Atul Nivruttirao Dhakne, AIR-737 CSE-22 Prelims Strategy

Hi All,

This is the 35th Topper Journey & Strategy post from the Batch of 2023. Dr. Atul Nivruttirao Dhakne cleared CSE-22 with AIR-737 and has shared his very practical prelims approach and strategy here.

Introduction

I am Dr Atul Nivruttirao Dhakne, MBBS graduate from BJ govt Medical College, Pune. I am from Beed District, Maharashtra. I am also a Founder-President of Lift For Upliftment (Pioneer NGO in free offline / residential coaching for NEET for underprivileged). In last 7.5 years, our 200+ students have become doctors. I also teach physics and biology for NEET. For more info- www.lfupune.in.

You can contact Dr. Atul on his Telegram Channel and Instagram Profile

Unique perspective towards CSE Prelims (GS)

It is said that prelims is most unpredictable part of the UPSC CSE exam. But with utmost humility I would beg to differ from this notion. I feel GS paper of prelims has followed a same trend since last 10 years with respect to the themes asked. It is this thematic approach that helped me in clearing three consecutive prelims (2020, 2021 & 2022) after failing first two prelims (2018 & 2019).

Thematic Approach for GS Prelims

Themes refer to the subtopics which are regularly asked in GS papers. Although the nature of asking question may change, options pattern may change (as in 2023 prelims), but the themes didn’t change. For example, every year we have question on Breton Woods Institution in economy and the trend continues.

These themes comprise of 65-70% part of the paper. And considering the cut offs of last 5 years, it’s never more than 50%. Hence doing these thematic study sincerely helped me to crack GS cut off plus 15 marks even without touching current affairs for 2021 & 2022 attempt.

How to find themes?

Answer is through Previous year papers. I used original question paper pdfs available on UPSC website rather than any so called ready made prelims solved paper book. It is because those book authors imprint their own perceptions about the questions and not the objective evaluation. Themes can be found by analysing 3-4 Previous papers in following 3 layers:-
1) Static versus current questions
2) In static question, finding out from which subject that particular question is.
3) Further, once we have found subject, we need to trace that question in the static source book which we have used. Through that we can find the SUBTOPIC, from where question is asked and we can note that subtopic.

By doing above exercise for 3-4 papers, you will automatically see there are certain subtopics which are very much repetitive. These repetitive subtopics are nothing but your themes. This can help us to find at least 30-40 themes which carries weightage of around 55-65 questions.

How themes are helpful?

1. To prioritise our studies. More weightage subjects with certainty to be prioritised first. (For example, economy carries 18-22 questions out of which 70% questions can be solved on the basis of static, so economy becomes most imp. Then Polity, 10+ questions with Laxmikant as fixed source)

2. To prioritise the subtopics to be revised from a particular subject. For example, Banking Sector topic carries 2+ questions and that too conceptual, fixed question on inflation and money supply in the market etc).

3. To make Unpredictable subjects like Ancient -Medieval history, Art and culture and Science & Tech into predictable ones. Themes like Mughals (their administration, land revenue system, architecture, paintings) helps to find which subtopics are repeating and we can at least prepare them. Another example is theme of Vijayanagar Empire. There is hardly any prelims paper without question on Vijaynagar. So rather than crying about subject being unpredictable, we can at least be sure in repetitive themes. Similarly for science & tech themes like ISRO, Missile program, IVF technology, rDNA technology, Vaccines, Viral diseases, etc can be prepared before hand and those questions can solved selectively in exam.

4. Understand demand of the UPSC from a particular topic. For example, inflation, money supply like topic demands conceptual clarity. For animals in environment asked previously demands the knowledge about their habitat, IUCN status, foraging habit etc. Also even if a new animal is asked , questions will have mention of animals which were previously asked and can help us to answer the question. Another example is in medieval history, what UPSC demands us to know about an empire is their administration, land revenue system, associated religion/Bhakti saint, architecture, special cultural features (paintings of Mughals, etc) and association with British conquest in India( Mughal emperors to receive captain Hawkins, issue diktats, etc).

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5. Make us worry free of GS paper:- As you will notice certain repetitive themes and pattern of asking questions, you will not be distracted by uncertainty promoted in market. Remember Confidence is the key to success in Prelims, and it comes from objective analysis and hard work based on it.

