. Finish basic books.Don't run after trivial thingsfor example the Socio cultural religious reform movement need not be done in that great detail. Focus more on Munda, Santhal etc. This can be learnt from the PYQ analysis only.
2. Practice some questions. In my opinion, programmes like SFG (I never joined), IGP (IASMocks) & question banks (Like Laxmikanth polity question bank), these are more useful in testing whether you retain what you studied in these basic books
However, you also need to practice FLTs, this requires good simulators. For eg : ForumIAS simulators. I found Edukemy, Rau's papers aligned and mapped as per PYQ requirements. Now why do you need to do these FLTs ?
1. Time management simulation
2. Tackling unknown questions Applying tricks & intuitions (VERY VERY IMPORTANT)
3. Filling up OMR
Hence to sum up there are two aspects to the Prelims preparation : DIRECTED STUDY (PYQ mapping, Books + SFG or chapter or topic wise question bank) and APPLICATION through FLTs and obviouslyREVISION, REVISION, REVISION (SPACED REPETITION IF YOU CAN)
P.S : I have gained the above knowledge from my experiences. Feel free to ignore them if you don't relate with them. Follow at your own risk (I could clear the prelims in my second attempt in 2020). I am just sharing what I have learnt
Context: 2019 UPSC CSE Prelims. I was so so so so so confident that I will sail past prelims that I did not solve CSAT at all( had maths till class 12th and graduation in humanities). I believed that only the comprehension part would sail me through and attempted around 40 questions. Failed by 2 point something marks in CSAT rendering my GS score(above 100) meaningless. Man, that one hurt, hurt real bad. This year, one of my library buds failed to qualify CSAT(He has done B.Tech in Mechanical).
This time I solved last 10 years PYQ and sailed through both GS and CSAT!
Just assess yourself once/twice with a previous year paper in a time-bound manner by March itself to know where you stand.
Though I did not get through in this prelim (courtesy CSAT). But my score in gs1 has been good. I have cleared prelim 3 times with one interview. So I have good enough confidence of attempting mcqs now.
You need to understand two things one is preparation part and second is execution in exam. Not much variation lies in preparation, because we all study the same stuff. If you have decently covered basic books and one year current affairs believe me you have done better in preparation.
What I have experienced so far from my failure in prelim and offcourse from my known ones failure, it's the inability to execute that preparation in those 2 hours of prelim and that's where the difference lies.
So I have been now following a check list system.
1. Whether have I covered the basic topics from basic books.
2. Do not rely on coaching mocks. I used to do that paid the price , now I do pyqs only and 2-3 full mocks that's it.
3. If you are into multiple attempts, take the py paper and just note in how many questions you committed silly mistakes. Always remember you do not fail because of 3-4 subjective questions but due to the easy and basic questions which everyone who clears pre get right.
4. Attempt 90-95, take calculated risks it is needed in these times as everyone is doing it, if done correctly it tends to increase your marks also.
5. Do not solve the paper in iterations, maximum follow 2 iterations. For the last 2 attempts the paper were lengthy. So even in best execution one can barely finish off with 2nd iteration. So make sure to mark the damn question, even if you are stuck in 2 options, choose one and mark, and such marking has to be based on knowledge based intuition. Donot leave it for 2nd iteration because there is very little probability you ll mark the other option. By 1st iteration itself you should mark 75+ questions.
6. Always keep a maximum limit of wrongs which you can afford, in my case it is 30, if I attempt 95. How it helps, whenever you lack courage to mark among 2 options, always remember you can afford to get maximum 30 questions incorrect, this 30 incorrect questions window will provide good confidence in the exam hall.
7. Dont loose sleep over current affairs questions, they are general in nature, if it is easy you will get it correct, if it is tricky or unheard of, try to look for any hints in the framing of questions or elimination of options.
8. Don't loose your sleep over marks in mocks either, upsc marks and mock marks have no relation IMO.
9. And don't take CSAT lightly, very fresh learning from me and also for me.
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