FAQs- Part 1

I recently returned from a 10 day Buddhism retreat at Tushita Meditation Centre in Mcleodganj. It was very important for me to get away from the post-result noise and spend some time with myself in stillness, process what had just happened and reconnect with my values. I apologize for the delay in putting up all the very important information on UPSC preparation. I thank you for your patience and for giving me a chance to serve you.

After two weeks of mountains, monkeys and meditation, I finally switched on my phone at Lhamo’s Croissant, a lovely cafe in Dharamshala. I was pleased to find hundreds of emails by aspirants asking for guidance and advice on CSE preparation. I assure you that everything from my side will be up before I go for training in August. Instead of replying to each email personally, I’ll put up my responses on my blog so that everyone can derive benefit.

Question: Apart from hindu+ vision ca what can be the additional sources for covering current affairs from mains perspective for gs-2 and gs-3 papers

Answer: I’ll tell you about my experience and what worked for me this year. I only did Hindu (selective reading in alignment with topics of the syllabus) and Vision IAS current affairs monthly booklets. For prelims, if I had time, I did the daily quiz on insights. You can refer to the Insights revision modules on international organisations, environment and Vision IAS government schemes modules too for prelims.
For Mains, GS2- you can selectively do MAINS 365 if something is not covered in your Hindu/VisionIAS monthly booklets. For GS3- please refer to the Economic Survey and make a list of probable questions. You should scan the Budget commentary from The Hindu. Rest you will cover in your Vision IAS monthly booklets. That is MORE than enough.

Question: How can one make good organised notes especially for mains at one place?

Answer: The way I made good organised notes this year for GS 2 and GS 3 is that I made a list of probable questions and had a page on that. Make a register, put the syllabus topic as a heading- make 2–3 probable questions and have 10–15 points. Then move to the next topic. That is the only way to do effective consolidated study for Mains without getting too confused and lost.

Question: If one follows monthly vision ca, is there a need to follow insights daily ca?

Answer: 3. No, if you’re doing vision, JUST REVISE VISION multiple times. Don’t do a lot of things and go into overdose mode. Limit your information and read that 5–6 times.

Question: Can you elaborate on how the Young India Fellowship was useful for your preparation?

Answer: YIF didn’t help me with my preparation directly. It gave me something to do on the side that was very interesting, thought provoking and engaging. After my two attempts sitting at home, I didn’t want to spend another year sitting at home and preparing for the exam. So it was important for me to be emotionally healthy and to get out there, be a normal person while preparing for UPSC.

The fellowship itself is a brilliant program that gave me a very good mindset and education- not just for the exam but life itself. It also connected me to eccentric, ambitious and kind-hearted individuals. Their energy really kept me positive during my preparation.

Question: Though I have solved around 60 to 70 mocks of visionias and insights but i’m not confident as i’m still hardly scoring 50 or 60 marks out of 200. My score has reduced my confidence to the extant that i am feeling like quitting. I am unable to even sleep because I worked really hard but despite all this my performance is very poor . Will you please advise me how should Ideal with this situation?

Answer: Please don’t get disheartened with your scores. Have faith in what you have studied. Revise your fundamental books and current affairs. Revise the tests you have solved. Please be a bit detached with your performance in mocks and focus on learning and absorbing as much as you can with a happy mind.
I also didn’t score too much in my tests. Instead of taking tests, JUST REVISE NOW. And please be positive. If you are happy and relaxed and alert during the exam, you will really enhance your score.

Question: Please tell me how to revise a book multiple times.Many toppers says that they revised every book 10–15 times. How could that be possible. It took me 15 days to read laxmikant for the first time.Then it took me 12 days to read it second time. If I will read with this strategy it will take so much time to complete my syllabus and end up forgetting everything.

Answer: So during revision, you should focus on the key ideas and key concepts. Don’t get into micro details. Revision doesn’t mean reading the whole book again. Just try to recall the BIG ideas and concepts, important facts. Also, time block your revision. So I would tell myself that I have to quickly revise Fundamentals Rights chapter in 1 hour. If you don’t have a time limit, you might end up spending 4 hours on one chapter. So have a daily schedule and specify chapter wise for quick, effective revisions.

