How To Study Smartly For Civil Service Examinations

Many of us are studying for UPSC and other civil service examinations. Most of them are studying hard but few of them are studying smartly.

First let me clear the thing that study is important for this exam. You have to study hard and learn as many things you can. Because practice and perfection is must needed to clear any kind of civil service examination.

1. Strategy/ Plan

The strategy of the exam should be clear in our head first. As we know there are 3 parts of examination; Prelims, mains and interview.

The first mistake everyone do is they study according to Prelims. This is the mistake everyone does while preparing. You should study according to mains paper. Prelims are for the qualifying purpose. The main target or main focus should be mains examination. Because Mains can give you rank or it helps us to secure rank.

So thinking of the strategy, start studying from day 1 for at least 4-5 hours a day and begin to increase the hours if you develope the habit of sitting for more hours.

2. Subject study

For subjects study NCERT books from 6th to 12th standard. And focus more on 11th & 12th standard books. For geography 6th to 12th books are more than enough but you can read more books as your requirement eg. Leong. But according to me, it is enough for getting good score.

For Polity, M.Laksmikant is best or the only book required for scoring good marks. It covers every topic important for the examination.

The main thing all should focus is Current affairs. It is the only topic that can for sure get you a good rank. This is the topic which can be asked in mains and interview round.

3. Topics which requires detailed study

The most important topic is Current affairs. For the study of this topic, reading news papers is must. The Hindu, The Indian Express are the must read news papers. You can also read the Yojana magazine if you want to.

Editorial page is the must read topic in newspaper. It gives us the latest reviews on government schemes and policies. Before studying you must know he difference between Polity news and political news.

Start making notes on current affairs by categorising it into Policies and schemes.
Selection of optional subject is as important as other subjects. Practice writing 1 answer per day for Mains Examination.

4. Study of Prelims

For Prelims study practice at least 15 mins a day for maps. Every agricultural, transportation, physical maps should be learnt to us.

The more you solve the practice tests the more study will be done. So try solving 1 practice test per weekend.