Aman Singh Rathore prelms strategy for UPSC :=

Preliminary exam.......
I scored 112+172=284 in prelim.

Ancient and medieval India contribute around 2-4 questions.
In both ancient and medieval India especial emphasis should be given on cultural history like Harappan
culture, temple architecture, paintings, religious movements like Sufism....bhakti movement, Jainism,
Buddhism, din-e-ilahi.....books and their authors...dances....classical and carnatic music...folk dances and
drama......2nd important area of focus shud be social and economic history like....caste
system...mansabdari...land reforms like iqta system.....zabti system.....different types of taxes......etc
Modern India shud be remembered WORD BY WORD....becoz around 13-15 questions are directly asked
from this area.
Resources for history are..........

Ancient India----- OLD NCERT by R S Sharma........
Medieval India----- OLD NCERT by Satish Chandra
Modern India-----spectrum. Chapter on socio-religious reforms is very imp. The end part of spectrum
contains many tables which are very imp.
Initial few chapters of MODERN INDIA NCERT BY BIPIN CHANDRA SHOULD BE READ becoz spectrum
starts from revolt of 1857.
For advance level(only for playing very safe)......Pratiyogita Darpan of modern India can referred for
MCQ only and few very important tables of significant events....like imp organisations and their
founders.....imp sessions of congress etc.

Geography-----
In geographical concepts especial emphasis shud be given on continental drift, Sea floor spreading, Plate
tectonics, vulcanism, earthquake, Earths interior, monsoon, El-nino, La-nina, Jet streams, cyclones etc.
Indian geography----New NCERT class 11th----physical geography of India, and for more clarity---- one
chapter on Physiography of India from Majid Hussains Indian Geography can be read. In Indian
geography especial attention shud be given on terms like khadar , bhabhar. Bhangar. Kaller, tarai. Bhur.
Chos...thalghat...phalghat..bhorghat.
GC Leong....WORD BY WORD.......but chapters on cycles of erosion have complex terminologies...so only
names of different landforms can be remembered for prelims.......
For general info about various continents----OLD NCERT 6-8 LAND AND PEOPLE can be read.
Oxford student atlas is very good for remembering various rivers....mountains....etc

Ecology---
Important areas of focus shud be---
1. Basic terminology like ecotone......keystone species.....ecological
succession....sere.....mutualism....commensalism etc.
2. National parks, wild life sanctuaries, biosphere reserve etc.
3. Important environment treaties like Kyoto protocol...montreal protocol...Nagoya...Cartagena
protocol......Ramsar , Basel, Rotterdam convention.
4. IUCN list of threatened species....especially those which always remain in news like GREAT INDIAN
BUSTARD.
5. Pollution related concepts like eutrophication, photochemical smog, acid rain etc.
Resources for ecology are-
For basics----ICSE books on environment and ecology.
For advance---- Shankar IAS acdmy notes....
World focus on Climate change......feb 2014 issue....

General science-----
Either NCERT from 6-12 OR
TMH manual on general studies.....science section...better choice
In general science most questions are from daily life utility of various concepts.....like type of lense in
myopia....or application of refraction...newtons laws.......vitamins.....hormones.....cell biology....imp
diseases...DNA...RNA...fatty acids and their types and implication for health etc.

For science and tech part----
Vajiram booklet for mains can be referred. In this sections mostly question are asked from sections like
nuclear cycle, space related info like PSLV...GSLV...latest satellites....carbon nanotubes.....defence
related info like latest missiles etc.

For socioeconomic development----
SRIRAM ECONOICS for basics of economics
Economic survey of India latest one
All social development scheme should be covered very sincerely. They can be read from India year book
+ vajiram booklet on social schemes/ civil service chronicle on social schemes

For current affairs.......
Vajiram booklets or vision IAS NOTES........of last one year.
CSAT WILL BE THE DECIDING FACTOR FOR CLEARING PRELIMS....SO HIT IT HARD
Most imp part is TIME MANAGEMENT...and that can be done BY PRACTICE...
Solve at least 30-40 CSAT practice paper......
A good grasp over English will help in comprehension.
Resources----
1. R S AGGARWAL for quantitative aptitude.
2. R S AGGARVAL for verbal and nonverbal reasoning.
OR
TMH BOOK ON CSAT.

