My UPSC Journey
It began in 2013 when I left my corporate job in Gurgaon and started my preparation for Civil Services. Since then, it has been a learning process wherein I failed to clear Mains 4 times in my 4 attempts.
Mistakes from previous attempts and how I identified and rectified those mistakes
The very first mistake was to start the preparation haphazardly without having any plan, or knowledge and understanding of the syllabus. Though I cleared prelims in the first attempt but the shallow preparedness was evident as I failed to qualify for Personality test.
The second mistake was not having concise notes of each and every topic and focussing only on current affairs for Mains. However, UPSC’s Mains examination is not about current affairs.
The third was not taking revision seriously enough and looking for better resources for reading. This led to insufficient time for revision.
And the epic mistake was not to write any answers before mains examination.
After these 4 failures, I realized that there was something missing in my preparation. I read a lot about Toppers and their strategies. Then I took the syllabus and previous year mains question papers. The fault lines were clear.
Now, I am working on the gaps in my knowledge about any issues/topic mentioned in the syllabus and preparing my own concise notes for every topic mentioned in the syllabus. I am equally focussing on revision and answer writing.
I was hesitant to join any answer writing program/test series of any coaching as I had a very experience earlier. However, when I met Sajal sir, I was convinced about the approach towards Mains, therefore I joined the Smash Mains Program of Civils Daily, which was tailored for veterans like me.
Interventions by Sajal sir that helped me
The most fundamental intervention was to keep things simple. He advised me to keep sentences short, clean and neat handwriting, the importance of side headings etc.
Second, he made me understand the requirement of the question and how to handle different parts of the question, the weightage to be given to every part. He would discuss each and every question and the improvements that can be made in the introduction/body/way forward for each specific question.
Sajal sir also suggested paper specific interventions like drawing maps for questions related to IR, Geography and graphs & diagrams in Economics.
Sajal sir’s interventions are specific and not generalized like introduction could have been better. He would tell what else could have been written.
Mentorship by Sajal Sir
The mentorship by Sajal sir is really boon for students like me who are struggling to get past the mains stage. I understood that mains is not only about knowledge but the way you express the relevant knowledge in the most optimum manner. Sajal sir is mentoring me to develop that capability.
Conviction and Confidence about the preparation
The conviction and confidence about the preparation comes from hard work that you put in the right direction. The results are visible in the tests that I am writing under Smash Mains program. Further, Sajal Sir’s guidance is helping me to improve upon my answer writing skills.
Experience at Civils daily
The experience at Civils daily particularly of Smash Mains program has been quiet satisfactory. They deliver what they promise. The individualised attention is hard to get at other institutions. The quality of questions/model answers and feedback is of high quality. The mentor is available on phn/mail or for one to one discussions. This approachability I think is one of the most defining characteristics of Civils Daily.
I would recommend other aspirants to join Civils Daily not only for Smash Mains program but also their other courses.
I have a few suggestions for Civils daily:
1.
Please focus on Ethics and Essay equally as well.
2.
There is very high quality material available on Civils daily website in the form of Op-eds/Burning Issue etc. I would recommend that you compile that information into a more comprehensive form for more ready reference for Mains.