Civil Services Mains 2020 Results: In or Out ? Way ahead, gratitude and Pain
The Civils Mains result has been declared. This thread is for sharing your grief , joy , mixed feelings - absolutely anything and everything.
sonder,Does anyone has to deal with fear of missing out with regards to Mains notes? Even after having a few pages fodder for every topic, its like there is no end to the amount of subtopics which could be related to the syllabus. And making notes on each one of them without inflating the amount of notes to hundreds of pages is practically impossible.
Failed mains this year. I was hoping that my optional may sail me through. But I kinda ruined it. But now I feel quite clueless about mains prep. What type of notes have you people make regarding static and dynamic portion? Might be a bit helpful for me.
My present condition is like floating in a raft directionless in this ocean.
@Villanelle Is thought of seeing myself other side of the line by only relying on Vision monthly is too childish?
I saw the same dream for Mains 2020.
@Villanelle Is thought of seeing myself other side of the line by only relying on Vision monthly is too childish?
I don't think so, but then, only a Mains qualified candidate can back this up by experience. Every year there are people who qualify by just reading monthlies and Mains 365 or something else. It all boils down to implementation in the exam. No marks for notes-making/or not making :P For me, I knew unless I have everything on one place, it would be impossible to revise.
Failed mains this year. I was hoping that my optional may sail me through. But I kinda ruined it. But now I feel quite clueless about mains prep. What type of notes have you people make regarding static and dynamic portion? Might be a bit helpful for me.
My present condition is like floating in a raft directionless in this ocean.
The easiest way to go about it is to keep track of the topics in news. If there's an editorial, lets say IPR and WTO issue which making news right now, just think if it relates to the syllabus. For content, I usually rely on editorials themselves + Google. Apart from this refer to mains PYQ and note down the themes for each topic and have some content on them. Also, make notes for the keywords in the syllabus like investment models, infrastructure etc - not bulky but, mainly focusing on issues, govt initiatives, opportunities, etc.
EDIT: This is how I approach Mains. The qualified people here can offer better advise probably.
@Villanelle I have personally found mains 365 far better aligned than PT. Mains 365 is a very good bet. But at the end, the only part is how you express it on the final day, no matter where your content is from. Totally agreed!
Failed mains this year. I was hoping that my optional may sail me through. But I kinda ruined it. But now I feel quite clueless about mains prep. What type of notes have you people make regarding static and dynamic portion? Might be a bit helpful for me.
My present condition is like floating in a raft directionless in this ocean.
The easiest way to go about it is to keep track of the topics in news. If there's an editorial, lets say IPR and WTO issue which making news right now, just think if it relates to the syllabus. For content, I usually rely on editorials themselves + Google. Apart from this refer to mains PYQ and note down the themes for each topic and have some content on them. Also, make notes for the keywords in the syllabus like investment models, infrastructure etc - not bulky but, mainly focusing on issues, govt initiatives, opportunities, etc.
EDIT: This is how I approach Mains. The qualified people here can offer better advise probably.
Thanks.
@peterparker And my strategy for Mains 2020 was to just go and see what could be done. No wonder I flunked. But completing Vision for this year mains is significant improvement over past targets. So it won't work?
It depends, mate. All types of strategies have worked. The only thing we can do is to prepare as holistically as we can.
Villanelle,Does anyone has to deal with fear of missing out with regards to Mains notes? Even after having a few pages fodder for every topic, its like there is no end to the amount of subtopics which could be related to the syllabus. And making notes on each one of them without inflating the amount of notes to hundreds of pages is practically impossible.In both my attempts. Atleast on the FOMO there's no end for me. I only try to console myself by saying nobody else has the magic key either.
How did it go this year when compared to last year (esp. GS)?
Reading about mains after so long gave me serious flashbacks so thought I'd share what I figured out that helped me. That subtopic FOMO is a horrible thing... the only way I found that helped deal with it, was to go back to PYQs and try to guess if a certain subtopic I was worrying about could reasonably be expected to show up in the paper.
A lot of questions are super generic, so for those, having a broad understanding of the topic, with a few generic but still insightful points, will be enough. There will be some questions that ask specific subtopics, but those are in the category that you can't ever be fully prepared for. So I thought that even for such questions, the broad topic knowledge would just have to do. If you're lucky and you've covered it in your prep, great. If you haven't, you can innovate while writing the exam, remember something you studied in the overall topic and write it in a way that it becomes relevant to the question, I think it will do the trick. Knowing that you can do the latter really helps calm the FOMO, and that way you can draw a reasonable line while going deep into the topics. At some point you can say this is deep enough note making, and switch to revision.
I think we really underestimate what we are capable of coming up with on the fly. In the beginning I made notes filled with obvious points. They became super lengthy. Then I started making them really really concise. Before writing anything down I asked myself if I could be trusted to come up with this in the exam - mock tests helped here. So the final notes were very dense, mostly just a bunch of facts. Revising them was possible the evening before the exam. That really helped.
One low effort thing that I think helped, was to make a separate list of statistics for each of the three GS papers. There you can afford the time to go deep. You can note down the overall literacy, and also the percentages for women and men, rural and urban, adult and child, across castes etc. Even if a question comes on rural literacy among SCs, and you don't know if there's a specific scheme for that group, just writing a percentage at the beginning, and then giving causes and solutions for the problem which you can come up with during the exam, should be enough for that answer. Not every answer has to be brilliant anyway. The facts and figures will take a lot of revision, but they're easy to come up with and I think they do make the answer seem impressive.
