Chapter 12 - General Advises & Pitfalls during the Preparations - UPSC PDF Download

1. Prerequisites to crack UPSC civil services:

     Please do not confuse this with the characteristics of a civil servant that have been discussed above in the section of the interview preparations. These are the mandatory character/techniques a candidate must possess or cultivate to crack civil services.

a)  Patience: the very first attempt would take at least 10 months of serious preparation till the mains examination. Interview will be held around three months after the mains examination. Then comes the anxious waiting of one month or so before the final results are displayed. During all this time a candidate may take occasional break but can’t rest in peace. He/she must be in continuous touch with studies.  Thus, this period of more than one year and preferably 1.5 years for the very first attempt has to be covered patiently. There will be moments when you feel that it’s a lost battle yet you have to keep your calm.

b) Perseverance: an aspirant has to continuously bang his/her head with the books and other study material. Patience for 1.5 years will bear fruit not without persevering efforts. I personally find that aspirants in this field do not lack patience – many have devoted their youth to primarily this task.

c)  Smart study: without this the combination of above two will not bear fruit. This is what this book is all about. Unlike hard work, smart study focuses on picking and choosing targets and their timely fulfilment and taking immediate corrective action if required. We don’t vouch that an aspirant has to study everything under the sun but study what the requirement of an exam is. Continuous monitoring of progress and rectification wherever needed is the need of the hour. We vouch for organized and structured study using charts, tables and algorithms which shall definitely help a candidate imbibe a plethora of information and then reflect upon it.

     Other aspects and virtues such as hard work, determination, confidence, answer writing skills, strong oral communication, concentration, memory etc. are indeed an added advantage. They can be cultivated and developed by an aspirant but directed under the broad umbrella of the three mentioned above, that is, patience, perseverance and smart study.

2.  What do the candidates lack in general?

     Although all the above mentioned aspects are required for success at civil services, but out of the three listed above patience is the most common aspect found in many candidates, perseverance is found in some and the skill of smart study is quite rare. 

     One senior person whom I met to discuss history before my mains examination candidly said, “I came to Delhi from Bihar in 2003 and now in 2013 I am again going to Bihar as I have cleared Bihar state services.” He took a pause. “It pains me to find that I devoted my youth to UPSC civil services and still could not crack it.” He didn’t lack patience. In fact he had an excess of patience!

     A very close friend of mine who hails from Bihar guided me thoroughly in regards to what I should study when I started the preparations. He is a hardworking guy who can stretch upto 12 hours a day of self-study and that too for more than a week without any break. Unfortunately he didn’t clear prelims. Further, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind in regards to his knowledge for almost anything. His efforts were persevering and conduct was patient but he lacked a strategy of smart study.

     This book is dedicated to all the aspirants like him who can do miracles if pushed slightly in the right direction. All that is required to be done is to channelize their immense potential in the required direction.

3.  Calculating the number of hours of study:

     There are many situations which throw upon an aspirant the illusion that he/she is studying but in fact that is not study at all. One person I met in 2012 when I was yet to take the decision of going in for the preparation said, “My dear friend. First think and then decide whether to go for preparations or not. Because you have to study at least 12 hours each day and every single day throughout the period of two years.” I got scared as I perfectly knew that with the best of my efforts I could not study for more than 5 or 6 hours each day. He continued, “You will have at least 8 hours of coaching each day, then in the peer group you must discuss what is taught in the class for around 2 hours and then before retiring to the bed you must take out another 2 hours.”

     After clearing the examination I realized that this accounts for only two hours of study. The time devoted to coaching must not be counted in your study hours. The time you spend discussing and debating with your friends, whether the issue is relevant or not, should not be included in the study hours. The number of hours you study is the self-study you do sitting alone in your room. And that, if around 5 hours average each day, is more than sufficient to crack civil services in first attempt.

4.  Role of calendar:

     Use calendars with enlarged fonts of dates and place it in such a place where it is easily visible. Its role becomes prominent 2 months before prelims and 2 months before mains. For each day that passes place a cross with black pen on that date and write what progress you made in your studies. For the coming day list your target, which in fact, should put an inflationary pressure on you. For each day you do not take to study cancel the date with a red pen. This would put an aspirant under pressure and his/her performance would set on an increasing trend.

