Source: swarajyamag.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every year, Union Public Civil Services Examination (UPSC) conducts \nthe exam for filling bureaucratic posts in which lakhs of students \nparticipate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, only few hundred aspirants make it to the \nfinish line. The exam is long-term, tedious and quite comprehensive, \ntherefore, an IAS aspirant should focus on a few dos and don\u2019ts from the\n start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The few months between Prelims and Mains are quite tough \nfor aspirants. While those who are certain of clearing the prelims have \nto cover a mountain of content before Mains and those who are at the \nboundary, feel confused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, those who have not \nperformed very well, feel discouraged. However, these crucial months \nbetween June to October should not be wasted no matter the standing of \nthe candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The aspirants should keep the following in mind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\n stable living situation should be arranged until the exam dates- a \nplace where the candidate can live and study peacefully. Instead of \nleaving this task for the future, \u201cI will find a better flat later\u201d, \u201cI \nwill go back to parents\u2019 place later on\u201d and other such future \ndeferments should be avoided. The key is to get into an unbroken routine\n of studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Candidate shouldn\u2019t think that preparation for \nnext-year prelims should be started around current year\u2019s Mains or \nlater. The UPSC pattern lately is designed to prevent \u2018short-cuts\u2019 that \nmight have been available to the students, including coaching materials,\n news summaries etc. Therefore, it would be good if the candidate uses \nthis time to finish reading NCERTs thoroughly, and build the habit of \nreading newspapers daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The candidate should also try to \ndesignate a particular area in the home for studies. For example, a \ntable-chair. Sitting here, the candidate should only study, and not do \nanything else. This will become a cue for the brain to study as soon as \nyou sit there. Also, mobile phones are a major distraction, and must be \nput far-away, if possible, in a silent mode while one is studying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\n is always good to be organised about preparation. Candidates should \nmake timetables, with both short term (say a week) and long term (say \nthree months) goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The candidates should also utilise this time \nto prepare their optional subject. The correct strategy to cover an \noptional subject is to start from the theoretical portion, and cover it \nwell. Then the candidate should try to integrate it with daily current \naffairs, adding and appending new and relevant news. It is also good to \nfollow experts and specific magazines that publish India-specific \nmaterial. Candidates should build a habit of taking quick notes in \nbullet points from these articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another important point to \nremember is to keep reading newspaper\/daily current affairs the same \nday, instead of crunching them together for month-end or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For \neach day, the candidate should decide in the morning itself what all \nthey have to cover and roughly designate the time. It is better to avoid\n binge studying a subject, trying to finish it in one go. This strategy \ncan result in lop-sided preparation where candidates are over-prepared \nin one subject while being under-prepared in others. Therefore \ncandidates should try to mix and match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The art of note-making<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A\n lot of students feel flabbergasted by the sheer length and breadth of \ncontent. Some feel confused as to what and how many notes they should \nmake, including of newspapers. Others say they can\u2019t remember anything \nwithout writing something down. There are three things to keep in mind \nhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, notes should be your own and not a mere copy-paste of\n the book\/newspaper you are reading. They should be made after finishing\n the reading, not looking at the material. The candidate can make notes,\n write keywords on the side, and then should take a cursory look at the \nsource to ensure he\/she didn\u2019t forget anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, \nnote-making and revision go hand-in-hand. While it\u2019s true that \nnote-making helps in memorising, it is only by revision that the \nmaterial is thoroughly understood and \u2018absorbed\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thirdly, \ndetailed notes of everything isn\u2019t necessary. Technology can be used to \nmake the process more efficient. For example, a candidate can make \nnewspaper\/current affairs notes online with a content option, so that a \npiece can be amended as per latest developments. However, Mains \npreparation should also involve as much handwriting as possible to \nprepare for the long written test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: swarajyamag.com Every year, Union Public Civil Services Examination (UPSC) conducts the exam for filling bureaucratic posts in which lakhs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[351],"tags":[819,820,723,821,558,169,482],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-upsc","tag-aspirants","tag-civil","tag-crack","tag-crucial","tag-ias","tag-services","tag-upsc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions\/669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}