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Showing posts from August, 2015

GS Preparation by Anunaya Jha (Rank 57)

GS marks: 115, 100, 87 and 116 (Total- 418) WARNING: 1. The  gyaan  that yours truly is going to dole out in the following 1200 odd words is NOT going to guarantee a fantabulous score in General Studies. 2. Take my advice with heaps of salt. Always remember, your path to success is very different from my path to success—what really matters is that we both succeed in the end. Now that we’re done with the ‘pleasantries’, let’s come down to why I am writing this blog post. For starts, I am a successful candidate of CSE 2014. Add to it, that I scored decently well in GS in CSE 2014. Throw in the fact that I have qualified this examination twice i.e., 2013 and 2014 and improved my GS score by over 100 marks between the two cycles. And let’s seal the matter on the ground that it might just help you, maybe just a tiny bit. I started preparing for the Civil Services Examination sometime towards the end of 2012, and fell in love with the syllabus from Day 1. I was a rather attentive lad

STRESS RELIEVING : THE OTHER SIDE – By Deepshika Sharma(AIR 33)

Civil services preparation is a blend of unlimited work and limited time. The latter two form the core ingredients of an interesting delicacy of our life stress. Often we have been imbibed with ill-effects of it and more than this with the timely expert guidance from almost everyone around- try some meditation, why don t you go for a long walk, stress-oh! listen to some music; it would help and yes what we all certainly try out . With a smile, a deep breathe in and out.. but more or less we have customized our own ways to counter it temporarily. So you must be thinking then what is the other side to it. It is nothing but the same side that we end up after exhausting all our counter attacks and then coming to the conclusion , leave it, let me go back to work . Stress is the culmination of less energy and more work. As per a simple equation, the first half should be increased with the management of second half. Healthy food and good sleep do address the energy part but the key lies

How to go about Current Affairs? (Ananya Mittal – Rank 85 CSE-2014)

Every person has his/her own way of studying and remembering things. In the following paragraphs I will tell you my way of going about current affairs. Current Affairs is the dynamic part of this preparation. It is never ending. I would suggest keep your main focus on the static part (standard books and notes) of your preparation and follow current affairs as a mode of recreation. First  – Decide the sources of current affairs. Maintain them throughout your preparation phase and don’t jump from one magazine to other. For example – I used to follow Newspaper, Yojana Magazine and Wizard Magazine religiously for current affairs. Second  – Make topic wise notes for whatever you read. For example – Keep one whole A4 sheet for topic NITI AYOG and add whatever points you get from the above mentioned sources on that page. Add extra sheets if needed, but maintain topic wise notes. Third  – It is important to differentiate between current affairs and current issues. You will get a bett

DAILY NEWS AND ANALYSIS- How to deal with the Newspaper by Petal Gahlot (AIR 96)

So some aspirants have asked me questions about how the newspaper is to be read. To someone that has been in the habit of reading, the question may seem a little odd. But I’m going to try my best to deal with the issue, in this post. When to read the paper First of all, the newspaper is meant to be read in the morning. You need to know of the events of the previous day right when you start a new day. For those who are not in the habit of reading the paper, it may seem a tedious and boring task initially but when you get used to it, it will become a part of your routine and will be like having breakfast in the morning. Do not accumulate newspapers from two or three days. That will just burden you unnecessarily and freak you out. What to read, what to skip Issues in the short term, like the Lalit Modi scandal or the Vyapam Scam, are news items that deserve only a cursory glance. These are only events and can at best be used as examples. No UPSC paper will contain questions aski

GS 2 and 3 Strategy By Balaji D K , AIR 36

Dear Friends, Many of you have requested me to pen down strategy for General Studies (Mains). I don’t intend to give any strategy for GS-1, since it is more of studying from standard books and writing answers. Then, I’m left with the task of drafting strategy for GS-2 and GS-3. General Remarks GS 2 & 3 are more, nay, all about CURRENT AFFAIRS (CA). However, the ability to connect CA to conventional subject matter is also needed, at least to some extent. Thus, the prime source for these papers is THE HINDU. If you keep track of THE HINDU’s editorials and lead articles for about 8-10 months, that would provide you the required content to answer most of the questions. Now, comes the most pertinent question of most aspirants. Is it mandatory to read THE HINDU daily and make self-notes? The ‘ideal’ answer to this question is a resounding YES. However, this may not be practicable for most aspirants because they are first-timers and have to invest more time in mastering fundam

