Crack the Prelims

Cracking the reputed Civil Services exam is the toughest to clear. But if the aspirants follow a few rules, they can clear its three stages’

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is India’s central agency, which conducts exams like Civil Services Exam, IFS, NDA, CDS and SCRA. Civil Services examination is popularly known as IAS Exam which includes almost 24 services like IFS, IPS and IRPS. There are around 980 vacancies for the Civil Services. Those aspirants who are taking the exam for the first time need to know a few things.

The Pattern

Civil Services is one of the most reputed and a tough exam in India. The syllabus of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services is divided into three categories, — Prelims, Mains and Interview. The Mains has two stages:

Stage 1: Preliminary Exam: It is the objective-type paper consisting of two sections.

Stage 2: Main Exam: It is the subjective-type paper, consisting of nine papers.

Mock Test

Youth4work’s Prep Tests — online practice tests for competitive exams — is unique  and popular among aspirants. Aspirants can take self-designed mock-tests as well as practice for sections and topics separately. The unique and proprietary technology is helping lakhs of aspirants to reveal personal details on what are the strength of aspirants for any exam and suggest how they can improve the performance.

Following are interesting insights from nearly two million question attempts on UPSC Prelims practice tests. Every aspirant is rated on a rating scale. The ratings of the aspirants change with every question attempt.

• All the aspirants fall under a normal curve or performance.
• Majority of aspirants practice for General Studies more than English language and General Studies II. This is in line with the facts of higher sectional cut-offs as compared to other sections.
• The mean rating of all the aspirants is almost same for all the sections.
• There is a stark variation in the time taken to attempt questions in all sections. General Knowledge takes highest of the time, while English language takes the least time.

Crack the rivalry

• Maintain Focus: Though English is the key section (as you can attempt more questions quickly and has high cut-offs), you should prepare for all the equally. Of course you should play to your strength areas, but do not leave other sections behind.
• Increase Speed: Distribute your time well between all sections. This can be done if you understand and improve the time you take to attempt each question. Youth4work.com’s technology manages the time for aspirants as for every question attempt, aspirants will get a time equal to an average time of all previous aspirants’ attempts.
• Improve Accuracy: With the application of learnt concepts, you need to keep improving your accuracy. Since the syllabus is huge, it is tough to cover all areas equally few days before the exam. It is, therefore, necessary to go through important areas once more, before the exam day. This will boost your confidence as well.
• Take Mock Tests: Take as much as mock practice tests as you can. There are several platforms that have launched dedicated apps by which you can practice either full exam or a section of any particular topic within the section at your convenience and improve your performance of speed and accuracy.
• Waste No Time: During the day we end up spending quite some time eating, resting, bathing or just relaxing.When there is very little time left for an examination which might very well change the course of your career, it is crucial to not waste it. It might be hard, but highly beneficial if you can just fill the empty spaces of your next couple of days by memorizing important formulae, years, concepts, etc.
• Previous Years’ Papers: Though the exam mode has changed from offline to online, the assessment areas of candidates have not. Hence practice not only previous years’ papers but also new question sets available in the market to get acquainted with as many question types as you can.
• Build Confidence: Often, unsteady nerves won’t let you perform well despite a good preparation. Therefore, it is very important to be confident and steady before your exam. If it is hard to calm down, just try a few breathing exercises. This will help you relax immensely and boost your exam day performance.

Important Dates

The Prelims exam will be held in June 2018 and the Mains will be conducted in October 2018. The Final result will be declared in January 2019. The personality test is expected to be conducted in March 2019. But for the year 2017-18, it is interview time.

— Courtesy Youth4work.com