Awww. Awesome. One day when all this is over I’m going to get into Korean tv!
Awww. Awesome. One day when all this is over I’m going to get into Korean tv!
Oh, yes please! And when that time comes, do ping me. I’m a PhD in Kdramas. 😂 will assure great recommendations. 💃🏻
I will! Thankss :D And hey, that might even be useful in the next prelims given the trend! :p
Going to start doing this in earnest too!
7th October Twenty-Twenty
1. Western political thought (6h)
2. PYQs of WPT (3h)
3. GS4 - analyse PYQs and identify what needs to be done (lol) (2h)
4. World history - PYQs and notes
good luck everyone!
7th Oct.: done except World History
8th October Twenty-Twenty
1. Indian political thought (4h)
2. Theories of state (2h)
3. PSIR PYQs answer-writing (2h)
4. August Vision 1/2 (3h)
5. Revise yesterday’s WPT (1h)
6. World history (2h)
HAVE TO START READING THE HINDU AGAIN.
this thing is fun! Have a nice day everyone! :)
Same :( I think going forward it would be good to maintain notes on a selected few current affairs topics that can be updated from newspapers.
Exactly.
Sir (in my limited understanding) for mains we can identify some issues which are potential questions for this year and prepare them holistically. This is where newspaper helps.
Some imp issues are:
1) Agricultural reforms- As bills are in news
2) Women safety and caste politics
3) Police and judicial reforms
4) Black hole- Noble prize given
5) Role and scope of Free speech in democracy
6) Banking reforms
7) Future of globalisation
And you can continue this list....
Hope this helps :)
Yess! Thanks for the list :) I’ll create one soon too
Same :( I think going forward it would be good to maintain notes on a selected few current affairs topics that can be updated from newspapers.
Do check out Rau's DNS videos on YouTube. I find the quality excellent generally. It saves an awful lot of time as well. They've uploaded a list of all issues from the Hindu for the past 2 years, along with their video explainers of those issues. This is not only quite exhaustive, but it helps in gathering a conceptual understanding. I supplement this with research on facts/figures/value additions plus relevant gapfillers.
When I feel my notes are insufficient, the DNS videos and Indian Express articles are my go-to source for current affairs. Did not do PT 365. This approach worked for me immensely in PT. Thought I should share. :)
Thank you so much!! I could only find the daily The Hindu news analysis videos on their YouTube though - are there separate topic-based ones?
Thank you so much!! I could only find the daily The Hindu news analysis videos on their YouTube though - are there separate topic-based ones?
List of Articles - DNS, May 2019- Aug 2020.pdf
Right, so this is the index of all the articles that have been discussed from Jan 2018 onwards till Prelims 2020. I think this is possibly one of the most comprehensive indices of all relevant current affairs issues, simply because it comes from the average newspaper. They've included links to all their videos as well, article-wise. PDF links to their daily notes are also available on Youtube. The notes are usually of a good quality, but I don't recommend reading all of it, simply because the point behind this is maximising efficiency, and making best use of time. However, where necessary, snippets from the PDFs can be added on to your notes.
You'll need to do a bit of digging from within the index (as in, if you want to holistically do issues about River Ganga, Ctrl+F "Ganga") and identify the topics you would choose to do. You would also need to be proactive in adding points not discussed to add value to your answer. But I think, if one can do that, and effectively prepare the important ones, preparation would be more holistic rather than doing them straight from a Mains 365.
Pro-tips:Watch the videos at 1.5-2.0 x speed depending on necessity. Go from October, 2020 backwards.
What. A. Goldmine. THANK YOU. You’re the bestest.
As a token of thanks,
Still in post-prelims inertia, unable to start anything. Had set a schedule since 13th but unable to keep up with sheer volume of work to be done. Don’t know how you guys are managing. Posting my first schedule today:
world history notes- 3 hrs
post independence consolidation- 3hrs
awfg- 1 hr
lets hope things pan out well today. Hoping to get much needed momentum going.
my question to you guys is how you’re keeping yourself self motivated and avoiding procrastination during the day. Thanks
That inertia is a horrible cycle... been having bouts since last year but with decreasing frequency and duration. Some things that help me avoid it:
1. Work WITH yourself, not against yourself. Find the balance between forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to, and humouring yourself. Figure out distinct moods you experience and what kind of topic works best with each. You might find a pattern. You can then arrange items from your daily list accordingly. For example, I realised that I can’t get into anything with a lot of depth first thing in the morning. After I have one quick tick on my whiteboard from an easier topic, I am energised to get into something that’ll take a few hours. So I started doing discrete ethics topics first thing in the morning, followed by a good long optional sesh. After lunch to avoid the break extending into the next session, I make the next session short so I’m under pressure. If my plan says “03.00 to 04.00” with a small topic instead of “03.00 to 06.00” with a big one, I’m more likely to sit down to work at 3pm since the heat is on. It’s like a project where you’re both the manager and the only team member. So you have to understand how your mind works and manipulate/direct it into working.
