3 Strategies for Success in the UPSC Civil Services Exam

Aspirants who dream of a career in services like IAS, IPS, or IFS should get their approach towards the exam right. In this post, we discuss 3 strategies for success in the UPSC Civil Services Exam (CSE).

Remember the quote – “Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction”.

To achieve success in the IAS/IPS exam, a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term aim is necessary.

In a sense, a strategy is nothing but ‘resource allocation’, ie. what resources should be used and how it should be used.

In this post, we discuss 3 of the core strategies recommended by ClearIAS which helped thousands of candidates achieve success in the UPSC Civil Services Exam.

1. ClearIAS TTT Approach

The core concept of the ClearIAS TTT Approach is to invest in 3 ‘T’s – Text-books, Test Series, and Techniques.

These three ‘Ts’ are the tools for you to succeed in UPSC Civil Services Exam.

Regarding books, ideally, you should start your preparation from NCERT books and then move on to standard reference text-books.

Mock Test Series is very important for the UPSC Preliminary Exam (Objective) and UPSC Main Exam (Written).

ClearIAS Test Series integrates the text-books and techniques into the model exams, which makes it unique.

UPSC Civil Services Exam demands not just knowledge but certain exam-skills too.

ClearIAS has developed various techniques to clear UPSC Civil Services Exam with ease. Some of those:

2. ClearIAS Test-based Approach

ClearIAS is one of the pioneers who come up with a test-based approach to clear the UPSC Civil Services Exam.

Now, most smart aspirants prefer the test-based learning approach – as that is more efficient and exam-focussed.

This approach includes practice in your preparation right from the early days.

By ClearIAS Test-based approach, we mean integrating learning with test-taking in an innovative manner as we did in ClearIAS mock exam platform.

In ClearIAS Test-based approach you learn by taking mock exams.

There are 40 online mock exams in ClearIAS Prelims Test Series. Besides, there are about 10 re-take exams of previous year UPSC questions.

3. ClearIAS Prelims cum Mains Integrated Approach

Take your Prelims and Mains preparation together whenever possible.

Club overlapping areas of Prelims and Mains together. Learn non-overlapping areas separately.

ClearIAS Study-materials are categorized to suit the Prelims cum Mains Integrated approach.

Order the 'Important Acts' Book

A common query of aspirants is whether to start preparing for Prelims or Mains first. We recommend candidates to always see the big picture.

Now, there are many candidates who follow the approach of preparing for Mains first, followed by Prelims. Well, this can be a quite useful strategy for many.

If you are an early starter, who has 10-12 months time for advance preparation, you can adopt this strategy. You can then devote time to cover the non-overlapping topics in the UPSC Mains syllabus like Ethics, Optional etc along with your Prelims preparation.

However, if you have only less than 6 months for Prelims, focus more on the topics related to UPSC Prelims. You need Prelims specific preparation in the last 4-6 months with proper mock exam practise to succeed in the Preliminary stage.

Only less than 3% candidates who sit for Prelims clear it. Remember to give due importance to Prelims.

Conclusion

ClearIAS TTT Approach clubs together Text-books, Test-Series, and Techniques.

ClearIAS Prelims Mock Test Series should be the starting point of all aspirants who follow our guidance – irrespective of your date of joining.

The TTT approach by ClearIAS will help you cover the recommended textbooks and ensure that you get sufficient practice. Besides, this approach includes extremely useful techniques like IETs.

Adopt ClearIAS Test-based approach which offers great Return on Investment (ROI).

Take your UPSC Mains preparation side-by-side with UPSC Prelims preparation.

You can be the next UPSC topper!