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Showing posts with label preparation strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preparation strategy. Show all posts

Saturday, May 22, 2021

UPSC IAS Prelims 2021: 5 Months Preparation Strategy To Qualify Exam

07:36

 UPSC Civil Services Prelims exam 2021 is due on June 27. With only 150 days remaining to prepare for the UPSC IAS Prelims exam 2021, many aspirants must be in their final stage of preparation while many new aspirants might be struggling with the right strategy to prepare for the exams. This article is guided for these later aspirants. The new UPSC aspirants or the old ones who have just begun to prepare again can read the article to articulate the right strategy and find useful reference resources to commence the preparation. 

Research Before Preparation

It is evident that the thought of becoming an IAS officer brings a rush to begin preparing for the exam instantaneously. However, this hurry can prove to be the biggest mistake one can commit during the preparation. UPSC Prelims exam is a dynamic competitive exam and requires patience, consistency, and hard work throughout the year. Hence, it becomes important that before beginning to prepare for the exam, aspirants are well-versed with the exam pattern, syllabus, resources, and study material. 
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Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Things you must know before you start preparing for UPSC civil services examination

18:44





One of the most competitive and prestigious exams, civil services, is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), India's major regulating body. UPSC also conducts a number of competitive exams to fill-in various civil service vacancies for the government of India.
The UPSC conducts the Civil Services Examination (CSE), popularly known as IAS (Indian Administrative Service) exam, in two phases namely- UPSC Prelims and UPSC Mains. The prelims exam comprises objective-type questions, while the questions asked in mains need descriptive and essay-type answering.
If you are planning to appear for the UPSC 2016 exam, you need to get acquainted with the factors mentioned below:
The exam dates
The exam dates are subject to change as per the UPSC guidelines. So, an aspirant is required to keep an eye on the new dates released by the commission on the official website.
Why IAS?/PI quotient
Before stepping into the preparation of one of the most competitive exams in the nation, an aspirant must get his/her PI (personal interview) quotient scoped-out . During personality test, a candidate's candidature would be measured against his/her performance. Once he/she gets the PI quotient evaluated, the candidate would have a clearer mindset throughout the preparation.
The subsets of IAS
IPS, IRS, IFS fall under the aegis of the IAS exam and the cutoff to get recruited in the services mentioned above is decided after the conduction of the exam. A good understanding of the target is what will streamline the preparation and to keep the focused better.
  • IPS Indian Police Service
  • IRS Indian Revenue Service
  • IFS Indian Foreign Service
How do you think you can contribute?
Before one starts with the preparation, he must prove his caliber and ask himself what changes can he bring about as an IAS officer. A candidate's plan need not to be monumental but should be cogent enough to set him apart from the other aspirants. Apparent answers to such questions will give a candidate an edge over all the other applicants in the interview session.
Preparation technique:
It is not an exaggerated fact that IAS is the nation's toughest competitive exam and calls for intensive practice and preparation.There is no definite answer to the most commonly asked questions, such as how many hours an IAS aspirant need to put in every day? It will differ from person to person so let us look at it from a general perspective.
Time required:
Experts believe that aggressive preparation for 10 to 12 months is a must. Four out of every 10 Indians (21-32 years) aspire to become an IAS officer and competition is so intense that only 5 percent of that massive number gets through. An aspirant must map-out an effective strategy and decide ideal number of hours required to implement that strategy.
An aspirant should also understand that preparation for civil services examination calls for qualitative and not quantitative preparation. It is about completion of your short term target. Ideally you should target two subjects every day. Most of the top rankers have started preparing for the exams right from their school days, as most of the questions are asked mostly from Class 6 to 12 standard books. So preparing notes and devoting 10 to 12 hours before a year of exam is believed to be sufficient.
Outline the syllabus and design your preparation
If you have studied biology, you would definitely be familiar with a word "catabolism". It is a process in which original components are broken down into their by-products. You can do the same with your IAS syllabus. Find out the topics you are good at and the topics you would need help in. Do it for all the subjects and work upon them.
Objectifying the syllabus
Most of the IAS aspirants get discouraged seeing the bulk of IAS syllabus. No doubt the syllabus is huge, but if you divide the subjects into manageable chunks, then impossible looking tasks will become easier for you.
Enjoy your preparation
Unarguably, UPSC preparation is a lengthy process. But the moment you start enjoying your preparation, all the unwarranted stress and anxiety associated with the preparation will vanish. Civil services examination aspirants tend to give up their hobbies, but pursuing your hobbies side by side will make your preparation more fun.


