Hello everyone,

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As I had mentioned earlier, I shall not be available now till the end of this month, so just thought of writing a piece on how to manage the days leading up to the Preliminary Examination in August. With Paper II being only qualifying in nature, your score in Paper I shall determine if you shall battle it out with the brighter among the bright in December.  Here is a sort of small to-do list:

1. Cover the basic books that have already been mentioned in the previous blog “IAS Prelims 2016 – The bare essentials to be followed” and revise them at least three to four times.
2. Practice previous year question papers and identify the areas where you might be getting the answers frequently wrong. Cover these areas again.
3. Do not compare your preparation strategy with anyone else. Only you know what works for you and you should stick to that only.
4. Apportion your time such that you still have few days left towards the end for squeezing in something which you feel requires little more effort. This shall also keep the stress level down.
5. Do not get bogged down by the number of books your friends might have covered. You don’t need to top the Preliminary examination. It is absolutely inconsequential even if you are the last one to glide in the list of candidates who shall be writing mains.
6. You shall find many around you who shall through random factoids at you which you may not be able to answer. Do not get perturbed. For, few chosen ones find unimaginable pleasure in digging out factoids to make other feel ‘unprepared’. One unknown factoid shall not take away from you the hard work and the smart work that you have put in.
7. Lastly, please keep yourself stress free. It shall serve no other purpose but to eat into your health. Just focus on what you can do without racking your brain over the imponderables.

So, that is it for now. We shall re-start the MCQs series in the first week of June. This time it shall be more structured. With more number of questions. And packed with more knowledge to crack the Preliminary.  Till then, no let-ups, no excuses.

Remember, those who work hard don’t need a second chance and those who don’t, do not deserve a second chance. You choose your side!