My Personal Strategy and How Insights Was Instrumental in My Preparation

8/13/2019 My Personal Strategy and How Insights Was Instrumental in My Preparation

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My Personal Strategy and How Insights was Instrumental in my Preparation

Honestly, in my opinion, I shouldnt be writing this article at this stage. Who am I to tell you how to

study? I havent cleared Mains yet, and have no authority to tell others howto strategize. But, I do

believe in an egalitarian society and despise distorted competition. The whole concept ofInsights is

to help each other out (aam aadmi) and threaten these coaching centers. But, in this article, I shall

not list out books, nor tell you what to study. There are enough posts in this website and in many

others to discuss about them. This is more about strategies and addressing motivational needs.

I recently gave Mains, which was good, but cannot say anything till the results comes. I may pass, I

might not. That truly doesnt matter now. I have always shared all my answers. I believe in a healthy

equal competition without any hidden agenda. So, I thought it should be my moral responsibility to

tell all co-aspirants some additional personal points which can be of use in their preparation. This

might be against me for 2014, but arent we all here to learn from each other? I hope this article can

help at least one candidate to secure a good rank.

I shall write it in the form of a timeline. You might want to read my previous article Why I want to

Become an IAS Officer, to get the right context. This canbe considered as its sequel.

I shall start this article, from May 26th evening, after the Prelims exam. I was both happy and sad at

that time. I knew I would pass prelims, but I also knew my Paper One was horrible. I checked some

key and saw that I would get 60 marks only. 60 marks out of 200! That was shocking. I got a mere 30

questions right. And the whole Mains is based on Paper One. As an Engineer, paper two was easy for

me, I was expecting around 180. So, I was just another engineer who had attempted this examination

without studying.

Of Course, those 3 months prior studying did help me a bit, but I am sure anyone without studyingwould get 30 questions right out of 100. I was just an average student at college, and I proved to be

below-average in Paper One. I was disappointed. The worse was yet to come.
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My parents and relatives were angry with me. I am an OBC candidate. But, without telling anyone I

applied for this exam under GEN category. I honestly believed that reservation should not be

misused. I was educated, financially stable and my life was almost settled. Using quota for this

examination also, did not appeal to me. I believed that reservation was meant to be used by the

disadvantaged only. My parents later accepted it, but my relatives still are angry with me. Nobodygets the logic! I anyways had an ulterior motive; I did not want anyone to point out to me, 30 years

later, that I got an IAS seat only because of my reservation. I wanted to prove everyone that I did not

want any help.

Another worry was that my parents had asked me to take coaching. They wanted to send me to Delhi.

I was averse to coaching. I did not want it under any circumstances. My relatives pressurized me to

go to a coaching centre. They even offered to finance me for atleast two years. But, I was adamant

saying I did not want to go for coaching. I did not want some money-minded person to tell me what

to study and how to study.

So, after learning that I had low marks in Paper One. They became more worried but I did not care

much. Ideals were more important than success. The next day, I wanted to test my writing practice.

So, I took a random easy previous year paper question and tried to answer it. I was devastated. I

knew the question, I knew the answer, but I could not formulate anything. I could not make coherent

sentences and could not write more than a paragraph. I got frustrated that I couldnt even answer a

single question. So next, I took an editorial page, and wanted to write till I got tired. I wrote for 45

mins, I think I wrote around 750 words, with extremely bad handwriting and my hand pained a lot.

It pained for the rest of the day. After all, it was more than 4 years since I wrote anything. (Who

writes in a college?!)

Pic 1 shows my previous handwriting, in May.


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I was deeply worried now. I had a bad handwriting, I had no knowledge of anything, I couldnt write

for more than an hour and did not even touch 1000 words. With this, I couldnt reach anywhere. And

also, everyone in the family thought I was a show-off who didnt want coaching and dint use my caste

certificate. They thought I was deluded and was acting idiotically. Even though I did not care much,

there was an internal pressure to prove everyone wrong, and the way things were going, I was soon to

be doomed.

But, I did not give up.

The next day, I brainstormed. I wanted to bring out the perfect strategy to tackle Mains. I came up

with a list of points.

1. Make a detailed timetable. I wanted to ensure that the next six months would be usedperfectly, so I devised a day to day timetable. I assigned one week to each subject, and ensured


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that I could complete the whole syllabus. I had to restart everything. See Pic.

