Prelims strategy that worked for Shagun Kumar

1. Static, Static, Static.

Strong Static is the key to success..

Polity, Eco and Geo makes 45-50 questions in exam and strong basics of these subjects will help you fetch good marks.

Histroy is becaming a tricky day by day..but still the static knowledge will help to solve 3-5 questions.

Focus on multiple revision of static portion in this period.

And Dont pick any new resource/book etc.

2. Read PYQs throughly

A. Understand the important themes via PYQs.

Buddhism, Jainism, historical keywords, National parks and Sanctuaries, Ramsar sites, Biotech, Space, Computer tech, Rivers, Mountain ranges, Charter acts, FRs etc are repeated themes in exam.

Make them as strong as possible.

B. Try to Understand "how" questions are set..where the examiner is trying to bluff..

How to eliminate etc..

UPSC is always smarter than us..

But by observing these small things we can get an edge..

3. Practice.

For Vetrans PYQ Practice is enough.

But for 1st and 2nt attempt aspirants...test series can be helpful..

NEVER EVER get bothered by the marks in test series..

They doesn't even matter..

But test series helps in deciding how will you attempt the REAL exam..

How many times will read the question..how will fill OMR, and the fear of exam will decrease..

Veterans kam test de toh bhi chalega.

I think abhi market ke hisaab se Forum test are good, since they are based on basic books, toh revision hoo jata hai..

Vision is okayish..at times too out of sync with UPSC..

This time some SPIPA test are doing rounds on TG..they are also good..

But no one will ever get close to UPSC..so they are just for practice..

4. Exam mindset.

Prelims is 50% knowledge..50% mindset..

Even if you are the topper of Prelims..you wont know the exact answer of 25-30 questions.

We actually try to "arrive" at answers by intelligent guessing, elimination etc etc..

And our Mind works in this manner only when it is in a calm and composed state.

So be calm, try to medidate a little, set your schedule as per exam cycle and keep the confidence intact.

5 . CSAT..

Please dont ignore it..

30 mins practice a day will be good enough for science wale log..

Others may need a little more..

Its heart wrenching to see people clearing gs paper but missing csat cut-off.