Jishnu has had an exceptional journey. His last minute tips are a gold mine. He has been a regular follower of Civilsdaily and has penned down these tips for aspirants. 

Dear All

Given that the prelims exam is due in a fortnight, one of the most frequent queries I am getting is how to go about the remaining days before the Prelims.

So I thought I would place myself as a candidate writing this year’s prelims and write down what I would have down!

I had taken prelims 5 times, and I didn’t fail a single time. I was a ‘good boy’ till maybe my 2^nd attempt, wherein I would have made a plan for Prelims 2 months back and by now I would have somehow finished revising that at least once. But then I didn’t get a Rank in those attempts.

After those 2 attempts, given my strong foundation, I didn’t care much to read those books again and again, but focused on Current Affairs and Test Series, a lot of them! So any veteran out there, who feel like he hasn’t done enough, don’t worry guys! If you had done well in the past, you would continue to do well. I wouldn’t dare to give any tips to them!

My focus is on the first and second attempters, whom I believe, would have done one (or more) revisions and may be prepared a plan for the 14 odd days to come. Don’t worry. I don’t wish to alter that plan but would like to suggest some things which worked for me.

For the Next 10 Days

Don’t stop READING: follow your plan, but make sure you give a quick read of Modern India, Polity, Current Affairs, and Environment.

Give more time to test series: do more tests and do it quickly. As in, finish a test and its review in one hour! Keep doing more and more tests.

Go through some fact-based current affairs compilations: like GkToday quiz or Bankers’ Adda compilations. Leave questions like appointments, film/sports awards, etc, but study Summits, exam relevant awards, new discoveries (especially butterfly, bananas and the like!).

Compilations for last 4-5 months should do.

Last 4 days

• Just revise the areas you might keep forgetting like the Part B of Spectrum covering many commissions, press, leaders, etc., National Parks and its specialties, the appendix of Lakshmikanth, etc.
• Do Map work, especially the places in the news. The neighborhood (Myanmar, Pakistan), Middle East, etc.
• Do some easy tests like first 7-8 tests of any test series or maybe retake some currents affairs test, so that your mind is conditioned to approach the actual prelims with a positive outlook rather than being doubtful.

I imagine some of you might be down, without confidence. I also had such phases before prelims. Even when I scored 176 in prelims 2016, sitting before the actual question paper, I was a doubting Thomas. But just consider this: If you are one to weighed down by just an exam, how will you manage a district in its crisis. You are really better than what you imagine you are.

Trust me, if you have been genuine with yourself, you would clear the prelims. Prelims is just a phase to weed out the non-serious candidates. You are definitely not one of them! All the Best.

We at Civilsdaily are committed to helping you in the process of figuring out your learning personalities and creating the best time table and suggesting most relevant strategies for your IAS Prep. Please take 5 minutes to fill up this Samanvaya Form. We will arrange a mentor call for you once this is done.