CL test papers can be solved for practice.


General Resources and most important Different websites,Wikipedia and youtube are very
good learning resources on the internet. You should make use of them as often as possible. You
must copy the important webpages and links to important videos. I cannot overemphasise the
importance of doing so. Google search is also useful in case you face difficulty in understanding.
Wikipedia should be used to clarify concepts. For non science students you tube videos are
excellent help.
Remember that the toppers like Gaurav feel that internet contributed more than 2/3rd of their
preparation.
Facebook There are excellent groups on facebook where the following material is available in e
format posted by your fellow IAS aspirants . Try Sriram or Vajiram IAS groups.
Important for those who chose non English medium or face difficulties in reading material in
English. If your level of English is very low use Google translator. If you have occasional
difficulties then use this free offline dictionary
wordweb.info
Download WordWeb. Your English reading comprehension will improve dramatically within six
months. This will help you to understand the IAS question papers too.

Paper 1:
World History
Book by Arjun Dev,

IGNOU BA notes,

youtube videos
You should watch the important youtube videos covering major events (history channel and
BBC series can help) if you are planning to prepare on long term basis with plenty of time. As it
is said
"Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I'll remember. Involve me, I'll
understand"
There is no substitute for understanding using the videos. You learn by being involved
completely. Not only your eyes but your ears and your brain is actively involved.

Indian history
Old syllabus NCERT history book by Bipan Chandra on Modern India.
Modern Indian history- Spectrum
Indias freedom struggle- Bipan Chandra
India since independence- Bipan Chandra

Supplement with the youtube videos esp series Pradhanmantri. Bharat Ek Khoj, BBC series

Culture-
NIOS culture
Spectrum publications book
CCRT website
NCERT book on Indian Art
youtube videos Indian diplomacy channel

Sociology-
NCERT 11th and 12th standard textbooks
IGNOU BA notes ESO 12 module

Geography-
NCERT 8th to 12th standard textbooks.
Physical geography Go Che Leong
Neetu Singh's notes for world geography.
India-Comprehensive Geography by D B Khuller

Paper 2:
Polity-
Indian Polity by Laxmikant
Sriram's notes
Supplement with the youtube videos esp series Pradhanmantri.
Playlists of Loksabha and Rajyasabha channels, 7 RCR.

2nd ARC report- Dont read entire report, but read those topics only which are in the
syllabus.Be very selective while reading it. Only selected and relevant areas should be studied .
Revision is very important after each reading. Use it extensively in your answers.

Yojana- not only the current issues but also the issues of previous years can be read selectively
according to the topics in syllabus.

PIB (Press Information Bureau)- Studying and preparing from PIB press notes is an art. Read
daily releases on the PIB website along with newspapers. I dont think you need to read India
Year Book if you are following PIB regularly. Make sure that you read very selectively. If you
cant read entire year's release at least try and read the PIB releases from the date of Prelims to
Mains exams. You can also profitably refer to the section called Features on the website. Make
sure that you revise regularly.

PRS | Home- It gives good insight about latest government policies, bills, acts etc.
Read selected portion from Public Administration material

International affairs-
Newspapers- The Hindu and Indian express

Frontline Magazine- World Affairs (Topics of international affairs are comprehensively
covered by frontline)

IDSA website- Subscribe to it and receive mails regularly. Read the articles in the section-
comment
On the IDSA website, you should also follow the section called Ask an expert This area gives
you very good insights which you can draw from the experts. Here you can also learn the art of
writing answers on international affairs.

Economic and political weekly- Editorial should be treated as an essential reading.

Ministry of external affairs website- It carries lot of resources. Information related to bilateral
relations, multilateral forums international bodies is available. It has collection of good articles.
We can also get the statements of the President, the Prime minister and external affairs minister
at one place.

