 Hello, everyone. This is Junaid Amal. I have got AIR third in civil services examination 2018. So, the purpose of making this video is to help the students who are thinking of preparing this exam. I started my preparation in 2014. So, I am not the person who clear this exam in first or second attempt. It took me 4 years to clear this exam. In my fourth attempt, I got into the services. So, I have certain experience which I want to share with you people, the journey which I had and the preparation tips which I want to give you people. There are certain mistakes which I committed. So, I want to share with you people so that you should not commit those mistakes. So, for a beginner, the first thing is the question which comes up is when to start? That is the first basic question for the beginners. I have seen many people asking me that whether we should start the preparation in graduation itself or I have received calls of students who are in 11-12 class asking me whether we should start preparation during 11-12. So, I want to clear this thing in the very beginning that when you are into your graduation or into your schooling, you should focus more on that part. That is very important because the knowledge which you will acquire there will ultimately help you in clearing this exam. So, the basic focus should be on your graduation. That is the first thing. So, when to start in the end years of your graduation, you should have a goal that you want to clear the civil services. But in the end year of graduation, you should start focusing on this exam. Second question which comes up is how to start? That is a very important question because the syllabus is very vast and it is very difficult for the beginners to understand the pattern of this exam. So, here in this video, I am going to share some mistakes which I committed so that you can have a good overall plan for clearing this exam. So, first thing is you need to understand certain things before starting your preparation. And the first thing you need to understand is the time period. At least 2-4 years are required for clearing this exam. Say if you clear this exam in first attempt also, then also it requires 2 years because you start your preparation, then the whole circle of exams completes in one year and up to the time you go to the academic takes around 2 years. So, you should have this period in your mind that it will take minimum of 2 years and it can go up to 4-5 years. So, you should be ready for that. That is very important first thing that you need to understand. The second thing is as everyone know UPSC is called as the mother of all exam. So, you require ruthless determination in this exam. Everyone know it is a fact that the success ratio of this exam is very less to the tune of 0.1%. Lacks of candidates appear in this exam and only few get selected. So, ruthless determination is what is required for this exam. So, this is second most important thing. There is no space for committing any mistake in this exam. I have seen people who have given interview and then they have flagged in prelims. There is no space for committing mistake. You need to understand this thing. Third thing you need to understand before starting your preparation is that the exam it is a long process and you will see many failures during this exam. I am telling this based on my experience I have failed in prelims, main interview. So, there are a lot of failures. So, you need to prepare your mind, you need to prepare yourself for these failures. If you will be ready, if you will accept these failures, if you will see in a positive perspective, then they will teach you a lot. So, these few things are there that you need to understand before starting your preparation. So, now I will come to how the whole strategy should be to prepare for this exam. So, basically what happens in our college system normally it is the case that in June the graduation gets complete and people start preparing for this exam. So, what I have made is I have taken June as the starting point and from June to next two years I have made this plan because at least minimum two years are required for this exam. So, when you come in June, suppose you are starting your preparation. So, the first thing what you have to do is you have to cover your basic NCRTs. That is very important. That will make your base understanding of all the subjects history, polity, social science and everything. So, reading NCRTs is very important and you have to be very thorough with the NCRTs. Don't just read them to finish the NCRTs, read them to understand them in a very better way. So, that is very important. In June the first thing you should do is start with the NCRTs. Some people ask this question whether coaching is required, the moment you enter this UPSC preparation whether coaching is required or not. So, I will say that in the starting coaching helps you in putting you in a particular direction because a lot of things are required to study. So, what to study, what not to study, they segregate these things. So, it helps you. But if you are confident that you can do without coaching also it is up to you. Many people have seniors, many people have aspirants who help them in this journey. So, it is up to them how they decide this thing. So, from June to September that is the first period where I will focus upon. The first target is NCRTs as I have already said you need to cover these NCRTs thoroughly. The second thing is your optional. You have to select your optional very wisely because ultimately your selection depends on the marks of optional. So, when you are coming after graduation the main reason behind selecting your optional should be your interest. Many people say that I have particular subject in graduation but I am not comfortable in it. So, you