I appeared for CSE 2015 Mains with very limited time and preparation at my disposal.

Most of my Prelims
preparation was done while I was till in college, and hence I was left with just 3 months to make a mark in
Mains. Thankfully, I sailed through both Mains and Interview in the 1st attempt itself. My answer would be
best suited to those who are new to Mains preparation and do not have much time left. Please note that I
shall only be prescribing a strategy for Essay and General Studies.
What NOT to do in the 100 days 1. Dont get stuck with GS Paper 1. If you try to complete subjects such as World History,
Sociology and Art & Culture in detail, you are likely to suffer in the long run. There would not
be questions worth more than 30 or 40 marks from any of these areas in the entire paper.
Most aspirants make the mistake of devoting too much time to World History or Art and
Culture and pay the price. Think about the Return on Investment!
2. Dont try to read the bulky reports such as ARC (for ethics) or Five Year Plans (for
Economy) simply because toppers have read them. I never read any of those reports (just
glanced at the summaries if possible) despite so many toppers mentioning these reports in
their success stories. You dont have the time to read them - believe it, and move on. I did,
and fared well enough.
3. Dont waste too much time browsing the internet, trying to specialize in some topics. Even
if you get a PhD in something, you will still need to write common-sense based answers in
less than 200 words and 7 minutes. In a way, the less you burden your head with
information, the better for you in Mains. (Remember how Sherlock Holmes manages his
mind?)
4. Dont try to read bulky books such as Ram Guhas India After Gandhi or Bipin Chandras
India After Independence if you have not already read those. You will practically be wasting
your time, from the point of view of Mains.
5. Dont waste time reading books on Ethics. Check the last 3 years papers on Ethics and
you shall find that it is all about common sense.
6. Other grey areas where too much prep is unnecessary - Art & Culture (it will anyways give
you a hard time, so just skim through the basics and move on) andSci & Tech (Believe me,
nobody knows whats coming. Best to respect the low RoI and spend less time here).
The aim is to maximize your marks in the Mains exam. Everything else is irrelevant - how much you
know, how many books are there on your table, how many followers you have, how many people think you
will clear, none of it matters.
What you MUST do in the 100 days 1. Write. Write. Write. The more you write, the better your chances. Write less (remember most
of answers in the exam would be 150200 words only) but do that sensibly. Pick up a pen
and start writing answers from previous years papers. Initially, you might feel your own
answers are so hideous and untenable. See the toppers answer scripts from Vision IAS
website, learn from the way they write and then improvise. Do it daily, 2 to 3 hours, for 2
weeks flat. See the change.
2. Make the best out of Economic Survey 201516. Especially Part 1, which deals with
concepts and ideas. Also, take out important facts and note them down. Rate of
unemployment, GDP growth rate, basic stats from Agriculture, etc. Adding such facts and
figures boosts your GS Paper 3 marks significantly.

3. Make a list of famous quotes on diverse topics - Education, Society, Science, Culture, etc
and memorize it well. This will help you a lot in Essay and Ethics.
4. Make a list of important events, lessons and moments of your life and keep them stored
in your mental hard drive. In Ethics paper, personal examples shall earn you more marks
than bookish stuff. I had missed out on this, to some extent, last year.
5. Read The Hindu daily and make short, crisp notes from editorials.Note down any
important fact/observation that can be helpful. Supplement these notes with Vision IAS
Current Affairs. Pretty much enough to take you past Mains. Remember, GS Paper 2 and 3
are mostly about current affairs, so focus accordingly.
Heres how I used to make my notes using Microsoft One Note software.

6. GS Preparation is mostly enough to give you all the fodder you need for the Essay Paper. Additionally,
try and keep the List of Quotes and List of Facts ready at your disposal. Facts, examples and quotes can
lend a killer look to your Essay.
7. Practice a couple of Essays in your regional language for the qualifying paper, two weeks before the
exam. You would not want to score high in GS and Optional and then get disqualified because of regional
language paper. Remember, many people suffer such fate.
8. About 2 to 3 weeks before the Exam, make a list of important topics from current affairs in the last
one year which have been sufficiently highlighted. Last year, such issues were Skill Development, Make in
India, Uniform Civil Code, Indo-Pak relations, etc. Vision IAS comes up with such a list every year, and it is
very helpful. You will find many questions from the list in GS Paper 2 and 3.
Remember, Mains is the only part of the entire UPSC CSE exam structure on which you have substantial
amount of control. Use it to best effect, for you never know whats going to come your way in Interview (if
you qualify).