Preparation For The IAS Exam: A well thought of head-start offers all the advantages of a good beginning to the IAS aspirants. It is worth noting that a candidate who plans how to begin with the preparation would focus well on his goal right from the start.
Besides, the Civil Services Exam requires an ambitious IAS aspirant to strategize the complete preparation from the beginning to the end in a meticulous manner. There are a number of factors that are more than sufficient for a candidate to employ his entire time and efforts in a way so that the preparation results for the CSE are optimized.
Preparation For The IAS Exam: It’s Important to Strategize the Beginning
It is important to plan the beginning of your preparation for the Civil Services Exam. You are ambitious enough to think of joining the Indian Administrative Services. And IAS is the most sought after of the Civil Services.
It serves to drive back home some of the points that simply cannot be ignored.
- The competition is hardest of the hard.
- Besides, the syllabus that Union Public Service Commission prescribes for the Civil Services Exam seems to run till eternity.
Given all these factors, it is far from being a simple and easy task to crack the CSE. A great many of the IAS aspirants are not able to do the same in a single attempt. Moreover, even simply clearing the Civil Services Exam is far from serving the purpose for an IAS aspirant. He must score high enough to be among the top most of the rank holders if he is keen upon joining IAS.
But, Why Think Of A Well-Planned Head Start?
A well-planned head start sets the right tone for the entire preparation for the Civil Services Exam. As already said above, IAS is the most coveted of all the cadres that the Union Public Service Commission offers.
Consequently, you need to be among the highest of the rankers when the result for the Civil Services Exam is declared. It is only the highest of the rank holders that are allowed to join the Indian Administrative Services by UPSC.
Needless to say, your entire preparation for the CSE should be strategized well if you aim at cracking the CSE. You must score an edge over the entire competition not only while facing the CSE, but also while you prepare for the same.
So, it is in the best of the interests of all the IAS aspirants that they opt for the most well thought of strategies to prepare for all the three stages of the Civil Services Exam, including the beginning of the preparation, first of all.
The Advantages That You Gain From A Good Head Start
A good head start provides many advantages of various types when we talk in terms of the preparation for the Civil Services Exam. The major ones are described below:
1. A good head start makes you a smart IAS aspirant:
Well, all study to crack the CSE. And all study hardest of the hard. But, these are only the smart candidates who crack the Civil Services Exam.
In the same vein, these are the smartest of the smart who score high enough to be allowed by the Union Public Services Commission to join the Indian Administrative Services. Above all, a good head start makes you a smart IAS aspirant. It should never be forgotten that strategy is the thin line that puts the smart IAS aspirants a class apart from the competition.
2. Not a simple preparation, but a strategized preparation
When you give your preparation for the Civil Services Exam, the advantage of a well-thought of head start, it helps you anticipate the solutions for a number of complications that you might come across as your CSE preparation proceeds further.
Thus, a logically strategized head start paves the way for a well strategized preparation in all its entirety for the CSE. It is a great advantage that any IAS aspirant may get to enjoy!
How To Opt For A Smart Head Start?
The IAS aspirants who opt for a smart head start are always able to make their preparation for the Civil Services Exam far more productive than the one who do not. They accomplish a lot more even with a fewer number of inputs than the candidates who use a far greater number. Making a smart head start helps an IAS aspirant prepare well for all the three stages of the CSE with greater ease, confidence and far more yielding positive results.
The tips given below may help you reap all the advantages of a smart head start as stated above, apart from many more.
1. It pays to gain a thorough understanding of the syllabus:
It is advisable to understand all the syllabus requires in an absolutely accurate manner. You may reason that nothing in the world under the Sun is absolutely accurate.
But, you are to make the effort to strive towards perfection. And that explains, yet again, why do we make a smart head start so that your preparation for the Civil Services Exam yields at least near perfect results?
Understanding the syllabus thoroughly helps you gain the following advantages concerning the syllabus requirements:
- Clarity of what various topics prescribed in the syllabus demand
- Nature of the knowledge that is thus required to be gained
- Scope of how deep you need to study
Apart from all the advantages listed above, properly understanding the syllabus provides you with a number of other benefits as well. You getter a better insight into what is relevant as per the syllabus? Thus you get to know what should you study and what you should not.
It also helps you save your time for when you get to understand successfully what is actually required to be studied, you would not be very likely to digress from the area of study. Besides, the candidates who are more into self-study usually find the digressions interesting.
But do you think that you really have the time to read all about everything under the Sun that interests you? Given the fact that the Civil Services Exam syllabus prescribed by the Union Public Service Commission is unusually vast, you are required to make use of your time management skills even to a far greater extent.
Only then would you be able to prepare the entire syllabus in time. Apart from the reading activity, you would come across various other time consuming requirements as per the UPSC syllabus.
