With the publication of notification for the elite UPSC Civil Services Examination 2019, the aspirants are bracing up for the upcoming journey towards their dream career. The online application process has already been started and would end on March 18, 2019. The notification mentions about 896 vacancies to be filled through this examination for various types of All India services (IAS,IPS,IFS), Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ services. The total number of vacancies available for normal candidates (excluding 4% vacancies for physically disabled candidates) would be 857 and for IAS services there would be 180 vacancies as recommended by the Baswan Committee. The eligibility criteria in terms of age upto 32 years, maximum number of 6 attempts and the pattern of examination is unaltered except the provision of 10% reservation for Economically weaker Section (EWS) of the society. The number of the EWS reserved seats would be around 89 out of which 18 could be of IAS. There is no relaxation provided to the candidates belonging to the EWS category. The EWS category candidates will only have six attempts if they belong to the general category.

Approach –   The new entrants for Civil Services Examination are full of enthusiasm, but lack the proper strategy to crack the examination. The Prelims stage of the examination consists of an objective type of questions on General Studies paper I and CSAT paper II. The first and foremost thing required to qualify in the Prelims examination is the detailed analysis of the syllabus and an analysis of atleast past five years question papers on the same. A thorough analysis of last few years question papers indicate the pattern of questions being asked in the examination and the important areas in the syllabus to be emphasized during preparation. The student should note down the important keywords found out during the analysis of the syllabus and question papers. These keywords could be of great help while studying the reference books or day to day study of current affairs issues. The candidates should divide the study topics into difficult and easy type, based on the understanding of the subjects. The aspirants should divide the available study time into four parts on a daily basis. The peak time of study i.e. the study time during which you can give maximum concentration for studies, should be devoted for the study of difficult component of syllabus. The lean period during which the attention span of the candidate is less, should be utilized for comparatively easier topics of the syllabus.

The third component of study time should be utilized on a regular basis for practice of mental ability questions where the focus should be on developing the tricks to solve the mathematical problems in the shortest possible time. Last but not the least, one component of your study time should be always reserved for study of current affairs  i.e. regular newspaper reading, magazines or study related internet surfing. The basic intention behind this type of time management is an optimal utilization of available time, based on the strengths and weakness of the candidate and simultaneous attention towards all the components of syllabus on a regular basis. Another important aspect of strategy is developing the habit of writing and hence, the candidates should always make the habit of noting down the important points whenever they are studying any component of the syllabus. After completion of study of any topic from NCERT and a standard reference book, the candidate must try to attempt the previous year’s MCQs based on the same topic. This preparation strategy would not only make the fundamentals of a candidate of a particular topic strong but also makes the candidate confident about tackling the difficult MCQs on the basis of available knowledge. The candidate must develop a habit of revising the entire study components done on a particular day, prior to going to sleep in the night. This would give a revision to your study topics at the end of a day. The same practice of revision should be repeated at the end of every week and also at the end of every month. This habit of regular revision at the end of one, seven and twenty eight days would help to convert the concepts studied in last one month into the long term memory components and would help you to remember them throughout your life. Another area to be emphasized by the candidates is focus on one good reference book for each subject, rather than reading so many books on the same subject simultaneously. The additional points learnt on the same topic through other study materials could be written down in small letters or with the help of additional stickers in your original reference book. This habit would be of great help to the aspirants during revision of a vast syllabus of civil services examination prior to the final stage examination.

In view of the limited capacity of UPSC centres, the candidates should fill out their UPSC forms as early as possible to get the centre of their choice. The success mantra for cracking Civil services Preliminary Examination is not the hard work alone, but the smart work based on the proper strategy and its implementation. If the candidate gets the knack of understanding what UPSC expects from a candidate in the examination and accordingly moulds his preparation in the same direction then surely he would be successful in the examination. So believe in yourself and start your preparation in the right direction to crack the Preliminary stage of UPSC Civil Services Examination.

(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)