The UPSC has a predefined pattern to select the candidates for the civil service posts, in which candidate has to be through with pre-exam, afterward to mains and then interview. Prelims is qualifying in nature which means that you need to score just more than the cut-off marks to clear it. Here we got multiple choice questions with negative marking to avoid nonserious candidate and to make this cumbersome process easier.

Even under the most fierce competition, the cut off marks for Paper 1 will not be so high and for Paper 2 you need to score just 66 marks.

A lot of revision needs to be done before the examination because there will be the least probability of factual questions and more probability to have reasonable questions which require a lot of understanding to differentiate from closed choices.

Reasonable questions are cracked through understanding behavior which comes from practicing or revising the same thing again and again.

Few important tips for last month preparation

Short sticky notes: Need to make a short list of things to remember so that it can be retained for long.

State affect practices: Practice state-affect of examination at home before appearing to the final day. What's your exam strategy for CSE 2019? With two hours of two slots to complete the test, students should be able to chart an exam strategy that can help them to solve the paper without wasting a minute. Follow an order depending on your strengths and weaknesses. Attempt the paper in a way that makes you feel confident and comfortable.

Increase your speed and accuracy: While answering the question, students need to keep a check on their accuracy levels. For this purpose, aspirants may attempt sample test papers or previous year questions papers by keeping a stopwatch with you. Assess how much time you take for each section and improve your speed accordingly. Make a tally of your answers how many questions you are attempting, among them how many are correct, and which one you guessed (level of guessing). Afterward, try to think about your choices which went wrong. Rectify those mistakes and solve it again.

Full-length comprehensive test: Now is the time to take the full length and mixed comprehensive test apart for going to selective areas of polity, geography, history, etc separately.

Stay motivated and try to reinforce yourself with a positive environment and thoughts.

Stay focused on material: Trust the material you have got and try to read the same material an ample number of times. During your last leg of preparations, do not start reading new things. Ensure that you go through all the important points or summaries you have made for your exam revision.

Maximise your scoring potential: By now, every aspirant would have identified their weak and strong areas. Chalk out a strategic plan to strengthen the weak areas and revise all the strong areas to maximize the scoring potential.

Practice CSAT: Don't take csat too easy, scoring a qualifying total can also be difficult if you have not practiced. Do not panic if you are not able to perform as per your desires especially on those few questions which sounds impossible. Don't go for any advice to any particular score. Always push yourself to your best limit.

Avoid learning a new topic: This is the time for revision, not learning new things. This is not the right time to get engaged with new topics and if you do so, that would result in confusion, increase your stress levels and have an adverse effect on your exam and preparation. Therefore, make use of the remaining time to revise what you have learned.

Real exam is Mains which decides your rank, everyone is uncertain in this examination. So trust yourself.

The writer is Dr AR Khan, Founding Director,Khan Study Group