 Evening to all of you who are attending this session, we're moving from Shankaray's Academy. Today we have with us Dr. Arun S. Nair, who have cleared this year's UPHT civil service examination with an all India rank of 55. We are proud and happy that Arun S. Nair has a student of Shankaray's Academy. He has been associated with us for the last one year and we are happy that we are also a part of his successful UPHT journey. So today he'll be speaking about his preparation journey, the strategies he adopted and how he successfully cleared the exam. So first and foremost, hearty congratulations Arun once again and welcome to this session about UPHT civil service exam preparation. So now I am handing over the session to Dr. Arun S. Nair. So Arun, the session is over. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Shankaray is happy to see you again. So I think I'm an already bird, right? Okay, everything okay? I think in this webinar, we can divide the session into some four. Initially I will deal with like what to do, it's just for the beginners, like what are the things we need to do, what are the things we need to read and mistakes, common mistakes that candidates committed during their preparations. Those kinds of general aspects and if the audience have any kind of doubts, I think towards the end of that particular session, they can raise their hand and ask the question in the chat box or in the question ask session. I will answer to that. Then we can go specifically to what are the things we need to focus for the prelims, names and interviews as a pre-substitutions. So that may be better. Otherwise, it will be more for the audience as well. If it is a kind of monotone lecture kind webinar. So we can start. So for the beginners, I think there are some audiences from high secondary classes also. UPSC is conducting the civil services examination every year and it is a three stage process happening from preliminary examination, main examination as well as personal architects or interview. So the preliminary examination is a multiple choice question. There are two papers, GS-1 and GS-2. GS-2 is called the TAT. And there are 100 questions in the GS-1, which is considered for the cutoff. Two marks for every correct question and 0.66 marks will be detected for every wrong answered question. So that goes first about GS-1. And GS-2 we commonly call it the TAT, which is comprising of questions like comprehension, then aptitude, some basic mathematics, et cetera. And it is a qualifying paper. We need to qualify the three percentage of the marks. That is about the prelims. This has usually happened in May, end or June, as per the calendar, which is happening these days. So this is about the prelims. And MAINS is a descriptive type examination. Those candidates who clear the cutoff marks or screens are called for MAINS examination, which is a descriptive type. And MAINS examination can be divided into three. One is a qualifying paper. Second is a genocidal paper. And third is the optional paper. The qualifying paper is actually English, as well as one regional language. For Malayalis, I think we can take Malayalam or we are comfortable with it. And it is actually 300 marks paper. And the thing is the marks of this qualifying paper will not be considered for the ranking calculation. We need to just qualify. That is 25 percentage of 300. That is 75 marks is only needed. That is about the English and Malayalam paper. That is basic English and Malayalam, like essay writing, comprehension type of portion. We do not need to go to an optional kind of studies for that. Second part is the general studies, descriptive examination. That is five papers are there. GS1, 2, 3, 4, 5. GS1 is an essay. We need to write two essays. First will be 250 marks. Usually the first essay comes from some philosophical kind of thing. And when we study ethics paper, I think we can cover that. And another essay comes from some specific topics like science and technology, RENVION and RECORN and URINDIAN society. If we prepare good for the other GS general studies subjects, we can manage that separate essay. Second paper is GS2, which comprises of history, geography, etc. That is a definite syllabus for claims and names. Those candidates who are not aware about this, please go to the UPSI website and analyze, read, read, read the syllabus again and again, because then only we can understand which topic is important for UPSI. So that's the thing. And third paper is GS3, which comprises of quality, governance, etc. Fourth paper is GS4 paper that comprises economy, science and technology, etc. And the fifth paper is the ethics paper, which is exclusively for claims. And then we come to the optional paper. Previously there were two optional subjects, but currently there is only one optional subject. There is a list of optional subjects that are published by UPSI. You can go through it in the website and you can choose one optional subject. And there are two papers based on that optional subject, 250 marks each. So in total, main nine papers, two are qualifying, seven are ranking, and in seven, 250 marks each. So total in main, we need to score out of 1,750. And those who get a cut off mark of main examination will get a call from UPSI for the personality test. It's actually not an interview, but a personality test, where our knowledge is not checked, but our personalities, like how we are eligible to work as a public servant, how much confidence we have to deal with the situation, what is the presence of mind we have, what is our communication skill, and these kind of traits that assist in that. So the one who clear claims and names do not want to worry about the knowledge base for the interview or the personality test, but they just want to include the personality and communication skill on. This personality test is out of 275 marks. There is no minimum mark. That means you can score any mark in personality that doesn't disqualify you provided. The marks of the main, that is 1,750, plus the personality test, 275, are added together to a compound mark, and based on that 2,025 marks, final rank list is published. So now we can start about the preparation strategy. Let's say North, I need to say, the preparation strategy is a completely personalized one that I felt in the last two years of preparation. Many topers may have different kind of strategies and I think each candidate should have a unique kind of strategy for himself or himself because we cannot copy a strategy of another toper and completely implement the same kind of strategy for ourselves because each candidate is unique. The priorities, the comfortable level, the tolerance level, the abilities are different for different candidates. So when you listen to a toper's strategy, you should not blindly accept that strategy but think about it and accept the one which is suitable for you and reject or modify the one which is not suitable for you. So the first question usually deflars when to start UPSC preparation. I believe that one year completely, if one year is completely devoted for UPSC preparation, that is fair enough to practice examination. One year means, one year prior to the preliminary examination that we are focusing. For example, if a candidate is focusing on 2022 prelims, then from 2021 June onwards, that one year time period is crucial. That is the fair enough time period for practicing this examination. Of course, candidates can do it in six months. There are candidates who did this in four months but it is different for different person depending upon their ability but one year is a fair enough time. So next question that usually candidates ask is whether they need to start this from the school days or from the college days. I think from the school days and college days there are many things you can do for the UPSC preparation. Not completely reading through the UPSC syllabus in those days because you have additional work in school and colleges. The thing is you can read a newspaper if possible an English daily. Hindu newspaper is the preferred one but see that is also an individual perspective. You can read any standard English daily. It can be an expert, it can be time-shifting, never mind but Hindu is the one which is followed by most of the candidates. That is why everyone say it is the Hindu newspaper that is the best. So you can read a Hindu newspaper when you are in school days or college days. You can read NTRT textbooks that I tell you detail in the following minutes and then you can fix one optional subject. If you are in college you can fix one optional subject and start preparing for that optional subject so that you will be in track when you completed the graduation and from the very next year itself you can put the maximum effort and grasp the examination in the first standard itself. You need not spend more years in the UPSC journey. So that's the thing. So how to start the preparations of UPSC? The fundamental things for UPSC preparation is a newspaper and NTRT textbook. Any candidate from any background like their schoolings, whether they are in a state syllabus or CDSE or ICSE, whether they follow humanity subjects, whether they follow science subjects that doesn't matter, anyone can attend the UPSC examination and nothing will put you at this advantage because you have some kind of background or some kind of degree. So the fundamental thing that you need to start is hint a newspaper, a daily newspaper, English TV and NTRT. And now I am going to tell you how to read this newspaper as well as NTRT. This is my personal experience. So you can read the newspaper at any time of the day. It can be in the morning, it can be in the afternoon, it can be in the evening. I usually follow reading newspaper in the evening time because morning time is more refreshing then. So spending a huge effort in reading newspaper in the morning time itself may put us in an exhaustion. No need for that. You can read some more difficult subject in the morning period and spend the evening time for the newspaper. That's what I did. So reading Hindu newspaper is itself a difficult task for the candidates, for the beginners. Reading Hindu newspaper will take hours like it can take 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours. That I experienced myself during the initial stages of preparation. So it doesn't matter. Even though initially you took some 5 or 6 hours for completely reading a newspaper, after some 2 to 3 months you will be in track. You can complete the Hindu newspaper in 1.5 to 2 hours. That's not out in that. How to read the Hindu newspaper? Reading Hindu newspaper, I followed a particular strategy like prioritizing news. So the two things are important for newspaper reading. One thing is which news we need to read. What are the important news that is need for UPS interpretation? Second thing is how to effectively manage the time. For the first thing that is reading Hindu newspaper you should thoroughly know the syllabus of UPS. For that what I did was taking a printout of preliminary and main examination syllabus I stick it in my wall, on my wall and when I read, before I reading Hindu newspaper I went through the MGS syllabus once and then start reading the newspaper. So that you will be able to understand which news is important for UPS because all news are not important. All headlines are not important like for example some political news those kinds of news are not much important for UPS. So I followed a strategy like I start I start the reading newspaper from the print page then I went to the editorial page which is very very important for UPS experience then I come to the economy page and then I go to the second page and go on here. So this was my strategy. Anyone can follow any kind of strategy but the thing is if you are spending a lot of time with Hindu newspaper this strategy