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UPSC Prelims Strategy by Albert John: UPSC Topper 2016 AIR 179
As we always try to help all the candidates who are preparing for CSE through our articles. So, in this article, we are going to tell you the strategy for prelims which one of the toppers Albert John used to follow.
Albert John has cracked UPSC Civil Services Examination in 2016 by securing a rank 179th. We are going to tell you the strategy which worked for him in prelims preparation.
About Albert John
Name: Albert John
Roll No.: 0323733
Rank: 179
Year: CSE 2016
No. of Attempts: 2
Albert was working as a professor when the results of CSE 2016 declared. As he started celebrating his success all of sudden he had to face the demise of a close family member and after a week he gave prelims examination.
Despite having all the problems he gave the exam and cleared it on his own. He had a fair score of around 130 from various keys.
Must read: The strategy for UPSC Interview.
Prelims Marks
Paper 1: 145.34
Paper 2: 128.33
Mains Marks
Written Total: 868
Personality Test: 157
Total Marks: 1025
Prelims Strategy
Prelims is a skill that is why some people are not able to clear the exam in many attempts while some can clear the exam in first attempt only. That is just a myth that you cannot clear CSE in the first attempt. Your hard work can make you win.
Prelims is not a single thing or skill. It is a combination of 3 components.
- Knowledge
- Practice
- Thinking
Also read: About the journey of Kothamasu Dinesh Kumar: UPSC IAS topper.
Knowledge
First to gain knowledge do the basic things and improve yourself accordingly to time.
The basic knowledge means to study all the required texts for each like NCERT for geography, Laxmikanth for the polity, Bipin Chandra/ Spectrum for history. Bipin Chandra and the spectrum will be helpful for you. Try to give a fast reading of spectrum.
You can also follow Shankar Ganesh, selectively read Shankar IAS material for the environment and read about the culture from various sources like CCRT & NIOS.
Read The Hindu newspaper for current affairs. Regularly follow insights for current affairs and Vision IAS monthly compilation.
Never expect that a question is going to come directly from any of the sources if you are thinking this then you are in a poor attitude. Do regularly follow things so that you can stay updated with the current affairs.
You should also read Economic survey, Yojana, Indian Year Book.
Practice
The most important thing is to attempt test series. Do not expect that the questions will come from these test series this will just help you to easily attempt the questions and reducing your errors. You can join test series of any organization which you will feel comfortable.
Must read: Everything about UPSC exam from scratch.
Thinking
The first thing you have to build in yourself before attempting the exam is how to rethink or think how to think.
Take your mock tests properly learn from them, revise them properly and again ready to take the test. Try to maximize the attempts by intelligent guesses based on logical knowledge. Take the tests, again and again, do not stop in the first attempt. Go back and retake the test so that you can identify your weaknesses and strengths.
There are basically the two reasons for attempting a wrong answer i.e. first maybe you know the answer but marked it wrong. So you have to work on it. Second, you have the idea but you couldn’t convert your thoughts into an answer.
Similarly there are two ways that you have left the question. First is you don’t know anything about the answer and the second is the options you have were equally confusing for you.
So, now you have to improve yourself and for that you have to go thoroughly with the exam.
First: go through all the questions that went wrong and identify your mistakes. Try to identify which was the specific thought that made your answer wrong i.e. the reason behind choosing the wrong option. While you are doing this you are actually setting your mind to find the correct answer from the same information. This not only makes you sharp, but also enlightens you.
Second: Now after checking all the wrong questions move to the unattempt questions. If you have no idea about the answer of that question then try to find some logic to derive the answer by connecting it with some known fact. Practice it with answer in hand. The next time when you appear for mock test you will definitely perform well. The more you do this thing more your mind will get sharper.
Third: Now move to that questions which you didn’t attempt because of confusing options. As you were equally confused with the questions take the two equally compelling options and try to mark the answer which has more logic according to you. If your answer went wrong then again follow the similar strategy and at the end you will find correct answer by applying correct logic.
Also see: The inspirational journey of Nidhi Gupta: UPSC IAS topper.
Some Points to Remember
Don’t give up if you fail, be ready to fail. Learn from your mistakes and work on them. Wonder’s won’t happen the first time you will have to do hard work to achieve success.
Solve UPSC previous year question papers. Never thought that the question will repeat ready to solve new question every time. This practice will tweak you to the UPSC way of thinking and reduce confusions.
There is some role of luck in prelims also. Sometimes may be you can logically go wrong but never get disheartened. And you can reduce the chances of failures by doing practice and hard work.
The last thing is follow the proper websites regularly so that you would stay updated with the current affairs.
We hope that our article will be helpful for you during your prelims preparation.
Also see: The inspirational journey of Ashish Tiwari: UPSC IAS topper.
If you have any doubt or need guidance you can comment below, our team will try to answer it.