Its like scratching wounds which has not even healed properly but will definitely share my learnings.
1. When you hear "give 3-5 months before prelims exclusively to prelims" means you leave any mains preparation and revise only for prelims and does not mean you start studying for prelims for the first time in those 3-5 months. This time is only for revising and not understanding the subject for the first time. (especially for first timers and who are not from Delhi/ any coaching hub/did not join coaching and watched only topper's videos)
2. You don't give up before even trying.
3. You don't judge yourself/your preparation / performance /compare yourself with others in the exam hall.
4. Static books>current affairs
5. Run after basic/conceptual questions and not few obscure fact based questions.
You should write an article a detailed one sometime. To ne honest, it may take a person upto 2 months to just do laxmikant. That's because straight out of college it takes time to develop studying habits and sitting habits, and knack for how to speed read and how to make nemonics and all that.
If I were to start afresh, i would take at least 45 days just to do 1 book. The time of 5 months means you have some idea of the subject fro before. This year CSE 2020 the youngest candidate is 1999 born selected at the age of 22 ( applied at the age of 21) i know one such kid.
It may look heroic that she managed such a good rank in first attempt but the truth is she has been preparing since college.
Why?
Because someone in the family was preparing.
Things take time. We flunk prelims - half of us because we don't study, but another half who studies for Mains when prelims comes closer.
I think nearly everybody who decides to enter in preparation knows which books to study from (the basic 5 for prelims) but they don't know when to study what, how to study basic books, what to study/focus and the most important what not to study.
I have nearly stopped watching topper's videos a long back. It is not that they hide what they did right but sometimes they also don't know what exactly worked/ sometimes what they are trying to say gets lost in miscommunication/ something which works only for them and not others/ two topper's saying opposite things but both things work for them respectively, etc. Though I liked what Apala Mishra (Rank9) (in forumias community meet) said because my experiences were similar.
Maybe will write an article but that would mean going over and confronting past mistakes which will be painful. Maybe I will write when I become mentally stronger and don't judge my past self /mistakes and be kinder to myself.
@Brave can you please share your insights a detailed one for beginners with timeline on how to proceed for the prep.
For timeline and how to proceed, there is an excellent article by Neyawn - https://blog.forumias.com/two-cents-how-to-clear-civil-services-with-a-top-rank-and-avoid-exhausting-attempts/
