UPSC Preparation Strategy 2018,prelims,mains,and interview !

UPSC Civil Services exam preparation is one of the toughest journies in life. Every year lakhs of aspirants prepare for this exam to achieve their dream of becoming IAS officer. It takes minimum one year of preparation time and the examination process itself one year, to achieve your goal, you need to spend minimum two years. Your exam preparation should be combined preparation for both prelims and Mains. Further, you need someone to guide all through the examination process to make your journey simpler.

Here, in this article, we have mentioned how to approach the UPSC exam and also the importance of expert assistance in IAS exam preparation.

UPSC IAS Exam comprises of three stages i.e

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S. N0	Stage of Exam	Nature of Exam	Exam Dates
1	Prelims	Objective	03 - June - 2018
2	Mains	Descriptive	01 - 05 Oct - 2018
3	Personality Test	Personal Interview	March - April - 2019

The exam cycle tentatively starts in the month of June and takes around a year to complete all the stages. So, as such, you would be busy around the year preparing for one stage or the other. What smart students realize is that there is significant overlap in the syllabus of prelims and mains exams. So, it makes sense to have an overall preparation strategy as opposed to stage-specific strategy.

This is where foundation courses work wonders.

Foundation courses to the rescue

What is a foundation course?

A foundation course is a comprehensive course that covers all aspects across prelims and mains syllabus. Typically such a course would last for around 12 months and would involve multiple expert teachers.

What can I expect?

Good foundation courses are designed keeping in mind the candidates who have just started their UPSC IAS exam journey. These courses are comprehensive – covering prelims as well as mains stages of the exam to give you a holistic preparation. The course will give a solid foundation on the basic and advanced aspect of the general studies paper – GS I to GS IV and Essay.

What do such courses cover?

The foundation courses have been curated in such a way that it will keep you on your toes and will demand utmost dedication from your side. The schedule of the topics covered has been designed smartly to give you necessary boost at each stage of the exam.

These courses cover prelims test series as well as periodic Mains answer writing practice so, it provides a complete solution to the General studies aspect of the exam. These courses also provide rich content and tips to develop your Essay writing skills.

All in all, these courses are a one-stop solution for your complete General Studies preparation.

Why should one go for a foundation course?

#1 To Avoid duplication

The foundation courses are the best possible course to avoid duplication of effort and prevent wastage of time, which is already a crucial commodity for a UPSC aspirant. There is considerable overlap between the Prelims and Mains syllabus.

#2 Holistic Preparation

When you enroll for a foundation course you cover each and every topic holistically from prelims as well as Mains perspective. If you join separate Prelims and Mains courses, it leads to a repetitive study of same topics resulting in half-hearted attention in the curriculum.

#3 Economical

The foundation course is also the most economical decision you make as individual courses for each paper will definitely cost you much more.

#4 Regular study schedule

Such a course keeps you on track for months together. Maintaining high motivation levels in spurts is easy, but maintaining it for over a year at a stretch is difficult. A foundation course would allow you to have a regular study schedule that would help you get your preparation organized.

#5 Comprehensive Preparation

A good foundation course would start from the very basics and would cover all aspects required for you to excel in prelims and GS in mains. Test series are also a part of such courses, and such practice provides feel of a real exam scenario and helps you manage your nerves and get used to test-taking.

Road Map for 2018 Prelims cum Mains Exam

Phase 1: September/ October 2017 to February 2018 – Comprehensive Preparation

From September/October to February you should devote your time to build the basic foundation for the exam. You should be finished with basic NCERT books by the end of December and few Essential books by the end of February. This will give you a solid foundation for your General studies paper. All along this period, you should also devote your time equally to the selected Optional subject.

UPSC asks questions based on current events and issues, so try to follow newspaper regularly. Say for Prelims exam follow current Issues from June 2017 to June 2018. While reading newspaper, develop a habit of making notes for future revision.

In this phase, try to understand the subject comprehensively and also focus on Mains perspective. For better understanding, the exam question pattern refers last 3-4 years Prelims and Mains question paper for better reading.

Never by-heart or memorize the subject while reading. Try to develop mnemonics, mind-maps and your own way of reading than blind reading. Because most of the questions asked by UPSC are conceptual and analytical in Nature.

Phase 2: March 2018 to April 2018 –  Prelims Consolidation

During this phase, you should devote your complete time of exam preparation to Prelims exam. Try to take as many prelims mock test from any institutes or online test series. Because test series will help you to identify your strength and weakness and also it pinpoints where you are going wrong.

It is always better to commit your mistakes in Mock exams and never repeat such mistakes in UPSC exams.

In Prelims exam, UPSC asks most simple and tricky questions, in order to get qualified for Mains exam apply your knowledge and use the methodologies like elimination, intelligent guesses to mark the correct answers.

Remember, Prelims exam is the toughest and tricky phase in overall UPSC Civil services exam, so always be alert and active both during preparation and in exam hall to get your Mains exam hall ticket.

Phase 3: April 2018 to Prelims exam – Prelims Exam Revision

UPSC Preparation is a never-ending process and you will never feel satisfied that you have UPSC syllabus comprehensively. But the success mantra every successful IAS aspirants followed was Revision before the exam.

Revision is essential in exam preparation, that is very much true in UPSC IAS Exam. Since you have been preparing for last one year, you would have read so many things. In order to recall and perform well in UPSC examination hall, you need proper revision before the exam.

It is advised to students to revise all the subject minimum 2 times and the maximum is up to you. The more you revise, the better you perform in the exam.

Phase 4: Mid June to August 2018 – Mains Exam Preparation

After prelims, from June to the Mains exam you should maximize your writing practice as you already have sufficient knowledge base and you just need to master you answer writing and presentation skills. This will enhance your confidence and give you an edge than many candidates who still keep on studying and procrastinating the answer writing.

Phase 5: September 2018 to Mains exam – Mains exam revision

Revise all the subjects and topics two times before the Mains exam this will help you to write better answers in Mains exam.

Phase 6: It is not time to relax, Work Harder

Once Mains exam is done, don’t sit and relax, because many aspirants just spend their time uselessly. This is the most critical time period in UPSC exam preparation. UPSC announces results only after 2 months from the exam date. So try to utilise this time period productively for both Interview preparation and for Prelims exam too (on a safer side, in case if you didn’t get your interview call!).

Timeline for UPSC 2018 Exam Preparation:

The timeline explained is the personal journey of successful candidates and if you can follow this religiously you can definitely make it to the list.

Having provided you with the timeline, we would like to make one thing clear. Many candidates even after having complete awareness on how to prepare to fail to execute the plans and this cost a failed attempt. To give you a complete end-to-end solution we have designed foundation course which can keep you on track and provide guidance for prelims and mains stages of the exam.