Newspaper Reading

1. Newspaper reading is absolute must at all stages of exam. I will recommend The Indian Express over The Hindu (its too critical and hence you wont be able to write that in exam). Do skim through the major headlines of The Hindu, if you want.

2. Strict NO to any political, entertainment, ideological, sports, over-critical of govt articles. They won't be asking that in mains. Even the controversial topics should be avoided for over analysis.

3. Stick to Vision IAS Monthly current Affairs ... its the best and apt for exam. Make notes from it and dump it...DO NOT plan to re-read it again.

4. I used to read newspaper and Vision book soft-copy (pdf) version, so notes making was quite easy ... many a times simply put the Screenshot of the news in your notes. So if you can and willing, try to switch to online/digital note making (will be helpful to share even, once you get selected 😉 )

5. If you're a newbie in CSE prep, you may take 3-4 hours to read newspaper (i used to take 5 hours) BUT this must drastically come down with time and experience/knowledge from GS....so aim for 80-90 min. max for newspaper. Don't spend all day to that.

6. You DON'T have to attempt daily MCQ based on news on platforms like Insights/IAS Baba etc...its a futile exercise. Prepare for prelims only when its required...ie. 65-70 days before exam.

7. Read the editorials very well and grasp their writing skills, comprehension ability ... this will get reflected in your answers and will give edge over others. ultimately its a writing exam and one who writes good english, in an emphatic manner, will get more marks. Period. So IMPORVE your articulation skills....Editorials will be of great help.

8. English newspaper are always better than hindi, and by a margin. There is no debate here and results have proved this time and again. So do read them. Lets leave the hindi-english debate for the politicians ... we are here for a mission and we need to do whatever it requires.

Utkarsh Dwivedi AIR-5 PSIR Notes, Strategy and ANSWER COPIES

Utkarsh Dwivedi IAS air-5 UPsc cse 2021 PSIR STRATEGY, NOTES AND MY ANSWER COPIES If there is one factor that has helped me achieve a single digit rank in CSE, it is my optional. I have scored 168 in paper 1 and 146 in paper 2, making it 314 in total. I have still not come across somebody with a score more than this and hence a comfortable claim can be made that this is one of the highest score this year. In this blog, I would mention what helped me achieve this score. I DID NOT refer to any other source than Shubhra Ma'am's notes. There are two reasons to it. Firstly, since I had reached the interview stage in all my three attempts, I never had the luxury of time to refer to any book. Secondly, I believe Ma'am's notes are more than enough to form the core aspect of the subject's preparation. I did value addition from multiple sources so as to get an edge in my answers: I referred to copies of toppers of the respective tests that I attempted during my mains ...

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