CSE 2022: Plan/ Strategy/ Daily Routine
This is an everything thread for all stuff 2022. You can post your daily goals, end-of-the-day updates, weekly targets or any weird thing you use to measure your progress. You can put into words & post the soul-sucking sadness that is threatening to devour you & your productivity. You can write what made your day & let others experience the happiness too, at least vicariously. This is a thread to pick each other up. This is a thread to keep each other accountable. This is a no-judgement zone.
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“This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don't get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can't do anything, don't get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it's ready to come undone. You have to realize it's going to be a long process and that you'll work on things slowly, one at a time.”
— Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
Hi guys!
IN this time. Was scoring 100+ in GS and 58.75 in CSAT from 3 keys. Now that scared the shit out of me and I couldn't utilise all these days and was just preparing myself mentally for the worst. Lekin when the result came, hopefully I cleared. Isse yeh seekha tha never trust CSAT keys, bahut hi important days waste karwa sakte hai. And mentally fuck up bhi kr sakte hai. Now just 85 days remaining will give my best shot!
All the best everyone ♥️
Calling it a day, too early today. Will watch some movie. This sudden news of upcoming result would take time to sink in. Won’t fake it, but i am as much nervous as much I am excited.
Reviewing now - meditation resumed, Stock Exchange missed, Jammu Kashmir considerably done. My love for the land has ensured i went too much in depth and not dimensions. Will correct it in coming days. Below average day overall.
Targets for March 17 (day 18)
1. No plans as of now, would post by night what all I did.
Good luck dostoen, may tomorrow be a good day !
PS - I will write two letters to self. One tonight, another tomorrow night. Will keep both of them confidential.
Today was not a good day. Flunked in Mains once again. Doing it consecutively is not ordinary. It’s extra ordinary. This entire cycle has been very much confusing for me. Clearing prelims effortlessly, flunking in mains with efforts. I shall work on changing orientation towards Mains, and it will take time. Will ensure good enough answer writing practise. Meanwhile, some of my best friends have cleared this stage, I am just so happy for them and family.
Reviewing now - watched some random stuff here and there, nothing concrete. Watched a movie just now - The Lunchbox, could relate very well.
Targets for March 18 (day 19)
1. No major targets as such - my father sahab has planned to take me somewhere on a short vacation, i am just very curious.
2. Will look towards psc mains, limited days are left, limited choices are left.
Haar nahi maanenge. A battle is lost, war still remains.
Good luck to my old and new fellas who cleared prelims this time. I didn't appear this time but was rooting for you all. You all are brilliant irrespective of the prelims result.
Various regulatory bodies' exams are on the card in the coming days/months and for those who couldn't clear it, the opportunities are nigh! Please keep the motivation high.
Please pray for my RBI mains tomorrow though. Good luck!
Came across a passage that resonated with me deeply and reminded me of this UPSC journey.
"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.
And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You’ll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm is all about.”Haruki Murakami (in Kafka on the Shore)
Loved reading this. Putting the book on my reading list. This reminded of a poem I keep going back to in difficult times.
Sharing it here: Kahlil Gibran, Fear
@Celeborn Can you please tell how you analyse toppers ethics copies? What things should one look for and how much time should we give to them?
Depends on how much time you have and what are your needs.
1) If you're not giving Mains and otherwise have enough time, one of the best things you can do is to either write or mentally frame answers to questions and then compare them to toppers answers. I did this in Feb last year for one week and it did help improve my understanding and confidence a lot.
2) If you are giving Mains this year or are lacking time, just read through copies and try to analyse how answers are being written. This includes stuff like
(a) What are being written as intros/conclusions?
(b) How the answer is being structured. Are subheadings separately mentioned?
(c) If it's in point format, how is maximum content being conveyed in minimal words
(d) How the spacing is between lines and subparts
(e) How the page looks at a glance
(f) How examples are being written (how many words typically used per example, how many examples in an answer, what kinds of examples etc)
(g) How diagrams are being used (how much space it takes, where exactly it's placed)
(h) How specific types of questions (for eg. Quote based questions) are being answered
(i) Specifically for case studies, what are mentioned in intros conclusions? Is stakeholders mentioned every time? What all are being answered? What keywords are being used etc
(j) Presentation styles across both sections - how are words highlighted (underlining?/boxes or circles?); how options, merits, demerits are being written in case studies; how subparts/subheadings are shown etc
This isn't an exhaustive list. You can always learn lots from these copies. In particular, always try to notice if any innovation has been used (no matter how trivial). Even small things if implemented well make a difference.