1. Quit using a mobile phone.I was staying at home, and most of my friends would chatonline. And I was addicted to my phone. So, I promised myself that I would not touch my

phone again. When I joined office, I quickly became famous as the guy who doesnt use a

phone. But, I did not tell many friends of mine that I was preparing for this exam. So, I lost

many friends when they misunderstood me when I said I dint use a phone and couldnt give

them a number. But, I hope they would realize soon that I couldnt help it. Anyways, quitting a

mobile phone is not that important, but immensely helpful if done. My new friends in Office

couldnt contact me, so I was not obliged to go out with them and socialize. They thought I was

weird but it wasnt their fault because I did not tell anyone that I was preparing for Civil

Services.


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c) PaperEveryone requires rough papers. I thought instead of buying books or using waste paper,

why not just use the original answer sheets? I bought a sample booklet, measured them and got 2000

sheets printed. This cost me just Rs. 500. Much cheaper than the books that I had to buy. No, I dont

have a printer at home, Im not that rich. I went to a regular printing press (The one which is used to

print newspapers). Moreover, I got them customized according to my preferences. (I put my name ontop, you all know that, whoever has read my answer sheets :P) This proved to be extremely useful. It

motivated me all times seeing my name there, and also writing in the same answer sheet for 3

months, ensured I would write the exam more efficiently. It might have added 5 extra marks, but

hey, every mark counts!

1. Stick a large India and a world map on the wall. Whenever you read about some place, try tofind it on the map, itll help you get a better understanding, as it will be a holistic learning.

I was all set now. I just had to implement this, which would be a much tougher part.

My office would start from July 15th. I had to join it, I could not take any risks. And it was May 28th.

So, the next 45 days would be the most crucial aspects of my preparation, as after that I would not


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get much time. So, I studied. I was sticking to my timetable and was gathering knowledge. There was

no writing practice, no taking notes. I was just reading how much ever I could. One must first have

knowledge, only then all these strategies and writing would count. So, I studied immensely. But, later

I also forgot a lot of stuff that I studied. Till today, I cannot remember historical dates or article

numbers. I was bad at remembering names too. I was just good at understanding concepts. That iswhy, most of the answers that I write in Insights, do not have much factual data. All are too general

and colloquial. I had a bad memory power. I just hoped that UPSC wouldnt ask any factual questions

and would involve only conceptual and analytical questions, in which I was good at.

UPSC is such an examination, whose syllabus increases everyday by one newspaper. So, it is a very

dynamic process and one must be updated on everything every time. I realized this soon and

followed another strategy. I understood that news and current affairs are the single most important

part of my preparation. If there are no direct questions on CA, I can always use them as a part of my

various answers in various papers.

1. All Hindu headlines, PIB articles, IDSA articles etc come directly to my Google Reader(Now Iuse Feedly), so everyday I used to read the news which comes first on PIB, then read it again

as a Hindu headline online.

2. Then read the newspaper and editorials. (This is a third iteration)3. Then read GKToday CA(Fourth)4. After this, watch Insight program on LSTV which would have a debate on the CA issue.

(Fifth)

So, every important news item would have been read 5 times, all its pros and cons discussed and will

be etched in your mind forever.

I used to read the Feedly RSS feed at 5 in the morning. The screen light would make my sleep go

away and also ensured I knew what news would come in that days paper. This helped me in waking

up at 5 and studying too.

And later, on July 15th I joined my company. It takes around half an hour to reach there from my

house. So, I used to read one half of the newspaper(Only imp headlines and one editorial page) while

going and the other half while coming back in the bus journey. The first three months were awesome.

Since, we were fresh out of college, we didnt have much work. The training also was for around 3

hours everyday. But, we had to stay back in the office from 10 to 4 30. So, the rest of the time, I was


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reading PDF files or was googling for various topics. This helped me a lot in my preparation, in two

ways -

a) I never had a continuous motivation.I dont think anyone is continuously motivated to

study all the time. I could never study for days together. I was sure I would not sit in the same room,

studying everyday for 6 months. I knew I needed a change in the environment every now and then.

So, this office going and studying made me study much more. I could study with the same

concentration in office, and the same conc. at home, for a longer time. If I stayed only at home, I

would just surf the internet or watch TV. I am thankful that I did the right thing by taking up a job.

b) It increases tension that you are not able to finish the syllabus because you are handling two lives.