should not go for it. If you are very comfortable in your graduation subject go for it. It does not matter what is the trend of that particular subject, how many marks are coming or how many students are taking that subject. If you have interest, if you think you are confident you can get marks in that subject go for it. That interest is the main criteria before selection of your optional. So, I will say that what I did for my optional selection I shortly said few subjects like geography, history and political science. I read few books of these subjects and I realized that geography is the subject that interests me more. So, I took geography as my optional. Your interest should be the main criteria behind your optional selection. So, June to September, June, July, August, September these 4 months are there in the starting. So, you have to start your GS preparation and optional preparation simultaneously. So, when NCRTs are covered you have to start your optional also. You can join any coaching for your optional or if you think you can do self-study you can start with that. So, in these 4 months you should focus these 2 things. So, this is the first thing that you need to understand in these 4 months and also the slavers and previous years papers they are very very important. When you start your preparation focus on these 2 things at least for 1 and 1 and a half months you need to analyze the previous years papers and slavers. They will give you an idea what UPSC is asking and what is the demand of UPSC. The easier it is for you to understand. The easier it will be for you to clear this exam. So, focus on this part and people ask me that when you are starting your preparation whether answer writing should be your priority, whether newspaper should be your priority. I will suggest that in these 4 months you should not focus much on newspapers and you should not focus much on answer writing. Answer writing in these 4 months you should do for the sake of writing only. I will suggest on the weekends you can go for answer writing few questions of previous years you can write and you can write some essays that you should write only to make it as a habit that will help you. And newspapers I will suggest you should not read newspapers you should not spend unnecessary time on newspapers. Just for the sake of reading you can get into the headlines but apart from that you should not spend much time on newspapers in these particular 4 months. So, this is what is the strategy for these 4 months. Now the next period is from September to December. So, this is the period when you are done with some part of your general studies you are done with your optional. So, you have a basic idea of what UPSC is all about. From now onwards the role of newspapers and current affairs becomes important. Now you will be able to understand what you need to read from the newspaper what you should not that will help your time. So, from September to December you should focus on newspapers and current affairs because they will help you a lot. So, in June to December the first period is June to September and September to December. In this whole period the first reading of your GS and optional should get completed. This is very important because after that you have to focus on other areas also. So, up to December if your first reading is complete then you can focus on your second reading. So, the next period for me is from December to March that is very important. So, in this period what you need to do is as you are done with your general studies as you are done with your optional now there is a paper called ethics. If you take up ethics in the starting itself you will not be able to understand the demand of that paper. So, December to March is the period from where you should focus on ethics paper and second is the essay paper. You will also be able to understand the demands of essay in this period only when you will have covered the GS and the optional paper and in this period only the second reading should get completed from December to March because revision is very very important. You should understand this thing that whatever sources you have whatever things you are reading you should concise it as much as possible because unnecessary going for different books going for different magazines will not help you. You should concise your syllabus and revise it as much as possible and in this period only you should develop this habit of note making that is very very important. So, note making is something that will help you in maze as well as in prelims also. So, in this period you should focus on your notes making in another video I will take up how to make notes in this video I am taking up what strategy you should follow. So, this is the period from December to March where the second revision should be done and the ethics and essay paper you should get an idea of and you should start preparing your notes. So, the next period which is from March to June usually the prelims is in June. So, March to June should be solely dedicated for prelims what happens that when you are starting in June and preparing up to next June you have an integrated study you focus on prelims you focus on maze everything you do. So, in this particular period March to June you should focus on prelims only. So, this is very important. So, for prelims you should do test series as much as possible they are very very helpful they will help you in getting an idea about kind of questions comes in the exam and they will help you in developing that thing that how you are going to tackle this exam in the examination room. So, test series is very important. Second thing which you should focus in this period is the time management how you are going to manage your time I have seen people who have flunged prelims