Do’s and Dont’s of the UPSC Examination

Aspirants who start their journey may feel the need for proper guidance. The “I wish someone could tell me if this is the right strategy or if I am going the right way” crosses their minds. If these are your queries, congratulations, you are on the right way. The first habit to develop in this preparation is to be inquisitive. And to fulfil this wish, we are here with some do’s and don’ts to help you customise your itinerary to LBSNAA.

1. Read the syllabus and memorise!

To begin with, read the syllabus to understand the requirement. It will give you an insight into the knowledge an aspirant needs to build.  Memorising the syllabus helps one identify the key areas and the focus points of this examination.

2. Don’t skip the PYQs: 

You must go through the Previous Years' Question Papers. Glance through at least the last ten years' papers to get a fair estimation of the level and work on your plan accordingly.

3. Don’t skip the NCERTs: 

One of the most commonly asked questions is related to the relevance of the NCERTs in this preparation. As one needs to know basic ABCs to learn the English language, it is necessary to read the NCERTs if you’re preparing for this exam. 

Once you have built the foundation, give revision tests to assess yourself. There are many pre-designed courses and materials present online and offline. It will boost your confidence and motivate you. 

4. Don’t gather multiple resources:

The biggest mistake that students make is gathering multiple resources. It might feel that every material is important but avoid cluttering. The mantra is ‘have minimum resources and maximum revision’. 

Our mantra will aid you, especially when the exam is just around the corner. 

Chant it & thank us later!

5. Don’t make an unrealistic timetable: 

Yes, the syllabus is not less, but an unrealistic timeline will only toughen your task. The idea behind making a timetable is to increase efficiency. Too-tight deadlines will create panic and decrease your morale.

You can get a pre-made planner and divide your strategy into daily, weekly and monthly goals. It will help you build momentum, ticking off every hurdle from the list.

6. Give mock tests.

Mock tests come into the picture when you have completed your syllabus and made your notes. These pre-made and AI-designed mock tests will help you assess your performance. Many platforms offer All-India Mock Tests where you can get an idea about the level of your preparation and the competition. 

Mock tests will help you identify your weak areas to work on and prepare for D-day.

7. Don’t wait for the main examination to start writing answers.

Once you have built your foundation, you can start practising. Many toppers suggest attempting PYQs to write scoring answers. Set the timer every time you write a paper to practice writing good answers in less time. Remember, time management is everything in this exam. 

Focus on your optional paper. This paper has to be the most scoring. Excelling in your optional will give you an edge over other candidates. You can check the toppers’ copy for insight. 

There is a saying that the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. And now that you know it, you can prepare well for the exam with a clear mindset. Remember that you don’t have to copy the toppers entirely. What works for them might not work for you.

How many steps out of these are you following? Be honest and share with us in the comments section.

For more information, visit our website or write to us at  info@iasscore.in.

Journey to LBSNAA, Mussoorie – IAS Training Institute

 Post Qualifying UPSC CSE, Aspirants are referred to as Officers Trainees and are inducted to LBSNAA, Mussoorie for training. Each Aspirant while undergoing preparation dreaming of training at LBSNAA, Mussoorie. The best brain across the country is assembled together for training by eminent faculty members and other important Personalities which eventually helps officer Trainees in grooming their Personalities and transforms them to tackle challenging real problems of Society.

UPSC CSE is not easy as it checks students' Patience, determination, focus, Intelligent Quotient as well as Emotional Quotient. While preparing for this Prestigious IAS Exam students learn so many things that they develop their mindset to face real-life challenges and resolve those issues in the best possible manner.

 Every year lakhs of candidates write this IAS Exam and merely a few hundred of them qualify finally and reach LBSNAA, Mussoorie.

Here in this Blog, we will be able to know the Life of an Officers Trainee at LBSNAA, Mussoorie.

 LBSNAA, Mussoorie

 At LBSNAA (LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ADMINISTRATION), Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, successful candidates are inducted for training and are called officer trainees. All officer Trainees irrespective of their services (IAS/IRS/IFS) are provided the same training.

   Life at LBSNAA starts at 6:00 am, at this time all the trainees are expected to do PT in order to maintain Physical fitness. The environment at Mussoorie is awesome for this activity.

·         Foundation course at LBSNAA is unique as the classes are demonstrative in nature. For Example, under Art & Culture if the topic is Bharatnatyam then the Best Performer of Bharatnatyam performs this dance & then shares his views about it and its importance and how it helps in preserving our rich culture. Under this foundation course subjects like History, Economics, Management, Law & Public Administration are taught.

·         During the Foundation Course Trainees are interacting with Inside as well as Outside Faculty from Prominent Institutions like IIMs, Secretaries from different ministries, Prominent ministers from Government, Bureaucrats, and several other Influential People.

