IAS Preparation

IAS Preparation

For an exam that can give you an envied career for live, the prepartions have to be massive. Your IAS Preparations have to be dedicated and half hearted attempts will get you nowhere. With almost 2 lakh students competing for 700 odd posts, its a tough cookie to crack. If you think that its like any exam that you have cleared so far beware it simply isn't. The Ias exam is like no other is scale and approach and tehrefore your preprations have to be very different and very wide based. Just knowledge of a subject will get you nowhere. It has to be combined with a jack-of-all-subjects kind of approach. We hope you will indeed take your IAS Preparations very seriously. The first step towards that is obviously the choice of subjects. Do choose them wisely.

Tips For IAS Preparation

Strategy to tackle IAS/IPS exams 

The Civil Services Mains examination is no more the same since 2013. Aspirants who are thinking of taking this exam in 2014 should make their strategy from now to tackle this exam. Needless to say a sound planning would go a long distance handing this exam with the daftness it deserves to be handled.
Changes in Mains
The Civil Services Main exam since 2013 has become different in more ways than one as some major changes has been introduced.
What are the changes being made?

1. There will be four general studies papers each will carry 250 marks each. Total marks -1000
2. A candidate now has to choose one optional subject from the list of subjects. There will be two papers for the optional subject carrying 250 marks each. Total -500 marks
3. There will be one paper on Essay of 300 marks.
4. There will be compulsory English and language paper whose marks will not be counted but are of qualifying nature.

What it Means?
Earlier, there were 600 marks for general studies (GS) and 1200 marks for two optional subjects with 600 marks each. It meant GS carried half the marks of the optional subjects that enjoyed two-thirds weightage in the exam. Therefore, selection of a candidate depended a lot on marks in the optional subjects rather on the General studies. This did not create a level-playing field among candidates as some optional subjects helped candidates secure more marks than the others. This paradigm now has changed.
Now with four papers on General Studies with sections on Indian heritage, ethics, integrity and aptitude, GS has become more contextual now. The case study method in aptitude paper aims to evaluate mental alertness, analytical and decision-making powers and the administrative ability of a candidate.
All this reflects the idea that candidate from all streams, should be on par with each other. An attempt is being made to attain homogeneity among the selected candidates and to have a similar world views. This will also give the examiners more freedom to evaluate a candidate.
Cheer for the aspirants
The new changes are welcome change for the aspirants. The syllabus is better defined now and will help them prepare better. They do not have to struggle focusing on the optional paper, rather the focus has now to be shifted to the general studies. Since GS covers most of the major topics, it becomes relevant for preparing the essay paper. All this has leveled the ground for the candidates preparing for this examination.
Choosing Optional Subject
The new shift in Civil Services Main examination has not resolved the dilemma of choosing the optional subject. The candidates keep on asking what subject they may take as optional in order to score more marks.
The popular choices among candidates are; Public Administration, Sociology, Geography, History, Political Science and Philosophy. More than 80% of the test-takers opt for these subjects. This is because all these subjects overlap with general studies and most candidates opt for them. Among them Public Administration is the most popular choice.
Numbers Game
The Civil Services aspirants should know the number game in this competition. This is essential to pull up their socks for the preparation of 2014 examination.
There were about 5, 36,506, candidates applied for the prelims exam in 2012, out of which 2, 71,422 candidates actually wrote the test. Out of that about 13,092 candidates qualified for writing the Civil Services Main exam. Of which 2,674 candidates were selected for the personality test. Finally, 998 candidates found place in the merit list.
All this intends to say that preparing for the Prelims is equally important as preparing for the mains examination. The preparation of both has to be done simultaneously because the two Prelim papers overlap with the mains GS papers. However, minimum 90 days has to be given exclusively for the preparation of the Prelim examination. This because qualifying Prelims is must to join the Civil Services jobs.
Conclusion
The preparation of Civil Services examination is one of the most grueling tasks. It is spread to almost 365 days. The candidates after writing the Prelims have wait for a month or so to know the results. Those who qualify get about three months to write the main exams. The result of the main exams comes after three months. The qualified students get about a month to appear for the interview/ personality test. The final merit list is announced after a month of the interview. So it's a long haul. A good planning and sound strategy is essential for qualifying the Civil Services exam.