Other good books like Pax indica (by Shashi Tharoor may be read if you have spare time)

NCERT 11th and 12th books can also be read if you have time.

Youtube videos Indian Diplomacy playlists, BBC, Al Jazeera, RajyaSabha and LokSabha etc.
Srirams notes.

Paper 3:
Economics- any good book on Indian economy. You may read Indian economy notes by
Srirams IAS. If possible read these notes along with listening to Sriram class recordings.

For topics like infrastructure, industrial policy, irrigation etc. read Datt and Sundaram's book, to
understand basics.
NIPFP | web page

Newspapers and magazines like EPW.

Sriram's notes.

Disaster management-
2nd ARC report on Crisis management. Government websites, NCERT pdfs
Science and technology-
Srirams notes and Vision IAS notes.Use internet extensively. Explore syllabus. Wikipedia helps.

Security-
Latest annual report of ministry of home affairs.
IDSA website- search articles on this website. It has good articles related to internal security,
cyber security etc.
IDSA monograph on internal security.
Grand strategy of India 2020- IDSA publication.- Read selectively(for only mentioned topics in
syllabus)

Environment-
Internet, UGC, ICSE 9th and 10th standard Beeta Publications books, NCERT books

Paper 4:

Your strategy should be to have an initial reading and then to concentrate on writing answers.
Make it a regular practice.

read 4 reports of 2nd ARC Ethics in administration, Personnel administration, District
administration and Citizen centric administration.
Book by Ramesh Arora- Ethics in governance.
Collection of quotes of eminent persons and inspiring stories of great people can improve your
answer.
List of magazines-
Yojana, Frontline, Science reporter, Economic and political weekly, Down to earth: You can
read even online editions.
Websites- IDSA, government websites like PIB, websites of various ministries like MEA, MHA,
MoEF etc.

You can expect that questions will not need data and figures. If you want to score good marks,
you must project your true self and your own personality in your answers. This paper gives you
the opportunity to show the examiner your positive, pro-poor and proactive attitude, concern for
the vulnerable sections of the society. You should try to demonstrate the citizen centric
administration along with your qualities like objectivity, analytical ability, reasoning, rational
thinking etc. It is important that the answers are in your own words and forcefully express you.
Explore the syllabus and analyse it. Practice regularly the art of writing the answers.

Other Sources:
Bachelor of Arts (BA) IGNOU notes

There are excellent groups on facebook where the above material is available in e format. Try
Sriram or Vajiram IAS groups.

