IAS Strategy for Civil Service Preliminary Examination

Millions of candidates are dreaming of securing the hot seat of a civil servant. UPSC Preliminary examination or Prelims examination is the first stage of the Civil Service Examination. The candidates who qualify for the UPSC preliminary examination will be shortlisted for the civil service mains examination. At the same time, the score the candidate secured in Prelims will not be added along with the Mains score to determine the final rank list. Thus, it is considered the screening test for the main phase of the UPSC Civil Service Examination. 

In the Preliminary Examination, the candidates have to attend two papers; General Studies I and General Studies II or CSAT. Here, in this section, we will discuss the IAS strategies for the Civil Service Prelims examination based on its syllabus.

The Pattern of Preliminary Examination

The pattern for the Civil Service Prelims Examination is given below:

Syllabus for Civil Service Prelims Examination

The UPSC Prelims Exam consists of two papers; General Studies I or GS II and General Studies II or GS II. General Studies I and GS I, aim to evaluate the ability of the candidate to grasp diverse subjects including history, polity, geography and so forth. At the same time, the General Studies II or CSAT (Civil Service Aptitude Test) aims to evaluate the candidate’s hands-on experience in logical answering, analytical skills and so on. 

The syllabus for the UPSC Prelims examination is given below:

Refer to ‘Prelims Syllabus’ for a detailed syllabus. 

Prelims Question Pattern and Cutoff

The question pattern for the Civil service prelims examination is objective or MCQ. There are 100 questions in the paper I and 80 questions in the paper II. The cut-off for the General Studies I varies every year. However, the cut-off for the CSAT or General Studies II is determined as 33% of the qualifying criteria., that is 66 marks. 

Civil Service Strategies for Qualifying Prelims Examination

As the Prelims Examination is the screening test for the UPSC Mains, qualifying for this phase is very crucial. To secure higher scores in the first phase of the UPSC Civil Service Examination, the candidate needs to have strong IAS strategies for preparation. Here are some civil service strategies you need to consider while preparing for UPSC Prelims. 

• Thorough Understanding of Syllabus

When starting civil service preparation, you need to read, analyse and understand the syllabus for the UPSC Prelims thoroughly. This will help in covering the syllabus as a whole without leaving important portions. 

The topics mentioned in the UPSC Prelims syllabus are indicative. To prepare them comprehensively for the UPSC examination, the candidate needs to have a proper understanding of the points that are covered under each topic. Thus, the candidate needs to do an extensive analysis of each topic along with its split-up in detail. 

• Design an Effective and Personalised Plan for Preparation

After analysing the syllabus for the UPSC Civil Service examination deeply, the next step is to prepare an efficient and effective study plan. It is important to note that your study plan should cover all topics included in the syllabus comprehensively. Here are some tips, you can implement in your study plan for preparing UPSC Civil Service Examination. 

• Make a list of topics to be covered and prepare monthly and weekly plans accordingly

• Maintain a proper tracking method for determining your progression on a daily basis in terms of topics covered. 

• Efficiently divide your study hours and allocate more time to your weaker areas.

• Make sure that you divide your study time equally to cover static portions and current affairs. 

• Your study plan should not be over-ambitious. It puts you in trouble. Thus, your study plan should be based on your potential and grasping ability. 

• It is recommended to avoid long sessions for study. Break down your study hours with a 25-minute break in between. This will help prevent you from exhausting and make you feel fresh and focused. 

• Acquire a Thorough Clarity of Concepts

When preparing for the Civil Service Prelims Examination, the aspirants must have thorough clarity regarding the concepts included in the UPSC syllabus design for the civil service examination. Here are some tips that help UPSC aspirants to develop clarity in concepts.

• Take reference from textbooks including NCERTs

• Learn by understanding topics instead of rote learning

• Give importance to group discussions and combine studies. This process will help you to gain more clarity regarding the topic

• Prepare synoptic and structured notes for each topic.

• Make a Familiarity with Previous Year Question Papers

When preparing for the UPSC Civil Service Examination, the candidate must be familiar with and must have a deep understanding of the Previous year’s question papers and their patterns along with the UPSC CSE syllabus. This analysis of the previous year’s question papers will help the candidates to develop a strategic plan for preparation, by categorising the whole portions based on their importance. Above that, the other factors you can formulate as an IAS strategy for UPSC preparation based on the deep analysis of the previous year’s question paper include:

• Make a shortlist of the topics that have high weightage and need to be prioritised.

• Locate the topics that appear multiple times in the question paper

• Understand the nature and pattern of the questions asked from a particular topic 

• Analyse the recent trends and difficulty level of the UPSC questions

In addition, it is also recommended to solve the previous year’s question papers multiple times before appearing for the actual examination under a timed condition, which will help you to develop an effective time management skill in the UPSC Civil Service Examination. 

• Formulate a Special Strategy for Current Affairs

It is a known fact that the UPSC Civil Service examination is driven by current affairs. They are dynamics and play an integral part in the UPSC Prelims. Thus, current affairs require special attention while preparing for the UPSC Civil Service Examination. Here are some tips to tame current affairs in your way to make the portion easier for civil service examination. 

• Read newspapers regularly and note down important news appearing in the daily newspapers 

• To store information in a smarter method, follow current affairs magazines and websites including Fortune IAS Circle.

• Divide the news into different categories including Government schemes, acts and policies, international news and events, sports and culture and so forth. In addition, it is also recommended to prepare concise notes on each current affairs under respective categories.

• If any topics in the current affairs crossroads with the syllabus, it is recommended to mark them separately for better understanding.

• Revision is Crucial

Revision can make a huge impact on the confidence level of the candidates, especially on the day of the examination. Daily revision at a glance at the topics covered will help candidates create a strong foundation on the topics they covered. For that, the candidate can make use of techniques like active recall to make an assurance by themselves that they covered the topic thoroughly. Apart from this, they can even maintain short notes and mind maps to make the revision process easier, especially at the time of examination.

• Warm Up Yourself with Mock Test

Another IAS strategy to crack the civil service examination is the mock test. As mock tests create a similar environment to the actual Civil Service Examination, this opportunity makes the candidate familiar with real examination scenarios. In addition, with this strategy, the candidates can develop the skill of time management, improve speed and accuracy as well as help them in identifying their strong and weak areas in the syllabus. This makes the candidate concentrate more on their weaker areas while preparing for the UPSC Civil Service Examination.

Tips to score 140+ scores in UPSC Prelims Examination

• The cut-off for UPSC Prelims for the General Category in General Studies paper 1 usually lies around 110-120 marks. 

• One can easily clear Prelims on the very first attempt with the right preparation strategies and by attending several mock practice tests. 

• Include Current Affairs preparation and revision daily in your work routine. Limit the sources of study material. 

• Avoid collecting similar information from too many sources. It might be confusing. 

• Stick to standard sources like The Hindu, Yojana, and PIB for Current Affairs.

• During the first phase of preparation, refer to the NCERT books as they would provide a good foundation for the basic concepts.

Practise previous year’s question papers and develop a solid strategy for minimising wrong attempts. Its civil service strategy would help the candidate to reduce gaining negative marks in the UPSC Prelims examination.