50 days to UPSC Prelims 2016: Playing the Prelims right

UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2016 is fast approaching! Are you ready for it?

With over 9 lakh aspirants competing for 1079 Group A & B vacancies, the competition is really high!

You might have heard stories of last year UPSC toppers making it past Prelims by a whisker. Ira Singhal, who secured the first rank in CSE 2014, scored just a mark above the Prelims cut off, and it was also a close call for Tina Dabi, who stood first in CSE 2015.

With the CSAT remaining as the qualifying exam, one must accept the fact that the Preliminary exam has become a crucial barrier in the quest for making it to the qualifying list. You may have the potential to be on the toppers list this year, but can you leave it hanging on that one MCQ?

The last 50 days can be a real game-changer, if you can focus on doing the right things in the right manner. This means ensuring both effectiveness and efficiency. So it is important to choose the right sources to study and to study them well. Here is a list of books that you should read, revise and re-revise now.

1) NCERT Books – No matter how many times you might have read them before, they need to be read again. Geography, History, Economy of Class XI and XII are a must.

2) Laxmikant for Polity, Ramesh Singh for Economy

3) CCRT website for culture

4) Economic Survey

5) India Year Book 2016

6) Current affairs of January to July 2016. You can do it from your own notes or an online source like CL’s Daily PT Capsule. This is a useful tool to boost your current affairs preparation, which forms a huge part of the syllabus.

7) Previous year papers to get hold of the exam pattern

8) CSAT & GS Practice Tests (A must at this hour): Enroll for CL’s CSP Test Series featuring 16 mock tests along with in-depth analysis of each mock test.
All said and done, how many times have we heard that I had studied from all the sources but could not answer the very questions based on them? The mystery behind this is that you did not practice questions based on them! Practice is the ultimate key to success.

It is essential that you start practicing questions from this very day, regularly. Whether it is General Studies or CSAT, practicing MCQs is the key to a good score in UPSC Prelims. Even while reading from any sourcekeep looking out for facts that can be asked in a question. For eg. While reading Consumer Price Index in Macroeconomy, focus on the base year, the weight age of different sectors in the index, the government body that publishes it and the recent trend in CPI. These are the key areas where the questions will be asked from!

In case you are looking for a source of UPSC like questions to practice, enroll in one of our test series to get going. It is better late than never! Stay ahead of the competition with CL.

Taking a leaf from PM Modi’s speech in US Congress, “The Orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments the baton has given the signal.” The symphony will be played on 7th August, are you ready for it?

Wishing you all the best

Team CL