With best wishes
Your Friend Sanjay Nandan IAS





Y INSIGHTS DECEMBER 10, 2013

My Personal Strategy and How Insights was Instrumental in my Preparation
Honestly, in my opinion, I shouldnt be writing this article at this stage. Who am I to tell you
how to study? I havent cleared Mains yet, and have no authority to tell others how to strategize.
But, I do believe in an egalitarian society and despise distorted competition. The whole concept
of Insights is to help each other out(aam aadmi) and threaten these coaching centers. But, in this
article, I shall not list out books, nor tell you what to study. There are enough posts in this
website and in many others to discuss about them. This is more about strategies and addressing
motivational needs.
I recently gave Mains, which was good, but cannot say anything till the results come. I may pass,
I might not. That truly doesnt matter now. I have always shared all my answers. I believe in a
healthy equal competition without any hidden agenda. So, I thought it should be my moral
responsibility to tell all co-aspirants some additional personal points which can be of use in their
preparation. This might be against me for 2014, but arent we all here to learn from each other? I
hope this article can help atleast one candidate to secure a good rank.
I shall write it in the form of a timeline. You might want to read my previous article Why I want
to Become an IAS Officer, to get the right context. This can be considered as its sequel.
I shall start this article, from May 26th evening, after the Prelims exam. I was both happy and
sad at that time. I knew I would pass prelims, but I also knew my Paper One was horrible. I
checked some key and saw that I would get 60 marks only. 60 marks out of 200! That was
shocking. I got a mere 30 questions right. And the whole Mains is based on Paper One. As an
Engineer, paper two was easy for me, I was expecting around 180. So, I was just another
engineer who had attempted this examination without studying.
Of Course, those 3 months prior studying did help me a bit, but I am sure anyone without
studying would get 30 questions right out of 100. I was just an average student at college, and I
proved to be below-average in Paper One. I was disappointed. The worse was yet to come.
My parents and relatives were angry with me. I am an OBC candidate. But, without telling
anyone I applied for this exam under GEN category. I honestly believed that reservation should
not be misused. I was educated, financially stable and my life was almost settled. Using quota for
this examination also, did not appeal to me. I believed that reservation was meant to be used by
the disadvantaged only. My parents later accepted it, but my relatives still are angry with me.
Nobody gets the logic! I anyways had an ulterior motive, I did not want anyone to point out to
me, 30 years later, that I got an IAS seat only because of my reservation. I wanted to prove
everyone that I did not want any help.
Another worry was that my parents had asked me to take coaching. They wanted to send me to
Delhi. I was averse to coaching. I did not want it under any circumstances. My relatives
pressurized me to go to a coaching centre. They even offered to finance me for atleast two years.
But, I was adamant saying I did not want to go for coaching. I did not want some money-minded
person to tell me what to study and how to study.
So, after learning that I had low marks in Paper One. They became more worried but I did not
care much. Ideals were more important than success. The next day, I wanted to test my writing
practice. So, I took a random easy previous year paper question and tried to answer it. I was
devastated. I knew the question, I knew the answer, but I could not formulate anything. I could
not make coherent sentences and could not write more than a paragraph. I got frustrated that I
couldnt even answer a single question. So next, I took an editorial page, and wanted to write till I
got tired. I wrote for 45 mins, I think I wrote around 750 words, with extremely bad handwriting
and my hand pained a lot. It pained for the rest of the day. After all, it was more than 4 years
since I wrote anything. (Who writes in a college?!)
Pic 1 shows my previous handwriting, in May.

I was deeply worried now. I had a bad handwriting, I had no knowledge of anything, I couldnt
write for more than an hour and did not even touch 1000 words. With this, I couldnt reach
anywhere. And also, everyone in the family thought I was a show-off who didnt want coaching
and dint use my caste certificate. They thought I was deluded and was acting idiotically. Even
though I did not care much, there was an internal pressure to prove everyone wrong, and the way
things were going, I was soon to be doomed.
But, I did not give up.
The next day, I brainstormed. I wanted to bring out the perfect strategy to tackle Mains. I came
up with a list of points.
1. Make a detailed timetable. I wanted to ensure that the next six months would be used
perfectly, so I devised a day to day timetable. I assigned one week to each subject, and
ensured that I could complete the whole syllabus. I had to restart everything. See Pic.


1. Quit using a mobile phone. I was staying at home, and most of my friends would chat
online. And I was addicted to my phone. So, I promised myself that I would not touch my
phone again. When I joined office, I quickly became famous as the guy who doesnt use a
phone.

But, I did not tell many friends of mine that I was preparing for this exam. So, I lost many
friends when they misunderstood me when I said I dint use a phone and couldnt give
them a number. But, I hope they would realize soon that I couldnt help it. Anyways,
quitting a mobile phone is not that important, but immensely helpful if done. My new
friends in Office couldnt contact me, so I was not obliged to go out with them and
socialize. They thought I was weird but it wasnt their fault because I did not tell anyone
that I was preparing for Civil Services.
1. Your study environment should continuously motivate you. Have a bright tubelight and a
good clean surrounding. I stuck these on my wall, so that I could look at it and get
motivated. You can get the emblem pic from the India 2013 Book.
2. Now I shall delve upon, micro-strategies. These go into the extreme details, which
usually nobody cares or thinks about.


a) December Chill I knew that december would be cold and your fingers would become very
stiff due to the immense cold, and writing would be affected drastically. Many people write in
Delhi and they would suffer. I wrote in Bangalore, which was chilly too. So, I used to wake up at
5am everyday, dip my hands in cold water, dry it off and tried to write around 1000 words every
morning. I did this for two months before the exams, and it helped me immensely. When
everyone else was shivering, I could easily write the 5000 words. This is very important. How
much ever you read, if you are not able to answer a question in those 7 mins, it is not of use in
any way.
b) Pens In May, I bought ten different kinds of ball pens. I wrote around 3 pages with every
kind. Then, I shortlisted the best one with which I could feel comfortable, would not sweat, gave
a good handwriting and would satisfy me. Then, I bought around 5 packs of this kind of chosen
pen, so that I can get immensely used to and can perform better in the exam. I used the same pen
for the next 6 months. You develop a bond with it.