TREKKING

 10 Days Trekking – Trainees are divided into small groups for Trekking for 10 Days. During this period they remain with the group members, facing difficulties, and managing themselves with limited resources. Apart from Physical Fitness, this activity boosts confidence and develops leadership skills as well as executing tasks in a group.

 

BHARAT DARSHAN PROGRAM

 Bharat Darshan Programme is the most fascinating Program which enables Trainees to visit almost all the important Places, Institutions and interact with prominent Personalities across the Country. This provides them with knowing things closely and interacting with the key People and the general masses. This Program continues for 48- 51 days. The groups are divided in a group of 18 -20 on a Cadre basis.

District Training:

·         As a part of the Program, Trainees are attached to the District based on their Cadre and tries to learn things on the Field. This helps them in knowing things in a better way, how general administrations are executed, what the challenges are, and how to resolve these issues.

·         Training in Ministry

All IAS trainees are exposed to Ministries for 2- 3 months. This enables them with the work culture at Ministries. Each Ministry has different departments headed by Secretary. These Secretaries are those who have already served in District as Collectors or DM. They are experienced enough to find out the issues if certain Policies are implemented in a District and how to resolve those upcoming issues.

 POSTING AS OFFICER IN A District

 The First Posting of IAS trainees is as SDM in a District. This Post has a lot of power associated with it. Within 2 -3 years SDMs are promoted to District Collectors.

 KEEP THE END FIRST, if you have read the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People wherein the Author has suggested keeping the end first before initiating any task.

Similar to it generally all UPSC CSE Aspirants are targeting for IAS to get the Post of District Collector in a District. This is the reason why some selected Candidates allotted different service writes the Exam again.

 Also, some aspire to get Training in LBSNAA, Mussoorie. People do not remain the same after training, they get transformed completely.

 Here is what Miss. Prerna Singh; IAS 2017 batch has to say about Life at LBSNAA.

https://youtube.be/4EWSO3bADTo

 If you are an IAS Aspirant and wanted to convert your dream into a reality, you may take guidance from GS Score, BEST Institute for UPSC CSE. Here Students are mentored under the right Guidance of Mr. Manoj K Jha Sir. We believe all the Aspirants are of different wavelengths with respect to their IQ and hence all of them require different nurturing. Each Student is nurtured and one may witness gradual development with respect to their preparation after a few weeks.

 

Significance Of Current Affairs In UPSC CSE - 2023

 

Current Affairs Plays an important role not only in Prelims but in Mains and Interview stage of UPSC CSE as well. IF we refer UPSC CSE syllabus for Preliminary Exam then the first line that  is mentioned is “Current Events of National & International Importance “. Its significance can be understood from it. Also the syllabus provided by UPSC has to be deciphered as it mentions it very briefly. The depth of the Question can be understood by going through previous year Questions only.

In this blog we will cover important sources for Current Affairs, its importance in Preliminary, Mains & Interview, role of Current Affairs in Optional Subjects, allocation of time for Current Affairs.

The number of Question pertaining to Current affairs in General Studies Paper of UPSC CSE Preliminary Examination is significant. Various Coaching Institutes came up with their analysis of UPSC CSE Prelims as soon as the Exam gets over. Their analysis about number of Question from Current Affairs asked in General Studies may have variation of 2-3 Questions from One coaching to other.

Know About The Importance of Current Affairs

One may observe the number of Question form Current Affairs section in General Studies Paper of Prelims varies as per the analysis of different Coaching Institute. Why it happens? Let us discuss first about the subject matter of Current affairs. As we know current affairs is nothing but it is simply the day to day events that are important.

The subject matter of Current Affairs could be Economy, Polity, Geography (Catastrophic or Natural Disaster / calamities , border disputes), History ( ancient India if some recent development with respect to Archaeological Survey of India or some Ancient Civilization that are in News ) , Government Schemes, International Organization , Reports of Important National & International Organization , Science & Technology & Environmental & Ecology.

As the nature of Question in UPSC CSE Prelims is objective. In few Question of Current Affairs UPSC incorporate some static Portion as well (it may be in the form of option) to check intelligence and analytical skills .As the Preliminary Exam has the objective of screening Candidates for the second stage i.e. Mains. It rarely asks fact based Question as usually asked in some state PCS Examinations of BPSC, RPSC, UPPCS & others. Rather UPSC CSE asked Questions that are analytical in nature and required some intelligence and deep observation.

Current Affairs Questions Ask in UPSC

In the Year 2017, maximum number of Questions in General Studies paper of Prelims was from Polity Section. Some Questions were static and others were from Current Affairs and few Questions were integrated having both the static & current affairs aspects.