will keep you to read the priority news in the initial part like print page and then editorial page. So then next question is what to do after reading Hindu newspaper what I did was to prepare notes based on the news articles of the Hindu newspaper I prepared it on the paper like note in the digital format in the paper format subject why notes are prepared anything that you feel which is important in that newspaper or news article anything that comes new to your knowledge should be scripted down in that note so that during the revision you can use it very very effectively I just not like writing everything in the notes but in the bullet points you can write these things are there in the news there are two important aspects for writing one thing is which will enable us to revise very effectively second thing is it is important for answer writing because every day if you are reading some articles like some 500 verse or 600 verse articles and if you are writing it concise to promote it in a 100 verse or 50 verse that will help you to write good answers very concise and comprehensive answers for the main so this is actually the starting of answer writing in my strategy so this is about the Hinduism one thing one tip I can give to the candidates there are many news that they skip in the Hinduism which may be important so how a candidate can understand which are the news he or she skip is important for you for that you can follow one institute daily current affairs period for example our Shankar IAS have an IAS parliament telegram group as well as a website I followed the telegram so in the initial part what I did was in the everyday evening Shankar IAS published the important news articles of that day in that IAS parliament telegram group so go through those headlines and compare it with your own news now so that you can understand that this news which I did not read is important for UPS because it is published in this particular group or some news is may not be published in that telegram group that means this news I read very intensively is not important for the UPS so this comparison will enable you to rectify yourself which are the news are important or not important this is for the beginners because once you are in track like after 4-5 months of preparation you automatically understand which is the important news and which is the not important news you don't need for rechecking in those days but in the initial period you can do it and another thing is prepare the northern subject base like one sheet is for the quality one sheet for the economy one sheet for the science and technology and leave some space below each news so that a news may be in a transition and such kind of news new information may add to it in the subsequent days so if there is any new information on that particular news add those things in the left space and if you are well versatile comfortable with digital type of and not making like ever known then that is a very good option because many of the troopers are doing that and you can use those kind of applications also there is no barriers to use that so that is about the information and next thing is how to start with NCI days usually everyone says you need to start reading from 6 to 12 standard NCI days but by personal experiences you need to read only 8 to 12 NCI days and that too in the humanities subjects and these humanities subjects are history, geography, economy as well as sociology related texts so you need to read these NCI days thoroughly and start with the age standard and prepare notes based on that NCI day that is the must because NCI day is like a story book especially in the 8 and 9 standard and out of one page in a one or two pages you may get a couple of points only so when you do relation it is very very difficult to go through the entire stretch of NCI day book again and finding those couple of points present in each page so what you can do is you can prepare notes from the NCI day so then the revision will be very quick so there is no doubt in that so prepare notes based on NCI day for each textbook so that's about NCI day you should read history, geography especially history and geography then economy and sociology aspect as books can also read one tip to the candidates regarding the economy because NCI day data is some kind of one decade old data so when you go through the data just keep those data the factual things are not necessary in the economy because the UPSC even if asked usually UPSC doesn't ask any factual data regarding economy but even if asked the very important data in the recent past will be there in the question paper you don't need to remember all those GDT, trends in GDO all those GDT data all those GMP data for last 10 or 15 years but our NCI day book subtitles is a very slow process so this is the issue so keep that in mind when you read economy NCI day textbook but for the science background students especially those who book science subjects in placement and placement reading this sociology and economy looks are very essential because they do not have any kind of fundamental idea about the economy what is an economy because yesterday also I wrote some polls and the economy news is in the newspaper so for those candidates who feel difficult after reading the economy section of the newspaper they can go through the NCI get some basic idea what is GDT what is GMP what is capital income what is the fiscal deficit what is capital deficit because in newspaper those things may not be explained so if you have the basic ideas you may understand those news is very easy that is about the NCI day textbook so prepare now based on the NCI day textbook and another thing the beginner should do is the current uppers magazine any current uppers magazine you can follow but stick to one magazine do not run for many magazines because this is one common mistake that candidates do in the initial part that running behind material do not do that stick to very limited amount of materials your friend or your guide or your mentor may advise so many kind of materials but do not run for it if you are comfortable with one material then that is good this IAS parliament is publishing a compilation of materials that is a very good thing so many other institutes are also publishing monthly compilation of current uppers known every institutes having the same quality of material so you need not read all this material stick to one material revise it, revise it, revise it because revision is the most important part in the current uppers and also with regards to other subject to use so stick to one current uppers magazine monthly magazine and once the month ends start revising for the next one beat that monthly current uppers magazine so that you will get the entire revision of current uppers happen in the last month so this is about the beginning once you are completed with this you can go to standard textbook and remember again in the case of standard textbooks stick to one textbook because you can get hundreds of textbooks for each subject for example in the history you will get vibhin chandra you will get spectrum and so many other kind of textbooks are here in the market but stick to one and really carefully do not go because it's like my friend is reading another book so does he get any advantage so should I read that book also no do not censor those kind of things read only one material for extra addition of points and improving the quality of your answers do not run behind so many material that will reduce your memory skills that will reduce your time management also that affect your time that way so for the each subject you can follow one textbook like history I follow spectrum for the modern India for the ancient and medieval I follow the old NCRT textbooks and Tamil Nadu SCRT textbooks because old NCRT is very vast for the economy for you can follow remates thing but for the selected chapters for me for the quality you can follow that for lexmi car so these things are enough you know what are the messages of I level for this relation so go through those textbooks read it and for the not preparation if you feel that particular textbook is vast and very wide you can prepare notes but it is not essential for old textbook for example lexmi car which is very precise point by point it is it is actually in the presentation it's like that and if you are trying to make notes based on lexmi car finally you will get another lexmi car because you cannot cut a single point from lexmi car so making notes from lexmi car is not a few times but the presentation like you can make some charts you can make some tables from lexmi car and comparison studies those things can be done like smart work can be done that's about the these textbooks and standard materials then you have to do more tests because studying and performing exams are two different things you can study to any limit but the issue is how much we reproduce how effectively we reproduce in this examination especially in the prelims and names so for this mock test are very very important and I think the last one year the best thing I did in my strategy was attending mock test in shankar because in both prelims and names they attended mock test days the time table for that mock test I thoroughly followed I was able to manage my time very effectively and the thing is I was the time table of the mock test and the construction of the mock test was such a kind that I was able to cover the entire syllabus thoroughly and also get adequate revision so that was the one thing that I still injected to shankar because of a mock test for prelims that means you can do the same or if you in this kind of playing mock test are very difficult you can subscribe to online mock test also but mock test are very important from my previous attempt and the current attempt that only difference was actually the mock test in the previous attempt I only studied I did not attend any kind of mock test so I failed in the preliminary and in this attempt I did with mock test so I could rectify my situation so do the mock test like NTRT based mock test are they subject ways are they then full length are they so depending upon the feasibility and your time you can do mock test like 5 weekly or at least 2 or 3 times in a month and towards the end of the preparation and close to prelims you can do it every week like that so you can do that this is about the mock test and more details of the prelims based preparation we can go along go after sometime the next session so this is about the mock test and some additional things that you need to follow for the preparation strategy one thing is PID the government official website for communication of important schemes and important uses government measures are the PID you can follow either the PID website or PID mobile application both the things are very comfortable and the thing is you should read the PID every day prepare notes from it based on the demand of QTSE I would personally experience that very very important thing equally important to the newspaper because last time some more than 10 questions are directly asked from PID and those were technically difficult questions but I answered it very perfectly only because I followed PID so PID is an important source of material then if you are difficult in reading newspaper you can follow some youtube videos explaining Hindu newspaper only last course some 30 minutes you can do that but the issue is don't keep reading newspaper and go behind the videos explained you should read the newspaper first if you are not comfortable then you go to the videos and the PDFs because reading newspaper is not simply giving some information but that actually changes your thought processes your analytical skills your opinion formation so that you can answer very brilliant and very effectively in the main as well as during