5.  Countering fatigue:

     An aspirant must not think himself/herself to be a machine. We are human beings and we get tired. It is not only our right but also our duty to refresh our debilitated energies periodically through the means of leisure activity. After five days of continuous slogging and burning midnight’s oil for civil services, you may feel restless the sixth day. This restlessness can be countered if you periodically take breaks from study after 6 pm on the sixth day. The time till you sleep on that day must be spent in your way – that should not include studies or even the discussions of studies. The ways of relaxation may be different but all should bear the same output – that on the very next day you feel rejuvenated when you get up in the morning – ready again for the same slog till the next break.

6.  Mobile phone anxiety:

     We must accept the fact that all the present aspirants and the future ones have been a witness to the technological revolution in India, especially during the last one decade, in varying degrees. The accessibility, availability and affordability of mobile phones have led to its penetration spanning almost the whole country. Its usage is frequent and the number of average hours spent on mobile is on a rise. With its integration with internet in smart phones, the PC/laptop traffic is diverting on mobiles. This has led to a syndrome of mobile phone anxiety. Try to live without a mobile phone for a single day and you may witness the same. But my dear aspirant, this syndrome has to be countered when exams approach. Let us say one month before preliminary and two months before mains one should avoid the usage of mobiles. The unavoidable usage should be at your convenience and not on others’ wishes.

     One girl whom I had always known as a hardworking aspirant had her mobile switched off for continuous five days one month before preliminary 2014. She called me up on the sixth day only to make me realize that apart from being a hardworking woman she had also become smart enough to manage her time when she said, “Because I am studying for civil services my time is a priority now rather than yours as you have achieved the goal. So, I will call you whenever I require your assistance or I feel like talking to you and you are supposed to respond to my calls! If you call and my mobile is off do not panic, I am consumed in my prayers!”

     I liked her approach to deal with the exam-time pressure and successfully counter the mobile phone anxieties.

7.  Coaching - Studying V/s Socializing:

     An aspirant joins a coaching institute with great fervor to pursue his/her target. But I have seen and heard many cases of that enthusiasm becoming perverted to some other pursuits. We must realize that our goal stands above all. But it is disheartening to see quite few cases of broken love stories emanating from some prominent coaching institutes. I admit that socialization for a human being is a natural process and in fact necessary for the survival of human as a species. However, if that process leads to broken hearts and consumes your energies for a purpose so ineffective and even contradictory to your solemn goal then it must be stopped.

     In fact, the scenario is such that people join coaching institute ‘to forge out a relationship if nothing happens.’ This statement came from a girl whom I knew quite well. Her prime motive had become perverted during the mis-directed path of preparations. Same scenario with a slightly different intent exists with the guys. These tendencies are meant to be curbed by the aspirants themselves, proliferate better thoughts among their peers and even the teachers and faculties of institutes must be a little more vigilant and percolate this message to future leaders of the country.

8.  Theory of compartmentalization:

     This theory is used in the context of World War II when America dropped the atom bomb on Japan to bring it to an immediate end. How did America develop that atom bomb in utmost secrecy that was required for the success of the mission? It was done by the methodology of compartmentalization. The various departments and its numerous arms working on the project knew only the details relevant to that particular department. Nobody expects the president and his close comrades knew the full scope of the project. When everybody knew partial information then the probability of information leakage was reduced drastically and the mission was executed successfully.

     The same methodology may be used in a different sense and entirely different context. While an aspirant is studying for UPSC civil services he/she is encouraged to carve out compartments in mind dedicated for a special task only. For example, when a person is studying he/she must not think about his/her relationship. While taking a break on the 5th or the 6th day as per the convenience and the requirement of time, an aspirant must not think of studies. This segregation of thinking process is required to be done so as to input a chunk of energies in the required task. A vivid example of this is one of the most respected men of our country – the metro man – Mr. Sreedharan. When asked how did he manage to achieve such a colossal task in an overcrowded place such as Delhi, he replied that while in his office he did work and nothing else and that too in a disciplined fashion during the office timing only. After the office time, he never took any work to his home and gave full time to his family.

9.  The photoelectric effect:

     Some metals when bombarded with photons of a minimum characteristic energy releases the electrons from that metal which is made to constitute as a current. Bombard on that metal any number of photons at any speed below that critical energy requirement and nothing will happen.

     Cracking civil services examination finds similarity with this law of nature. There is a minimum energy you have to spend to crack civil services in any one attempt. For example, if 100 units are required to get into the list in any one year, then an aspirant dissipating 25 units for 4 years won’t get the result. You have to put in a minimum critical effort in any year to get through the civil services. Then why it shouldn’t be the first attempt!