3) Topper Copies can also act as repositories of examples, diagrams, quotes. In particular, they're extremely useful because they were written in exam condition thus the content is most suitable for replication in the exam hall. For instance you may learn lots of quotes. But some may be confusing or difficult to recall. Others may not be relevant and useful everywhere. Quotes contained in topper copies are quotes that they used in exam setting so it indicates it's possible to recollect them clearly + it's relevant to the kind of questions being asked in ethics papers. Same goes with examples and diagrams.
Again, if you're giving Mains, don't spend too much time on this. Completion of syllabus and revision is much more important. I personally went through 2 copies in detail and just glanced through a few others last year before Mains.
Keep it in your to do list. But do it when you're otherwise tired and don't feel like studying.
Hi guys!
The results came. Out again.
This was my 3rd attempt. 3rd Mains. And 3rd straight setback at this stage. This one hurt the hardest though.
Yesterday was spent in processing the pain and trying to introspect on the mistakes I made. There are a lot of things I need to work on. Some changes I need to make in my approach. Changes I'm confident of implementing because of the support system I'm lucky to have, especially here.
I want to thank this community. This thread (and particularly the 2021 daily routine thread) are my favorite threads. I've made some great friends here, learned a lot from everyone and found motivation every day to work better. And now I hope this thread will help in keeping the desired level of discipline, consistency and intensity.
It's time to get back to the grind now. This still hurts; but the only way to heal the pain is to be better and ensure a positive result next time. The next 6 months is do-or-die.
Targets for today:
1) Polity
2) Newspaper
3) CA August 10 pages
4) Maths PYQs
5) TLP
Have a great day!
.
- Take CSAT test --done
- SFG syllabus --done
- Newspaper --done [notes pending]
Today's targets 14/02/2022 --
- Test analysis, solve unattempted questions(practice more, improve speed)
- Newspaper
- SFG syllabus
- Clear newspaper pending notes
When did I last actually draw something, sad ! More to do with how lazy I am.
Note to self -- at least 1 hour on drawing this week.
- The institute website did not let me access the report :/ [Backlog for whenever it is available]
- Done
- Done
- Not done
Drew a little and felt good :)
Today 15/02/2022 targets --
- SFG Art and culture
- Newspaper
- Please clear notes backlog
- Walk [might skip if I don't mention it here]
So, keep going! :)
- Not complete, backlog to be finished today
- Done
- Cleared a decent amount - pending some more
- Done
- Also completed analysis of CSAT test and practiced the unattempted questions
Today's targets 16/02/2022--
- SFG targets plus backlog of yesterday
- Newspaper
- Current Affairs monthly Jan
- Clear as much backlog of newspaper notes as possible
- Walk
@sjerngal Sharing a drawing as promised. Have a good day, everyone :)
Hi friends, it’s good to be back on forum after long. Seeing familiar names from YPT gives me positive vibes. My huge respect to all pursuing their dreams passionately and sorry for all the unsolicited wake ups.
Our celebrations at home for holy festival of Maha Shivaratri have started. Lord Shiva has huge symbolic significance in my life. My father sahab has named me after him. We consider this festival as new year. So taking resolution in this holy week, I am promising myself to post daily targets here and review them every night for 21 days.
Past few days had been productive, however my preparation is never plan based. I pick up topics based on mood. Over time, it leads to nowhere. So this time, lets do it in planned manner.
Targets for Feb 28 (day 1)
- Meditation 1/2
- Prelims (last year’s geography and polity mocks - let’s see how many can be revised and if doing it is fruitful) (6)
- PT (newspaper, transcripts, one current theme topic) (4)
- Meditation 2/2
Looking forward to a good start !
I am scoring around 105-120 in GS-1 according to various keys, but I think CSA dubayega. I feel soo soo bad right now that it couldn't be expressed in words. CSAT is getting tougher and I feel so fucked up right now. Agar clear ho jata hai mata ke darbar mei matha tekhna sure sure hai. Abhi toh yeh soch rhi hun neend kaise aayegi..soun kaise ab?
I was happy with GS and I think CSAT dekhna hi nahin chayeih tha. Anyways will try sleeping. Kal try kregen to enjoy this time with family.
Came across a passage that resonated with me deeply and reminded me of this UPSC journey.
"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.
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