the first messages so reading newspaper is not simply gaining some GK points okay so it is about the changes in our analytical skills that is very important because many of the candidates these days keep newspaper reading and go to PDFs containing the new information that is not a good choice in my personal experience so then some other matter things like Yojana you can read it but the time consuming it is a very important topic Yojana in that particular month you can read it otherwise you can go with compilations then budget and this economic survey those things are also very important for the aspirin especially in the prelims as well as in the main but reading through the entire stretch of budget and economic service quite difficult for that also you can go to compilations and explaining videos because that is much more effective way of preparing budget and this economic survey then one additional point I can tell is Rajya Sabha TV especially for main answer writing and essay because Rajya Sabha TV you can subscribe it in the youtube it's a free channel and go through the topics of Rajya Sabha TV daily sometimes entire topics may not be needed for UTSC but some days very important topics are discussed it lasts only some 20 to 30 minutes you can see that particular discussion so that you will get all kind of perspective regarding a single subject the government perspective anti government perspective how to improve it the way forward everything will be there so it is simply like answering a main question so that is also an additional tip that I can give you so these are the things about the preparation strategy and about the coaching one question usually ask whether we need to go for coaching or not if you don't have a mentor if you don't know what to do in UTSC preparation coaching is a very very important thing if you have a perfectly 24-7 available mentor coaching coaching may not be necessary for you because he or she may be there to correct yourself but this is not the case for most of the candidates even I don't have a personal mentor so I joined coaching institute like Shankar so that they will rectify ourselves if we commit any kind of mistakes never preparation so in those cases coaching can be happen and this is about the basic things about the preparation adding over to it yes so we will take some questions that have come regarding whatever I don't have discussed so far regarding newspapers NCRT etc so one question regarding newspaper reading is how much time you invested for reading newspaper every day and if at all you miss some days newspaper how it could be handled and if you spend too much time in newspaper reading will it hamper the preparation like finishing newspaper will take a lot of time so what is the time you should spend for reading newspapers I said earlier that in the initial period it may be some 4-5 hours or more than 5 hours for completing a newspaper once you are in track like after 3-4 months you should complete the newspaper in 1.5-2 hours if you are not able to complete that then there are some issues in your newspaper reading you need to find out with the help of a mentor or a a senior person who is well versed in this because spending too much of time in newspaper even after some 6 months into preparation is something not good for your time management and about skipping newspaper first advice is try not to skip newspaper every day give some priority like if you skip one day newspaper then I think on the next day you can read it back but if you are skipping like 1 week newspaper or 2 week newspaper reading the entire back is not a good thing you can refer to some period for monthly compilation and then go with the current newspaper that is enough another question regarding economics NCRT so which all NCRT is to for economics 11th and 12th NCRTs are sufficient for economics you can start with 8th standard onwards for the economy but 11th and 12th are very crucial for the economy but see in the economy there are 2 issues like there is macro and microeconomy in the microeconomy is not important for UPSC preparation and also some statistics those kind of things are there for the commerce students those textbooks are not important only the macroeconomic textbooks are important for UPSC next question how much time did you have for your hobbies or you know free time apart from preparation hobbies see that is actually a personal discretion you should spend some time to refresh yourself also it is not like 24 hours you need not close the door and study if you complete they prescribe what target of yours in that particular day then you can spend some time for the hobbies as well as spending time with family because that will refresh you so I spend like in every 20 to 30 minutes I took a 5 or 10 minutes break so that it will refresh you because we cannot completely focus on a particular topic more than 20 minutes our brain will change focus after 20 to 30 minutes you can take a 5 minutes break eat something or drink something talk with your family members they come back and read again next question is regarding economic survey how do you effectively read economic survey and which part of economic survey both part 1 and part 2 are important actually part 2 is important for the preliminary examination part 1 is more important for the main examination part 1 is more deal with the policy the future aspect of the government vision so part 1 is important for the main exam so if you are preparing for prelims more focus should be given for part 2 if you are preparing for main more importance should be given for part 1 and the thinness reading the NDAF stretch of economic survey is not possible and it is very very time consuming process so you can follow compilations produced by any institute even the Shankar IAS is also making some YouTube videos for the economic survey explain so you can follow that and prepare no space for that okay so you have told that one year is the span enough for cracking the exam so is it enough to start from now to crack the 2021 exams yes of course 2021 we hope the exam will happen in June we don't know how much the delay of 2020 will affect the exam cycle of 2021 but hopefully if it happens in June this is high time for starting the preparation because now it is over you can start itself okay so next is regarding second ARC reports like second ARC are the important for prelims and how to effectively read them second ARC reports actually second ARC reports those kind of government reports especially related to civil services is more important for main exam because we can add the recommendation time to improve the quality of answers so the thing is we cannot read those kind of reports because they contain hundreds of pages the thing is we can go with compilation because following compilation is the kind of smart work because some people in some institute are spending some time and effort for giving this good compilation so we can use that so next question is regarding how much time did you spend for your preparation and how much hours should one invest in a day for the UPSC preparation again it is a personal choice see I believe that spending too much of time for UPSC preparation will not fetch a candidate anything rather than making him or her tired so if you spend some time try to use it effectively like if you are spending some three to four hours a day try to use it very effectively rather than spending 24 hours so that is what smart work is more important than pure hard work smart work is more important for the UPSC preparation for my personal thing I followed some four to five hours every day for UPSC preparation but that can stretch to some eight hours some nine hours some days then it may confine to some four hours some days depending upon one person okay so can you elaborate on how you utilize the mentorship program like how did you take the help of mentors and how you utilize their help see for the mentors like mentorship programs in coaching institute like in Shankar which is very very important for guiding ourselves towards our goals and to identify our mistakes in preparation that is the most important if there is a mentor then it is very easy to identify the mistakes so I used those mentorship programs to identify the mistakes especially important in the main answer writing because in prelims it is like an objective type of examination we can either make an answer correct or wrong but in the main it is like improving the quality of answers so for me Shankar mentorship for the main preparation was more and more important because after every examination I get available feedback how to improve these answers how to change my thought processes and making opinions so correction is the most important part that you need to get from the mentor okay next question is regarding the books the books you should follow for each subject actually I put a facebook post regarding those books I followed if the viewers can follow that then it was good should I repeat all those subjects? no like they can write I think the facebook post is good enough if you have not seen you can check Arun's profile where he has enlisted all the books that you have to read for the preparation and what all books he read that is an elaborate list we will move to the next question so like if we start preparing from now with standard books when should we start exclusive study for prelims like when should we start taking mocks for prelims etc see preparation for the UPSC the better thing is you combine the prelims and main preparation together if you are starting one year before because so many topics are shared for both prelims and main and reading in a combined way is very very important for managing the time and there are some exclusive portions for the main like it takes those things and optional subjects also I don't think that you should focus prelim separately main separately you can combine together and go forward and two months before prelims examination you can completely shift your focus to the prelims oriented and from one year onwards like if you are looking for the next year June's prelims then this year June's also you can start writing mocks but the frequency of the mocks should increase towards the end of preparation like if you are doing mocks right now like in once in two weeks then towards the end of the preparation that is just before the prelims examination that should be like twice like once in three days like that okay so next question regarding some source where can we get a chapter-wise topic-wise MCQs multiple choice questions for prelims and main question which source you refer for that chapter-wise which means NCRT maybe topic-wise like maybe I think quality is free likewise topic-wise MCQs actually I for the mocks I followed the Shankar's mocks only because the timetable for Shankar's was like each subject and within each subject subjects that way so I followed that only I did not outsource any other mocks so if you cannot able to attend the Shankar's mocks I think online so how to prepare short notes for each subject each subject it is like there are two things the sources of short notes can be either the newspaper or the books for the newspaper I think read an article read and use completely and then prepare so that there is some works you can give to your brain like memorizing analysis analytical kind of process is happening in your brain for the books I said if the book is very vast and wide and it is like a novel then you can prepare notes from that but I won't advise am I audible there was a technical glitch I guess in between the now 30 seconds was not audible okay so I said like for the textbooks like Laxmi Khan there is no need for preparing notes from that underlining attention but see if you prepare notes it should be comprehensive so that is the key for that note and you can