Nausheen - Mains Strategy - a jump of about 200 marks in Mains

Mains Tip #1

I have seen a jump of about 200 marks in Mains (From 643 in 2021 to 863 in 2023).

Things that I followed:

1. Prepared topic wise notes of GS paper and optional. These notes were not necessarily mine, did smart work in collecting those notes from wherever I used to get. For e.g. In GS 2, I referred to Anudeep Duri Shetty Sir's notes, Shruti Sharma's notes, Some coaching notes for Governance and newspaper notes for IR.

2. I didn't waste my time much after Prelims. Once I was clear I was writing mains, I started following the previously given time table.

3. I used to practice answer- writing daily after Prelims, at least 5 questions a day. After one paper used to get fully prepared, I used to solve PYQs full length in 3 hrs and match it with model answers.

4. Never stopped reading newspapers and making notes from them until the Mains exam.

5. I didn't follow any Mains module for e.g Mains 365 this time as it creates a lot of pressure at last moment. I decided to revise whatever notes I had until then again and again. I just had a glance at NEXT IAS mains probable once or twice, however didn't fret over the topics which were completely new.

Have faith in yourself that you have been following the newspaper and you must have not missed any important topic.

6. I didn't opt for a lot of test series this time. Solved only 8(GS)+ 2(essay) tests of NEXT IAS (RCA provided it). I remained content with solving previous year question papers, making sure that I am solving them in 3 hours. As I mentioned before, problem with the test series is that we don't see their model answers much and the evaluation is very generic.

7. Major factor that changed in this attempt was paper completion. I used to face paper completion issues in previous attempts, so I devised a schematic strategy (my friend Pratibha helped me in doing so) that can be seen in my answer copies of NEXT IAS. These schematics made sure that I completed all the pages and also addressed all the sections of the question.

8. Improved my optional strategy. (Another major factor) It will be dealt in a separate post.

9. I also decided to give equal time to Essay because the efforts in essay paper is directly proportional to the marks you will get.

10. Memorised Articles, Judgements ,case studies, best practices, data set and graphs by trying to write in the practise answers.

Don't follow any topper blindly. I tried to copy them ditto in my first two Mains. So, if they wrote 35 tests between Prelims and Mains or joined 2 test series for Optional, I tried emulating the same, failing to do that used to make me anxious and underconfident. This isn't the right strategy. We all are unique. Believe in your strengths and your methods even if they are entirely different from what has been the general method.