6. Prevent us from distraction like bulky current affairs:- By analysing papers, you will also notice type of current affairs questions asked in exam and hence read only those. Also as current affairs never carry weightage of more than 30-35 questions, it is clear that current affairs isn’t required to clear prelims (except economy and science & tech current affairs). So if this is so clear, why you should spend 70%+ of your time in last two months for bulky current affairs?? I never did so, I spent 90%+ time on revising static in last months and strictly no extra current affairs (Myth of current affairs to be discussed later too).

My experience about coaching mock tests

The relevance of private coaching mock tests :-

Revising static subjects like Polity, history, economy ,environment etc. I do not see any other relevance. This is because none of the mock test matches the level and approach of UPSC exam (even before disastrous 2023 prelims). And the approach of questions of coaching mock tests makes an aspirant to prepare for those tests rather than the UPSC exam. An aspirant may become habitual of vocabulary of coaching mocks, while he should be habitual to UPSC vocabulary. Also private coaching mocks do not follow the themes. Some coaching even ask factual questions (GS SCORE etc) and some ask from current affairs of same day (Forum IAS simulator tests) or questions on irrelevant themes like defence exercises (no questions on defence exercise in last 12 years of UPSC CSE prelims) or they ask questions from their own current affairs magazine(Vision Abhyas ). I have seen aspirants scoring 130+ in Vision abhyas and below 80 in UPSC prelims given in a span of month.

So my strategy was to solve at least 5-10 previous year PAPERS( in 2 hour simulation mode) in last 15 days of the exam. Even though we know some answers, we get good practice of UPSC vocabulary and also find our weak areas for to be revised.

Thus coaching tests can be used for up to last 30 days to revise static. Strictly there should be no focus on marks scored, rather focus should be in analysis of mistakes and remembering them. And then to detox the approach of coaching tests, one can solve 10 previous year papers in simulation mode on daily basis and analyse the mistakes accordingly.

The myth of current affairs

I think what makes UPSC syllabus bulky for an aspirant is current affairs. For static it’s hardly 15-18 books, total of not more than 1500 pages and it carries weightage of 70% with certainty of source material. But current affairs magazines of a year, has 1200-1500 pages in total and it carries just 30% weightage and that too we are uncertain about the source. This fact helped me to devise the formula of static:current study time as 4:1. That is if I am going to study for 5 days, 4 days will be allotted to static and only 1 for current. This ratio is strictly followed in last two months of prelims. This will help in 80% accuracy in questions asked from static subjects like Polity, economy, environment (if read from PMF Environment book) and modern history (80% of questions asked from spectrum). This subjects comprises about 45+ questions in prelims.

I also feel that one of the reason aspirants missing on cut off by 1-10 marks is not revising static intensively in last 10 days of the exam inspite of studying very hard for prelims. You can check in which static questions you made mistake rather than blaming current affairs questions.

By analysing previous year papers, we can certainly say that must do current affairs is only Economy and Science & Tech, that too of certain themes, nothing random.

Some coaching or portals do romanticise about some current affairs questions being asked from their sources. I feel it is like a spoonful of water is useful from an OCEAN. Also we need to ask did the current affairs questions mattered for clearing prelims or static.

Also some coaching valas trace the static questions from The Hindu Newspaper. But if my static is good, I see no need of tracing such news and spending lot of time on searching it. This specifically applies for subjects like environment, history and Art & Culture.

Hence we can say that current affairs can help us in mains (that too in GS3 and IR) l, but it’s not a deciding factor to clear Prelims and we can conclude that ‘STATIC IS THE KING’!

My take on 2023 prelims

It’s said that 2023 prelims is game changer. Yes it is, but only for people reliant on elimination techniques. People having thematic approach and good hold on static still faired well in GS paper (I m intentionally avoiding to talk about CSAT😂).

To verify my statement you can trace every question asked in this paper. Only pattern of options have changed, not the pattern of questions. And even previously I had analysed that there is no shortcut trick for polity and economy. We need to be thorough in these subjects. And this helps an aspirant to solve polity-economy questions accurately. So yes, thematic approach works for 2023 prelims too!

Conclusion

-static is the king.

-original previous papers are best guides.

-no alternative to hard work on subjects whose sources are well defined.

All the best!