prepare in the bullet notes or like a paragraph as you wish but it should be comprehensive so that it is easy to do okay next is regarding the creation of a timetable so how to create a timetable for preparation and how to divide time between current affair and static subjects first of all I did not follow any kind of timetable in my UPSC preparation like walk up in 6 o'clock, 6 30, 6 30 no I did not follow any kind of timetable thing actually the strategy was I actually stick to the Shankar's mock test timetable like every week there was an exam so in the end of stretch of that week in addition to the newspaper I completely devoted the entire week for the particular that is the kind of strategy I followed rather than having a daily timetable so if you wish to have a daily timetable according to your priorities and your personal aspects you can prepare one see timetable should be flexible should not be written that is the important part and for the time management I think timetable is a good thing the candidates wish to do they can but personally I did not follow any kind of timetable okay so when did you start concentrating on main answer writing purely main answer writing I started after a brilliant examination only that is since 2019 June and before that I did not have an exposure to answer writing the only writing skill that I continued was preparing notes from newspaper other than that I did not have any answer writing session before before art and culture is NCRT sufficient or books like Mithin Senghanya how is it going NCRT is not sufficient for that even Nithin Senghanya is also not sufficient for that but Nithin Senghanya selected reading through Nithin Senghanya is important because some topics like dance forms like ancient art and architecture those kind of things are well explained in Nithin Senghanya but every chapters are not at work so have a selected reading through the chapters and then you can add some materials like there is an art and culture section so if you want you can read that also but see any material is not complete or 100 percentage were short for UPS anything can ask from any material that is we approach a mentor only for preparing for the main exam or should we approach the mentor for the whole preparation if it is the all preparation then that will be the better because see there should be some personal connection regarding the preparation between the mentor and the candidate so if the mentor know the candidate very well before the link itself then he can guide also see because I already said that the preparation is not like separate link separate link it should be combined together so if we are getting a mentor as early as possible then you can have a good guidance as early so that you won't waste much time ok next question regarding mock test when do we start taking the mock test should we start taking mock test only after completing the whole syllabus or before that itself no no no first of all completing the whole syllabus itself is a myth we can't do that if you are waiting for that you can't attend any mock test start writing the mock test along the beginning of your preparation itself like if you start preparation today you can attend first mock test after some 10 to 15 days so that is the question ok there are a few questions regarding the optional subject interview etc which I think we will take after the next session and you discuss about the things etc after that I think we will take the questions on optional interview etc is that good yeah yeah yeah so that is the questions for the time being so we will move to the next session where Aru will discuss about problems preparation main preparation specifics then we will come back and take more questions so over to you Aru I think we can go to the prelims focus strategies and the things do's and don'ts that you need to focus ok I am out of the building you are out of the building so as I said earlier prelims completely or exclusive prelims preparation is not good because so many topics are common for prelims and names so it is a combined version of preparation is more important you can start preparing prelims and names together you can manage your time very effectively and see prelims for the prelims it is an objective kind of question so if you are focusing completely on objective type of question our thought process will be in one form like if we are seeing some trivial things we will we may think that oh this is the last for UPSC some trivial information we will stick to it but a wider thing will be lost especially subject like history especially modern history getting to end their story of Indian freedom fight is something very very important what happened in one decade is very very important rather than sticking to what happened in 1935 war was 18 so those kind of trivial things it is very very difficult to remember so if you have the Indian story then you can add some of these trivial points to that storyline so memorizing and recollecting it will be very very easy and also for the geography also understanding the concept and then go to the trivial knowledge is the most important otherwise it is very difficult to memorize those points so the main and the prelims preparation should start together then there are some exclusive topics for the main like ethics paper like world history like so those kind of topics are there so you can prepare for that exclusively in a main so what to do for the prelims so prelims see prelims question paper it is like a hundred questions are there in the GS1 and you need to score some 110 or above to have a confidence of getting about the cutoff line see we cannot predict the cutoff line but if it is around 115 or 120 then we can comfortably start the preparation for the main if it is like hundred or 95 then we will be like in the inch and the next entire three months or at least for one and a half months till the UPSA publish the prelims result our preparation will be not much efficient because we will think over and over again whether I will pass the preliminary examination or not so comfortably getting some 110 or 115 or I hope will give you confidence to start preparing the main so for the prelims examination even though it is kind of an objective examination there are analytical questions are there because if the candidates who went through the mock test or the previous question paper can understand that for the prelims it is not simply mugging these points like what happened in 1984 what happened in Syria in 2000 those kind of questions will not ask but analytical type of questions are asked and it is like options are like both A and B A, B, C both A and C so if you know if you can you are able to answer that question only if you know all the statements so you need to study all those things rather than sticking to one or two questions so in the prelims the issue is you can only under percentage sure about an answer in around some 30 to 40 questions out of 100 questions so you can answer it comfortably without any doubt so but the 30 questions or 40 questions are not enough to put you about a cut off mark so what to do is actually intelligence guesses elimination techniques that is need to follow during the preliminary examination because preliminary examination I believe that you should go through the exam in 3 phases that is what I did first phase is read the end stretch of question paper from 1 to 100 or 100 to 1 whatever your priority then answer those questions which is 100% confident that you are confident 100% about the answers answer those questions so it may be some 30 35 or 40 questions even a topper like all India and Europe know more than 45 questions confidently so the next reading is about 50-50 chance questions like you know that 2 options are not an answer and you are highly suspecting one option is the answer and trying to eliminate the third one so those kind of questions are there it may be some 20 questions we will do with some 20-25 questions and the second reading is about to find out those questions intelligence testing and elimination are very, very important and for that intelligence testing and elimination a main oriented preparation will help you to understand or link that questions and options with some other things and finding out this is not the option this option is wrong so I can eliminate that so this is the reading so you cannot answer any 100 questions with confidence so that is the first thing you have to keep in your mind so this intelligence testing elimination techniques is only possible if you attend mock tests that you are reading and filing up of knowledge is not enough to do this intelligence testing only if you practice mock tests or model examinations then you can go through this kind of processes like elimination that is the important of mock tests and the third important one regarding preliminary examination is even after the second phase of creating you may read some 70-75 questions well and stop there because don't go beyond 85 questions attempting in a preliminary examination if you are going beyond 85 questions there is a high chance of getting negative marks so it is enough to answer some 75 maximum 80 questions with some sort of confidence don't go beyond that that is my personal advice because in the first attempt I did 95 questions and when the key came I did many many negative I got a huge amount of negative marks which put me in a disadvantageous position so don't go for that kind of stupidity so the issue is you need to stick to some 75-80 questions in the last year like in the 2019 I only attempted 72 questions so that was my fact in the third round you can go with some questions which is confusing but see some questions may contain answer in itself so you can find those questions in the third reading and answer it if you are not reaching to the mark of 70 questions so there are three readings that you should do during the preliminary examination so next is about the negative marking you know there is negative marking that is every round answers of the total mark of questions will be reduced that is 0.66 marks and you should limit the negative markings because many of the candidates are all behind the cut-off only because of this negative marking so be cautious be prepared how to tackle this negative marking and about the preliminary examination the most important key factor or another important factor is the C-Sat paper many candidates take it lightly but the issue is in the last couple of years the C-Sat paper the quality is increasing so that there is a high chance that I have seen many candidates that they get good marks in GS1 that is above the cut-off but they did not qualify in the C-Sat paper only because of they neglect that part so don't do those kind of don't end in those kind of tragedy so you should give importance for the C-Sat paper I believe that those with science background like in a field tech degree as a graduation and so should do some science subjects in the high secondary classes they obviously have an advantage in C-Sat doing the aptitude and mathematics so it is not a pure mathematical question but it is a basic mathematical question so they have an advantage but the art subjects students have an advantage in the comprehensive session they can balance between comprehension aptitude and the math so you can have an entire preparation for C-Sat also but before that I would recommend you should do the C-Sat question paper of at least last 5 years during the beginning of your preparation itself so you can understand that whether you can manage the C-Sat paper or not if you face any kind of difficulty then go for some textbooks of C-Sat paper and go for some coaching or mock test for C-Sat paper so that you can manage it perfectly but if you are when you do the last 5 years of questions of C-Sat and you are comfortably getting good