This increased my efficiency. I was scared that I had to study a lot, so I did more study both at the

office and at home. Saturday and Sunday were holidays anyways.

But, by October, I realized that the workload was becoming too much, and my first priority should be

Civil Services and I had a lot of writing practice to do. My handwriting was still bad, so I decided to

quit my job on October 23rd. I knew studying one month at home wouldnt bore me. I knew I had

taken a right decision. From Oct 23rd till Nov 30th, I dedicated myself toInsights,which proved

instrumental in my preparation. Ill tell exactly how in a moment, but now I have to digress.

After I passed prelims, my relatives were happy and they started coming to the house, with advice

and books. My uncle gave all his book collection, he was studying in his days it seems. He also went

to Delhi and got me a bag full of books.

I was never a book-guy. I can stare at the computer screen all day, but couldnt read a book for more

than an hour without losing track, unless it was a novel. I was deeply saddened now, because I had a

mountain of books in front of me, I had to atleast give one reading of it. And I had less than 3 months

to Mains. See Pic, with all books kept on table and it is two rows, not one. It was very scary.
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Till today, I dont think I have completed even 40% of all those books.

Then, mid-September, after my birthday, I metInsights.I was doing some random googling studying

and I by mistake, stumbled upon Insights. After seeing his archives page with all the Daily Answer

Writing Challengeanswers, I realized I got a goldmine.

Till now, I had done some amount of decent studying. But, still I was not able to think and formulate

a good answer. My handwriting was still bad and I couldnt write for a long time on paper. I did not

give any answer writing practice and was still working at office. I started taking leaves, I knew I had

to quit at some point. I did ask them for a three-month loss-of-pay leave, but they had rejected. I

again asked HR for one month leave, they said No. So, I had to quit. But, before quitting I did try to

use up all the leaves and other benefits I could get.
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I had worked for exactly 100 days, July 15th to Oct 23rd. I had made enough cash to help me survive

for another 4 months. I did not want to rely on anyone, even though I was staying at home. I had to

ensure I had some backup ready.

After quitting the office, I had no turning back. From Oct 23rd evening, I started answering all

questions that Insights used to post. I used to take a lot of time, formulating the answer. I used to

type it out first, because I wanted to ensure my thought-flow was fast enough. Writing would slow

down the thought process, so I instead typed. And later wrote.

Anyways, I have to tell about the different concentric categories of people who pass the exams first,

before I continue further :-

Type 1All those who passed Prelims. There are serious players who are true studs, there are

serious players who are just good enough, there are okayish students, there are lucky engineers who

got through due to paper two(like me), and there are just lucky ones. They constitute 15000 people.

Type 2These people have studied everything. They have taken coaching, they are genuinely

interested and have read all kinds of books and magazines. They are about 7000 people. But, they

havent worked hard enough. They just have subject knowledge.

Type 3These people have the subject knowledge. They have done enough writing practice. They

have given mock tests, and gave a good emphasis on writing. But they take time to think and

formulate answers. There are about 3000 such people.

Type 4Have knowledge, have good writing practice. They are able to formulate answers precisely

and are able to write them well too. They are around 1500. These people will pass Mains. (The other

500 who pass Mains will come from the third type)

Type 5Same as type 4. But, these people, due to immense answer writing practice, have the ability

to Write answers for any type of question that they face, even if they have no knowledge on it. They

are still able to write the answers impressively.They have consistency, they write nice answers for all

the 9 papers without discriminating any paper. There are around 750 such people in the whole

country.

Type 6Knowledgeable, able to write 5000 words in 3 hours impressively. They are empathetic

towards the society, have sympathy towards others grievances and are true Indians. There are about

150 such people.

The above types might be fully wrong, but this is what I had believed in November. It might not be

true, but it did motivate me and made me want to become a Type-6 person. But, one has to undergo

through each phase and cannot skip any phase. I started doing it and Insights website had helped me

in reaching each phase.


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Insights gives around 3 GS questions, 3 SnT questions(Thanks to Tauseef), 1 case study and 3 Pub Ad

questions(Thanks to Aditya Jha). So, everyday there are around 10 questions to solve. Assuming each

question is for 200 words, one needs to write 2000 words everyday. That much answer writing

practice is more than enough. I never solved the Secure 2014initiative, but adding another 10

questions from there would make me write 4000 words every single day. This improved myhandwriting drastically and also improved the writing speed. I used to put a timer and write down

the answer. If I do that timer-writing practice for each question for 30 days also, itll help me a lot in

evading panic in the exam when one doesnt know the answer to write. Moreover, you also learn to

write in a better way. See pic. My new handwriting.