I relied entirely on mains 365 for current affairs, because of poor planning that made it too late to do anything else. It certainly helped a lot, because I didn't find much in the exam that was entirely new. What worked for me was to convert mains 365 topics into answers while revising itself. I printed them out one-sided, and then converted each article in it to a standard format answer on the blank side. Intro, diagram if any, subtopics, conclusion more or less. This also helps in predicting what questions might be asked. It made the whole process way less stressful than it could have been. This is just to say that the source probably doesnt matter as much as the approach to it.
Won't know for sure until marks are out and this is just the first approach that occurred to me, so several pinches of salt and all.
Does anyone has to deal with fear of missing out with regards to Mains notes? Even after having a few pages fodder for every topic, its like there is no end to the amount of subtopics which could be related to the syllabus. And making notes on each one of them without inflating the amount of notes to hundreds of pages is practically impossible.
You can try compiling 2-3 toppers notes into one. Since they've invested time and covering from 2-3 people makes sure that every dimension and every sub topic is covered.
Also, it is time efficient.
If you want, I list the toppers name.
Failed mains this year. I was hoping that my optional may sail me through. But I kinda ruined it. But now I feel quite clueless about mains prep. What type of notes have you people make regarding static and dynamic portion? Might be a bit helpful for me.
My present condition is like floating in a raft directionless in this ocean.
The easiest way to go about it is to keep track of the topics in news. If there's an editorial, lets say IPR and WTO issue which making news right now, just think if it relates to the syllabus. For content, I usually rely on editorials themselves + Google. Apart from this refer to mains PYQ and note down the themes for each topic and have some content on them. Also, make notes for the keywords in the syllabus like investment models, infrastructure etc - not bulky but, mainly focusing on issues, govt initiatives, opportunities, etc.
EDIT: This is how I approach Mains. The qualified people here can offer better advise probably.
I have no concrete answer to this but, to me, making notes out of editorials seem Sisyphean. Anyway there are experienced people from various institutes doing it diligently. So mugging and revising notes of already made topics under mains syllabus from static sources is my priority. Then doing PYQs. Then lastly, referring to annual compilations given by any coaching. Mains 365 is too informative, I find it difficult to digest and hence difficult to reproduce esp when the real questions are not as straight as asked in test series.
Villanelle,Curious_souls@Master @peterparker my friends cleared mains with just mains365 + standard coaching notes.
They told me, the main difference between getting interview call or not is whether do you complete the paper in 3 hours or not. Everything else is secondary
peterparker,Silentknight
Inselberg,
@Villanelle Is thought of seeing myself other side of the line by only relying on Vision monthly is too childish?
My personal experience says you can. Atleast I did.
Reading about mains after so long gave me serious flashbacks so thought I'd share what I figured out that helped me. That subtopic FOMO is a horrible thing... the only way I found that helped deal with it, was to go back to PYQs and try to guess if a certain subtopic I was worrying about could reasonably be expected to show up in the paper.
A lot of questions are super generic, so for those, having a broad understanding of the topic, with a few generic but still insightful points, will be enough. There will be some questions that ask specific subtopics, but those are in the category that you can't ever be fully prepared for. So I thought that even for such questions, the broad topic knowledge would just have to do. If you're lucky and you've covered it in your prep, great. If you haven't, you can innovate while writing the exam, remember something you studied in the overall topic and write it in a way that it becomes relevant to the question, I think it will do the trick. Knowing that you can do the latter really helps calm the FOMO, and that way you can draw a reasonable line while going deep into the topics. At some point you can say this is deep enough note making, and switch to revision.
I think we really underestimate what we are capable of coming up with on the fly. In the beginning I made notes filled with obvious points. They became super lengthy. Then I started making them really really concise. Before writing anything down I asked myself if I could be trusted to come up with this in the exam - mock tests helped here. So the final notes were very dense, mostly just a bunch of facts. Revising them was possible the evening before the exam. That really helped.
One low effort thing that I think helped, was to make a separate list of statistics for each of the three GS papers. There you can afford the time to go deep. You can note down the overall literacy, and also the percentages for women and men, rural and urban, adult and child, across castes etc. Even if a question comes on rural literacy among SCs, and you don't know if there's a specific scheme for that group, just writing a percentage at the beginning, and then giving causes and solutions for the problem which you can come up with during the exam, should be enough for that answer. Not every answer has to be brilliant anyway. The facts and figures will take a lot of revision, but they're easy to come up with and I think they do make the answer seem impressive.
I relied entirely on mains 365 for current affairs, because of poor planning that made it too late to do anything else. It certainly helped a lot, because I didn't find much in the exam that was entirely new. What worked for me was to convert mains 365 topics into answers while revising itself. I printed them out one-sided, and then converted each article in it to a standard format answer on the blank side. Intro, diagram if any, subtopics, conclusion more or less. This also helps in predicting what questions might be asked. It made the whole process way less stressful than it could have been. This is just to say that the source probably doesnt matter as much as the approach to it.
Won't know for sure until marks are out and this is just the first approach that occurred to me, so several pinches of salt and all.
Yes, this; largely.
AyushVashistha,@Master @peterparker my friends cleared mains with just mains365 + standard coaching notes.
They told me, the main difference between getting interview call or not is whether do you complete the paper in 3 hours or not. Everything else is secondary
I also relied on this advice. I completed all GS papers barring GS4( screwed a case study ). But didnt get a call. Waiting for marks to give more clarity.
Kapiushon,Purplesunbird
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