Must Follow Blogs

1.    C M Saikanth Varma AIR 18 CSE 2014-  https://sykobanerises.wordpress.com 2. IRA SINGHAL AIR 1 CSE 2014 -  http://irasinghal.blogspot.in 3. Gaurav AGrawal AIR 1 CSE 2013 -  https://thesupermanreturns.wordpress.com/ 4. Group OF toppers CSE 2014 -  https://unravellingcse.wordpress.com/  5.http://visionarymoi.blogspot.in 6.thescorpionsopinion.wordpress.com 8.https://billano786.wordpress.com/ by AIR 9 CSE 14 Ashish 9.divya-mittal.blogspot.in upsc topper 2012

How to prepare for Prelims? by CM Saikanth Varma AIR 18 2014

Of late, many people have been asking me about how to prepare for the Prelims. Before I begin, I would like to share my own personal experience with the Prelims 2014. Coming from an engineering background, I found Paper II to be extremely scoring. I used to solve 1 question paper of Paper II everyday and in total I have solved about 40 of them before the prelims exam. I also tried to cover as many topics as possible in Paper I, given the time constraint of 2-2.5 months, that I had allotted exclusively for prelims preparation. I haven’t covered the Sciences part like Physics, Biology etc. I have enrolled myself for the Career Launcher (CL) test series, in which I used to score moderate marks in Paper I (as Paper I of CL test series used to be extremely difficult – more than the UPSC level) and consistently high marks in Paper II (160-190 out of 200 in the last 3-4 exams). When I solved the CSP 2013 paper II at my home, a few days before the 2014-Prelims exam, my score was 190 and solv

Saikanth Varma’s Interview Transcript by CM Saikanth Varma AIR 18 2014

Below are some of the questions that I faced in the interview and the responses that I gave. My interview board was headed by Dr. P Kilemsungla. On the day of my interview, the Chairman was late by about 30-45 mins. And so they were in a hurry and interviewed everyone for not more than 20-30 minutes. The board was very cordial and my interview lasted for about 25-30 minutes. Most of the questions were related to my background. I tried to reply in not more than 2-3 sentences and answered to the point. I wasn’t very happy with my interview and I faltered at a few places, especially at the questions that were asked by the last member. Me: May I come in madam? [Chairman] Yes come in. Me: Thank you madam. Good morning madam, good morning sirs. [Chairman] Good morning, please take your seat. Me: Thank you madam. They went through my DAF prompting different keywords in my DAF. Q. [Chairman] You left your job in 2013, what were you doing for the last 2 years? Me: (with a sm

Topics that need to be covered for Post Independence by CM Saikanth Varma AIR 18 2014

Following is the list of topics that must be covered for Post Independence. Partition and its impact Integration of Princely States Junagarh Jammu and Kashmir Hyderabad Manipur Integration of French and Portuguese Colonies Linguistic Reorganisation of States Integration of the Tribals Regionalism and Sons of the Soil doctrine Hindi as Lingua Franca Foreign Relations India’s interference in international crises Relations with USA and USSR Relations with Pakistan and China Indo-Chinese war, 1962 J.Nehru → contributions and failures Five Year Plans Opposition Parties upto 1965 Lal Bahadur Shastri Indo-Pakistan War, 1965 Indira Gandhi → contributions and failures General Elections, 1967 Naxalism in India Split in the Congress – 1969 and 1971 General Elections The Challenge of Bangladesh, 1971 JP Movement/Total Revolution Nav Nirman Movement/Gujarat Movement Bihar Movement/Total Revolution Declaration of Emergency, 1975-77  ***<IMP> 40 years anni