"Self-Confident, Planning And Systematic Study : Stepping Stones To Success"
To achieve glorious success in the Civil Services Examination, proper approach and excellent guidelines are indispensable. Your Optionals are the things which can make all the difference. This single decision has the potential to alter your life. Choose your Optionals carefully and with due care. Try to choose subjects in which you have some background knowledge. Only choose those subjects which are scoring and also with which you are comfortable.
Remember you’ll have to do both intensive and extensive study of Optionals. So it is imperative that you must have interest also in your Optionals. Always keep an open-mind. Information from any source relevant to your goal is always welcome. Discuss with your friends, talk to them and listen to their views. This will expand your knowledge base and also expose you to different views. This is important as this will enable you to view things in a balanced perspective and avoid taking extremes. Make it a habit to go through magazines and newspapers regularly and read as many as possible.
The syllabus in the Civil Services is very hazy and vast with no clearly-defined boundaries. So, it might happen that you end up reading things which are connected with the syllabus but are practically irrelevant from your preparation point of view. So it is necessary that you get a feel of what the examiner expects from you. For this keep a copy of syllabus and side by side keep the previous year’ papers. Compare them and see what types of questions are repeated every year. Try to have a feel as to what constitutes important portions of the syllabus and what is irrelevant. Try to from boundaries of the syllabus.
This analysis will give you an in-depth insight into the paper and the examiner’s mind. This will make you understand which topics need intensive study. This will also enable you to identify unnecessary portions, which are not important from the point of view of examination, so that you may avoid them and save your precious time and energy.
It is always useful to maintain a note-book to jot down all important developments happening in the National and the International scene. Also if possible one should make short notes for Optional Paper as well as General Studies. For example, in Mathematics and Physics one can make a formula note-book in which one should write all the important formulae and their derivations. Besides making it easier to remember, such notes are also very useful and handy during revision stages and save a lot of time.
Always do a planned and systematic study. Work out your study schedules in a planned and orderly manner. Maintain a daily routine of studying in a manner suited to you and stick to it; no matter what happens. Plan your whole preparation well. I think this whole preparation should last about 12-15 months. So plan your preparation in such a manner that before the prelims you should have completed your both Optionals and General Studies right up to the Mains level. This will ensure that you have sufficient time to revise. So planning at every stage of the examinations important. Also do a very systematic study.
Work out your syllabus and finish it in an ordered manner. Some time when you are free, try to write an essay on post topics covered in the Civil Services. This will expose you to your lacunae as well as make you understand the things involved: writing a good essay. Not only the easy you should also attempt previous years’ Optionals Papers and General Studies Papers. This will expose your weaknesses and give you an idea about the extent of your preparation, your knowledge base, your speed and accuracy. Thus you can develop your writing skills and make sure that you can cover lengthy papers, especially GS Paper-1, in time.
Remember in the Civil Services, writing skills matter a lot. Most of the people appearing for Mains Examinations have a lot of knowledge, some of them have been preparing for the last three or four years, even then such candidates are not selected sometimes. One of the reasons for their failure is their writing skills. They are not able to present all the information present in their mind in a coherent and logical manner as expected by the examiner. So, you should develop your writing skills. The attitude that I will write directly in the Examination should be done away with.
Remember hours do not count. Don’t go by the claims of other persons who say that they study more than 18 hours a day. Do not get depressed if you are unable to achieve their targets.
Remember, it is your preparation, you are the one who will appear in the examination, you know yourself better, so do your study according to your needs. Quality of hours put in is more important than quantity. You should use your energy an time in an efficient and effective manner.
Take due care of your health. You might go in for a walk in the evenings. also maintain a hobby which relaxes you during your preparation like listening to music etc. take sleep as required by your body and mind. It is always better to do study when one’s mind and body are fresh, this helps in easy grasping of things a swell as in retaining them. Remember that without a good health, you will not be able to concentrate on your studies and your whole idea of the Civil services will go haywire.
It is always better to peak at the time of Examination. So channelise your preparation in such a manner that you don’t burn yourself out before the Examination. Build up reserves of energy in yourself. You will need this energy at the time of your Examination. Do not worry much about the compulsory Hindi and English language papers. You will coolly pass them, and you don’t need to waste your time preparing for them.
For Interview, from a group of friends who have offered the same Optionals. Remember, Interview is of a personality test. The Board will check certain traits in your personality such as your honesty and integrity, your mental alertness, your acumen, your response to some situations, your views on varied topics and also your knowledge base. So, for Interview read as many newspapers and as many magazine as possible. Discuss with your friends. Take mock-interviews. Try to find loop-holes in your arguments and plug them. Form your views on various subjects in a very logical and rational manner supported by data whenever necessary. Do not get nervous whenever necessary. Do not get nervous before the Interviews. Improve your communications skills by giving mock-interviews.
These will also open you up. Ask your friends to grill you, so that you can face pressure from the Board easily. Always pause a bit before answering even if you know the answer. Do not give a hasty reply. Answer in an orderly and logical fashion an always look into the eyes of the interviewer while answering. Be polite and courteous. Don’t be too much argumentative. Be consistent in your views, i.e. just don’t change your views because of the fact that the Board is differing with you. Remember that they are only testing you and often even try to provoke you. Give balanced answers and avoid taking extremes.
Alongwith your preparation for the Civil services Examination, the following four elements are the pre-requisites for success in the examination:
(1) Hard Work - Remember that there is no substitute for hard work. No genie is coming to help you. You have to finish the whole course by yourself.
(2) Dedication - Dedication towards your duty always pays in life. Be totally dedicated towards your study. You will have to sacrifice something like movies, parties, etc. at this stage of your life to achieve bigger things. Just work day and night and go on and on.
(3) Patience - As the civil Services Emanation spans a whole one year right from Preliminary stage to the Interview stage, it requires a lot of patience to maintain your tempo. At times you may feel tired and sick of further studying during the course of your preparation, but don’t throw the towel as yet. Maintain your cool and patience and go on. To take out your anger and frustration, talk to friends and parents. They’ll provide you with the much-neede emotional support.
(4) Self- confidence- your self-confidence can make the whole difference. If you don’t believe in yourself and your capacity to achieve then no matter how hard you try. You will end up in failure. So your self-confidence should be at a very high level. I don’t intend to say that you should become over-confident, but a good self-esteem matters. So to pep up your confidence level say t yourself everyday in front of the mirror that you can do it and you will do it. You should be in the surroundings of the people who could constantly motivate you and inspire you. Keep a group of close friends with you who are as determined t make it to the Civil Services as you are. This will make sure that if you are facing some problems in any subject then you can approach some one. Also while talking and discussing with them you’ll be exposed to different views. This will also ensure that you can vent out your frustration by talking to some one. Besides, good friends are always a source of inspiration and motivation.
Very well said Amit ji,
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