Prelims over! What next? Tips from ClearIAS.com

Yes, Prelims is over and time has come to move on. But what next?

Advice for all aspirants: Focus on your final goal!

We can often see three categories of aspirants every year after UPSC Prelims.

The first category candidates are not hopeful of clearing Prelims this year, the second category candidates are doubtful whether they make it or not this year as they fear their scores are near the border range of expected cut-off score as per answer keys and the third category candidates are very sure of clearing Prelims this year.

The Prelims dilemma affects the first two categories of aspirants very badly, and they waste lot of precious time wondering what to do next. Even the last category candidates who are sure of clearing Prelims are not free from dilemma, as many of them are unclear about the approach and materials needed for UPSC Mains examination.

Whether you are confident about your performance in UPSC Preliminary Examination or not, if your final goal is one of those prestigious services like IAS/IPS/IFS, you need to have a proper strategy to clear this exam, today or tomorrow. Without a proper strategy and planning, aspirants waste lot of time, reaching nowhere. Please understand that, unfortunately not every one who write UPSC Prelims exam can clear it. Prelims is a screening test, where the selection ratio is less than 4 out of 100. This means that UPSC removes 96 percentage of candidates after the first round, shattering the hopes of thousands.

What if you are not hopeful of clearing Prelims this year?

What should you do if you are not hopeful of the UPSC main exam call, after analyzing different keys? Pack your bags? Never!

Take things in the right spirit. No one can win every day/every time. Failures are part of life. Read: UPSC Prelims Result: How should you take it?

You can get thousands of examples of motivation from the internet. Just think of any sports team, cricket or football. Do they win every game they play? Take the classic example of Spain. World Champions in 2010 world cup football, but they were knocked out in the first round itself in 2014. So if even the World Champions are not free from failure, then why do we fear failure a lot? Failures teach many lessons, it equip us to prepare better to become champions next time.

So, our advice to all those who are not hopeful of clearing Prelims this year is this: fight back strongly!

Rectify your mistakes. The problem might be lack of preparation, study materials, mock tests or guidance. Or it might be lack of time-management in exam hall. Take time to find out mistakes, analyse well and take steps to correct it. Check our detailed list of recommended books for UPSC preparation. Go through the toppers interviews in this website for motivation and clear directions. As you have now one full year ahead, focus on the next Prelims-Mains-Interview at a single stretch. We at Clear IAS, have been already following a Prelims cum Mains Integrated approach. Follow our free online study materials and posts on exam guidance. Along with your preparation for next Prelims, start participating in Clear IAS Mains High Value Answer Writing Test Series, which we are launching today for FREE.

What if you fear that you are on the border line?

Life of aspirants who feel that their scores are very near the probable cut-off score is a little tough. Unsure of the result, many candidates wait till the Prelims result announcement, which is not a good strategy. Mains preparation needs more time than you often anticipate. Whether you qualify or not, if you are a serious aspirant, you should be serious enough not to lose focus, and continue the process of Prelims-Mains-Interview in a time bound manner. Pat on your back for your effort to come close enough. The fact that you are very near the top 4-5% of aspirants who wrote the Prelims itself should act as a confidence booster. That shows that the target is very near and achievable.

Advice for you: Remember, there are many toppers who didn’t qualify Prelims in their initial attempts. But later they became toppers because of their determination, perseverance and proper study plan. So, irrespective of your hopes about the Preliminary Examination result, in our opinion the next three months is the time to dedicate for Mains exam preparation. Follow our free online study materials and posts on exam guidance. Also start participating in Clear IAS Mains High Value Answer Writing Test Series, which we are launching today.

What next if you are 100% sure of clearing Prelims?

Well, this is the most desirable stage. But only 2-3% candidates feel confident that they are safe. If you are one among those, appreciate yourself for being in the right track. It is not a mean achievement to be selected among the top 3.5 to 4 percentile, from among the all the candidates who appeared for an exam – UPSC Civil Services Examination – noted for its difficulty.

Your efforts will be rewarded soon with a UPSC mains call, but make sure that you are ready for the main challenge. Without delay, start participating in Clear IAS Mains High Value Answer Writing Test Series, which not only equip you faster with mains syllabus, but also polish your mains writing skills. Besides, a good preparation for mains through the program, will automatically enable you to score well in Interview/Personality test too.

Clearing Prelims is only 1/3rd of your journey! Learn in advance, the next route to be traveled!

UPSC Civil Services Mains examination is an entirely different platform when compared to Prelims. Most of the aspirants do not have any idea about how to prepare for mains. For Prelims, which is an objective test, you are given options in the question booklet. It is more a test of identifying the right answer from among the four choices. But mains is a written test and the platform is bigger.

There is a detailed syllabus for the nine papers in the exam. Papers for which marks are counted for final ranking include 1 essay paper, 4 general studies papers and 2 optional papers. Proper answer writing practice, good understanding of the latest UPSC syllabus and familiarity of current topics are important prerequisites of clearing IAS mains in flying colors. And knowledge about framing high quality answers in mains exam is necessary to make your answer sheets stand out. It is with this aim of equipping aspirants about the latest requirements of UPSC mains exam that we launched ClearIAS Mains Test Series. Make the most of it!

Clear IAS Mains High Value Answer Writing Test Series

Clear IAS Mains High Value Answer Writing Test Series is a program delivered on www.clearias.com that includes 5 questions in each post. Each of the 5 questions will be from 5 different papers mentioned in UPSC Mains syllabus like Essay, GS1, GS2, GS3 and GS4. Selected questions of high probability to be asked UPSC mains are included in each of the mini tests. Aspirants can select any question they wish to answer in the comment space provided below (advised to answer all 5 questions, every day), specifying the question number and question topic. More details about Clear IAS Mains High Value Answer Writing Test Series in the next post. All the best!