Divya Yadav UPSC CSE 23 AIR 498

Hello folks! 

My name is DIVYA YADAV. By God's grace I've secured AIR 498. 

My optional is PSIR. I've created this group to help the aspirants in their UPSC preparation. 

Before 1.5 months of Prelims 

Everyone would tell you what to study and how many mocks to give etc. 

I just want to say that you should take care of your health during this time. 

For physical health

Take a minimum 7 hours of sleep. Stay hydrated. Avoid street food or junk food till your exam. Engage in any kind of exercise for at least 20-30 mins (like walking or simple stretching etc.) 

For mental health

Just stay positive. Don't get disheartened by low marks. Learn from mistakes and keep improving. Everything will be fine at the end. Have faith in your efforts. Believe in NISHKAM KARMA - don't think about the result just think about your efforts. 

Best of luck 🍀🍀

Regarding Mocks

What is the purpose of mocks?

The only purpose of mocks is practise. Take mocks as mocks only and not as final day exam. Utility of mocks :-

1. Time management - How you are going to tackle the questions in those 2 hours.

2. Fill the knowledge gaps - sometimes we don't cover certain topics while studying, so that can be covered through mocks at times.

3. Analyse the kind of mistakes that you are doing. There can be mainly two types of mistakes - firstly, knowledge gap (cover this be revision & study remaining topic); secondly, silly mistakes like filling 'b' rather than 'd' etc(this happens because of less of focus). Try to minimise these mistakes.

How to use mocks?

Give your mock and analyse it on that very day. Note down the new things. Identify your mistakes and work upon them.

Which mocks are good?

All the mocks are more or less similar.  

How many mocks to give? 

It depends upon you. Freshers can try to give minimum 20-30 mocks of each GS and CSAT (earlier people gave less mocks of CSAT but now it has become determining factor)

Where should you give mocks?

You can give mocks at home, library or the offline centres. But, simulation of exam situation is important so give at least few offline mocks. Many institute organize free of cost OPEN MOCKS. 

Always remember that you will learn more from your worst mocks. I scored only 50 marks in my very first mock. But gradually the marks improved. 

Never get attached to your mocks marks. 

MOCKS ARE MEANT ONLY FOR PRACTISE. 

There are certain things 

that are often repeated. I used to write on an A-4 size paper and paste that on the wall. I used to see that everyday and I automatically learnt those things with less effort. 

You can also do the same with certain specific things like National parks, heritage sites etc. 

For example a few samples. 

During MAINS EXAM 

I made a strategy for myself called EEOO. This means Essay, Ethics and Optional papers. I balanced the other three GS papers with prelims and I also knew that almost all aspirants perform nearly similar in GS papers. But, I realised that EEOO can be the deal breakers. So worked really hard for EEOO.

Fortunately I scored well in Essay and Ethics, though I expected little more with my optional (PSIR) as I had put maximum efforts in it. Also, GS1 has been my strength and I expected a little more from that too. I don't know what factors have played the role.

But, yes overall it is good.

I hope this helps the aspirants.

Best of luck 🌻💫

With Regards to Prelims 2024

This is my Prelims 2022 marksheet. As you can see I had scored well in GS but couldn't qualify the CSAT. I considered that it will be easy to do CSAT as I am a NITian and I have also done aptitude in college days. So I had practised less for CSAT in that year.  

But, then in 2023 I focused both on GS and CSAT adequately.

So it is my humble advice to all the aspirants to balance both the GS and CSAT.

Regarding utility of mocks

Abyaas Test 2 for Prelims 2023. I got 100+, it is a normal and decent score.

But then the score went so low in Abyaas Test 3.

But then in Abhyaas Test 3 for Prelims 2023 I got only 66 marks.

So please don't get affected by mocks marks. Sometimes you will get high marks sometimes low marks. Sometimes the marks will get stabilized. 

Just focus on being mentally calm while attempting mocks and then learn whatever you can learn from them.

Mocks ko lekar kabhi emotional nhi hona. Mocks se sikho and aage badho.

Mocks don't define you. Your only responsibility is to learn from mocks. Thats it.

Best of luck! 🍀☘️