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ACQ IAS

Tips & Trick - How to Study for UPSC CSE

The UPSC Civil Services Exam for IAS is one of the most challenging exams in India. This exam requires an average of 1-2 years of hard work. It requires patience and consistency to adhere to a UPSC Study Plan for Preparation. Now the question is how to make a Study Plan for the UPSC Exam. Students should adopt standard best practices. Two types of aspirants are common in UPSC. First, those who are freshers and devote their full time to preparation and second, those who also take care of other work like home or office and save only 3-4 hours apart from their work.

We will discuss the study plan for the UPSC exam for both types of students to get support and guidance throughout the journey of UPSC Preparation for Exam. The UPSC exam is divided into three parts Prelims, Mains, and Interview (Personality Test). Your study plan for the UPSC IAS exam should consist of reading and revising basic subjects, revising Current Affairs for UPSC, Daily News Analysis, solving UPSC Mock Tests daily and analyzing the test simultaneously. We will discuss mainly the study plan for Prelims and Mains. Before you start your preparation, aspirants should keep some of the points in your mind:

UPSC Prelims & Mains Exam Date

It is crucial to saving the exam date so that it will reiterate you about the exam every time you look at the exam date. It also helps the aspirant to have an idea about how much time is left.

UPSC Civil Services Exam Syllabus:

You should have the UPSC Prelims & Mains Syllabus in your hand (a hard copy is a must ) before you start the UPSC Exam Preparation. You should thoroughly see the syllabus and recall it as much as possible.

Make a diary for a one-year study plan for the UPSC exam:

You should remember to write down and review your study plan daily. It will help you recall what you have studied in the last week or month and track your progress.

Prepare your Mindset for UPSC Examination:

You should prepare for the next few years until you succeed in the high and low spirits of all the upcoming challenges.

The myth about the Study plan for the UPSC exam:

It is essential to clear one myth most aspirants have about the UPSC exam preparation, i.e. preparing for UPSC Prelims and Mains separately. First, we should focus on clearing Prelims, and we will go with the Mains preparation. Here is where most aspirants falter and commit a blunder. UPSC Prelims and Mains preparation go parallelly. It requires an integrated approach rather than preparing both separately.

Study plan for the UPSC exam:

Start of the preparation for UPSC Examination

You should start the practice 12-18 months before the examination if you are a beginner.

Preparation for Prelims and Mains should go simultaneously

At the start of your UPSC Exam Preparation in the initial month, you should cover the basics, mainly NCERTs Book for UPSC and clear your fundamentals. Once you finish your NCERTs, you should start practicing subjective questions from previous years. Focus on writing answers consistently daily. You should not worry about the qualities of the answer initially.

Dividing the day

You should study at least 8-10 hours daily (for fresher students). Those working can devote their quality 3 - 4 hours to their preparation. You should study the following in your daily routine:

  • Newspaper reading and current issues - 1-2 hours (make short notes simultaneously of relevant issues).
  • General Studies Subjects - 3 - 4 hours
  • Optional subject - 2 - 3 hours
  • Answer writing practice - Try to write two answers daily and evaluate that on your own.
  • Revision - 1 -2 hours

For working Aspirants

Those working need to utilize their free time in the office like tea break, lunch break etc. They can recall and revise the things in their office. They can also take advantage of online newspapers, read them, and discuss them with their colleagues when they get time. Because compared with others who are preparing full-time for the UPSC exam, they have less time and must do hard work and intelligent work together. Her innovative work means utilizing time quantitatively and qualitatively.

Preparing Advance Books

Once you finish the NCERTs, you should start the advanced books quickly. In your study plan for the UPSC IAS exam, you should devote 3 hours daily to it. You can follow the following link to learn about the essential standard books.

Preparing Optional Subject for UPSC

You must finish at least 70-80% of your optional before the Prelims exam. It will help to revise the syllabus quickly after prelims, and there is significantly less time gap between Prelims and Mains.

Preparing Ethics and Essay writing

These subjects are very interlinked with your UPSC GS Papers. When you are preparing your General Studies, at that time, you can have two separate notebooks for Ethics and Essay writing. You can write down the day-to-day examples and case studies which will help you to boost your answer and fetch more marks. Also, it would be best if you wrote one essay weekly.

Giving Mock Tests for UPSC

In this digital era, when everything is available over the internet, one should grab this opportunity by regularly attempting tests on current and static subjects (on alternate days or weekends, during revision time). It helps you to be in exam mode. Aspirants should give the tests according to the UPSC exam time to get accustomed to the timing of the examination day.

Revision
Revision is the key to Success. As the UPSC Exam Syllabus is vast, one must revise things daily to build their command of the subjects.
Reduce social media and television use

You should make it apparent that you must prioritize studying in this exam. Your small mistakes and careless attitude will throw you out of this race. Hence you should use social media judiciously.

Preparation for the UPSC Prelims Exam

2-3 months before the exam, you should start devoting more time to the Prelims exam. Now you should only focus on clearing the Prelims exam, the first milestone of your Success.

Make a Revision Plan
You should start reverse counting and revising each subject and the test papers you have solved in the previous three months. It would be best if you went through everything you have studied for Prelims during the last three months.
Practice Prelims CSAT Exam

CSAT is a qualifying paper. If you have a science background and are confident in CSAT, you should practice mock tests. But if you are from another stream, you should practice CSAT at least two months before the exam.

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ACQ IAS
ACQ IAS