Aditya Jain, AIR-326 CSE-22 Prelims & Mains Strategy

Hi All,

This is the 29th Topper Journey & Strategy post from the Batch of 2023. Aditya Jain cleared CSE-22 with AIR-326 and has shared his journey, Prelims and Mains strategy here. While he couldn’t clear prelims in his 1st & 3rd attempt, he gave interview but couldn’t get a rank in his 2nd attempt. CSE-22 was his 4th attempt.

Introduction

Hello, My name is Aditya jain and i belong to a small town Gohad in Bhind district. I did my bachelor of engineering from Jabalpur engineering college and got placed in a stock market firm. I was thinking about UPSC in college days but did not prepare properly and was not confident about it. During my short work experience in the private sector, I realized that UPSC is my true inner calling and I left that job to start my upsc preparation.

You may contact Aditya on his Quora Account

My UPSC Journey: I started preparation in Jan’19 with philosophy optional. In my first attempt (2019), I couldn’t clear the prelims itself. Instead of feeling low, I was very positive and started working on my mistakes that I made and I was very well prepared for my 2nd attempt. Just before prelims in October 2020, I was covid positive and down with a high fever. Still I managed to clear prelims with a good margin and started preparing for mains. I cleared mains but couldn’t make it to the final list. Again in my third attempt, i couldn’t clear prelims again and this was the lowest phase in my upsc journey. I felt so low and demotivated that I didn’t study for 3-4 months. So finally in my fourth attempt, I managed to get a rank with god’s grace and family support.

Prelims strategy:

1. Static is the only savior in prelims and one must complete it thoroughly from standard sources.

2. I made notes for key subjects like modern,ancient,geography,science & tech and environment.

3. In my 2nd attempt, I joined SFG of forum ias and I found it quite useful for consistency and revision purposes. Here daily tests were conducted and whole syllabus was revised in two cycles including current affairs.

4. I believe solving mock test papers is of utmost importance and one should give test every sunday and before 1 month of prelims,one can give test on every alternate day. This is very helpful in confidence building.

5. Mock test becomes useless if one does not analyze it properly so try to list down your mistakes and then rectify it in the next mock.

6. For current affairs, I relied heavily on daily current affairs of insights ias and I made my short notes on evernote. So before prelims i just have to go through my notes and not the heavy magazines in the market.

7. I believe newspaper reading is important but it should not take more than one hour.

8. Minimize resources and do not fall in the trap of coaching gimmicks is the key to clear prelims. Avoid purchasing and referring to every other new material in the market. Believe me it is of no use.

9. Doing current affairs on a daily basis is very important otherwise it becomes extremely difficult to complete left out current affairs.

Join here for free guidance from Mudit Jain, IRS CSE-17 (IPS CSE-14 & 15), Author of Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode GS2, Decode Ethics 4.0 & Decode History Books

Ethics book referred by CSE 22 Toppers: AIR –76, 91, 176, 189, 249, 288, 297, 299, 326, 356, 476, 541, 611, 616, 700, 737, 739, 746 & others

History book referred by CSE 21 Toppers: AIR – 44, 212, 572, 653 & others

Sample PDFs of Books: Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode Ethics 4th Edition, Decode GS2 & Decode History

My prelims sources:

1. Polity- M laxmikant and class 11 ncert.

2. Ancient and medieval- Class 11 tamil nadu book.

3. Modern- Spectrum and bipin chandra.

4. Art & Culture- Nitin singhania book

5. Economics- Mrunal sir videos and class 12 ncert.

6. Geography- class 6 to 12 ncert. (one can avoid class 6 to 10 if basics are clear)

7. Science & tech- Lucent & ncert books (I made short notes from these sources with the help of unacademy videos)

8. Environment- Shankar ias book & last 4 chapters of class 12 biology ncert.

9. Current affairs- Insights IAS daily current affairs.

Mains strategy:

1. I gave two mains and cleared both so one thing that is certain in upsc, it is Mains.

2. Make short notes for every topic given in the syllabus especially GS-3 because its syllabus is very comprehensive in nature.

3. Try to utilize the internet properly and search for every keyword given in syllabus and don’t rely on coaching material heavily for mains.

4. In mains, both content and quality matters, so balancing both is important. If one is lacking in content and structure, then doing daily answer writing is helpful, otherwise solving FLT is very helpful in paper completion and maintaining quality.

5. Between prelims and mains, one must complete at least 3 cycles of revision. This will help in memorizing content and writing good answers.

6. Try to adhere to time limit for every answer i.e., 7 minutes for 10 marker and 11 minutes for 15 marker.

7. In my 2020 mains, I scored only 363 in GS and this time I improved by 59 marks. Major reason is content and addressing question demand. So try to write what is asked and not what you know.

8. Do not take coaching’s evaluation seriously but do read model answers because this will help in content building and add points in your notes. If possible, go for peer review.

9. Never postpone answer writing, in my first test I scored only 33 marks in GS1 so this streamlined my mains preparation. I came to know about my mistakes and weak areas. Please give tests regularly and within a time limit of 3 hours.

10. Further, try to make proper structure for your answer and practice that in test papers. Then only one will be able to replicate that in final exam. Also do not fall in the trap of unnecessary diagram making. Just focus on content and question demand.

11. One should also give simulation i.e., Essay on day1, GS1 & GS2 on day 2 and then GS3 & GS4 on day 3. This is helpful in confidence building.