Author: Sukanya Rana

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From Articles of Constitution to National parks

From listing mountain ranges to Mauryan administration

From Artificial intelligence to Repo rate……There is so much variety in UPSC CSE Syllabus.

Learning so many new subjects and new topics, one can feel the influx of knowledge in the preparation mode. This newfound knowledge generates a sense of euphoria in many aspirants. To keep feeding this euphoria, many aspirants make the mistake of reading more and more material, be it the current or static part. Sadly, unchecked knowledge euphoria can hijack your preparation.

IS SYLLABUS COMPLETION A SERIOUS ISSUE YOU ARE FACING IN YOUR PREPARATION? IS IT SO THAT WHILE ATTEMPTING MOCK TESTS, YOU VAGUELY RECALL THE TOPICS? OR LOOKING AT SO MANY BOOKS MAKE YOU LOSE INTEREST IN THE PREPARATION?

If yes, then something has to change in your strategy. In fact, you are not alone facing this challenge. Check out the video given below of our student discussing the same problem and how it affected his performance in the last 5 attempts.

Giving prelims without even completing the whole syllabus once is like killing your own golden duck. In our interaction with our Mentors and their mentees, we identified few common mistakes when it comes to incomplete syllabus attempts:

• Habit of collecting and reading too many books, Photostatted material and online content
• Reading every book from cover to cover with giving equal importance to every topic
• Mismanagement of current affairs and static part

Obviously, solutions to these problems differ from student to student. BUT ONE MANTRA THAT ALL OUR MENTORS SWEAR BY IS INSTEAD OF HARD WORK, DO SMART WORK. SO, WHAT DOES SMART WORK MEAN?

WHAT NOT TO READ: Common impression about UPSC CSE preparation is that you have to know everything under the sun. But there is a catch here! Try to learn everything under the sun from a Generalist than a specialist point of view. This can be done if you know “WHAT NOT TO READ?”. Let our mentors look at the material you are reading and chuck out the unnecessary clutter.

MARK BOUNDARIES: This is all about making sure that every subject has 1-2 reference material, which you will focus on. Marking boundaries is also important in the case of current affairs. Usually, students end up using 4-5 hours of their time just for daily current affairs. This for sure is not Smart study!

REVISION: Yes! we all know that revision is important. But do you know you have to divide your revision into 3 groups: Short term, medium-term and long-term revision. Revision should not be a bi-annual exercise. Syllabus completion and revision have to be done side by side. So, getting this balance in your preparation is where we as a mentor come in.

COVER TO COVER: Don’t read your books like novels. You have to constantly tell yourself that ‘BE EXAM ORIENTED’. In each subject, you should have a rough idea about ‘UPSC FAVORITES’. Finish them first!

MONITORING: A neutral third-person monitoring can be a great addition to your preparation. Constant check on what you are reading, what good material not to miss, and focusing on high importance areas is the priority in our mentorship program.

Mentorship is subjective but we are trying to add a bit of science to it with years of data collection on performances, feedback, and interviews with our students. Fill up the form below and let us know what issue you are facing? Surely we will resolve it together!