marks like only 30% of the mark out of 230% is enough so that is 66 marks so if you are getting good marks like MO100, 120 or 140 then you are comfortable with C-Sat and if you do not spend much time for the C-Sat preparation provided in the last 2 months of preliminary preparation you should focus some time with the C-Sat also because we should not neglect C-Sat paper that is an advice that I need to give to the candidates but also feel difficulty should go for some textbooks or some YouTube videos or coaching classes for the C-Sat paper as well in the initial period itself because towards the end we want to revise and complete so spending so much of time for C-Sat during that when we close the prelims we should we should be cautious about the C-Sat paper also so this is about the preliminary preparation over to Arjun ok, thank you Arun we will take questions now so the questions which are when how often should we revise the topics which we have studied revision is like it is again a personal thing usually I did was every weekend I just passed through the topics I covered in the last one week you can do it in every 2 weeks also and I think at least once in a month you should go through the topics you have covered in the last one that will be ok if it is weekly it was good it is like every 3 days is the most efficient way of revision but revising in every 3 days may not be possible for every candidate so at least going a revision for a bi-weekly model will be sufficient ok, so next question is when did you start your preparation did you start it from your your MBBS date or after that no, I start preparation only after my internship that was the house agency that was in 2018 only but you will leave my internship one thing I did was I started reading Hindu except that I did not do anything for MBBS ok, so I think if you have any more questions you can ask else the questions are about optional so after means we will take how did you choose options of this etc which maybe you can explain when you discuss the means an audible, hello yes, yes, yes so there are normal questions so we can move to the main ok, we can start with the mains preparation see, I said you that mains preparation should be started along with Perlin but there are some software which is exclusive for the mains and my advice is before the Perlin examination itself you should at least go once to these topics like ethics because ethics is a full paper 250 marks on there you should go at least once through the ethics paper before the Perlin so that after the mains after the Perlin examination you can only like a revision for ethics rather than like starting a new subject so that is very very effective standard second thing is the answer writing for the mains and how to write good answers for the mains see, ultimately the mains is the most important part which determine our rank because there is out of the total 2025 1750 marks on there mains examination so writing good answers in mains is a very important thing I did not have a particular mains answer writing session before the Perlin but I started main answer writing session after the Perlin but if the candidates are well enough like wish to write answers then they can start before the Perlin so that is a good thing then how to write good answers in the mains see, mains answer is not like writing anything and everything that we know regarding that particular subject the answer should be based on the demand of the pushing answer should be based on that particular aspect of the pushing and it is not like a university exam type answering like in the university exams we like we write everything we know related to that subject so that we will get at least some marks but UPSC is not like that answer to the questions you can ask so the thing is you can write answers in even the paragraph forms or bullet point forms if I follow this mixture of these two see, ultimately our A needs to entertain the examiner who value our paper and get maximum marks from that particular examiner so if we are using a mixed type of answer writing like some questions bullet point some questions paragraph then the examiner will not see both when he and alive he or she analyze our paper so the issue is track the examiner's attention towards your answer that's the only thing so I followed a mixed type of thing each answer before starting each answer we need to read the question very very carefully what is the demand of questions how many parts the question have what is the key word in the question what is asked in the question so these kind of things we need to understand after reading the question itself and you can take some 30 seconds to think and make a framework for the answer and then start writing the answer it is not like all of a sudden you need not jump to an answer so the first thing is understanding the key word each question the UPSC have a key word like discuss or describe analyze critically analyze explain so compare so these kind of keywords are there and understanding the demand of this key word is very very important second thing is what is the demand of the question that is what the question is asked about so read it what are the parts of the question and identifying the part is very very important you should answer that particular question in that chronological order because the first part need to answer first and the second part need to answer second and in the reverse order the examiner may not end the time to give you a good mark so answer in a chronological order so regarding the answer writing every good answer has a three part like an introduction a modi and a conclusion an introduction should be catchy introduction is the thing or is the fact or is the key tool that attracts the examiner to your answer so introduction should be catchy some catchy word should be there in the introduction that is very very effective moral of answer writing and you should underline that catchy word in that introduction so examiner when go through that introduction understand that yes this candidate know something about this answers so I should read the modi of this question also because he or she know something about this answer so introduction should be catchy it should not be long but some three or four sentences is enough for introduction then comes to the body the body part as I said you can either try paragraph or bullet point both are acceptable depending upon the question because some questions may not be possible to write in bullet point so you can approach a paragraph style in the body you should answer only to the question you should not block anything you should not make any major blunders in that answer and the thing is candidates may underline those blunders so you should not do that and about the improving the quality of answer you can add diagrams one thing you can add diagrams diagrams like a road chart or like a map or anything that seems looks good and comfortable to include the important point can be added there is no need to add multiple diagrams on a single question there is only need of a single diagram for a single question and there is no need to add diagrams for all questions also because same kind of road chart for every answer it's not good to see that answer sheet so if there is a really need of a diagram there is no possibility to add a diagram just skip you need not add any diagram for that question and the thing is put some diversity in the diagram like it should not be road chart everywhere it should not be a map if it is in the one add a pie diagram so this kind of diversity should be there and for the geography question I think you can add maps like maps of India and the world map also including maps doesn't mean that you should draw a beautiful map of India you should scale the map just a rough work just to identify the north south east and west that is enough and so this is about the diagrams I used diagrams like road chart, map, pie diagrams even graphs during my main answer writing that's the one thing we can improve the quality second thing is writing headings and subheadings like some answers like for example what are the reasons for X and how to improve Y if such kind of questions comes you can divide the answer into headings and subheadings and one thing you can do is write those headings in capital letters and underline it underlining with another color pen for example if you are writing in a blue color underlining with a black color pen is a very good thing you can also use multi color pens for writing diagrams and maps I used color pencils to write diagrams and maps so it is more attractive than doing everything with the same ink so this is another thing so writing headings and subheadings then another important aspect to improve the quality of answer is underlining keywords underlining keywords doesn't mean that you should underline everything in the answer in a single sheet you should note under more than 5 keywords so you should under like some 4 or 5 keywords you can write those keywords in capital letters also and if you underline keywords in some question in some other question you can put it inside so he or she will do good math so this is about the body of the answer finally the conclusion conclusion is a must and remember the question what is the demand of the question when you write the conclusion because some question may be an S some question may be a common type question, some question may ask your opinion so the conclusion should include that particular thing yes or no or your common your opinion and the conclusion should not be more than some 3-4 sentences 3-4 sentences should be enough and the conclusion should be in an optimistic way like you can add a way forward even if in the question it is not asked so a way forward in optimistic conclusion or if you put some positive aspect in the conclusion then the examiner will understand that yes he is a good candidate for as a public servant because he or she has an idea how to go forward and what to do more in the future so that kind of personality can be operated from a conclusion so this is about the answer writing and then there is a particular paper that is the case studies I think for the case studies an ethics paper it is need not be completely a theory paper kind of answer you can add life examples because in ethics paper you can add life examples or experiences in your life rather than going for the textbook experiences because the hundreds of candidates are reading the same textbook so they all write the same kind of example so the examiner will understand that or will have a prejudiced mindset of that he will write this example for this answer and when he or she see the same example in the answer yes as I expected and the marks may not be awarded but if you add some real life examples that happened in the day or the last week in that life then that will add color to the answer so the examiner will understood that this gay or this girl is actually looking for these kinds of things in the community or in the society and that is a good train so we can give more marks and in the case studies also you should be in a diplomatic way in a positive way but you should bind to the laws and the constitution that is very very important that is about the ethics paper and see all this kind of answer writing skills cannot be developed over one day or two days but writing mock test is very very important getting good feedback is very very important and for me it was Shankar and the mentors in the Shankar did all this so I thank them for improving the quality of my answer and coming to the optional papers I think selecting an optional subject is a very tricky choice that candidates need to take see my advice is you should connect the optional subject in the initial part of preparation itself because you should not wait for the prelims to complete