Are you just a college goer and decided to opt Civil services to serve our country?
You are on the right path but you need some strategy to clear the exam. Because you do know that you are unique and very honest citizen. But UPSC Panel wants not only an honest aspirant but also a smart one. Here I’m explaining you how to Start Preparing for IAS exam from College or school days. Follow this simple strategy to clear the Civil Services Exam.
The first and foremost thing is to know the pattern of this examination. The pattern of this examination had a major changes in last 5 years. According to the latest change in 2015-16 UPSC notification There will be three tiers of Examination. Preliminary Level, Mains and Interview. All graduated candidates can write Preliminary Level Examination. It consists of two papers. Paper I (General Studies) and Paper II (CSAT). Candidate should score 33% of marks in Paper II and it will be just a qualifying paper. Paper I (General Studies) is the real game. After clearing Preliminary level we have to clear Mains level Exam too. Click here for more details on UPSC Civil Service Exam Pattern.
Many of the students who start to prepare for competitive exams while studying in college will make this blunder mistake. They will focus for the UPSC exam to be held after 3 years but will fail to score more in semester to be held in next month. UPSC likes candidates with good academic records. It does not mean that they will only prefer students with good scores. But if you have high grades it will help you in the interview. I’m listing this first because I took decision to enter into civil services and prepared for UPSC without focusing on grades. UPSC interview may have questions relating to your graduation. So Learn Your Subjects thoroughly.
Buy any one National newspaper. Preferably The Hindu. Magazines are not necessary if you are reading newspapers regularly. If you feel difficult to read the news in English don’t go with your regional language(Tamil or Hindi). Try to read in English with the help of Dictionary else buy The Hindu Tamil Version and The Hindu English Version. It is not recommended to skip the English language as UPSC prelims/mains questions will be in English and Hindi only and also many materials won’t be available in our regional language. Just don’t read newspapers and throw it off. Take notes from the newspaper. Reading necessary news is as much important as the reading newspaper. Skip waste politics news and pity police cases. It is not necessary for our preparation and will be useful only after clearing this exam. In fact, it will be our duty to read such news on those days.
NCERT is the next step in preparation. Some of you may have gone to good schools like KV, DAV, AV etc, but the majority of us would have studied in Government schools or at small matriculation schools so that we would have just memorised the facts to pass the examination. Read school textbooks once again. This time you should focus more on concepts and you do not need to focus on facts. UPSC always demand concepts and not for facts. Eg: They don’t ask for the year on which war took place. they only need the period/hierarchy of incidence.
I do not recommend you to read magazines if you are reading newspapers regularly and taking notes from that. If not, in that case, read CSR, Pratyogita Darpan or any other civil service related magazines. These magazines may give you what is the current trend in UPSC Civil Services Examination but if you are using the internet regularly and visiting mrunal.org, forumias.com, upschub.com then you may don’t have to worry about those messy magazines which try to make money with little useful content and huge ads.
You should not only focus on studies rather be focused on Sports/Arts too. Learn additional languages. If you are from Tamilnadu learn Hindi just to understand and respond to Hindi fanatic UPSC board members present in interview panel. After becoming IAS let us spread our Semmozhi. To keep you actively learn to write in the left hand, learn Thirukkural which will be useful for you in mains answer writing too. You can quote Thirukkural in answers for mains paper 4. Read non-fiction books, Books like India after Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth, Wings of Fire, Train to Pakistan.
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Hello sir, i am preparing for civils 2016
and i am confused what and from where to read biology phy and chem
Plz help me out
Read basic NCERT books for science from class 6 to class 10.
For biology give importance to health, sanitation, nutrition etc. Eg: If Ebola is trending in news then read A to Z about Ebola. If Minamata Disease is trending then understand what is its cause and its symptoms.
For Physics focus on recent science and technology, ISRO, DRDO Projects, Basic life science ( Books like: What, Why and How : Publication and Information Directorate, Hindu Speaks on Scientific Facts).
UPSC concentrates less on facts so need not memorize anything top to bottom, Be updated with current affairs for science too.
Thank u sir
Thanks for such a helpful article. Getting inspiration and some success mantras from the toppers is the best part as they have already faced the situation. I am getting training from Vajiram and Ravi and my teachers there keep telling me about the importance of time management and discipline. They also suggest that after going from the class, students should revise all the things to save time at the time of final preparation.
I loved the point on importance of health. While preparing for the exam students get so much involved in the studies that they completely forget about their health.
Ian from Trichy, studying 1st year engineering. how can I train myself for cracking IAS, UPSC exams
Hii sir thankyou for u awesome guidance but i m pursuing for civil engineering second year n trying to strt preparation of civil services so basic wht should hv to get started through plzz rply
good to start from basic text books (NCERT Books). If you have already completed reading these books, practice to read newspaper.
Sir iam from coimbatore I registered in manidhaneyam ias academy for 2019 after that mail was came...your registration was complete but sir I have a doubt registration process over ah sir? Thn when the class was start? they send mail or we have to contact ah sir I have to go to office ah sir ?
very Informative post to know the time management strategies for IAS Exam.
Hi Gokul, Really very interesting blog on UPSC preparation. Very thoughtfully prepared for the young budding aspirants who want to start preparing at a very early stage. It is, of course, mandatory to keep track of all the current affairs through newspapers, magazine.
Thank you for sharing such a informative article for the IAS aspirant.
I recently came across a similar helpful article for IAS aspirant.