You would be solving Test Series. You are required to get your queries answered. Mock Tests and Mock Interview Sessions would also be there. Besides, you would have to make revisions frequently.
Thus, if you gain a thorough understanding of what the syllabus actually requires, you can manage your time accordingly. It can result into charting out the time table as required, even for the days when you are going to begin with your CSE preparation. No wonder, it will give you a tremendously wonderful head start, setting a highly qualitative tone for the entire preparation to come.
2. Pick the right kind of the study material:
- Do not read whatever you are able to lay your hands on. What if you discover to your great dismay that whatever you had been reading bears no significance to your preparation for the CSE as per the syllabus UPSC prescribes.
Thus, after you have gained a thorough understanding of the requirements of the syllabus, choose the study material carefully. And take care that study material you opt for takes care of the following:
- Relevance to the UPSC CSE syllabus
- Highly competent
- Lucid
- Should make the entire aspect crystal clear
- Cover all the details including the facts, statistics and all other required information
- Should also be designed as per the CSE pattern and the type of the questions usually asked in the Exam
Should also cater to the changes, if any, produced by UPSC in the CSE
3. Visualize all that would be required during the CSE preparation:
Whenever a head start is made for any activity, the candidate is required to visualize all the requirements first of all. It helps him take care of all in order to simplify the complexities of the process. Besides, he gets a highly positive mind set concerning what is to be done and what is to be kept at bay. And needless to say, the same applies to making a head start for the CSE preparation.
4. The beginning for the preparation should lay a focus on the Current Affairs, apart from all that is relevant:
Well, it is no myth that it would be simply impossible to clear the Civil Services Exam, if you ignore to study the Current Affairs. If, while making a head start for the preparation of the CSE, you consider all the aspects related to preparation for the Current Affairs, it would serve you well.
Doing so will help you face all the three stages of the CSE in a highly successful manner including the Prelims, Mains and the Interview. Besides, a sharp critical insight into the Current Affairs would also help you gain excellent writing skills in order to help you score well. Moreover, you would also be able to answer in a logically convincing manner during the last stage of the CSE i.e., the Interview for there might be questions based on the Current Affairs.
5. Study the Exam pattern:
It definitely goes a long way! When you get to understand the Exam pattern, and make the head start for the preparation accordingly, your CSE preparation is more likely to go great guns than what it might have been otherwise.
Apart from the Exam pattern, it would only make more of sense to gain a knowledge of all the changes, if any, produced by the Union Public Service Commission in the Pattern or the type of the questions for the Civil Services Exam. And making the head start for the preparation accordingly only serves to make the preparation far more yielding giving you an edge above the entire competition.
6. Put all the available resources to good use:
- The point to be driven back home is that you give your CSE preparation such a head start that helps you prepare in a highly competent manner. Your preparation for the Exam should give you crystal clear understanding of what all you study.
So, none of your queries should be left un-answered. And in order to see to it that all your queries are answered in a logically convincing manner, you need to make a good use of all the resources available. You may:
- Seek guidance from the faculty at your IAS coaching institution if you have joined one
- Read more
- Get the required information online using the Internet
- Talk to your peers, etc.
7. Make a good use of the keywords:
it is best not to waste any time and directly look for the information you need by means of a search engine using the keywords. Cultivating this habit right from the start when you think of preparing for the CSE helps gain a good head start for the preparation for the Exam.
For example, you may look for the required information what the UPSC syllabus requires you to study using the exact keywords as appear more often in the syllabus on the search engines across the Internet.
8. Cultivate a habit to focus on the directives:
Many a questions for the CSE are accompanied by one or another directive including discuss, analyze, critically analyze, elaborate, etc. It is advisable to cultivate a habit to interpret the question and answer the same as per the directives.
Though you would be facing the Prelims first, but most of the candidates do opt for preparing for both the Prelims and the Mains simultaneously. And the habit of getting to understand the directives does prove to be helpful for the Mains, but you have to qualify the Prelims first in order to go ahead with the Mains.
9. Maintain a positive outlook:
It is best to give a head start to your CSE preparation with a positive mindset. Keep all the negative influences at bay. Stay cool, calm and relaxed. Doing so will help you make a good head start to your preparation.
10. Do not neglect your health:
You, or for that matter anybody can undertake any activity in far better a manner only when he stays healthy. And the same applies to giving a good head start to your preparation for the CSE. Thus, rather than being stressed all the time obsessing yourself simply with the idea of achieving your goal to clear the CSE, it is better to keep your mind relaxed and think of preparing well. A relaxed mind always gives good results.
Preparation For The IAS Exam: Conclusion
There is an old adage that says that well begun is half done. And it explains the importance of a good head start for the preparation of the Civil Services Exam. Apart from what has been said above, it is best that you consider all of your requirements before you give the head start to your preparation for the Exam.
