Mains 2021: Doubt and strategy discussion thread

Is there any geography optional thread? Could be handy for maps, diagrams, etc.

Hey all! 

Anyone having Dipin sir's CA course willing to share the course, please message me. We can spilt the costs. 

Thank you. 

https://www.csewiki.org/Important_data

Important Data for Value addition. Plus, check the website too. Really helpful!

Super, indeed! 

Thank you.

Regarding mains 365 questions that were raised,

Firstly understand how important is CA for mains. Pickup last year PYQ and you'll find CA in only GS2/3. And what percent? A honest assessment will tell you that less than 50% of GS2/3 is about CA. Allot time accordingly, whether it is 365 or some other classes. 

I overestimated CA importance and paid the price in one of my three failed attempts at mains. 

Reg 365, a good part of 365 of 2020 will be a repeat of 2019 material ( this year with corona there can be more changes ). I would suggest to finish 2019 365, pick useful things, make notes and internalise. When 2020 comes out add whatever has been missing. 

Mains 365 of 2020 will come at about 1.5 months from now (has been the case usually). There's too little time to internalise it. And the material itself has overload of content (ignore unnecessary data wisely)

http://demystifycse.in/

   This is a website by CSE 2019 selected candidates. Contains a lot of info on test series/answer writing and also has GS notes. Must go through! :)

I have added all these important links on the original post to avoid the hassle of searching through pages.

Thank you for sharing.

Regarding essay, I have joined forum. I have wrote 3 tests till now. Both paper checking and mentor support is on time. content building classes are taken by ayush sir and they are quite good. Also pdf of classes are short and to the point with decent amount of value addition. Not joined any other essay test series in previous attemp so can't really compare. But it works for me. The best thing is mentor support. Here are some of the suggestion on my essays

 mentor suggestions

1. complete underline or boxes in headings
2. don't make heading for trival things make broad headings
3. four finger gap from margin while starting a paragraph
4. story or anecdotes
1. short and crisp
2. specific and relevant
3. heart wrenching,  poignant
4. real life incidents would be better
5. break into paragraphs (atleast three in a page)
6. two or three ancedotes or story each week from various essay topics and collect it 
1. insights, forum or previous years questions
5. heading should be innovative and creative
1. should not be GS like
6. neatness -- reduce strikeouts
7. use different connectors apart from first, second, thirds such as in addition, besides, 
8. while writing example don't write ex or eg write -- For example, etc (google other such phrases)
9. punctuation marks
10. write the topic you choose and don't just underline option
11. underline keywords
12. need to make better rough draft
13. write at least 11 pages
14. write mythological examples
15. Underlining on wrong words- correct it.