The UPSC Civil Services Exam is a brutal exam in more ways than one. There are no consolation prizes for failing in this exam at any stage. It doesn’t matter whether you have cleared any stage or reached till the interviews; if you fail in any stage, you are back to square one, with the prelims. You have to go through the grind once again. You have to prepare again from scratch.
Don’t beat yourself if you couldn’t clear the prelims. No matter what the reasons, the fact remains that you couldn’t clear. So, unless it was your last attempt and you have to explore other opportunities, it’s a no brainer that you have to start again.
Work on your weaknesses
Before you start again, do a thorough analysis of your preparation first. There could be many reasons why you couldn’t clear: You were ill-prepared; you couldn’t judge the unpredictability of the prelims and consequently focused on areas which were not asked (like in pre 2016 when many people prepared static portions more, but the UPSC stumped them with a predominantly current affairs dominated paper); you were well prepared but panicked in the hall; attempted too many questions just to cross an imaginary cut-off. Identify the mistake you made and try to work on it.
Prepare for the unpredictability
In the recent years, prelims has become really unpredictable. There has been a major shift in the focus of the paper almost every year and the competition is increasing every year. In light of this, it is important that you prepare the whole syllabus well. Pay special attention to current affairs because in the recent times, it has formed the lion’s share of the paper.
Get help
Take help from seniors to put your preparation on the right path. Take coaching if you feel that it will help you in the preparation. Solve as many test papers as possible and analyse your performance. Take corrective action as required.
Don’t neglect the mains
Since the mains is even farther away from the next year’s prelims, a common mistake aspirants make is to leave preparation for the mains till very late. Don’t do that. Writing skills are not developed in a day. Keep practising writing along with prelims preparation. Since all three stages of the exam are integrated, you cannot prepare for them separately. Also, keep revising what you have already read for the mains.
Have a Plan B
For those of you who are appearing in your third attempts or beyond, start working on your alternatives. Since this exam is highly unpredictable and a person who might have cleared some later stage can actually fail in the prelims itself, you will do well if you have a solid back-up plan. There are ample opportunities such as MBA, banking/SSC, State Services, development sector. Find out what suits you and put your Plan B in action.
Atul Roy is the Community Head - UPSC, Gradeup.