Hello there!
I'm grateful to have received an opportunity to give back to the community which has been a constant companion in my preparation journey.
Two cents about me:
My name is Diya Dasgupta. I was born and brought up in Kolkata, West Bengal. I'm a lawyer by training. Graduated from National Law University Odisha in 2018. And completed by LLM from Jindal Global Law School in 2023. I've secured AIR 207 this year, expecting IPS. This was my 4th thorough attempt, (5th overall) Second Mains and Second Interview. Other than my first attempt (during which I prepared full time), I've been working at Centre for Child and the Law, as a Legal Research Associate, and preparing side by.
Now, throwing light upon my Prelims Strategy:
Till date, I personally feel that Prelims is one of the most tricky and challenging stages of all the three stages. I sincerely believe that one needs to
develop "an aptitude for solving MCQs" to comfortably clear prelims (specially those who feel more comfortable in Mains compared to Prelims, like me).
How did I develop my "MCQ Aptitude"?
1. Thematic Analysis of Prelims MCQs- First off, I did a very thorough thematic analysis of PYQs. [I feel PYQs is
the key to smartly cracking this exam].
2.
Solved lots and lots of MCQs- including TTS. There was a time that I was solving around 50-100 MCQs daily after my first failure. After that, in all my 3 thorough attempts, I've always managed to clear the GS paper of Prelims by a minimum margin of 15-20 marks.
3.
Repeated revisions- of finite number of sources. I live by the principle that it's much better to revise 1 source 100 times rather than reading 100 sources just 1 time each. For current affairs, among other things, I meticulously followed the PEH handouts circulated by IASExam Congress.
4.
Mock Tests- I focussed on a lot of full length mock tests. Here TTS was a big help. Being modelled very close to the UPSC format (be it theme wise or opportunity of effectively practising intelligent guess work). Whichever Mock Test I wrote- I had trained by brain to not get affected by the score but focus on the learnings and mistakes. Mock tests were crucial in helping me finalize my strategy as well.
5.
Perfected my D-Day strategy: Mock tests were my practice games to finalize my personalized strategy regarding time distribution, number of rounds, which questions to leave, which subject areas I had greater chances of accurately doing intelligent guess work, so on and so forth. For instance, I knew that whatsoever innovation UPSC does, I'll have to cover 10 questions every 5 mins, to have successfully read/solved/eliminated statements in all the 100 Questions in the Question Paper, in 50 mins. Likewise, I trained by brain to not carry the baggage of the previous question while solving the current question. [My advice- Train yourself to act like a machine, emotionless, while solving the mock tests and the actual paper. Every question has equal marks. In the 2023 attempt, I could not solve the first 13 questions on my first reading. But I kept telling myself that I'll get my questions, just keep steady. Scored 97 in GS-Prelims]
6.
Did not neglect CSAT- Had failed the 2022 attempt because I'd scored 64 in CSAT, but was scoring 98 in the GS paper of Prelims. It was very heart wrenching. So practice CSAT very intensely. Youtube has playlists of subject wise questions of SSC and Bank PO level. Check those out too.
Irrespective of everything, don't stop dreaming big. And practice what I call "passionate detachment"...that is, be passionately involved in the work you're doing and train your brain to dismiss/ be detached from the thoughts regarding the outcome.
I won't be opening a Telegram Channel just yet. May be later. But if you're on instagram, you can find me here. 👇🏻
https://www.instagram.com/diyadasgupta09?igsh=cWUxaThiYnAxNDZk&utm_source=qrI'm a keen Food, Travel and Life Moments Blogger, who doesn't miss any chance of spreading cheer, drive, blend of practicality-positivity-motivation.
Signing off with immense gratitude,
Diya Dasgupta
AIR 207.