This might help at the max, to give 5 extra marks. But hey!, that is 35 marks extra if all papers
were included!
c) Paper Everyone requires rough papers. I thought instead of buying books or using waste
paper, why not just use the original answer sheets? I bought a sample booklet, measured them
and got 2000 sheets printed. This cost me just Rs. 500. Much cheaper than the books that I had to
buy. No, I dont have a printer at home, Im not that rich. I went to a regular printing press (The
one which is used to print newspapers). Moreover, I got them customized according to my
preferences. (I put my name on top, you all know that, whoever has read my answer sheets :P)
This proved to be extremely useful. It motivated me all times seeing my name there, and also
writing in the same answer sheet for 3 months, ensured I would write the exam more efficiently.
It might have added 5 extra marks, but hey, every mark counts!
1. Stick a large India and a world map on the wall. Whenever you read about some place,
try to find it on the map, itll help you get a better understanding, as it will be a holistic
learning.

I was all set now. I just had to implement this, which would be a much tougher part.
My office would start from July 15th. I had to join it, I could not take any risks. And it was May
28th. So, the next 45 days would be the most crucial aspects of my preparation, as after that I
would not get much time. So, I studied. I was sticking to my timetable and was gathering
knowledge. There was no writing practice, no taking notes. I was just reading how much ever I
could. One must first have knowledge, only then all these strategies and writing would count. So,
I studied immensely. But, later I also forgot a lot of stuff that I studied. Till today, I cannot
remember historical dates or article numbers. I was bad at remembering names too. I was just
good at understanding concepts. That is why, most of the answers that I write in Insights, do not
have much factual data. All are too general and colloquial. I had a bad memory power. I just
hoped that UPSC wouldnt ask any factual questions and would involve only conceptual and
analytical questions, in which I was good at.
UPSC is such an examination, whose syllabus increases everyday by one newspaper. So, it is a
very dynamic process and one must be updated on everything every time. I realized this soon and
followed another strategy. I understood that news and current affairs are the single most
important part of my preparation. If there are no direct questions on CA, I can always use them
as a part of my various answers in various papers.
1. All Hindu headlines, PIB articles, IDSA articles etc come directly to my Google
Reader(Now I use Feedly), so everyday I used to read the news which comes first on PIB,
then read it again as a Hindu headline online.
2. Then read the newspaper and editorials. (This is a third iteration)
3. Then read GKToday CA(Fourth)
4. After this, watch Insight program on LSTV which would have a debate on the CA
issue. (Fifth)
So, every important news item would have been read 5 times, all its pros and cons discussed and
will be etched in your mind forever.
I used to read the Feedly RSS feed at 5 in the morning. The screen light would make my sleep go
away and also ensured I knew what news would come in that days paper. This helped me in
waking up at 5 and studying too.
And later, on July 15th I joined my company. It takes around half an hour to reach there from my
house. So, I used to read one half of the newspaper(Only imp headlines and one editorial page)
while going and the other half while coming back in the bus journey. The first three months were
awesome. Since, we were fresh out of college, we didnt have much work. The training also was
for around 3 hours everyday. But, we had to stay back in the office from 10 to 4 30. So, the rest
of the time, I was reading PDF files or was googling for various topics. This helped me a lot in
my preparation, in two ways -
a) I never had a continuous motivation. I dont think anyone is continuously motivated to study
all the time. I could never study for days together. I was sure I would not sit in the same room,
studying everyday for 6 months. I knew I needed a change in the environment every now and
then. So, this office going and studying made me study much more. I could study with the same
concentration in office, and the same conc. at home, for a longer time. If I stayed only at home, I
would just surf the internet or watch TV. I am thankful that I did the right thing by taking up a
job.
b) It increases tension that you are not able to finish the syllabus because you are handling two
lives. This increased my efficiency. I was scared that I had to study a lot, so I did more study
both at the office and at home. Saturday and Sunday were holidays anyways.
But, by October, I realized that the workload was becoming too much, and my first priority
should be Civil Services and I had a lot of writing practice to do. My handwriting was still bad,
so I decided to quit my job on October 23rd. I knew studying one month at home wouldnt bore
me. I knew I had taken a right decision. From Oct 23rd till Nov 30th, I dedicated myself to
Insights, which proved instrumental in my preparation. Ill tell exactly how in a moment, but
now I have to digress.
After I passed prelims, my relatives were happy and they started coming to the house, with
advice and books. My uncle gave all his book collection, he was studying in his days it seems.
He also went to Delhi and got me a bag full of books.
I was never a book-guy. I can stare at the computer screen all day, but couldnt read a book for
more than an hour without losing track, unless it was a novel. I was deeply saddened now,
because I had a mountain of books in front of me, I had to atleast give one reading of it. And I
had less than 3 months to Mains. See Pic, with all books kept on table and it is two rows, not
one. It was very scary.