to select an optional subject because you cannot read the entire thing in the three month gap between three and seven and it will increase the confusion in the preparation so select the optional subject when you start preparing for flexible services like start preparing for the prelim system so for selection of optional subjects say there is a link that the x optional subject that you put mark y optional subject very bad no nothing like that UPS is a fair body UPS will give equal opportunity to every candidate who select some optional subject and they don't put any candidate at disadvantage or advantage by selecting some option so any candidate can select any optional subject there is nothing wrong with that but before selecting the optional subject you should keep some points in your mind the second thing is about your graduation if there is a subject related to your graduation for example in my scenario it was medical science I took medical science because I did graduation at the same time then you can go for that second thing is you are interested in that subject for example many students are taking malayalam optional because they have an interest in reading books novels and poetry and they have a writing skill so that interest should be very very important a subject that you do not have any interest to read should not take as an optional subject because optional subject is the one thing that relaxes you in between general studies preparation so in that sense optional subject should not add more pressure and should not become a burden in between the preparation so interest in that subject is very important in terms of availability of materials and coaching classes because writing mock test is also very important for optional subject so looking in the availability if for that particular subject if the availability is good if the coaching classes are available materials are available mock tests are available for that particular option so considering these three facts you should make a short list from three to four optional subjects before starting the preparation from the UPSC website itself and go through the syllabus of these short listed optional subjects and then take an informed decision which is the help of a mentor or a senior person to select which is the best optional subject that students so that is the decision making process because it is the most important subject in the UPSC preparation because that will cover 500 marks a single subject covering 500 marks that decision should be very very important for me I was concerned about medical science I did a lot of investment in the medical science in my entire five years college so when I went through the syllabus of medical sciences it was like a revision for me because I went through the entire topics when I was in college even though there is now coaching available for medical science and even though I didn't know that any more my confidence that I had in medical science enabled me to choose that particular subject rather than going for more and I just like I am interested to read those medical science textbooks because I loved medical science and I enjoyed reading those subjects so that interest helped me to relax in between general studies when I went through the medical science subject and I selected medical science as an option so this is about the options subject selection and before the prelims itself you should go to the end day of stretch of syllabus of optional subject so that is the advisable thing and during after the prelims it should be a revision for the option subject this for the candidate who started preparing one year before the prelims is the best thing but of course for those candidates who started preparation before 3-4 months before the prelims it is not possible to read the end day of stretch of option subject they can do it in between the prelims and me but for the others they should read at least one they should study at least once the end day of optional subject before the prelims so this is about the optional subject and you need not worry about the qualifying paper of me if you have an average ability to write English in Malayalam that is the regional subject then it is very easy to pass through at least one or two years of previous question paper you can write can win through before attending that particular examination a high quality language knowledge is not necessary for qualifying in that qualifying paper English as well as Malayalam so this is about the main preparation that I did thank you Arun so if you have any doubts you can ask them put them through that question and answer chat box can put the questions in that question and answer chat box so one question he got us yes is it a myth that we should include diagrams flowcharts, maps etc in the main sanser must for getting marks if you add diagrams flowcharts and maps it is good because the answer becomes more attractive and catchy but I won't say that you should add diagrams for every question for adding a diagram no that is not necessary if there is a scope for adding diagrams and charts and maps you can add that otherwise you need not do it okay so which sources you refer for ethics ethics actually I had a personal class notes so I preferred that then some selected topics of lexicon lexicon is a very dry book for ethics so reading the entire book is not comfortable for the country so some selected portions like definitions of the keywords for example what is the definition of attitude what is the definition of emotional intelligent or emotional quotient what are the determinants of attitude so those kind of definition you can follow some textbooks and for answer I think the theory is just 50% of answer writing in ethics unlike other studies paper and the rest thing should come from yourself so that is why I said adding life examples life experiences even adding example I even quoted some cinemas that I saw in the last one year I quoted some lines from some novels I read in the last one year so if you are adding those kind of things it is an advantage for the candidate adding the same kind of example like in America that happens in Europe this happens like every candidate will give same kind of example so the example may not be pleased to be those kind of examples so adding example is very important in addition to the theory in ethics paper okay so next question is regarding answering all 20 questions is it necessary to attend all 20 questions within 3 hours the exam duration if you ask me it is necessary to attend 20 questions yes because skipping some questions it is like 100% you did not get the mark for that particular question so if it is possible you need to attend all the 20 questions but say sometimes some questions may be very direct like in the case of science and technology in the case of environment that we do not have any idea about that question if so we can skip someone maximum 2 questions but you should compensate it with other answers but for me I attended all questions in the all general studies paper so if it is possible it is answer all questions that is a very very good thing completing the answer sheet is I will say it is a must okay so next question is how to manage your study time when we have you know coaching for 4 hours for GS and then another 2 hours for optional etc so how do you manage your self study time see first thing is in the coaching time or the classes time also a part of UPS so the thing is concentrate or focus on the classes learn maximum from the classes so that once you come back to your room you can go through those class notes very easily even I attended the classes like till noon there were classes and in the afternoon once I returned back to my room I started reading newspaper for the first 2 hours then I revise the class notes for that day then I go through the other topics and everyday atleast spend 1 hour for optional subject also because you should know low touch with optional subject so managing time is like focus on the classes, learn maximum from the classes so that you need not read the entire thing once you back home so next question is regarding essay writing how open should is essay writing? I think it is advisable to write atleast some 5-10 essay before we attend the real examination I wrote some 8 essays before I attended the real examination so it is not necessary to write essay every week atleast once in a month or 2 months you can write an essay get corrected by your mentor so that is taken next is a follow up question on the diagram doing so if you draw diagrams like that can we manage the time? see the thing is diagrams will use your space so there are another advantage if you add some flow chart you can keep the word limit because the diagram will consume some sort of space in the answer sheet so even if you answer the rest part of the answer sheet one thing is you can manage the word limit second thing is you can actually manage the time because drawing some 4 boxes and drawing some flow chart is much more easier than writing a paragraph so actually the diagram is like saving some time rather than consuming so you should be well versed with the diagram you should draw and learn how to write an Indian math in some 25 seconds or 30 seconds as I already said it is not a scalable math it may not be a beautiful math math of India or the world but you should be able to draw the math in some 30 seconds so that will save your time and you can efficiently manage the word limit do we have any mathematical questions in GS paper for ethics, integrity and attitude? see there is no pure math but mathematical questions we can expect but this is a basic mathematical question so need not worry to read and learn them their mathematical concepts for GS paper too if the candidate go through the previous question paper I think he or she might be able to understand what's the kind of question actually the question was about GS paper for means ethics do we have any questions? in ethics mathematical no way no questions in ethics so is there any word limit prescribed for the mains answer idea yes there is word limit there are two kind of questions asked in the mains 10 mark question and 15 mark question so for both there is word limit so you need to stick to that word limit but see the examiner or the paper evaluator who wrote the entire word just like a general assessment only so if you write in a legible way like giving some enough spaces then that is enough and limit to the space that is given in the answer sheet that is more important than the word limit because examiner will understand that the candidate is limited the answer to the space means he or she fits to the word limit also so for that candidate can count the words when he or she started writing answers so that he or she will understand what is the number of words the candidate is able to write in a paragraph then that cannot just the word limit so that is the best priority so it is no need to count every words no that is not a rough assessment there is a question on the word limits in SA also SA papers yeah SA also the word limit is what I prioritize is more than word limit space limit because I completed all the paper I did not leave any section in the answer sheet I believe that my paragraphs and answers are the spaces that I consume is equivalent to the word limit so in SA also it is like you can stick to the space limit if you are writing in a very small letter and that is true very close and intensive then the examiner will understand that she close the word limit so it should be in a legible way it should be some decent amount of type should be there for the answer for the letter so you can stick to the word limit nothing to fear about it is just a matter of preparation there is one more question again regarding the material so three subjects ethics which material to follow