Don’t get anxious about whether you will remember everything in the examination hall. It’s not possible to remember everything but it is possible to optimise your marks with whatever you can remember. Revision is the only way to remember so revise daily, please. It might feel right now that everything is a bit jumbled up in your mind but when you see the question, a lot of points will come to you and you will be just fine.

Question: How to deal with ancient India and medieval India in both prelims and mains? sources?

Answer: For ancient and medieval, it is best to stick to the old ncerts. You can skim important chapters in the new ncerts if you have time. You will know what is important and what is not by previous year question papers.
If you don’t like history that much, then just stick to the new ncerts. If you like history, you can do the old ncerts as they are a bit more detailed. Ancient medieval is not important for MAINS. For prelims, do see the kind of questions that are being asked in the previous year papers to keep your preparation on track.
In prelims, I focussed on ancient more than medieval.
In medieval, I focussed on Bhakti Sufi movements and Vijayanagar empire.

Question: I’m scoring on an average 100 marks in vision test series. Which is far less than this year’s about to be cutoff (assuming the number of seats are very less ). What should be the approach towards the exam when u know that u have high chances of not qualifying.. but don’t want to fail or give up.

Answer: Why are you assuming that you have high chances of not qualifying? Please remain positive. Work hard and be sincere with your revision and time tables. Please remain happy and alert during the prelims. And have faith in the consistent hard work that you have put in. Tackle whatever question paper comes in front of you with confidence!! Please don’t give up. Average 100 marks in vision is good! You are scoring as much as me.

Question: How to prepare for CSAT in preliminary? Math is very difficult for me.

Answer: Just do the previous year question papers and get some mock tests from coaching centres. And if math is difficult, then focus on english and reasoning/logic. You should be fine!! Don’t feel intimidated. Do one math question a day or 3–4 questions a week and you should be able to sail through.

Question: How much time did you study while doing Young India Fellowship?

Answer: I studied for 2 hours on the weekdays. I read the newspaper in the morning before the classes and then did some GS in the evening. But I utilised my weekends very effectively. So a good and focussed 6–8 hours at least on the weekends.

Question: Did you attend coaching? I am kind of self study guy who is inclined to no coaching approach. But I need to hone my writing skills very much and that’s where coaching or no coaching issue comes up. Also, the hype around coaching is so much that it’s hard to ignore it’s presence.

Answer: I think self study is the way to go for CSE. But for your answer writing skills, join a good test series after your Mains. You can also do some answer writing practice on your own before the test series for the optional looking at the previous year papers. But the test series should give you enough confidence.

Question: What is your academic profile? Asking because the successful ‘self study fellows’ I have seen over Internet were from top tier institutes of there specialization. Made me think that if it’s possible for an average guy. Cursory search in Internet says it’s possible, but it would be better to talk to someone who actually did it :)

Answer: UPSC is totally possible for any average person. I’m super average. I was just focussed and happy. That was the only thing that differentiated me from the crowd. I did my BA in International Relations from Emory University, USA and I did my MSc in International Relations from UCL, University of London. So I was pretty set on the IFS and that obsession/passion for the goal made an average person like me put in the hard work.

Question: Is just preparing for exam after some failed attempts without doing a job is ok or one should find one job. Will it create negative impression at the time of interview?

Answer: It depends on the interview board. Interviews are highly subjective so you can’t say for sure. But overall, I personally feel that it doesn’t matter that much. It shows your persistence and patience!

But don’t depend on the interview. Score really high in the Mains (written) itself so that no matter what board you get, you’re IN.

Question: How can crack effectively science and tech paper?

Answer: I made a list of probable questions from VisionIAS Mains 365. I had a page of 10–15 key points on each topic that was in the news that year like Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Space Missions, etc. I also had 10–15 points on each topic of the SNT GS3 syllabus like robotics, biotechnology, etc. As it turns out, not much from my notes was asked in Mains 2017. But I didn’t get scared. Just used my common sense and general awareness to write a reasonably okay answer.
SNT was not my strength so I didn’t waste too much time on it. I stuck to optimising marks from economy, environment and security in GS 3. This is how I cracked it. I hope it works for you.

Question: Did you make newspaper notes?

Answer: I did not make any newspaper notes because it gets very time consuming and overwhelming. I stuck to the visionIAS monthly current affairs booklets and revised those diligently.