2. See if making shorter slots works for you. And don’t be too ambitious! I usually give myself 10-15 minutes more for a topic than I think I’ll take, so I get a feeling of accomplishment when I have 10 minutes left - I’m writing this on a break like that(“Fake it till you make it”) . The time you lose in these short breaks will be much less than the massive chunk of time you lose if you’re not feeling motivated and energised.
3. Sit down for as long as it takes and write down every little bit of work that has to be done. Every single nook and corner of the overwhelming labyrinth in front of you. Then organise it into parts that make sense to you. Write down dates for the next couple of weeks. Figure out how much and what needs to be done for each. Write that down beside the date. Be honest with how much you can do in one day - this is crucial. Now step back and look at that beauty of a plan. That’s your torchlight. You just have to keep moving forward, one day at a time. Worry only about one day. If you fail to finish 100% of one day, try to adjust it in the next two. If you fail at 3 days, the pressure will show up again. Either your targets were too high or your daily time clocked too low. Honestly identify which. Make the plan again. You’ll find that you are getting closer to realising the plan with every iteration as you get used to it. Sooner or later you’ll be finishing it exactly down to the last minute. It’s a beautiful feeling. Just gotta hang in there until you reach it!
4. Make your reward proportionate to and conditional on the work put in. If I’ve successfully finished my morning session targets I happily watch an episode of Bandish Bandits over lunch. If I haven’t then I finish lunch quickly and try to make up for at least some of the time lost (so I watch quick B99 excerpts :p)
5. Figure out one area in the whole syllabus that always has your back. That you’ll feel like doing even when you don’t want to do anything else. This is your best friend who’ll never let you down. Use it when you can’t do anything else but also don’t want to give up. At the very least you won’t have wasted time.
6. Talk to people when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that the world will still go on even if you finish only 30 pages instead of 50. Usually talking to friends/family - people who seem strangely normal to me because they’re not obsessing over a whiteboard - hits a reset button in my head. Studying becomes much easier once the feeling of being overwhelmed passes.
7. If the day refuses to pick up no matter what you do, ruthlessly kill it. I just go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it... yet. (A quote khaas from my favourite childhood book). An early start the next day plus the guilt of the previous day usually makes it a much more productive one.
You’re certainly not alone in feeling this way. All the above worked for me, it may not for you. But you can figure out things like this that do. After all there’s no wrong way to study as long as you end up learning. Good luck and thank you for reading if you lasted this long :)
Unable to study with concentration for a few days till now (around a week to 10 days), though started great after 4 or 5 days after prelims. I have completed some portion but haven't been close to full efficiency. Feeling like it may already be too late...already lost some precious time. How do I not make this worry me?
@shruti12345 You’re not alone... try writing answers whenever you feel your concentration dropping while reading (that “pages have turned but brain feels empty” feeling) by finding a PYQ on the topic. If the answers are good you get a confidence boost, if they’re not you get the kick you need to read at least that topic properly. Until you get into a proper groove, switch topics until you find one that retains your attention. Once you get into the study zone with it, other topics should be easier too. Try changing your timings too, wake up earlier or sleep later - sometimes a fresh time of the day helps. And if you have a timetable that you’re not able to follow, make it more realistic - reduce the targets. The feeling of completing your targets itself generates a calmness that will help you complete a bit more the next day. Whatever you do stay away from despair and hopelessness because that makes it harder to even care about studying, leave alone studying. Just some things that worked for me :) it’s not too late if you can pick up successfully now. All the best :)
@Hitman2021 fully agree with@HotBloodPrince! Keep on keeping on. And damn... this is your part time UPSC avatar. Can’t wait to see what full mode is like :D
17th November
8:00 to 10:30 Laxmikanth - legislatures ✔️
10:30 to 11:30 Laxmikanth - judiciary ✔️
11:30 to 01:30 Social Issues Mains 365 1/2 ✔️
01:30 to 02:00 Newspaper ✔️
03:00 to 04:00 Ethics - analyse feedback + model answers ✔️
04:00 to 06:00 Ethics - 1 to 4 revise ✔️
06:00 to 09:00 Optional - Indian foreign policy ✔️
10:00 to 11:00 GS2 - answers ✔️
11:00 to 12:00 Optional - answers ✔️
12:00 to 01:30 Optional - revise 1A
Took a kind of break from forum thinking it would help focus. But finding it extremely overwhelming - so coming back just to feel like I’m not alone if nothing else. Everyone says it’s emotionally taxing and strenuous, and I used to think I was strong for never feeling it that much. *universe chuckles* I was so so wrong. This is the worst, worst phase of prep in the last year and half. But I guess these are the times that test us most. Even when it seems like mains is an insurmountable mountain I’m not ever going to be able to cross, even when everything seems to be slipping away, gotta believe in yourself and keep plowing on.
Hope you guys are doing good :) keep up the work. Keep up the faith.