environment ecology which material science and technology which material for ethics actually I followed my class notes and then some chapters in lexicon that is the thing that I follow for environment the current affairs system must and the Shankara is environment or textbook these are the two things that I followed I think clubbing together the current affairs with Shankara is environment textbook is the most efficient way because if you read something in the current affairs for example recently there is current affairs about EIA you can read the chapter about EIA in the Shankara is textbook or for environment so that will be the better way of utilizing the time and for the science and technology and for the environment the candidate if he or she is not in the science battle go through the plus two science textbook environment chapter there are some four to five chapters in high secondary plus two NCRD science textbook go through that for the science and technology actually I followed current affairs only the monthly compilation and the IAS parliament news is about science and technology so those things are enough and science and technology science and technology I did not follow any particular textbook I followed current affairs and current affairs associated static portion and I think that will be get them the monthly compilation from those institutes like IAS parliament so next question is about the order in which you should write the main censors like is there any particular order can we start from the last question can we write the fifth question first so is there any order to follow while we write the main censors see I believe in the concept that the first impression is the best impression so what I did was in the end day 20 question I write 1 to 5 in the first test then I went to the 11 to 20 question because those are the 15 mark question so where if we keep some 15 mark question then we will be in dilemma because we lost the entire 15 mark so I followed the order 1 to 5 first then 11 to 20 then came back to 6 to 10 so that was the order that I followed next question is about the qualifying paper the land readers so is it possible for someone to pass that qualifying paper if they do not know how to write as of now how to write as of now they do not know how to write so it is possible to pass the paper I believe the candidate have an average writing and reading skill in the regional languages if so it is okay if there is panic about the qualifying paper then I think you should go through some 2 to 3 years of question paper and assess yourself for an average student who can read and write English and regional language it is easy to pass through there is nothing to add yes now we can move to the last session and we can discuss about the interview experience so the UPSC the last stage is actually the interview more precisely the personality test so as I said earlier this is a personality test it is not an interview like we see in some other jobs where the UPSC board actually look for your personality know the knowledge because UPSC already tested your knowledge through preliminary examination as well as names examination there is no need to build up your knowledge except refining it for the personality test so personality test I think communication is the key but that does not mean that you need to speak English like foreigner like a citizen of England or United States no that is not needed and there is no need for focusing on the grammar mistakes whether we are using the correct phrases that is also not important see the only thing is you should not make any blunders or huge mistakes that is easily cast by the board members other than as an average learning or speaking skills in English is enough for the interview and the only thing is you should talk with confidence you should talk without getting stressed without getting tired so that is the key so regarding the interview preparation the best method of preparation is actually accepting some mock interviews by mock interviews like you need not attend many mock interviews like 10 20 mock interviews that is not needed but you can attend some decent number like 5 or 6 I attended 5 mock interviews before my preparation twice in Shankar also so this mock interview is actually like enable you to understand what is the demand of an interview or the personality test and also to modify the mistakes that you are so after each mock interview you will become a better presenter so about the interview preparation I said the knowledge you don't need to worry about it the important thing is the detailed application form over and up that was filled before and after names examination so in that particular detailed application form which contains almost entire details about the candidates starting from 9 the parents 9, their occupation our entrance where they reside now our educational background what are the subjects we study how much marks we go what is the job experience where all they work whatever our hobbies our extracurricular activities like our career preferences our service preferences so all those things are included in the DAF so majority most of the times the interview is focusing on the DAF in addition to that some current affairs and opinion based questions can also come so in the current affairs I think we should continue reading newspaper for the interview preparation we can also follow the monthly magazine if you want to revise the current affairs of some not 6 months because your PSU board is rarely go beyond that so you can go to the monthly magazine also but see reading newspaper is entirely different for the interview preparation as well as the other part of the year because reading newspaper doesn't mean that you need to read some trivial news or some mind use that is not necessary you should stick to the major news and the local news are more important for the interview preparation for example news is regarding Kerala for a candidate from Kerala that is very important important news is coming from your district which can have the ability to get the national importance those kinds of news are very important the news is regarding their education for example on the medical graduate so my interview happened after the corona period so the entire stretch of the newspapers are filled with corona starting from virus to vaccine so everyone know about the virus is up to vaccine so I need to prepare for those things so if there is any news regarding their education that also should be well prepared and for the interview I think I already told you the knowledge is something that can be the personality is the most important and interview you should express your personality you should be calm you should be quiet you should express your ideas and use in a very polite manner you should not be arrogant even if you have a political inclination you should not exhibit that before the board and you should look like an ideal candidate to serve the nation so that is the key and your body language matters you can use the non-rubber communication you should be pleasant you should smile you can nod your head you can use hand gesture but it should not be the extreme you should not sit idle and you should not like use the extreme kind of the body gesture so that is also important and another thing is the communication and see in the interview you should be honest and you should follow integrity the honesty means you should not bluff any answer see in my interview they asked about the books in palliative care I did not read that book so I said I don't know exactly so they are testing whether you have the ability to say I don't know because they cannot learn and study the entire thing under the sky for the UPS interpretation there are hundreds of things that we don't know but the UPSC board is checking whether you have the guts to say no or I don't know to them if you don't so rather than going for bluffing you should say you should be honest with yourself and if you have any doubt regarding some answers you can seek the permission of the board like sir can I take a guess sir I don't know the extent but can I try to answer them politely you can ask for the permission the UPSC board can keep it and you can follow that integrity is like answering something in the initial part of the interview answering something in the end will identify that for the same question if you answer in a diverse way in the initial part that shows that doubt the integrity of yourself and that will put you into your party so the integrity is also very very important in the interview the UPSC board members there are five members in the board the chair by the UPSC member and four members are invited from outside from the area sector so they are all experienced persons they have an experience more than your age so combined experience five times our age is there so even if you do something wrong they will pick it up easily and they are well versed to pick the real inside our mind so you should be very careful about it and for the preparation the preparation can go along with preparing doubt starting from your nine what is your nine mean whether there is any famous person who shares the same nine from your date of birth any important things happen any important person died or born in that particular day those kind of questions can come from the name age and date of birth to your state like if you are from Kerala questions can be asked about Kerala so this kind of preparation strategy and then current interface also you should follow you should be well thought out with your graduation I think there is nothing much to fear about the interview there are lots of myths about the interview like they will grill you they will tease you something like grilling you that is just to identify your personality and nothing else I think those candidates who face degree get good marks in the interview there are many myths in our social media regarding who gets interview you should know stick to it rather than stick to the experience of the candidates who went to interview so this is about the interview preparation I think this is the last part you should worry about the interview preparation do some more interviews and correct yourself you can do some one-on-one sessions with your mentor so that identifying some void or areas of gaps in the preparation and you can correct it it is like if you do well in films and names and if you have an average communication ability then your personality test will go through the interview thank you Anand for that great session, before the first question regarding your interview experience with you PNC how was the interview from PNC? my interview actually happened after the corona crisis in July 27 so interview experience along with interview there was going to deadly in the time of corona so that is an issue interview just like we sat with face mask, face shield and gloves quite embarrassing for the country like how much able we are community and the interview members are sat far away from us so there is issues like whether we are audible or not to be chair and other members so those kind of issues are there but it went through and see getting inside from the gate of the UPSC we have lost many experiences so each thing is very important so this was my first interview I heard a lot of stories so what I felt is something different so every candidate should tell that I think about the questions I think most of the questions are stick to the medical science and corona because this is a high time for asking corona questions some unexpected questions were there about my hobbies but other than that the interview was very funny nothing much unexpected happen so can we use regional language during the interview we can use but see if you are using regional language it is like you need to opt for regional language I think