Till today, I dont think I have completed even 40% of all those books.
Then, mid-September, after my birthday, I met Insights. I was doing some random googling
studying and I by mistake, stumbled upon Insights. After seeing his archives page with all the
Daily Answer Writing Challenge answers, I realized I got a goldmine.
Till now, I had done some amount of decent studying. But, still I was not able to think and
formulate a good answer. My handwriting was still bad and I couldnt write for a long time on
paper. I did not give any answer writing practice and was still working at office. I started taking
leaves, I knew I had to quit at some point. I did ask them for a three-month loss-of-pay leave, but
they had rejected. I again asked HR for one month leave, they said No. So, I had to quit. But,
before quitting I did try to use up all the leaves and other benefits I could get.


I had worked for exactly 100 days, July 15th to Oct 23rd. I had made enough cash to help me
survive for another 4 months. I did not want to rely on anyone, even though I was staying at
home. I had to ensure I had some backup ready.
After quitting the office, I had no turning back. From Oct 23rd evening, I started answering all
questions that Insights used to post. I used to take a lot of time, formulating the answer. I used to
type it out first, because I wanted to ensure my thought-flow was fast enough. Writing would
slow down the thought process, so I instead typed. And later wrote.
Anyways, I have to tell about the different concentric categories of people who pass the exams
first, before I continue further :-
Type 1 All those who passed Prelims. There are serious players who are true studs, there are
serious players who are just good enough, there are okayish students, there are lucky engineers
who got through due to paper two(like me), and there are just lucky ones. They constitute 15000
people.
Type 2 These people have studied everything. They have taken coaching, they are genuinely
interested and have read all kinds of books and magazines. They are about 7000 people. But,
they havent worked hard enough. They just have subject knowledge.
Type 3 These people have the subject knowledge. They have done enough writing practice.
They have given mock tests, and gave a good emphasis on writing. But they take time to think
and formulate answers. There are about 3000 such people.
Type 4 Have knowledge, have good writing practice. They are able to formulate answers
precisely and are able to write them well too. They are around 1500. These people will pass
Mains. (The other 500 who pass Mains will come from the third type)
Type 5 Same as type 4. But, these people, due to immense answer writing practice, have the
ability to Write answers for any type of question that they face, even if they have no knowledge
on it. They are still able to write the answers impressively.They have consistency, they write
nice answers for all the 9 papers without discriminating any paper. There are around 750 such
people in the whole country.
Type 6 Knowledgeable, able to write 5000 words in 3 hours impressively. They are empathetic
towards the society, have sympathy towards others grievances and are true Indians. There are
about 150 such people.
The above types might be fully wrong, but this is what I had believed in November. It might not
be true, but it did motivate me and made me want to become a Type-6 person. But, one has to
undergo through each phase and cannot skip any phase. I started doing it and Insights website
had helped me in reaching each phase.
Insights gives around 3 GS questions, 3 SnT questions(Thanks to Tauseef), 1 case study and 3
Pub Ad questions(Thanks to Aditya Jha). So, everyday there are around 10 questions to solve.
Assuming each question is for 200 words, one needs to write 2000 words everyday. That much
answer writing practice is more than enough. I never solved the Secure 2014 initiative, but
adding another 10 questions from there would make me write 4000 words every single day. This
improved my handwriting drastically and also improved the writing speed. I used to put a timer
and write down the answer. If I do that timer-writing practice for each question for 30 days also,
itll help me a lot in evading panic in the exam when one doesnt know the answer to write.
Moreover, you also learn to write in a better way. See pic. My new handwriting.


