The Civil Services Exam, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is in itself an intimidating exam due to the vastness of the syllabus and unpredictability of the questions asked in the exam. Every year, lakhs of candidates face failure in different stages of this exam. Many take more than two or three attempts to even clear the first level, and some candidates are patient enough to stay motivated till their last attempt.
The aspirations in the student’s heart and mind are never-ending due to various reasons. Even though the aspirants work day and night, this fear of failure always sneaks in as the exam dates are near.
This article will provide a few suggestions which may help the aspirant feel better about their preparation status and help overcome the fear of IAS Prelims. The aspirants also should note the UPSC Admit Card 2021 will be released when the exam is nearby, and cross-checking the details of the candidate is an important step after downloading the Admit Card for the UPSC Prelims.
Suggestions to overcome the fear of IAS Prelims
“Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will”
As the quote says, actions can make the aspirants feel motivated and confident during the exam. Here are a few tips that will help the aspirants to overcome their fear before UPSC Prelims 2021.
- Multiple Revisions – The aspirants will feel confident in clearing the exam by doing multiple revisions of current affairs, static materials, etc. The aspirants can also make one-liners as part of notes taking, which will be helpful for last-minute preparation.
- Mock Tests – There is a popular proverb that says that practice makes a man/woman perfect. Similarly, practising as many mocks will help the aspirants to identify their strong and weak areas.
- Developing and trusting strong areas – Mock Tests primarily help in identifying the strong areas. Then the aspirants have to build on it and trust that those areas will definitely score during the actual exams. This will help in gaining confidence and stay motivated to look for areas which need more concentration.
- Working on weak areas – When the aspirants realise a few subjects or topics as his/her weak areas, then they should work on them and turn them into one of their strong areas. If the aspirant is successful in converting his/her weak area into a strong area, then the aspirant will naturally feel motivated.
- Be prepared – If the previous question paper had a lot of questions in a certain area/topic, do not expect the same in the succeeding year. One should not omit or ignore any particular subject just because the questions from that subject were not asked that frequently. The candidate should prepare all the subjects with equal importance. Also, static questions still have relevance in the UPSC Prelims and preparing current affairs alone will not help the aspirant clear the exam.
- Always expect the unexpected – Always be prepared for the worst. So that when unexpected things happen, there will be no self-doubts or lack of confidence and motivation.
These tips will help the aspirants to feel confident before the exam. Also, note that the Union Public Service Commission releases its marksheet at the end of the whole process. It does not release the UPSC Marksheet after each stage of the exam.
