70 days plan for UPSC civil services prelims 2020

By,

SHINDE PRASAD SITARAM

INDIAN FOREST SERVICE-2019 

ALL INDIA RANK-10 Maharashtra topper

Appeared for civil services interview-3 times

Appeared for Indian forest service interview-3 times

Prelims scores in previous attempts- 148, 136, 124, 122

Hello friends,

So the ongoing covid-19 pandemic led to UPSC postponing civil services prelims 2020 to October 4, 2020 from previous date of 31st May, 2020. I am quite sure that many of you must have already finished preparation keeping in mind the previous date and currently doing revision and paper solving. I have received quite a lot of queries about what to do over next two months, how to approach the prelims, how to increase the scores with students facing lot of anxiety, confusion and dilemma. 

So in this blog, I would like to suggest the do's and don't over the next 70 days in your journey. If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comment section below.

1) I am sure that when new dates were announced by UPSC, many of you spent last one to two months in making your optional strong and studying for general studies papers of mains. Well, for last 70 days, keep aside your optional and mains studies and totally become prelims oriented.

2) You have already finished reading for prelims 1-2 times (based on previous prelims date). So in last 70 days, its time for quick revision and paper solving.

- Don't skip any section be it medieval India/ancient india/ art and culture. You still have 70 days left and you can easily cover left over sections. UPSC is totally unpredictable and last year many aspirants could not clear prelims because they left medieval India section thinking that very few or no questions would come from it. Don't take risks, cover what is left out.

- Don't take any new books/any new material that you see in market. I'm sure you must have your list of books written, cover those only and keep revising them. As prelims come near you will see many new material come up in market which are total waste of time, energy and money creating confusion.

-Don't miss out on test paper solving. Take any two good test series (I used to take vision IAS and Forum IAS) and solve their complete set be it sectional and full length test series. You need to solve atleast 70 test papers before prelims and this is what makes the difference. It doesn't matter how much you score in these tests, what matters is that it will increase your accuracy, gives you extra information by reading the explanations later and makes you follow time limit properly. Important thing is that you read the explanation of the answers of test papers since you gain that extra knowledge which you can easily connect with related questions that UPSC might ask. It's all about connecting the dots in exam if you are not sure about the answer.

List of Do's in next 70 days

1) Divide your day with 10 hours of study (This is what I used to follow) giving time for revision of different subjects (approx 4 hours), current affairs (2hours), paper solving (4 hours including solving, checking and reading explanation).

2) Polity (only laxmikanth)- 5 days, Geography(GC Leong and 11th NCERT)-4 days, Ancient India (11th ncert)-4 days, Medieval India (11th ncert)-4 days, Modern India (only spectrum)-4 days, Economics basics- 2 days, Environment (Shankar IAS book)- 5 days, Leucent general knowledge book (only read history part, very important data given for ancient and medieval India)- 2 days. So in 30 days you can finish revision of important parts for prelims. ( Number of days are given based on assumption that you already finished reading the subject atleast twice before and this is fast revision).

3) Sections such as Economics current issues, International institutions/groups, environmental groups in news, science and technology part cover in current affairs. Also, For environmental groups/institutions in news, do a quick google search and visit MOEFCC website to see their initiatives in last one year. Environment section is very important for prelims and its weightage has certainly increased with indian forest service prelims being common with civil services.

4) For current affairs, take up either vision 365 or insights compilation. Also, do read Sunya notes for current affairs. ( Cover current affairs from Jan 2019 upto August 2020 ). UPSC has asked question before from events which occurred two years ago . So try to cover current affairs for past two years.

5) Once in 30 days you finish revision of general subjects, utilise that time to look at solved prelims papers of last 25 years. It is very important that you do so not because questions might get repeated but to gain extra information from the explanations that are given for the questions. You can utilise that knowledge for related questions in exam. Buy a solved papers book which gives well detailed explanation. There are plenty in market.

6) Do not ignore CSAT paper. Many of my friends who had appeared for interview could not clear prelims next year because they ignored CSAT paper. Solve atleast 10 CSAT papers before prelims and its better to solve actual past question papers to get a hang of it. The type of questions in CSAT english passages has changed in last few years. Look at them, find the meaning of terms like 'corollary', 'implied' etc that is asked in question because only then you could pick correct answer from options.

During actual exam

1) Firstly, do not study anything on previous day of prelims. Listen to music, go out for breath of fresh air (with mask on :L ) and get atleast 8 hours of sleep.

2) In exam hall, do not go into panic mode once you see the question papers. Once you go into panic mode, your brain stops recollecting stuff. Relax, you have already done your preparation and its matter of solving just another paper.

3) In your first round of looking at questions, do not start marking in answer sheet. First, look at questions in question paper, tick the answer in question paper itself.

4) You do not have to solve all the questions in first round. Only tick the answers of questions you are 100 percent sure of and move on to next ones.

5) In second round of looking at question paper, start marking the answers in answer sheet for ones you have ticked in question paper and you are sure of. Then move to questions that you left. Always use elimination technique no matter what in prelims. 

6) You do not have to attempt or know all the 100 questions. There will be some questions no matter how much you study, you won't be able to answer. Attempt a question only if you can eliminate two options in a question. Otherwise do not take unnecessary risk of attempting which will give you negative marks. Attempting around 85 questions with such a strategy will put you in safe zone to qualify. 

7) Watch out for key words like 'ONLY' in options. Such an option most of the times is wrong. Also, Vijayanagara kingdom is favourite of UPSC so if in any question you are not sure of answer and it has some option related to vijaynagara kingdom, then that is your answer. (Do read tamil nadu state board history text book covering vijaynagara kingdom). Also, most of the questions are such wherein if you eliminate one option, you will easily get answer. So always use elimination technique in all questions. 

8) Read the options and statements properly. Most of the times UPSC plays with words especially in Polity questions so read it with an eagle's eye. 

Finally, again I'm mentioning do not attempt questions if you can't eliminate two options or one's you know nothing about. Such unnecessary risks may cause you another year. After coming out, do not start checking your answers with those released by any classes on same day as most of the answers are wrong, questions being solved in a hurry. take around 2-3 days and wait for a well researched answer key released by some classes.

Cut off for Indian forest service is usually 10 -15 marks higher than cut off for civil services. Last year cut off for Indian forest service was 114. Anyways, keep a target of scoring 120 plus in prelims. 

If you have any queries, do leave your question in comment section and hopefully this blog will be useful for your preparation.

ALL THE BEST!!!