Also, since I practiced in those rough answer sheets, it indirectly told me how much space
exactly a 200 word answer would take to write. For me, it takes two pages, with around 125
words on each side. This also helped me a lot, because UPSC had given three pages to write a 10
mark answer. If an untrained mind, even by mistake, tried to fill the full space, because he had
more points, even in one paper, he would suffer. That is what happened in GS-I. It suddenly
blew everyones minds. 25 questions in 3 hours with 5000 words. And each question had three
pages. And many would atleast try to solve the first question by writing fully. They would later
realize their blunder. Many in my centre, left almost 80 marks itseems.
But, Insights writing practice helped me to evade that situation. The immense answer
formulation(10 every day) helped me to plan, structure and formulate an answer very fast. So, I
took 7 mins as prescribed for each answer. I knew when to stop writing, as I knew how much
page I needed to fill up. UPSC couldnt lure me to write the extra sheets. So, it helped me in the
first paper, I wrote decently for 235 marks. I did not know answers for 2 questions, and I had run
out of time. The next paper, I wrote for 240 marks(I dint know what was Gujrals doctrine, I told
you, I was bad at remembering names), and GS-III, GS-IV, PA-I and PA-II, I wrote for all 250
marks.
So, time management, with good handwriting and a nice answer was possible only because I had
wrote almost all answers that Insights had posted in this website. Moreover, many questions
came directly and indirectly from the archives, which was immensely beneficial, as I also read
everyone elses answers and did learn many new points.
Not just writing practice, but even concept building was also due to Insights. The ten questions
which came up everyday were new, relevant and tough to solve. They were extremely conceptual
thus would increase ones knowledge and understanding.
On top of concept building and writing practice, Insights also helped in one more thing. It is a
hidden benefit which people might not recognize easily. After writing so many answers on my
own, I got a new ability. An ability where I could write something for every type of question.
Even if I knew nothing about a question, I could answer by writing something relevant to the
subject. Along with this, when you answer questions, you get immense satisfaction and a huge
boost in confidence. This self-satisfaction and a confidence to clear the examination helps in
building a healthy attitude coupled with knowledge building and writing practice would make a
killer combo to pass this draconian examination.
UPSC Civil Services is about writing something about everything and not about writing
everything about something. The instructions saying A well educated person can answer the
questions. An overall outlook is necessary and not in-depth studying is perfect, and UPSC
adheres to it. All questions can be answered by a trained layman and Newspaper reading
becomes sacrosanct.
Insights daily CA analysis, its monthly magazines, secure 2014, everyday questions, weekly
debates and essays. All are mandatory and will help you in ways you would never even
comprehend. Insights alone can make any dedicated average person like most of us, clear this
examination with flying colours.
Not just the material, but the guidance and motivation which Vinay Sir and his team gives has a
high personal touch to it, which makes all the readers get emotionally attached to it and
sometimes get addicted to the website too.
If I clear this examination, I can honestly and selflessly say that it was only due to Insights. I
shall forever will be indebted to him, because the website transformed me from a below-average
demotivated student to the one who could crack this examination.(If I do so)
So, with that note, I shall sign off. I hope all doubts, clarifications can be asked in the comments.
Since, I am absolutely free now, I shall answer each one of them. Also, anyone can contact me
onakand999@gmail.com. I am in touch with many co-aspirants and I would love to help more
people. I am not giving my phone number, as I have a personal life too.



