Hardwork Pays You

Prelims is the first stage of this exciting UPSC journey. The fact that you only need to pass this exam and its marks wont be counted in final marks tally, calls for a different approach. My journey: I gave my first attempt in 2014 and was not able to clear the prelims. Reasons: 1. Lack of revision 2. Lack of coverage of syllabus 3. Not enough practice Hence these points should be kept in mind so as to avoid mistakes I committed in my first attempt. I focused on my weak areas in subsequent attempts and was able to qualify both 2015 and 2016 prelims. Here is my Prelims marksheet: The booklist: Topic strategy/booklist/comment History Ancient Old NCERT, PD special issue on ancient; History Medieval Old NCERT, PD special issue on medieval; History Modern (Freedom Struggle) Spectrum, Bipin Chandra Culture and society Gk today module, Class XI new NCERT-the best book! Polity (theory + current)

Hi Everyone! I hope your studies are going good. As I mentioned in my facebook profile  I will create a repository of important newspaper articles which might be helpful for GS preparation. I will categorize these articles and also mention their importance. I hope you will make maximum use of it. All the best! PS: I will regularly update this page, so do keep a regular watch on this post! GS PAPER 1 GS PAPER 2 1. POLITY 2. GOVERNANCE 3. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PM's visit to Israel : This article is important in the wake of PM visit to Israel. You should take note of following points: 1. A historic moment due to 1st visit by Indian PM 2. How India can maintain pragmatic relation with Israel and Arabs together 3. What benefits India has got in past 4. How Israel is important at present and in future. 4. WORLD BODIES GS PAPER 3 1. ECONOMICS 2. AGRICULTURE Various agri tech :  it is important to know about various new technologies in field of

This is one the most difficult questions which pokes in the mind of every aspirant at whatever stage he/she may be. I have been flooded with similar queries, specially from the candidates placed outside Delhi. Let me share my experience. Phase 1: Kerala I started my preparation when I was stationed at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala for my job. I came to know about Kerala State Civil Service Academy which was very popular academy among the aspirants there. Here is what I felt. Pros: I felt that this academy introduced me to the process of civil service preparation. Being from a engineering background (B.Tech), I was totally stranger to the world of humanities,  and here I came to know about existence of subjects like Polity, Economics, History, etc. I learned about some of the important books, materials, etc interacted with like minded candidates and obtained some basic notes. Cons:  However after spending some time I soon realized the futility of attending all the classes t

There is a reason why UPSC Civil Services is called the mother of all exams!  What makes this exam difficult is following factors: Candidates: this exam attracts one of the best minds of our country spanning across all the fields sitting together and writing same papers. Competition : According to news reports the number of candidates registered for UPSC Prelims 2016 were approximately 11.36 lakh and around 5 lakh candidates appeared in the examination. Elimination: with each passing stage, UPSC filters out candidates and hence the difficulty level increases. Subjectivity: there is no escaping route to the fact that this exam has lot of subjectivity and hence one can never be sure of the performance. Seats: ultimately the whole fight is for around 1000 seats of which IAS (the dream of many) is merely 180 Syllabus: there is nothing under the Sun which is not part of this exam. You name it and you have to study it Keeping these points in mind, I have come to conclu

Many aspirants are messaging me on how to take optional. Some are confused on how to select it and some are not sure about switching from a graduation subject to a different optional. I will try to answer that in this post. First, let me start about myself. I did my B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Guwahati. Although my alma meter imparted me a sound knowledge about the subject, but finally I ended up taking Geography as optional. When I started my preparation I understood that a good optional should have following credential: High scoring potential : In CSE-2016, my final marks tally was 1023 out which optional contributed a hefty 285. Hence its importance can never be overstated. Easy guidance, materials, notes: I started my preparations when I was working and posted at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. I know how difficult it is for a person outside Delhi to arrange for materials, books etc.  Help in General Studies, Essay.etc: A good optional's work does no