The UPSC Mains exam is scheduled from 20 September 2024 onwards. With a month left in the exam, we have curated a few useful tips from civil servants on writing the exam in three hours.
IPS officer Mudit Jain, IRS officer Akshar Godhani, and IAS officer Dongre Reviah shared their ultimate tips on Quora and The Better India to complete UPSC Mains paper in the specified duration –
1. If you are not able to complete the General Studies paper in time and leave 2–3 questions, it will impact your overall score and may also affect your selection/rank.
2. Practice writing answers in test series. Once you join the test series and start writing regularly, your writing speed will be taken care of.
3. Create an exam-like environment for practice. Write two papers on Saturday and two papers on Sunday so that you are better equipped to handle the pain while writing the exam. It is better to practise two essays at a time.
4. Thinking faster is also important in writing the exam. It’s not the slower hand that is the culprit. One should be trained to think faster.
5. Once you look at the question, your brain should go into an auto mode and start throwing up relevant points and only then you will be able to write coherent answers in less time.
6. Write more and more tests in timed controls. If you can’t devote more time to writing, focus on recalling exercise while driving, standing in line, or while travelling.
7. Just think about any issue and start recalling points which you will mention in the answer. For instance, how to boost exports? How to control inflation? Election reforms?
8. Include more and more diagrams and flowcharts as and when necessary. It will fill the space and make your answer look voluminous.
9. Get a good gel pen. People don’t recommend gel pen fearing they could spoil pages. It’s safe but at the end, it’s your call which pen to use. Experiment with a few pens during the test series, then finalise one and keep using it.