Anyways, all the very best for all of us for 2014. We shall all prepare together and more
importantly, trust Insights immensely and hope that at least 600 ranks in the rank-list should be
from this websites readers.
May God Bless us all.
Note from Insights:
And he cleared Mains!!
All the best for the Interview.
Tags: 2014 upsc ias strategyakand sitraINSIGHTSinsights ias reviewupsc
114 RESPONSES
Comments114
Pingbacks0
1.
Paul Allen
March 12, 2014 at 11:39 pm
its nice
I appreciate your endeavour.
Reply
2.
Vignesh A
March 13, 2014 at 7:10 am
Anna(bhai) all the very best for your interview


Reply
3.
gargi
March 13, 2014 at 9:18 am
thanks a lot
Reply
4.
manoj babu
March 13, 2014 at 3:21 pm
gerat work ,and all the best for your interview
Reply
5.
sajjad hussain m
March 15, 2014 at 6:08 pm
quite fine articlemoreover quite fine result from you,Mr.Akandhearty deep congrats
and thanksall the bests for interviewtk cr
Reply
6.
Vicky
March 24, 2014 at 10:13 pm
i couldnt clear mains this year.Your experience has really charged me up.Thanks alot n
my Best Wishes for your interview.
Reply
7.
pandhari
April 10, 2014 at 2:54 am
@akand
Congratulations n best luck for interview
Reply
8.
Amrendra K Jaiswal
April 17, 2014 at 1:33 pm
Congrats akand for making to the interview list..
Hope to see you in merit list with flying colours
Best of luck
Reply
9.
Vinay Jha (@vinay_jha)
April 20, 2014 at 11:14 am
I was satisfied with my answer written in mains. So, I felt dejected after the result that i
did not clear. But after reading these lines I again got my full vitality and will start all
over again.
Thanks to Mr. Akand and a heartfelt congratulation to him. All the best for interview.
Thanks to Insights team for facilitating this good environment.
Reply
10.
SUBHASH
April 20, 2014 at 4:38 pm
Hey Akand! READ ur post..it was really helpful
And hey..congratulations and best of luck for 30 April ( IAS interview)


Reply
11.
veritatis inquisitor
May 6, 2014 at 2:43 pm
Thank you.


All the best.


Reply
12.
Charlie14
May 7, 2014 at 10:21 pm
LSTV progrmme INSIGHT is not available in their website Welcome to LokSabha
Website


Reply
13.
Naveen M
June 4, 2014 at 4:39 pm
Excellent! All the Very best:)
Reply
14.
Itika
June 5, 2014 at 11:25 pm
Thanks alot
Reply
15.
Barsha
June 13, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Thank you. But why are the pics not visible?
Reply
16.
SALIL
June 25, 2014 at 10:11 pm
truly speaking i was surfing insight day in day out ..read many sucess stories
,motivational stories but my soul was searching a story that can motivate me alot
litreally its yours it help me alot in many ways .
Reply
17.
dhiraj
June 29, 2014 at 9:25 am
first of all , i am very thankful to you sir , as most of your habits and concerns were and
are the same as i suffer from .many things u discussed above is really general ,good
number of students face the same problems as you , i like 1 special point that you have
mentioned is bad at remembering the factual data , names of places and name of the
persons .
i request you to strictly monitor on my writing about grammatical construction ,content
,flow of ideas and pay special attention to usage of appropriate words wherever u find
any misappropriation kindly make it notice to me .i m glad to hear and strictly follow
your directions through out this journey .and finally , how you could overcame that
weakness you did not mentioned ,, looking forward to hear more and more from you

thank you very much .
Reply
18.
NAVYYA
July 28, 2014 at 6:49 pm
Hello,
I had mailed you sir Akand999@gmail.com.Please I need a response to it.
Will be hoping for a help.
Reply
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