Civil service IAS exam : Common mistakes aspirants make in UPSC exams

The civil service exam is one of the most prestigious exam in India. Graduates from all subjects ranging from pali literature to philosophy to engineering degree take this exam. There is no other exam where you can see IIT’ian ,B.Arts and doctors taking the same exam. The aim of all being same – to become an ias officer. Here many aspirants make some mistakes which form the subject of this article. I have covered other areas too which can be seen in by checking out my articles.

Gross mismanagement of time is a major mistake students make. There are many students who don’t have time left for anything after they have completed paper reading. This is mainly because of the lack of knowledge regarding the time as well as material management.

The common dictum which newbie aspirant (we had given him name Mr Sasi in previous article) follows is : Read all editorials and articles in newspaper Hindu or Times. Mr Sasi starts his reading session early in morning reading each article meticulously and taking notes. The matter he doesn’t get to know is that many articles as well as editorials aren’t needed at all for exam preparation. That is why all aspirants need to go through syllabus thoroughly. In addition to that, he/she needs to ponder the most important issue in the topic stated in syllabus

The articles as well as the editorials need to be categorized by you as ‘needed’ or ‘not needed’ as soon as you see. This can be done by understanding the syllabus. One more thing to keep in mind is the need to know or how much you should know.

 Let me give an example. Say you come across the defects of AAkash the tablet of Indian government. The long list of data and facts would be waste if it is asked as a 2 mark question. The knowledge or thought ‘what question and of what marks can be asked from this topic’ or ‘ is it possible to frame a question from this article’ is of prime importance.

Many aspirants take optional based on hearsay. The earlier trend of getting more marks consistently in certain optionals is disappearing. You need to make a thorough consultation and keep in mind the availability, accessibility and level of competition in an optional before going in for one.

The Part 2 of this article will be published later.

A separate article: How to read Newspaper is there in the blog archive.

Video on Common mistakes by aspirants

Quote:

 The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually afraid you will make one.

-Elbert Hubbard

Upsc IAS Topper Interview Videos

A beautiful explanation on the GS Preperation by V NandaKumar IRS.He explains beautifully why students find GS very difficult.

Sheena Aggarwal's Interview (Hindi)

The interview by the topper Dr Faisal. He is a guy who became a topper without coaching.A must watch for all aspirants.He explains beautifully about the perks, myths, preparation methods and J&K.

The topper's interviews offers hints into the way you should start preparing. Always remember that this is one of the exams, and a failure in it doesn't mean the end of life.
I will try to unlock the words often repeated by toppers like - time management, comprehensice preperation, wide reading etc. The jargons used by toppers appears to be greek to many aspirants. Hope this blog converts that into language you can understand.

Why write civil service exam?

The reason why civil service is something commonly asked in civil service interview. Many a times the aspirants recite the lines they have learned over and over again. We will leave the interview for a while and reframe the question. Why do aspirants really write civil service exam?

I am listing the whole set of answers that come to my mind. When i write each pointer many faces of my fellow aspirants come to my mind.

1.       To serve the country: Yeah, the energy of youth comes out in different forms. Many aspirants feel that they can change the country by being in civil service. To thrash the corrupt politician , to remove the poor of hunger, to bring equality...the list of dreams for an aspirant are  abundant and filmy!. But rarely does all the dreams transform.

2.       To make money: I could see that many aspirants were completely frank in private conversations to declare that the only reason to write civils was to become rich. They had grown up seeing the IAS officers in their states (especially bihar, UP etc) amass huge hordes of wealth after being in civil service and “serving the nation”. So now they see the IAS study as an investment which will return them rich dividends in future. They spend lakhs of rupees in coaching centres in delhi (for accommodation and fees it will need few lakhs) with the dream of earning big.

3.       Confused: Yup, many after graduation are confused about what to do. So civil service coaching becomes a fashionable option. CAT preparation is more or less equally fashionable.

4.       To get something: The UPSC preparation makes the aspirant cover a lot of topics. The civils syllabus (prelims plus mains) prepares a candidate capable of many exams like bank, clerical posts, police, ib exams. Many aspirants see this as a way to secure ‘a job’. This is actually a very good thought. The aspirant can get a job and then jump on to the next best thing. This way of thinking of getting best and becoming better is adopted by many these days.

5.       Status and Power: There are some guys who are filthy rich in our country. All they lack is power and status. So they would sent their kids with loads of money to study for civils. A majority of these aspirants after having glorious life in city returns to ‘dad’s ways’ to secure a good happy living.

6.       Unknown reason: Hehe! There are many aspirants who are yet to have a reason. The reason can be simple as defeating boredom after being fired from a IT company or just the excitement to know a new field. There aspirants join and start coaching but leave it for good very early.

What ever be the reason, in case you have made your mind ready for civils, then jump into it fully. You will need to immerse in the exam process for atleast 5 months.