and who are doing very good in the test series and the only reason why it happened was because they were not able to manage the time because of the pressure which was there in the examination room. So, this is very important. Third thing which you should focus in this period is the books in which the objective part of syllabus is more. For example, spectrum of history is there which covers the minute details which can be asked in the exam and also these things are usually we forget these things. So, you have to revise these things again and again. So, spectrum Laxmikanth and all these books which contain objective things they need to be revised again and again in this period. So, this is how you should strategize the things. Now the prelims day is in June. So, up to June your whole strategy is fixed. As soon as you give the prelims the main thing is you come and check the answer whether you are clearing it or not. So, it is important that you should start your preparation of main from that day itself. If you think that whether I am clearing or I am not clearing, you will waste your time because one month it takes for UPSC to give the result for prelims exam. So, you start the preparation from the next day itself of prelims. So, now you have a time period from June to October. Main focus is in October. So, what should be your focus in these? June, July, August, September, October in these four, five months. Your focus main focus in these months should be answer writing. You should understand this thing that if you will not practice an answer writing you cannot clear means. It is an essential part of means. So, you have to focus on answer writing. I used to write every day seven questions for an hour and I used to sit with my group mates and used to discuss these things. So, it helped me a lot. So, focus on answer writing that is the most important thing. It does not matter how much you know because I am sitting here selected in the examination but still I do not know many things. So, do not think that your syllabus is complete or not. You know many things or not. Just start writing from the very first day after clearing the prelims. So, this is the thing. The next which you should focus on in this period is the test series again. Test series is something which will give you an idea how you are going to manage your time in the exam because three hours are there and 20 questions are there. How you are going to finish it up? That is very, very important. The first task is to finish the questions. So, test series will help you in managing your time for main examination. The third thing which you should focus in this period up to October is your current events and your notes. That is very, very important. Whatever issue is coming up, you should link it with the syllabus and you should make your notes of that particular topic. That will help you in preparing for maze. What happened when I went for writing the exam, whatever questions were there. Either I had note of those particular questions or I had already written those questions. So, that should be the thing that you should have practiced. If you will start thinking there that what I should write in that particular question, then the time will get lost and you will not be able to complete the paper. So, these things you should focus in this period. Answer writing, test series, your current affairs, notes and your revision. That will help you a lot in your maze examination. So, this is up to October when the maze will get over. You will have a period of 2-3 months where you will have to start your preparation for interview. After October, after giving your maze, you should not wait for your result. It takes around one-one-and-a-half months. You should start your interview preparation and for interview, what is required is your opinion, your decisiveness, how expressive you are. These all are things which the interviewer looks in the candidates. So, what you should do is you should read newspapers thoroughly during this time. If possible, two newspapers you can read. You should make opinion on various issues, particularly debatable issues. You should be confident while presenting yourself. You should have an opinion. These all things are very, very important. Second thing is the mock interviews. They are also very helpful. When you give mock interview, the interviewer, they tell you what problems you have, what things you can improve upon, your verbal, non-verbal issues which are there. So, they will help you refine your personality. So, you can go for 2-3 marks for this thing. And third most important thing is your daf preparation. That is very important. When you're going for interview, the interviewer mainly asks questions from your daf only, your educational background, your place of working or whatever things you have in your daf, your hobbies. So, you should prepare your daf thoroughly. Most 80% of the questions from the daf only. So, these are some important things you should take into consideration while preparing. So, I've given you a basic idea from June to next June, how you are going to prepare for prelims, mays and interview. I think this will be helpful for you people. In the end, I want to say one thing that every topper gives his own strategy, how he prepared, what he has done. But every individual should devise his or her own strategy. I have told you many a things. If you think they are good, you should take them. And if you think that you can improve on them, you should definitely go for it. So, it is upon an individual's strength how they can prepare for this exam. Okay, wish you all the best and I hope this video will help you in preparing for this exam. Thank you. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel. And press the bell icon to never miss an update.