before applying for Phyllis itself but if you opt for regional language for interview you should write that exam also in regional language you need so that you will get an interpreter or translator for the interview you can touch interview in Malayalam or regional language there are many candidates who do it in Hindi and other regional languages are selected there is nothing wrong in that but see if you are above average in English there is no need to worry about this communication barriers you can do it well if you are using English you can directly communicate your ideas and views if you are translating or intermediating to another person see there is there will be there we cannot ensure that the ideas and views are translated 100% as what we mean so it is better to use it in English if it is not possible if you are really applied of it you can use regional language next question is regarding the questions in the interview like current affairs what all do they ask current affairs graduation subject are the questions like a rapid fire some candidates actually face rapid fire question but nothing to worry about if you don't know the answer you can just tell that I did not get an experience of rapid fire about the current affairs I think last 6 months current affairs is very important and you should read that interview days newspaper also because usually the members are sitting with newspaper so they can ask and other than that current affairs regarding your state your country the entire world which is very very having an important aspect in the case of graduation can be asked for example in the current affairs in India China relations in the last 2-3 months where there news everyday so current affairs regarding that has been asked for many candidates even to me that was asked but it was through the India-Japan relations because my hobby was the bonsai tree so it has relations with Japan so interview board asked India-Japan relations with respect to China so those kind of things can be asked graduation subject I should I think we should deliver to the graduation subject too because if they ask some basic question about graduation and we are saying I don't know sir this is an output we are not specialists but some basic questions regarding graduation we should do that for interview is it sufficient that we start preparation after the mains apart from reading newspaper when should we start the preparation for interview actually I start a preparation after the mains only like after the mains result published I did not have any previous experience with regarding interview and I did not have any preparation regarding that but I continuously read the newspaper between the mains examination declaration of mains result but if you are like if you have a very kind of inferiority complex very low concerns regarding communication I think you can start some mirror training like standing in front of the mirror when they are speaking in English about some topics that is a one good thing then other thing is you can record videos in mobile phones about telling about some topics and you can see how facial expression how communications are going in your mobile so those kind and then corrections can be made in that that can be done if you have time in between mains and films preparation so otherwise it is okay to start after the mains examination because they will get enough time because they will get some three months before the mains result in our self published and another one one we will get before the interview also some four to five months is sure sure so that is enough for the preparation so can we openly criticize the government government's key news policies etc in the mains and interview or should we always be in favor of the government as the ultimately we are all public servants we need to make policies for the government and the government policies but that doesn't mean that we can't criticize the government of course we can criticize the government but in an informed way like if you are criticizing government schemes or government policies you should be able to substantiate your stamp like see every policy and programs is not true and it is not 100% successful every schemes and programs have its own failures and its own drawbacks so if you can substantiate that drawbacks you can criticize government but criticism should be in a progressive way criticism should be in a constructive way not like that of the criticism happened in politics like the opposition criticism to the government is like that is not the kind of criticism that we need to give to the UPSC board or to the mains answer I think see in mains where is the question key word critical analysis in that question there is enough ample scope for criticizing some programs and policies so the only thing is if we criticize we should be able to substantiate that it should be a biased or prejudiced way so next question regarding hobbies they ask anything about the hobbies so if suppose that your hobby is reading books will they ask about any particular book etc in the interview I think when you put hobbies if you specifically mentioned some hobbies that will be the best like reading books is like a blanket information it's like a Pandora box they can ask anything what is the book you are reading what kind of so specifically mentioned like reading English fiction books or reading Malayalam novels or Malayalam short stories so if you are criticizing putting your hobbies then that is good they will ask certainly there is a high chance for asking questions regarding hobbies they can ask what is the last book and how you analyze that particular book how the reading book influence you and how much in a public service that particular hobby will enable you to have a good decision making so those kind of questions can be asked for example for me I put one hobby is bonsai making so they ask me about the history of bonsai relation with Japan then they ask what are the qualities that I have learned from bonsai making and how I can use those qualities in public services so those kind of questions are all next is regarding your opinion controversy etc so if you get a question on week back how would you answer it just to know the perspective questions which are controversial question about what sir week back week back first thing is in the main interview they won't ask such kind of politically controversial questions that is the first thing you need to understand if it is a very highly inclinable question they won't ask it so that is the thing you need to keep in mind and if they are asking then you can what they your stand it need not be the stand of a government but even if you say the stand if I say really you need to substantiate it with reasons and logic and friends it should not be a it should not be a biastic decision you can have your own stand there is nothing wrong with that so the last question so for those who don't know Arun studied in the Malayalam medium he studied in Malayalam medium and from there so there is a convention that if you study in regional language there can be some difficulty while you prepare for that so the last question is in Malayalam itself I will read out that so Malayalam is what I studied English knowledge or English fluency if there is no barrier if there is those who don't know Malayalam I will translate since he studied in Malayalam was there any issues in fluency if he had some issues how he overcame that issue see first of all I was actually an average student in English in my same standard nothing extraordinary happened see ultimately using English it is just a language another language just like Malayalam and we are using it for communication purpose while we use our vernacular language we are not focusing on our grammar when we use some Malayalam sentence what is the verb what is the noun what is the phrase so we are not concerned about those things use the same tactic in English as well don't panic about those my new details like whether it is present things, future things, past things whether I use the correct phrases just like that of the foreigners there is no need to panic about those things use consider English just like communication see in the UPSC we know that we are we actually use mother tongue in our life so we are using English for the formal so the UPSC know that and English is not our mother tongue and UPSC is only for the official purpose so they know that we are not well worth with English so they will accept that fact so in the UPSC interviews and in the main writing we are not for the Shakespeare drama we are actually communicating our reviews and opinions so just do that confidently but making some very very obvious blunders is not acceptable but other than that there is no barrier in using that for students in the Malayalam mode of vernacular language medium in the school days can also do it very effectively and for my personal experience I think see some English movies with subtitles so you will come familiar with conversations very effectively that is what I did in my past from my high secondary classes on birth I actually watched a lot of movies Hollywood movies so that helped me allow to gain some communication in English see I am still I know that I am not perfect in communication but I am confident enough to speak in English so that is the key really great and very inspirational so next question is regarding can we expect questions about optionals in the interview yes obviously optional subject questions can be there especially if the board members are actually from that particular sector then obviously you can expect optional subject questions so you should be prepared for optional subject questions I think by name itself that candidate will be prepared for optional subject very terribly so only need to refresh it there is no need to go in depth analysis of optional subject just refresh all those things that is enough for the interview the next question is like what is your with preference if I ask can we see you in Kerala service preference administrative services first preference I think with this I will get it easily without any confusion and I put Kerala Kerala as the first option but I don't know how much vacancies are reported and how much vacancies are generally inside of Kota so I prefer to work in Kerala but see this is an volunteer service we are under the custodianship of the central government and even if we get Kerala Kerala if the government ask to work any part of this country we need to go there and complete our mission so we are actually writing this exam with that that fact in mind this is an volunteer service we need to work anywhere in the country so see if it is Kerala it is comfortable to work in the initial part because we know the language we know the people we know the demand of the people but if in some other states like maybe some communication barrier in the initial part but we will overcome that because we clearly pay the examinations so there is nothing to worry about overcome those communication harder so I am ready to work anywhere because everywhere they are in team they are our president the demand is good because there is nothing to worry about so we will conclude the session we are really thankful that you spend so much of your time we hope all the participants benefit from the session we are really happy and proud that you have come out such a cool and we are happy that you could be a part of Shankaraj academy and you know may you be able to serve the country to best of your abilities we are truly inspiring IS officer in the future may you be able to serve the nation in its best possible way once again happy congratulations and thank you so much for your precious time with us thank you sir, thank you Ajit sir and thank you to the entire Shankar family for giving this opportunity thank you very much