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 Vikram Kumar, IAS

 (C. S. Exam. 2003)

The quest for civil services has to be one of consistent and intelligent hard work. Its not the number of hours one puts in but the productive outcome of those hours put in. The civil service exam needs different preparation  for all its three stages.

PRELIMS

In general studies the most common mistake which most of us make is that we try to score 150 questions correct and for that we keep on reading endless books and what not. But what is needed is just a score of 90+. So concentrate on the scoring areas of general studies in which one doesn’t need much of reading still can tackle most questions like the mental ability part or the polity part.

Other thing in general studies is that one must be very sure of what to read. Last 10 years of question papers help in taking this decision. Nowadays the trend is that more and more questions come from the current affairs. So a daily newspaper and a monthly current affairs magazine is must from at least 10 months before appearing for the exam. Also one should try mock tests. They help in assessing your time management.

The subject is the most important part of prelims. The reason being simple -- each question in the subject carries 2.5 times more marks than that of a question in general studies. But that doesn’t mean that one should ignore GS. If one is having any of the non science subjects then a score of 100 is required to get through. The subject has to be studied in detail and mock tests taken to assess ones preparation and time management. The detailed study of subject also helps during the time of the mains.

MAINS

Mains are a different ball game all together. For the subjects one needs intensive in depth preparation. The knowledge of subject has to be complete and special focus should be on the questions which have come in the last 5 years. The answers should be crisp, the language used should be simple and there should be a natural flow in the answer. Before writing answer its better to prepare a framework. In subjects like geography and history maps are again a very good area to score marks.

In general studies many 2 marker questions are asked. These questions can fetch good marks and adequate preparation for these should be done. The general studies paper again has as much as 40 marks of statistics. So serious preparation is needed in statistics as one can score 100% in this area. The other areas of general studies again are focused on the happenings around us. The list of all potential topics which can be asked should be prepared and preparations are to be done accordingly.

ESSAY

The essay writing is one area of the exam for which there are no books or syllabus. The newspaper and magazine reading helps. Mostly the topics for essays are from the current affairs, other from social issues, sciences, and hypothetical and like that. So assess your area of strength and interest. Again in essay writing its good to prepare a complete framework before starting to write. The language has to be simple, lucid, and grammatically correct and a natural flow has to exist in the essay. Though no word limit is stated but around 1200 words in which all the points you wanted to cover have come is good enough.

          There are no fixed formulae for civil services. Different persons will have different opinions. Only thing common is the hard work and consistency. So do whatever you are comfortable with. And don’t worry about failures on the way. As somebody said only thing one can learn from failures is how to succeed.

 All the best. 

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