HOW TO MANAGE TIME WHILE WRITING ANSWERS IN UPSC MAINS?

UPSC CSE is highly unpredictable. Hence, one must realize that the main stage of the exam should be aimed at mastering the art of presenting one's viewpoints and thoughts briefly in writing.

 

DEMAND FOR MAINS:

The main Examination intends to assess the candidate's range of information and memory, overall intellectual traits, and depth of understanding. The questions are framed to test his general awareness of a wide range of subjects, issues, and ability to analyze critically and then view conflicting socio-economic goals, objectives, and demands. Aspirants must give relevant, meaningful, and concise answers to achieve success.

 

There are numerous cases of aspirants continuously complaining that despite working hard, reading so much, and appearing in mains year after year, they fail to make it to the interview stage. The question arises why is this? The simple reason is that they fail to understand the very basic that it is one thing to know a particular issue and quite different from putting that opinion or knowledge concisely in paper and that too in a time-bound manner. And this is what this write-up tries to address- how to write meaningful, relevant, and concise answers in a given time frame?

 

A FEW THINGS THAT SHOULD BE KEPT IN MIND WHILE WRITING ANSWERS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

• Self-evident plan
• Clarity of the thought process
• Answering the 'question' rather than a 'topic.'
• Proportionality: one common mistake often committed is that aspirants write too much about something or write too little.
• Visual appeal
• Creative input: the answer should include inter-topic linkages, catchy terms, facts and figures, case studies/ illustrations/ anecdotes.
• Expressions: there should be a balance between one's viewpoints and technical jargon, research studies, expert views on the other hand.
• Concise and thoroughness
• Candidates should try to engage with the reference statement mentioned in the question.

 

All this has to be achieved in the given time frame.

 

TIPS FOR TIME MANAGEMENT:

The two essential components for managing time are regularity and persistence. In our case, which is about civil services preparation, this would include the following aspects:

• Aspirants should try to follow a proper plan and schedule,
• They should make notes at regular intervals,
• They should practice questions/mini-tests daily and solve test papers at regular intervals, say weekly,
• They should devote adequate time to each phase of the exam and the individual pieces.

 

 What are the consequences of effective time management? Quite simple: discipline and confidence. Aspirants will not only complete the syllabus on time but also will be able to get enough time for repeated revisions. What's more, they will be able to take out time for self-improvement and extra-curricular activities. Such aspirants who follow time management consistently will not come under undue pressure in actual exam conditions.

But the truth is that it is easier said than done. There are various other factors like self-doubt, lack of self-confidence, and lack of motivation, leading to procrastination and tasks being piled up, resulting in mental breakdown.

 

Skills required for effective time management:

• First of all, every aspirant should know what they will do with the time? For this, they will have to start making short- and long-term goals.
• This is followed by setting priorities for each day, week, month, and year. This can help aspirants accomplish their goals. This will help in rating the different tasks at hand as per their importance.
• Aspirants now have clear-cut goals and they have set priorities for the same. What is the next logical step? To have a plan for getting them done.
• One should not forget to get adequate sleep and exercise to keep stress at bay and make learning more efficient.

 

 To inculcate the habit, candidates should aim at taking small steps initially. For this, set short-term goals (this can be the syllabus to be covered or the number of sittings in a day or the time to be devoted to each sitting/ chapter) should be targeted. Once they achieve success in these short-term goals, they will develop confidence. This can be followed by increasing the limits. Three essential ingredients in this respect are:

1. good sources that need to be followed
2. appropriate mentorship.
3. Fixing self-accountability.

 

Often, aspirants blame and complain about factors outside one's control. The best solution lies in self-introspection and then taking corrective measures. Proper time management will help the aspirants ace the civil service exam and help them lead a life of contentment and happiness!!!

 

HOW DOES APTIPLUS (BEST ONLINE COACHING FOR IAS) AND ITS BEST TEST SERIES FOR UPSC CIVIL SERVICES EXAM HELP ASPIRANTS MANAGE TIME WHILE WRITING ANSWERS IN UPSC MAINS?

 

DAILY MAINS MINI TEST

 The BEST ONLINE COACHING FOR IAS, through its IASGYAN Initiative, provides this Programme known for its codified objective criteria, uniform standards, and timely, constructive, personalized, and practical inputs on all aspects of answer writing. It has the following features:

• Daily, one question is uploaded by 10: 00 am with equal coverage of the four GS papers. Both static and dynamic portions are covered.
• Weekly, one essay is uploaded on Sunday.
• Aspirants need to upload hand-written answers by 6:00 pm.
• After that, evaluation is conducted by experts who assess professionally and provide personalized feedback.
• Key points to be incorporated in the answers are also shared.
• Model answers are provided the same day.

MAINS ANSWER WRITING

Apti Plus, the BEST ONLINE COACHING FOR IAS, through its Mains Program, offers that kind of conducive 360-degree platform that meets every requirement of the 'LEARN, REVISE & PRACTICE, TEST, IMPROVE, SUCCEED' mantra. One can 'Revise, Practice & Improve' and stay ahead of the curve with the Mains Answer Writing Evaluation Programme, known for its codified objective criteria, uniform standards, and timely, constructive, personalized, and practical inputs on all aspects of answer writing. The Programme aims to develop an analytical perspective in aspirants and ensure continuous improvement using evaluation, feedback, and personal mentorship. One-to-one personalized mentorship and trusted and expert guidance enable the aspirants to get their performance evaluated anytime from anywhere and help them learn at their own pace.

