common-mistakes-ias-preparation

TOP 10 AVOIDABLE COMMON MISTAKES IN CIVIL SERVICE PREPARATION

Aspirants those who are striving hard to get their names in the UPSC results have to read this article. If possible make a printout and paste it in your study room or table. We have found out that these are the most common mistakes done by every common aspirant while preparing for civil service examination. We made this mistake list by interviewing more than 1000 students last year june 2017. With that results we have listed out the most common mistakes.

After reading this article, if you found anything you are doing wrong. Kindly rectify as soon as possible. Becuase every day and time is precious for our preparation.

1. Do you know your syllabus?

Traveling without a destination always leads to the endless journey.

As a civil service aspirant, we should know the syllabus. So that you come to know what you have to study and what you need not study.  Always try to carry a copy of syllabus with you. Whether you are going to a coaching center or going to a bookshop or going for the festival holiday.

All the time you have to be with your syllabus. I commonly recommend the aspirants to have their syllabus when their newspaper in the morning. Because new paper has so many news which is related and unrelated to our civil service preparation. So at that time, the syllabus who have in your hand will help you to filter the topics you want to focus on.

I have seen the candidates who have fetched good marks in their Prelims, Mains know their syllabus very clearly comparing with other those who have missed their opportunities to make their name in the final result list.

So UPSC Syllabus is MUST.

2. Choosing the right Books

Choosing the right books for your IAS preparation motivates and guides you in the right track. Ask your seniors or your coaching institute faculties for the prescribed book list. Always avoid asking bookshop owners, they may or may not have knowledge of the books which is going to decide your career.

Even some shop owners (Not all) try to sell some new/bad books in the market to get high commissions from the publishers.

I have seen some bookstore owners try to sell all the unnecessary books to the new aspirants (Fresher) which are not performing well in the sales as well as not must need book for the preparation.

So before buying books, always take the help of your seniors and mentors.

If you don’t have anyone to help to choose your book list. Don’t worry GetintoIAS.com compiled useful books for your preparation. Take a look at the below link.

You also see our book list for the civil service preparation from here

3. Touch with seniors

Don’t restrict yourself with your surroundings. Have touch with your seniors. They have very good experience in the preparation comparing with you. Try to clarify your doubts with them. Don’t think if I ask these silly questions, what they think about me, what about my prestige sort of things. Everyone in this world has some silly questions on their mind. Even rocket scientist doesn’t know something which you know.

4. Don’t be blind

Planning and Strategy making is the core part of smart preparation. If you do hard work, there is a less chance to win the race. But if you do smart work, then you are the winner here. Smart work doesn’t mean you the trick to clear this examination; it just deals with the right way of your preparation.

No one can reject you from the race if you plan and execute it in the right way. Always plan and make deadlines for you to complete the topics.

What are the topics I have to cover for this week?

What topics have I to revise again?

How much time have I to spend on these particular topics? are the most basic questions which you have to ask yourself. So that, in your long run preparation you will not get saturated.

5. Notes Preparation

Making quality notes for all subjects may look like a time-consuming process. But this will be your life saver. Just a month before the exam, you cannot refer all the books and materials which you have referred already. So in this instance making, relevant quality notes will save your time and revision much better.

6. Write Mock Test

Writing mock test will tell you where you are? Writing mock test will improve your quality as well as confident in attending the examination. With the results of your mock test analyse your weak and strong areas and try to put some effort to strengthen your weak section. Don’t forget to refer the previous year question papers to find out the important areas.

7. Choosing Optional

Don’t choose your optional blindly just because of your friends, seniors, coaching centre. First up all see the syllabus and decide. Some optional seems like scoring, so people usually use to refer that as your optional, but if you don’t have interest on that subject, then how it could be a scoring one for you.

Before you choose the optional, once again confirm with the material source, successful aspirants guidance or good coaching institute. Choosing an optional without right guidance is the most dangerous than any other.

8. Skipping NCERT’s

Always read NCERT’s. NCERT’s are the important source for the questions in Preliminary. Most of the candidates directly go for the advance books, without reading the NCERT’s. This will not be a good choice. NCERT will help you to accumulate your basic knowledge which the reference book cannot.

You can download 6th to 12th standard NCERT from this here.

9. Daily Newspaper reading

Skipping paper reading and relying on monthly or weekly magazines will not be a good decision. Because if you read the current affairs by monthly, you might get overloaded and so stressed. So always read the daily newspaper and make short and crisp notes for revision and you can also follow Yojana.

10. Ignoring CSAT-II

Even though marks you obtain in CSAT-II will not consider for your final list, you must remember that this is the qualifying paper. If you fail to qualify in this paper, then you will not be selected for mains examination. So it is important to show some responsibility on this paper.

Kindly do comment your opinion in the comment section and don’t forget to share this article in social networks.

About the Author: GetintoIAS Team

GetintoIAS.com helps civil service aspirants, those who are trying hard to get into IAS.
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