Hidden Costs
Economics is not just about financial comings and goings within markets: the ‘unpriced’ or non-market services that the natural environment provides us with are equally its concern.
With hardly few days left for the Union Public Service Commission —Civil Services Examination Preliminary, the anxiety is palpable in the minds of the aspirants. What to read, how to revise for maximum effectiveness, how to utilise the time to derive utmost value are some of the questions that must be coming to your mind. These last days are absolutely crucial from the exam's point of view. If utilised properly it can result into an increase of 20 to 30 marks which can be the difference between selection and rejection. How can you simplify your preparation?
Remember that while Mains is a “recall and reproduce” test, prelims is a “recall and recognise” test. So your endeavour should be to familiarise with all the topics of the syllabus. The recent trend has been to ask a lot of factual questions from current affairs and revision is of utmost importance here. It is difficult to retain facts without revision. So do not neglect at any cost.
Even though Paper 2 is now qualifying, don’t make the mistake of taking it lightly. Every year, many aspirants fail in this paper when they have scored well above cut off in paper 1. Moreover, UPSC has started to ask tricky questions that make it relatively difficult to score the qualifying marks in it. So, one should solve previous year papers to get enough practice. A lack of practice can easily bog you down in the exam hall and you will commit silly mistakes, which will bring your score down.
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In the exam hall do not commit the mistake of following the hacks and shortcuts blindly. Also do not go in with a preconceived notion of a cut off. Both these things will put you undue pressure to attempt more questions leading to mistakes and that can ultimately harm your chances because of negative marking. Use a three step process to solve questions.
In first round solve all the questions you are 100 per cent sure of and mark the questions you have absolutely no idea of. In the second round solve questions you are 50 per cent sure of. If you are able to eliminate even one option then make it a point to attempt that question. In the third round try and see if you can solve some more questions where you can take a reasonable guess. Do not resort to blind guessing under any case.
Have faith in yourself and keep working hard as you have been till now, and you will surely come out with flying colours in this exam.
The writer is head, upsc exam preparation community, gradeup
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