APTIPLUS'S MAINS TEST SERIES-THE BEST TEST SERIES FOR UPSC CIVIL SERVICES EXAM

This BEST TEST SERIES FOR UPSC CIVIL SERVICES EXAM has been designed to ensure content development and enhanced answer writing skills for the aspirants and enable them to develop multi-dimensional analytical perspectives across all themes. The mantra of 'LEARN-REVISE-TEST-SUCCEED' is followed. Programme focuses on building a solid foundation by starting from scratch and then achieving a step-by-step systematic and thorough coverage of the entire syllabus of the Main Exam. Tests under this BEST TEST SERIES FOR UPSC CIVIL SERVICES EXAM have been meticulously structured to ensure that aspirants grasp the demand of UPSC Main Exam and are also aided in the preparation of Prelim Test. It provides them with a discipline required during the coming weeks by developing a deeper understanding of the topics mentioned in the General Studies syllabus. It will help aspirants master the art of writing answers such as structure and presentation, learn how to present knowledge with contextual, structural, and language competency, understand the keywords/context, approach towards attempting question, understand their current preparedness and identify their strengths and weaknesses and work upon them in a concerted manner.

 

 Features of BEST TEST SERIES FOR UPSC CIVIL SERVICES EXAM:

• A clear-cut detailed schedule of the Tests.
• Sectional tests ensure that aspirants can comprehensively cover each subject and evaluate their performance through the tests.
• Full-Length Mock Tests to evaluate the overall preparation level.
• Detailed analysis of Tests based on Level of Difficulty makes it easier for aspirants to evaluate their performance and strategize their preparation accordingly.

 

Other aspects that this BEST ONLINE COACHING FOR IAS helps manage while writing answers in UPSC Mains:

• One, especially the faint-hearted and the languid aspirants, cannot crack the UPSC civil services exam without dedicated preparation throughout. Doubting about the self regularly seeps into the mindset of the candidates leading to a disturbed routine, anxiety, backlog of topics to study etc.
• But there is something that differentiates successful candidates from others- motivation and hunger for success. In their case, tremendous self-belief is at the display. They remain grounded and humble and success doesn't make them arrogant and overconfident. They learn from their mistakes and failures and know that learning is a continuous process and that knowledge must be constantly revised. Giving up is never an option for them. They aim at improving themselves step by step, however small they might be. They remain calm, cool, composed. Perseverance, smart work, dedication, and enjoying the preparation are their trademarks.
• Such candidates achieve success sooner or later. They are prepared to work hard even for six attempts. Their self knows that their life is now in a committed relationship. They avoid giving any mind share to a new activity. They remain focused and work smartly with the same intensity throughout.
• As mentioned earlier, this exam is unpredictable and has a vast syllabus. The other traits that make it the mother of all exams in India are its diversity and competition. This instills fear and anxiety among the candidates and makes them chicken out. This fear clouds their focus and makes it hard for them to concentrate. Fear of failure stifles them into inaction. Successful candidates do not allow fear to hamper their preparation.
• Sitting in the exam and wasting the initial attempts to feel the exam is the wrong step. Candidates from the open category have only six shots. Use them judiciously.
• Going on the wrong path would lead to not completing the syllabus on time.
• All candidates are advised to limit the number of sources. Preparation needs brilliant work with specific inputs. Having the bare minimum books coupled with multiple revisions and mocks is the ingredient for success.
• Master the material in the form that you already have e.g., class notes
• Revise them many times to gain conceptual clarity and precise memory, and specific recall when faced with a particular
• Evaluation through mocks
• Do not panic during the exams. Panic fogs the mind, and aspirants end up not being able to think and recall; thus fare poorly in the exams.
• Maintain a balance in almost all spheres of life.

Tips for comprehensive preparation by this BEST ONLINE COACHING FOR IAS

Step 1: aspirants should know the ideal time to start preparation. Considering that the prelims in 2023 is going to be held in June 2023, the aspirants should begin by March/April of this year that is 2022. A mistake committed by aspirants is that they see prelims and mains as separate (requiring different preparation). Aspirants should remember that one has to prepare simultaneously for both prelims and mains throughout their journey. From March/ April 2022 till March 2023, they should divide their schedule/plan proportionally between General Studies, Optional, Essay, and CSAT. This will include topics of mains syllabus like an essay, ethics, optional, portions of GS I, II, III that are not covered in Prelims syllabus. These should be covered before the candidate starts devoting full-time to prelims.

Step 2: Before beginning, each aspirant should familiarise and by-heart the syllabus for both prelims and mains and at the same time go through previous year's papers to have a "feel" of the entire Examination. This will help them get a rough idea of the nature of the exam, pattern, demand, and difficulty, focus areas of UPSC, diversity of the syllabus to be covered.

Step 3: each aspirant should carry out a SWOT analysis to identify their Strong and Weak Areas.

Step 4: Time Management (as discussed earlier).

Step 5: Comprehensive preparation.

Step 6: Regular revision and mocks. This will include PYQs.

APTI PLUS Academy for Civil Services, the BEST ONLINE COACHING FOR IAS provides a kind of conducive ecosystem for Best Online UPSC Civil Services Preparation to have the roadmap and the will to see that roadmap through to the end. There is a focus on effective time management in the best IAS coaching Institute providing BEST ONLINE COACHING FOR IAS.

Other advantages of this BEST ONLINE COACHING FOR IAS includes that it advocates and instils self-study techniques among the aspirants, there is no scarcity of study materials for online preparation for UPSC, it can also be availed with reasonable charges, flexibility as students can study as per their schedule, time Management as students save up the time that they previously used to commute from their home to the coaching class.