Services Exam
The UPSC Civil Service Exam is one of the toughest and the longest exam system in the country.
With the limited number of attempts and nearly five to six lakh applicants each year, of which only
1,000 or less gets selected, there is huge pressure on the candidates to crack the exam and it may
lead to bouts of depression, anxiety and mental stress.
A civil services candidate faces many issues during the course of the preparation of this exam. Many
candidates leave their homes and move to metro cities for the coaching and preparation. They take
up accommodation that gives them little comfort.
Most of the aspirants do not know to cook, and some in order to save time eat at the road side stalls
or depend on "Dubawalas." Having improper food and uncomfortable living, many aspirants end up
having health issues.
The coaching institutes in order to produce results put pressure on the candidates to increase the
hours of studies. Students are asked to put in 15 to18 hours a day and some resort to anti sleeping
pills. Loss of sleep has impact on the body and the aspirants get totally exhausted.
For an exam like UPSC, where there is cut-throat competition, the only goal of the aspirants is to
somehow clear the exam and they ignore the insurmountable pressure on them.
Living alone, studying till wee hours, little sleep, managing expenses, keeping up with the coaching
institutes, fee and health issues are all being compromised. The societal and peer pressure, along
with the pressure of competition have a telling impact on the mind and the body.
The long drawn out time of preparation leaves a huge impact on the aspirants. They are
disconnected from the outside world, and get physically, emotionally, and psychologically drained
out.
Many civil services aspirants report cases of depression emotional breakdown and anxiety and are
unable to concentrate on their preparation.
They are totally at loss how to overcome these symptoms. In order to cope up with the pressure,
they resort to heavy drinking and smoking, which leads to another set of problems.
So during the course of preparation, it is advised to take corrective steps to avoid such problems.
The first and foremost thing is to have correct food and starving or overeating be avoided. The
second is to have comfortable chair and table with sufficient lights to spend long hours of sitting.
One can start the day with a walk in the park and fresh up before sitting on the chair for studying.
There should intermittent breaks given to relax your muscles.
In order to get de stressed yoga and meditation is highly recommended. One can also play some
light games in the evenings to divert the mind. One can also sit with friends and lighten up some
laughs and jokes.
The final word is one should have sound body and mind for the preparation of the preparation of the
Civil Services exam and for this to remain calm, composed, cheerful and jolly is very essential.
General Strategy
Well formulated strategy along with optimum time management is the only two ladders for your
dream goal. It's very important to formulate your own strategy as it pays to be yourself. However for
the general guidance to tackle Civil Services examination, here are some of the guidelines which will
help the aspirant to achieve success.
1. Familiarity with the optional syllabi: Get yourself well informed about the content of the syllabi
and the topics it covers. A thorough familiarity with your optional reduces your mental burden
at the first sight itself.
2. Thorough insight of the question papers: It is the most important part of your strategy as
investing your time skillfully will reap rich dividends. Go through the question papers of past
ten years to identify the pattern and select the topics which are asked very frequently.
Simultaneously, identify those topics which are particularly useful for conventional essay type
questions. Once you have clearly demarcated the topics for the conventional and the
objective types, the rest will be an easier task. A thorough insight of the past papers will
therefore solve two of your purposes. It would boost your confidence level initially as you
come to know the standards of the question asked and secondly it guides constantly through
your preparation.
3. Selection of books: It is advisable not to go through a lot of books, instead go through one
quality book on each topic which clarifies your basic concept. Standard books not only save
your precious time but also guide you as a perfect teacher. So always rely on standard good
books. Also it is advisable to collect various books on my topics in advance so as to save
time for the last minute hassle.
4. Prefer you own notes: It is always advisable to make notes of the related topics. A well
crafted note solves two purposes. On the one hand the aspirant goes through the syllabus
once and on the other hand it is of immense help on the eve of examination.
5. A specific strategy for the general studies: General studies cover everything under the sun.
But there is nothing to get panic, a glance over the last years question' paper will make
things easier. Broadly we can categories this topic under the following heads.
a. History: A huge stress is given to modern history and freedom movement. Also emphasis is
given to Ancient India. A cursory glance over the medieval history would serve the purpose.
b. Geography: A huge stress is to be given to physical geography and maps related questions.
Get yourself well-acquainted with maps with the help of a good Atlas.
c. General Science: It covers a major chunk, so be well-versed with the topics of general
science from a standard guidebook.
d. Current affairs: Going daily through a standard news paper thoroughly will suffice.
e. General awareness: Any good guide book or year book will be suited for the purpose.
Some more important points:
o
As already said, always rely on yourself prepared notes. Go through your short notes
rigorously.
Prepare out short notes of important topics with relevant points and just before the
examination rely solely on it.
Take a good sleep on the eve of examination. It is most important for your brilliant
performance.
Don't get engaged with any confusing question or problem as your prior investment (with
studies) will only bring dividends to you.
General Studies
Arabic
Essay
Assamese
Agriculture
Bengali
Chinese
Botany
English
Chemistry
French
Civil Engineering
German
Commerce
Gujarati
Economics
Hindi
Electrical Engineering
Kannada
Geography
Kashmiri
Geology
Konkani
Indian History
Malayalam
Law
Manipuri
Mathematics
Marathi
Mechanical Engineering
Nepali
Medical Science
Oriya
Philosophy
Pali
Physics
Persian
Political Science
Punjabi
Psychology
Russian
Public Administration
Sanskrit
Sociology
Statistics
Zoology
Anthropology
Management
Sindhi
Tamil
Telugu
Urdu
10.Last but not the least, do not forget that any academy is there only to guide
you, in the end you are the fighter who has to fight your battle with the IAS
exam using the props provided by the coaching center. So believe in yourself
and keep your confidence level high, take help of the IAS academies only in
the areas you need them
Please note that while reading the coaching material, we will find that 90% of the
topics are repetitive and useless if we have read the books. So skip those 90% and
quickly read the remaining useful 10% only.
Topic
culture
Indian history
world history
post-independence India
Indian society
globalization on Indian
society
communalism, regionalism,
secularism
Had some basic idea. Got some coaching notes of Baliyan and Vaj
book. Prepared cyclones from IMD website.
resource distribution
Skipped.
impact on flora-fauna
Skipped.
DD Basu
executive-judiciary
ministries departments
Skipped
2nd ARC report. But too general a topic, everybody knows ever
governance, transparency,
accountability
e-governance
bilateral/global grouping
diaspora
Indian economy,
resource mobilization
inclusive growth
budgeting
Internet.
technology mission
Internet.
animal rearing
economics
food processing
land reforms
liberalization
Internet, newspapers
Infra
Internet, newspapers
investment models
Internet, newspapers
Indian achievements in
sci-tech
Skipped
environmental impact
assessment
Disaster Management
cyber security
money laundering
border Management
organized crime,
terrorism
corporate governance
challenges of corruption
Bring it on approach.
Any other comments, word of wisdom after going through the mains-2013.
In case studies, I always tried to analyze each option from a theoretical perspective.
I used to take an option and see what the 4-5 school of ethics say about it and then
try to come to an acceptable ethical decision.
GS4 Ethics case study answers in Mains 2013
Q. in GS4 ethics papers, please give a sketchy overview of your case study
answers:
Sorry dont remember. But my vision ias mock tests where I attempted such case
studies can be seen here click me
Case
1: RTI: To hide or not to hide
2: Engineer: Bogus flyover vs deadline
3: Child Labourers in Sivakasi
4: Nepotism in Job recruitment
5: Leaking information
6: Narrate one incident in your life when you were faced with such crisis of conscience and how y
same.