Polity & Economy has major dominance in Current affairs. In order to understand News Pertaining to Polity we need to understand some Static or fundamental concepts. For Example few Months back there was series of News Pertaining to President Election. So, we cannot expect UPSC to ask Question like who get elected as President of India. In recently held Election for the President of India rather we must go through every aspect with respect to President.

The Question may be pertaining to Presidential Election, Impeachment of President, Power of President, Important articles in the Indian Constitution with respect to President of India & others. The Syllabus of General Studies is vast and so is that of Current Affairs. Let us see the trend of number of Questions Pertaining to Current Affairs asked in Prelims year wise below.

	CURRENT AFFAIRS QESTIONS ASKED IN PRELIMINARY EXAM OF UPSC CSE YEAR WISE
	( 2016 -2022 )
YEAR	NO. OF QUESTIONS IN GENERAL STUDIES  (PRELIMINARY)
2016	21 -23
2017	17 -19
2018	16 -18
2019	13 -15
2020	8 -9
2021	5 -7
2022	09 -10

It is evident from the above data that the number of Questions from Current affairs was maximum in the year 2016.Also Current Affairs share in the total number of Questions were significant from 2016 to 2019. Post this the number of Question from Current Affairs has declining trend. But this trend must not influence us to avoid Current affairs as in the upcoming Examinations the number of Questions may be more and may have its share of 20 % or more.

Role of Current Affairs in Mains General Studies Papers:

As mentioned above that Current affairs have diverse areas from Economy, Polity, Science & Technology, and Environment & Ecology to Geography & History as well. One is expected to supplement one’s answer in UPSC CSE Mains with some relevant and important event that are in NEWS with respect to Economy , Polity , Geography ,Science & Tech & Society in their General studies Papers of UPSC CSE Mains which is descriptive . This will definitely distinguished one’s answer from others and may fetch more marks.

Significance in Optional Papers:

If someone has opted Public Administration & Political Science as optional Subjects in UPSC CSE then sincere preparations of Current affairs will help a lot in securing good marks. As one can supplement or incorporate recent important events of national and international importance in their answers. For these papers Current affairs is inevitable and cannot be overlooked.

For Optional Subjects like Mathematics & Engineering one cannot supplements their answer with current events as that is not the demand of Questions. But still students having these Subjects as their Optional Subjects cannot overlook Current affairs.

Significance of Current Affairs in Interview:

As we know Interview of UPSC CSE is the third and the final Part of Exam Process where Personality of Candidate is evaluated. Although in the First two stage of Examinations knowledge of candidate has already been checked. But still in Interview the Board usually asks questions from their DAF, optional Subjects and current affairs. The Board tries to know their opinion and their articulating skills about some important issues in News .One can form his/ her idea only when aware about that event. Hence Current affairs cannot be ignored and must be given serious Preparation.

IMPORTANT SOURCES FOR CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Daily News Paper

Current Affairs Magazine of IAS Coaching Discussion on subjects of national and international importance in Rajya Sabha TV.

Time Allocation for Current Affairs:

One must allocate one’s 1 Hour for Preparation of Current Affairs on a daily basis. One can escape making daily notes from News Paper as all the important events are covered in monthly magazine of Coaching Institutes.

Now let me conclude the theme on Current Affairs. As it is evident from the above content that Current Affairs has its importance & relevance not only in Prelims but in General Studies of Mains & some Optional Subjects as well as in Interview hence we cannot undermine its Preparation and must prepare seriously, religiously and sincerely.

Avoid reading from too many sources. It would be waste of time to read the same thing from two or more than two sources for Current Affairs. Choose one good Newspaper (The Hindu / The Indian Express), one Magazine of any Coaching Institute, and refer important discussion of Rajya Sabha TV. These will help you in forming an opinion on any issue.

Each Coaching Institutes has their own Magazine. Take 2-3 magazines of different Coaching Institutes and read it and then decide yourself which Magazine has covered all important News from UPSC CSE point of View. Which Magazine you find easy to understand and assimilate. You may go through the Magazine of GS SCORE which has also been popular among students aspiring for UPSC CSE. Some features of this Magazine like easy and simple language of content enable student to read & assimilate the Current Affairs easily.

One most important thing that you must not forget is Revision of Current Affairs and daily allocation of one hour for Current Affairs in study Time Table.

IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER:

• CURRENT AFFAIRS INEVITABLE FOR PRELIMS, MAINS & INTERVIEW
• DAILY ALLOCATION OF 1 HR FOR CURRENT AFFAIRS
• ONE NEWSPAPER & ONE MAGAZINE IS MUST
• REFER DISCUSSION ON ISSUES OF NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE ON RAJYA SABHA TV
• MAKE A SMALL GROUP OF 4-5 STUDENTS & HAVE REGULAR DISCUSSION ON IMPORTANT ISSUES.