Are you preparing for the UPSC 2018? What is your strategy?
By- Praveen Kante, studied at Vajiram & Ravi
Yes! I’m preparing very hard for 2018, Time is the most important resource for anyone! I started my UPSC journey on July 2016, the mistake I’ve Made was I joined in coaching (vajiram and ravi).
Mistake in the sense that really I didn’t have minimum time to prepare for the exam, so I don’t even have a time table, as i am in coaching ie time management is like:
general studies class—3 hours
Optional class—3 hours
CSAT class-3 hours
Sleep—7 hours
Food break—2 hours
Journey to my room and institute-1 hour
Total=19 hours
The only time I had was 5 hours (talking to parents, bathing etc and in the remaining time I’ve to study!!) And other than what they taught me in class, I’ve also prepared myself parallelly
I started NCERT books.
And this is my procedure and books I’ve Read:
1.Started with NCERT books(Basic)
I mean picked one Subject and took all the years subject books of that subject from 6–12th standard-tried to finish one book in one week with basic understanding of what you are reading.
I searched for questions based only on NCERT books so after reading a book tried toanswer them.
2. Then advance level; Bought a most reputable standard book for that subject and read that in 20 days(that’s based on your capacity)
MUST READ BOOKS
1) Introduction to the Constitution of India 20 Edition
2) India Since Independence – Bipan Chandra
3) India’s Struggle For Independence – Bipan Chandra
4) Indian Economy : For Civil Services Examinations 6th Edition (2014) – Ramesh Singh
5) Laxmikanth- Indian Polity 5th Edition
6)Geography of India- Majid Hussain – 5th Edition
8)India After Gandhi: The History Of The World’s Largest Democracy
9) Mastering Modern World History -5th Edition, Norman Lowe
10) Select Constitutions: 16th Edition – S Chand
11) Environment by Shankar IAS
12) Certificate Physical and Human Geography – Goh Cheng Leong
13) India’s National Security – A Reader
14) Indian Social System – Ram Ahuja
After reading these books, all the static part of syllabus will get covered and revise these books as much times as possible!
3.Now I tested myself by doing McQ’s on that subject-i don’t get panicked after getting very less score coz that’s just the beginning
Now evaluated what happened wrong I mean in which topics I’m lagging then go through that again.
This is subject wise approach and general approach is also the same.
The most important thing is making a habit of reading newspaper (you have to master the newspaper to complete in an hour-i didn’t did that).
Took notes of important articles.Read monthly magazines for current affairs of vision IAS and did test series of vision IAS and insights on India, I didn’t got More than 70 marks in test series!
Finally my coaching completed in April 2017 and I’ve only 2 months so I thought I don’t give this attempt and i didn’t (I’m satisfied with my decision coz this year paper was very tough)
Now I’m preparing hard to get ready for next year 2018
Right now: As I got time I’m revising all the books I’ve Read and practicing answer writing a bit. Getting to know all the important issues around world, and trying not to repeat same mistakes again.
I made some mistakes during preparation, if anyone want to go through: How I wasted one year time and 5 lakhs Money during my Goal (IAS)achieving process by Praveen Kante on My journey to rock bottom
Thank you and all the best