Also, since I practiced in those rough answer sheets, it indirectly told me how much space exactly a

200 word answer would take to write. For me, it takes two pages, with around 125 words on each

side. This also helped me a lot, because UPSC had given three pages to write a 10 mark answer. If an

untrained mind, even by mistake, tried to fill the full space, because he had more points, even in one

paper, he would suffer. That is what happened in GS-I. It suddenly blew everyones minds. 25questions in 3 hours with 5000 words. And each question had three pages. And many would atleast

try to solve the first question by writing fully. They would later realize their blunder. Many in my

centre, left almost 80 marks itseems.

But, Insights writing practice helped me to evade that situation. The immense answer

formulation(10 every day) helped me to plan, structure and formulate an answer very fast. So, I took
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7 mins as prescribed for each answer. I knew when to stop writing, as I knew how much page I

needed to fill up. UPSC couldnt lure me to write the extra sheets. So, it helped me in the first paper, I

wrote decently for 235 marks. I did not know answers for 2 questions, and I had run out of time. The

next paper, I wrote for 240 marks(I dint know what was Gujrals doctrine, I told you, I was bad at

remembering names), and GS-III, GS-IV, PA-I and PA-II, I wrote for all 250 marks.

So, time management, with good handwriting and a nice answer was possible only because I had

wrote almost all answers that Insights had posted in this website. Moreover, many questions came

directly and indirectly from the archives, which was immensely beneficial, as I also read everyone

elses answers and did learn many new points.

Not just writing practice, but even concept building was also due to Insights. The ten questions which

came up everyday were new, relevant and tough to solve. They were extremely conceptual thus would

increase ones knowledge and understanding.

On top of concept building and writing practice, Insights also helped in one more thing. It is a hidden

benefit which people might not recognize easily. After writing so many answers on my own, I got a

new ability. An ability where I could write something for every type of question. Even if I knew

nothing about a question, I could answer by writing something relevant to the subject. Along with

this, when you answer questions, you get immense satisfaction and a huge boost in confidence. This

self-satisfaction and a confidence to clear the examination helps in building a healthy attitude

coupled with knowledge building and writing practice would make a killer combo to pass this

draconian examination.

UPSC Civil Services is about writing something about everything and not about writing everything

about something. The instructions saying A well educated person can answer the questions. An

overall outlook is necessary and not in-depth studying is perfect, and UPSC adheres to it. All

questions can be answered by a trained layman and Newspaper reading becomes sacrosanct.

Insights daily CA analysis, its monthly magazines, secure 2014, everyday questions, weekly debates

and essays. All are mandatory and will help you in ways you would never even comprehend. Insights

alone can make any dedicated average person like most of us, clear this examination with flying

colours.

Not just the material, but the guidance and motivation which Vinay Sir and his team gives has a high

personal touch to it, which makes all the readers get emotionally attached to it and sometimes get

addicted to the website too.


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If I clear this examination, I can honestly and selflessly say that it was only due to Insights. I shall

forever will be indebted to him, because the website transformed me from a below-average

demotivated student to the one who could crack this examination.(If I do so)

So, with that note, I shall sign off. I hope all doubts, clarifications can be asked in the comments.

Since, I am absolutely free now, I shall answer each one of them. Also, anyone can contact me

[email protected] am in touch with many co-aspirants and I would love to help more

people. I am not giving my phone number, as I have a personal life too.

Anyways, all the very best for all of us for 2014. We shall all prepare together and more importantly,

trust Insights immensely and hope that at least 600 ranks in the rank-list should be from this

websites readers.

May God Bless us all.

Note from Insights: We, Vinay and Mohan, thank Akand for this article. He wrote it voluntarily

and we are posting it unedited. The opinion expressed in the article is of Akandsand we hope

aspirants preparing for 2014 exam get benefited by his experience and thoughts.We sincerely hope

he and many others who were benefited from this site gets into the service this year. Good luck to

you all.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

My Personal Strategy and How Insights Was Instrumental in My Preparation

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