IAS Preparation Tips For Beginners | UPSC Civil Services Exam – The Beginner’s Guide To Success
UPSC IAS Exam is one of the most popular and competitive examinations in India. Lakhs of the candidates appear for the exam, but only a tiny fraction of them could achieve their dream of joining Indian Administrative Services.
The selection process of UPSC IAS will be conducted in three stages i.e Prelims, Mains, and Interview rounds. UPSC IAS Exam is highly challenging because of the vast syllabus and unpredictable nature of questions.
The IAS exam cannot be cracked by just reading books because the last round of the recruitment exam is a personality test that judges the personality of the candidate and their knowledge of the civil services.
Therefore, the candidates should focus not only on completing the syllabus but also need to have knowledge of the latest happenings in the country and neighbourhood. We have come up with this article to guide the candidates with useful preparation tips to ace the IAS exam.
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Table of Contents
Concrete Study Plan
Last-minute preparation won’t work if you want to achieve the best result in the IAS exam. The candidate should follow a suitable daily routine during the preparation.
A concrete study plan will not only make the preparation easy but also be helpful in completing the syllabus in the set timeline. Therefore, the candidates should identify topics as per the difficulty level and marks weightage, and allocate the time accordingly.
Strengthen your Foundation
Candidates should focus on building a firm grip on the basic concept of the topics relevant to the syllabus. In order to build a strong concept, the candidates should refer to the NCERT books available on market and can also be downloaded online in PDF Format.
After understanding the basic concept of all the topics, they should refer to the advanced level books for the core preparation.
Skim through Exam Pattern and Syllabus
UPSC IAS Preparation is incomplete without the detailed knowledge of exam patterns and syllabus. The first stage is the preliminary exam and therefore one should go through UPSC IAS Prelims Syllabus & Exam Pattern to strategize the preparation accordingly.
Candidates will get detailed information about the exam format, marking scheme. Important topics, etc with the help of the syllabus and exam pattern.
Solving Previous Year Question Paper
Previous Year Question Paper is one of the relevant sources to know the exam pattern, question type, and difficulty level of the exam. One can identify the question paper trends easily and help the candidates in understanding important topics for each subject.
This will boost the confidence and the candidates would draw a rough idea of what type of questions to be expected in the upcoming exam.
Regular Mock Tests
Self-Assessment plays an important role in the UPSC IAS preparation. It helps in identifying the strong and weak areas, improving the speed and accuracy, and developing one’s own style of solving the question paper.
Candidates are advised to complete the syllabus at least one month before the exam so that they have enough time to attempt mock tests and conduct regular revisions to score high in the exam.
Reading Newspaper
Inculcate the habit of reading the newspaper or watching the news daily to ace the exam. It is important to have knowledge of current affairs and static knowledge as most of the questions are asked from this section.
In case you are not able to read the newspaper daily then you can follow the authentic youtube channel for the daily news analysis. Prepare notes for the current affair and revise them often so that you don’t forget any important details on the exam day.
Regular Revision
UPSC IAS Syllabus is quite vast and can leave the candidates in confusion. Therefore, while planning the UPSC preparation strategy, the candidates should keep a slot for mock tests and regular revision in the study plan.
Maintain the notes during the UPSC preparation and revise the notes on a daily basis to avoid last-minute confusion or rush on exam day.