9/10 done on 17th.
18th November
08:00 - 09:30 Soc Issues 365 - 6, 7
09:30 - 11:30 LXM 36 to 41
11:30 - 01:30 LXM 60 to 75
02:00 - 05:00 Ethics mock 3
05:00 - 06:00 Recover from mock, wipe tears with question paper, scan, revise articles
06:00 - 07:30 Soc Issues 365 - 8
07:30 - 09:00 LXM Leftovers except bodies
10:00 - 11:00 GS2 and optional answers
11:00 - 01:00 Optional odds and ends
01:00 - 01:30 The Hindu
This prep is a very humbling experience. Guess it all builds character.
@thepolicydreamer thank you dost :) My chess is IFS people’s social media. Must desist. And also struggling to handle emotions. The irony of studying emotional intelligence while barely holding on to the railings on this emotional roller coaster that is mains... we shall look back and laugh some day :)
@Patootie thank you. Thank you. I hope no stray negativity ever so much as approaches your bubble. Your outer voice is so heartening and calming to others, can’t even imagine what the inner one is like. It will see you through :)
@rahuldb52526019 thank you... needed to hear that today.
Good luck today everyone. You’ve got this.
And guys. Let’s not let mocks bring us down too much and distract from the goal as he said above. There’s a reason they’re called “mocks” and not “kind encouragements” lol.
18th: So-so day. 70%. But yay for finishing ethics test almost in time.
Not able to stick to timetable because not able to fall asleep.
19th November:
1. Finish social issues 365 ✔️
2. Optional - NAM, and some more odds and ends ✔️
3. GS2 - Finish polity ✔️
4. Answers - GS2 polity PYQS, optional - did RPA instead
5. Polity CA - did RPA instead
Have a good day everyone :)
@confused_soul (Pehle toh necessary first timer disclaimer, most of the time I don’t know what I’m doing etc)
Same. But I don’t think mains mocks marks are meant to be taken too seriously, because evaluation is so subjective. Plus I have seen many toppers copies with marks below 100. People who scored well above 100 in mains.
I think with mock test evaluations we should really focus more on fixing the mistakes pointed out and making sure previous mistakes are not repeated, so that new mistakes can be pointed out the next time :p would kill for a time turner right now too, but I think all it comes down to is repeated revision of decent sources. So many times I’ve gotten intimidated seeing a new point in someone else’s answer, only to later discover it in some other form in my own notes! I feel like mains mein main (lol) challenge is not so much to acquire new knowledge at this point but to extract existing random bits of info and insight from your brain and write neatly in the paper in 7/9/10 minutes. Which comes with practise. But I’ve also found so far that after a bit of practise the right approach to a certain kind of answer just sort of clicks, and you can do better from that point on. There will probably be a few key mistakes we are making over and over again. Those just need to be fixed.
Also to evaluate your answers you can find some trustworthy topper mocks from people who seem like they had a good strategy, preferably with as many attempts as you, and compare your answers. Find the latest possible date wale mocks. That’s what I’m doing. Really helps to calm the nerves and get some direction.
All the best :)
Some lines that just hit right, right now, from the song from Dor:
Raah pe kante bikhre agar
Uspe to phir bhi chalna hi hai
Sham chhupale suraj magar
Raat ko ek din dhalana hi hai
Rut ye tal jayegi
Himmat rang layegi
Subah phir aayegi...
Yeh hosla kaise jhuke
Yeh aarzoo kaise ruke
Trying to get back to fixed timetable. Sometimes you need a big reality check to scare you into getting back on track, sometimes you need a home haircut.
23rd November
07.00 - 09.00 Soc Issues 365 rev (overslept :(, have to make up for this during the day) ✔️
09.00 - 10.00 11, 15, 16 rev ✔️
10.00 - 11.30 Vision VA rev ✔️
11.30 - 01.00 Update 7 ✔️
01.00 - 01.30 Data rev ✔️
01.30 - 02.00 Newspaper ✔️
02.30 - 04.00 LXM 1, 2 ✔️
04.00 - 06.00 LXM 3, 4 ✔️
06.00 - 09.00 LXM 5, 6, 7, 8
10.00 - 11.00 LXM 9, finish
11.00 - 12.30 Language paper ✔️
Didn’t entirely finish polity, seriously underestimated good old Laxmikanth.
24th November
07.30 - 09.00 GS2 leftovers ✔️
09.30 - 12.30 GS2 Mock! ✔️
01.00 - 01.30 Newspaper
02.00 - 03.00 2B 5 Notes 1 ✔️
03.00 - 05.30 2B 5 Notes 2 ✔️
05.30 - 07.00 2B 5 Notes 3 ✔️
07.00 - 09.00 2B 5 consolidate notes
10.00 - 12.00 2B 5 consolidate notes
12.00 - 01.00 Mock solution
@HotBloodPrince So sorry for your loss friend. Can’t imagine what you’re going through. Stay strong, you’ve definitely got this