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Monday, January 08, 2018

UPSC 2018 – 6 Months Preparation Strategy

13:44
UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam 2018 is scheduled to be held on 3rd June, 2018 (Sunday).The official notification will be published around 7th February, 2018. The competition is tough and there is a lot to cover. Therefore, we bring to you a step wise preparation strategy for UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam 2018 to put you ahead. This strategy is brought to you by Oliveboard, an online exam preparation platform for government and banking jobs.

1.      Understand the exam pattern: UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam consists of 2 papers. Both the papers contain objective type questions. Marks obtained in only GS Paper-I are considered for selection in mains examination. The majority of your focus should be on preparing for GS Paper-I but at the same time GS Paper-II should not be ignored. Following table shows the pattern of Prelims exam.

Paper Name
No. of Questions
Maximum marks
Time
Negative marking
Remarks
GS Paper-I
100
200
2 hours
1/3rd
–
GS Paper-II
(CSAT)
80
200
2 hours
1/3rd
Qualifying in nature (33 %)

2.      Understand the Syllabus: The detailed syllabus of UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam 2018 will be given in the upcoming official notification. You might want to note down the syllabus or take a printout. Syllabus is one of the most important document when it comes to starting your preparation. It gives an idea of important areas and topics. Syllabus says a lot about the type of questions UPSC is expecting to ask in Preliminary exam. Meanwhile you can get syllabus from last year UPSC notification.

3.      Right preparation resources: Without right resources , you cannot expect your preparation to move in right direction. UPSC Civil Services Exam 2018 requires intensive study so that you may gain required knowledge and right perspective. Here is the list of most popular books and other resources required for your preparation. These preparation resources are highly recommended by previous year toppers. 

1.      A Brief History of Modern India by Spectrum.
2.      Certificate Physical and Human Geography by G.C Leong.
3.      Book on Indian Polity by Laxmikanth.
4.      Indian Art and Culture by Nitin Singhania.
5.      Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh.
6.      India Year book 2018.
7.      General Studies Paper-II manual by TMH.
8.      Economic Survey 2018.
9.      Useful online resources such as websites. Click here for 10 best websites for Civil Services 2018.
10.  Environment for Civil Services prelims and mains by Khullar and Rao.

4.      Make your own Study Plan: Every aspirant has a different routine. Some are preparing full-time while some have jobs. So a well thought out study plan proves to be very effective. Keep in mind your strengths and weaknesses while making your own study plan. Follow a balanced approach. Do not plan to study all the subjects at once. Take 2 big subjects and complete their syllabus. Then follow with 2-3 more subjects. Make daily, weekly and monthly targets and abide by them. The syllabus of Prelims is the subset of Mains syllabus so the key is to prepare for both simultaneously. You should allocate proper practice time for GS Paper-II. Try to be efficient in time management.

5.      Test Series: Your study plan is ready by now and you have access to all the study resources. You have started well with your preparation but what about testing the level of your preparation? What about the mistakes which you might make in the real exam? What about the topics which you might have left unprepared? How about the preparation level of others? There are so many things which you will be able to know only if you start taking mock tests. No preparation is complete without proper practice and mock tests. 

The question arises “How can I enroll for a quality test series?”. Majority of aspirants are from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities which do not have proper coaching and testing facilities. Even aspirants from Tier-1 cities do not want to waste their precious time in reaching test centers. Technology has the perfect answer for this problem. Online mock test series are equally effective as their offline counterparts with some added advantages.
1.      You can take the online mock test anytime and anywhere.
2.      You save your precious time which you can put to studies and revision.
3.      Questions in online test series are of high quality and prepared by experts.
4.      You get the quality and accurate solutions and can take the tests again.
5.      You get to know the improvement areas.
6.      Useful analytics which shows where you stand against thousands of other aspirants.
7.      Sectional tests, Video lessons, E-books.

Above are some of the features of a good online test series. Many of these features are missing in offline tests. Oliveboard is providing a high quality all India online mock test series for UPSC Civil Services Exam 2018 Prelims. With Oliveboard, you will get access to all the above features and much more. Try a Free All India test now.

6.      Understand the kind of questions UPSC focuses on: You should understand what UPSC expects from you in Civil Services Preliminary Exam 2018. You should understand the kind of questions UPSC is asking. The best way for this is to solve previous years papers of Civil Services Preliminary exam. This will also test your knowledge and you get some practice. You will also get to know the focus areas. Environment, Economics and Current Affairs have been the focus areas in recent years. The questions are getting more dynamic with every passing year.


We have prepared this strategy after taking valuable inputs from previous years aspirants and experts. You can kickstart your preparation by taking some vital inputs from this article. All the best!
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