Aishwarya Verma AIR 4 UPSC CSE 2021
Hello everyone. This is Aishwarya Verma UPSC CSE'21 AIR 4 this year. Contrary to the common perception i am a boy😂(Sorry to those who got disappointed). Many students have asked me for the strategy, notes and experience regarding the upsc journey. As it becomes difficult to respond individually i have created this channel so that i can share the respective things and it can reach a larger pool of aspirants.
This is my scorecard. As you can see that a greater share in the GS papers with uniformity can help you get through. This is one specific area that i focussed this year compared to earlier years.
COACHING: Is it necessary?
UPSC is a long journey and the strategy is unique for everyone. Since it is a long journey, sometimes we tend to divert from the right strategy and path that can cost us our attempts. Hence some or the other guidance is needed to motivate us from time to time and steer our journey along the right direction so that we don’t end up wasting our time.
It is the guidance in the right direction that we need. It can be from any source, be it coaching, elders, teachers, toppers, selected candidates, veterans in this field etc. However after steering your ship in the right direction it is your self-study, hard work and self-introspection from time to time that will decide your fate.
YOUR PREPARATION IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. DO NOT DELEGATE THIS RESPONSIBILITY TO ANYONE. SELF EVALUATE YOURSELF FROM TIME TO TIME AND WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESSES.🔥🔥🔥🔥
In the present scenario, with the penetration of the internet and videos of the toppers circulating across the platforms, I guess there is no shortage of guidance and strategy. However you have to be very careful what to follow. DON’T FOLLOW ANYONE BLINDLY. Analyse yourself and your strengths and weaknesses and adopt the strategy accordingly.
Let’s take an example here: In this attempt my static notes were more or less in the place so I had to improve upon the execution part. I analysed the topper’s copies of various selected candidates and tried to implement them in my answers “as per my needs”🔥. Some of the copies that I referred are:
- Shubham Kumar sir (AIR 1-2020)
- Ajay Jain sir (AIR 12-2020)
- Vishakha Yadav ma’am (AIR 6-2019)
- Divya Mishra ma’am (AIR 28-2020)
- Ashish Mishra sir (AIR 52-2020)
- Ayushi Jain ma’am (AIR 85-2020)
- Aditya sir (AIR 92-2020)
These copies gave me an insight about how I can extract more marks and improve on the execution part. I practised the things learned from these copies in the mock tests and saw the improvement gradually.
In short if you are able to get the guidance from anywhere, I don’t think coaching is an absolute necessity because it is ultimately your self-study and hardwork that is going to yield the results.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
I have always emphasised on how much topper's copies have been beneficial to me🙌🏻🙌🏻 to analyse my performance in the examination scenario.
Sometimes students tends to take more time while writing the full length tests . These copies don't reflect the actual scenario and can be misleading with regards to the actual performance. My advise is- Always adhere to the time limit because that is the actual amount of content that you can deliver in the exam.🙏🏻🙏🏻
Here i am attaching 4 GS copies which i have written close to the exam date and within the time limit in the actual exam scenario. This is close to what i have delivered in the exam. I hope it can help in building some insights and burst some of the SUPERNATURAL ANSWER myths🔥🔥.
General Studies:
Link 1 - Click
Link 2 - Click
Link 3 - Click
Link 4 - Click
Ethics Test Copy - I link
Ethics Test Copy - II link
Hello Everyone!!!!Following is the link of the Topper's talk where i have shared my strategy, journey and experience in a comprehensive manner🔥🔥. I have also tried to share my experience on various aspects of preparation apart from the academic part 😅. Do check it out and take insights as per your needs. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlPKAcBn3BY
Don't miss the end (last 5 mins).❤️
NEWSPAPER: strategy
In my discussion videos, I have kept the newspaper reading at one of the highest pedestal in the preparation ladder. This is due to following reasons:
1. It develops perspective slowly and effectively.
2. Current affairs coverage for prelims, mains and interview.
3. Unique content for data, examples and case studies (Always rewarding).
4. The constant repetition gets imprinted in your mind which helps in recalling.
But the approach towards the newspaper is very important. Newspaper reading for the examination should be in tandem with the UPSC syllabus. You should be very well aware of what to read and how to utilise what you have read from the newspaper in your GS paper🔥🔥For this I am attaching some of my newspaper notes for the reference.
These notes are outdated for the upcoming mains but I want you all to gain perspective from these notes so that you can optimise your preparation through newspaper. I have also mentioned where these topics can be utilised. Try to finish newspaper in 45min to 1 hour along with notes.
Important Documents:
A common concern among the aspirants is the use of data, examples and schemes that can be effectively used especially in the Introduction and Conclusion. The issue is related to the authenticity as well as validity of the information.
For this the authentic documents published by the government can be very useful and citing these sources can add value to your answer🔥🔥.
Three such documents that i found very useful are:
1. Niti aayog @75 document.
2. Economic Survey.
3. Budget.
General Studies - 4
Ethics:
Hello everyone!!!
For ethics static notes on explicit topics and EXAMPLES are very crucial.🔥🔥 The definition part should be complemented with lot of examples. The uniqueness of the examples can be highly rewarding. After this application part can be improved through answer writing.
So for reference purposes I am attaching some of my ethics notes, examples that I have collected and 2 of my ethics sectional tests given this year to demonstrate the application of the examples and case studies.😃😃
Please do practise ethics paper because the execution part of this paper is a little bit different from other GS papers and completing the paper is a challenge.
The examples can be used across the papers such as Essay, GS2-Governance part, GS4 or as case studies in other papers as well. Practise them so that you can use them at multiple places.🎊🎊. Try to collect examples from newspaper, magazines and other places to enrich your content.
If studied properly this paper is a highly rewarding paper with limited efforts.🔥🔥🔥
Source:
1. Lexicon book- selective reading.
2. Vision ias value added material.
3. 2nd ARC report- Ethics in governance.
4. Internet search for the explicit syllabus topics.
For quotation based questions, I have tried to write all the PYQs from 2013 to get a hang of such questions.
For case studies, I have referred to the topper's copies that gave me a perspective about how to approach a case study. The insights gained were applied in the sectional tests.
Apart from content, this paper requires lot of practice to streamline your thought and finish the paper on time.🙏🏻🙏🏻
Schemes:
Mentioning schemes in your answers is one of the important value addition that you can provide to enrich them. One beneficial thing about the use of schemes is their multiple use.🔥🔥
Schemes can be used in points, examples, case studies, way forward and most importantly CONCLUSIONS. I prepared schemes for mains purposes and accumulated them at a single place under various heads so as to use them effectively in their respective domains and questions.
This image beautifully sums up the UPSC journey.🔥🔥 Many a times students are scared with respect to the long term plans, syllabus coverage and gets demotivated just by looking at the volume of the syllabus that needs to be covered.
If you are also feeling the same then trust me you are not alone. Everyone feels the same at some or the other point. Just hang in there and focus on the immediate next step. Slowly and gradually things will happen and one day result will be yours.🙏🏻🙏🏻