I A S INFORMATION COURES

I A S INFORMATION IN DELHI

B. Ramaswamy of Ramaswamy's IAS (RIAS) believes that strong fundamentals are essential for the success of any approach. The subject he recommends is Sociology, which he says is very useful in the "social issues" section of the General Studies paper and in answering essay questions.

While preparing for an optional paper, it is often advisable to study first for the main paper and then come back to the preliminary paper. This gives the student an overview of the subject and allows him or her to specialise in certain scoring areas. Since 2001, the trends in the question papers have become more and more unpredictable and so questions may come from any part of the course, and more than one question may come from the same section.

In such a situation, it is imperative to be thorough in one's preparation as the preliminary paper is primarily a multiple choice type paper with choices that have only marginal differences. In fact many students have trouble clearing the preliminary paper year after year, while they clear the main in the first attempt.
For the preliminaries, real-time testing is very important. Students state that constant testing - often with double the number of questions in the same amount of time - is the only way to crack the paper's code. The UPSC exam, among other things, tests one's skills in managing time, and organising work in a systematic and efficient manner.

"Time and resource management is essential in the General Studies and preliminary papers," says D.P. Vajpeyee of DIAS, an IAS preparatory centre. "Hence sticking to the word limits in all questions is essential as devoting too much time to one particular question will mean that you miss out on others. Also all questions and statistics carrying two marks should be attempted as they are scoring sections."
Time management is important not just in writing the exam, but also while preparing for it. It is advisable to break up long study sessions into a few compact ones with more breaks to refresh oneself. For example, two four-hour sessions prove to be more beneficial than one long eight-hour stretch. Some students prefer to study in short bursts of two hours, with 15-minute breaks in between.
Ultimately it is up to the individual to find his or her own unique time management strategy. It is also possible to use "free time" effectively. Thus, time spent commuting, or relaxing can also be used to refresh concepts or read different, if not completely unrelated, books. However, it is important to "switch-off" for at least some time in a day.

Writing skills are perhaps the most essential requirement in the main examination sections of the UPSC exam. As the exam is also a test of an individual's analytical and interpretative ability, clear, coherent and well-written answers in simple, effective English (or Hindi) are essential. Most students who clear the preliminaries are extremely comfortable with their material, and are unlikely to add particularly unique or new information. The difference lies in the method of presentation - or the writing.

The interview is the last stage of the examination. Students who clear the main exam are called for an interview, and their performance through the entire course of the preliminary and main examinations are taken into account. Like the written examinations, interviews can vary between being cordial and friendly, and difficult and stressful.

Most successful interviews last 35- 45 minutes, and the aspirant is quizzed on issues concerning his or her choice of subject, bio-data, professed areas of interest, and current and emerging issues. As is the case with the rest of the exam process, aspirants are advised to provide analysis.

A CLASS IN an IAS study centre in New Delhi.