Today’s world is the world of competition! Gone are the days, when just acquiring the graduation or post-graduation degree would ensure you the dream job. In today’s world, you need to appear for a number of competitive examinations for carving your best career. The competitive examinations like UPSC, MPSC, Defence services, etc give you an opportunity to shape your career in right direction in order to fulfil your dream of becoming a Gazetted officer. These career options not only give you the name, fame, money from a job but also the opportunity to serve the nation and society.

Recently MPSC and UPSC have declared the schedule of examinations to be held in the year 2017. Systematic planning and smart execution will fetch you a good score in these competitive exams to achieve your goal in professional life. A dedicated, disciplined and directed method of preparation of these competitive exams over a period of minimum one to two years would surely make you the winner in this race. Getting success in competitive exams is not an impossible task and it requires a specific methodology of preparation, a trick to crack the examination! There is a difference between a methodology adopted for scoring good marks at graduation examination and that for competitive examination. Competitive examination expects a candidate to be aware about the happenings at national and international level related with a variety of issues. A curious mind, an analytical approach and a skill to express these things systematically through your writings or in the personality test is the trick for cracking the competitive examination. In order to achieve this, a competitive examination aspirant must have the curiosity to follow the current events, occurring in and around us at the level of state, nation and international level. He should always try to find out the answers of questions ‘why, what, where, when and how?’ of various issues happening in and around us. In order to prepare systematically for competitive examination, the first requirement is a thorough analysis of the syllabus as well as understanding the pattern of questions asked in last few years of these competitive exams. The content of the syllabus gives you an idea about the areas to be focussed on. It requires the conceptual and analytical understanding of the issue, through various relevant sources, extending from reference books to current affairs material to knowledge resource available from web- based content. The emphasis should be on conceptual clarity and its current affairs relevance, rather than entangling oneself into too many technicalities. The questions asked in the competitive exams are based on the conceptual clarity, their applied aspects and the most important is their relevance to the current affairs.

A candidate who acquires the mastery over basic knowledge of the subject along with its application and the relevance in current scenario gets an advantage in the competitive examination race. Secondly, the aspirant must keep in mind that when they are preparing for competitive examinations, they have to develop the quality of being ‘jack of all trades and master of atleast one.’ That means a competitive examination aspirant should have the basic knowledge of all subjects like -History, Geography, Economics, Polity, Environment, Basic Science and Aptitude test and command over atleast one of these subjects which can be taken as an optional subject in civil services examination. Thirdly, it is a myth amongst the students that competitive examination preparation means only reading or studying some notes or books in an examination mode of preparation. On the contrary, the aspirant should always try to capture the opportunities meant for development of one’s personality which would be helpful in facing the Interview test. Apart from knowing the factual aspects of an issue, competitive examination expects a candidate to be in command over precise expression and writing skills. During your graduation days, you must take the opportunity to speak or express yourself in order to gain the confidence, which will certainly help you in scoring good marks in your Interview test. The candidates with versatile personality hold an additional advantage for cracking the competitive exams as these personality traits help them in crossing the different stages of the examination with an additional advantage.

Achievement of a dream career through cracking competitive examination is a skill and that skill has to be nurtured right from your school or college days. A systematic, disciplined and a stepwise preparation under right guidance is the ultimate key of success. As an Olympian is not created in a day, it requires a persistent preparation of years together. Similarly, the topmost career as an IAS, IPS, IFS, Armed Forces officer can be achieved only by developing your personality right from your school or college days and hence it is mandatory for an aspirant to start competitive exams preparation at the earliest. In the upcoming lectures, we would focus on the exact strategy and the plan to crack civil services examination and defence services career option in a stepwise manner.

(The author of this article ,Lt Col (Dr) Satish Dhage, is an ex Army officer and has been qualified for IPS (Indian Police Services) through IPS LCE 2012. Presently, he is Director, MGM Institute of Competitive Exams Aurangabad.                                    

For any queries or feedback, he can be contacted on email id : drsatishdhage@gmail.com)