Author: Root

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If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse. You attempt the mock test and you see a question on Indian Classical dance which you think is an easy sitter but you just can’t seem to recollect. You feel like your preparation is inadequate and you grow a distaste for the mock which you are attempting.

“If only I revise the things again and then give this mock again, I will have a more realistic score”. This is what you tell yourself and you don’t attempt your mocks correctly!

Stop right there. Don’t think like that. Stop the monkey chatter and take the things as they come. Don’t live in the fool’s paradise that your best is yet to come. No. Who knows? This is you right here and you have got to make the best out of your limited knowledge by tikdams or educated guesses and not fell prey to the wishful thinking on covering the whole syllabus again.

To get into your best test taking abilities, try to meditate everyday. Follow this 6 phase process recommended by Steve Jobs:

1. Sit cross-legged in a quiet place, preferably on a low pillow to reduce strain on your back. Take deep breaths.
2. Close your eyes and listen to your inner monologue, the thoughts that spin through your mind all the time: work, home, TV, whatever. Those thoughts are the chattering of your “monkey mind.” Don’t try to stop it from chattering, at least not yet. Instead just observe how it jumps from thought to thought to thought. Do this for five minutes every day for a week.
3. After a week, without trying to silence your monkey mind, during the meditation, shift your attention to your “ox mind.” Your ox mind is the part of your brain that thinks slowly and quietly. It senses things around you. It doesn’t try to assign meaning to anything. It just sees, hears, and feels. Most people only really hear their ox mind when they experience a “breathtaking moment” that temporarily stops the monkey mind from chattering. However, even when your monkey mind is driving you crazy with rush-rush-rush and push-push-push, your ox mind is still there, thinking its slow, deep thoughts.
4. Once you’re feeling more aware of your ox mind, ask it to start quieting your monkey mind down. What worked for me was imagining the monkey mind going to sleep due to the slow walking of the ox as it moves patiently along a road. Don’t get upset if your monkey mind keeps waking up. It’s a monkey, so it can’t help acting like one. However, you’ll find that, despite its protests, your monkey mind would rather give it rest and stop making all that tiring and tiresome noise.
5. As your monkey mind calms down, continue to shift your attention to your ox mind. Each breath will seem to take a long time. You’ll feel the air on your skin. You may feel your blood flowing through your body. If you open your eyes, the world will look brand new and even rather strange. A window, for example, becomes just a square thing that full of light. It doesn’t need to be opened or closed or cleaned or repaired or anything else. It’s just there. You’re just there.
6. While it can take a while to get there, you’ll know you’re doing the exercise correctly when it seems as if no time has passed at all between when you started the timer and when it goes off. When you succeed at that, gradually increase the amount of time you spend each day. Weirdly, no matter how long you practice, it will seem as if no time has passed.

Here’s how this may help you in your preparation and test taking strategies:

1. It will calm you down
2. Make you more perceptive to the subtle tones of texts and questions and help you identify with the art of smart guessing
3. Keep you stress free and be more confident of your preparation levels

If you already have another mojo working for you, share with us over the comments.

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PS: The Flagship Prelims Module for IAS 2017 has already started. Click here to attempt your tests. 

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Hi,

I just need to say this to boost my motivation level (can help others too). As the prelims is approaching, i’ve more apprehensions about getting through it. And this is after the fact that I’ve studied not less than 5 hours a day (EVERYDAY without fail) consistently  for more than a year. Test scores varies, which further increase my doubts about my prep.

I am sure i am not the only one to feel that. 

To all who feel the same: 

“This is a sign of a serious aspirant! Yes you read it right. This means you have worked hard, you put so many things at stake, you took a toll on your social life, you cut down your friend-gatherings, you compromised your fun, you have put in hell lots of efforts. NOW is the time to have faith in your efforts. Do not let it go in vain at last moment. 

Test scores are not to decide your final result, they are to give you a direction to improve minutest mistake, before EXAM. Don’t ever Panic on low score. You will do much better than you think!”

Revise, Revise and Revise…..

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This post was an email from a reader. Has been kept anonymous for her comfort but we hope this brings some peace to all of you who have had some bad days. If you wish to write to us about your good/ bad days – email us at hello[at]civilsdaily.com

Every year, we try to read the UPSC examiner’s mind to position our preparation on the right track and more often than not, the said examiners do allow us a window to take a detour through their mind and marvel at the beauty of the art of crafting questions by them. And the beauty lies not in making the question which no one has ever heard of but ensuring that some questions are such that you can attempt them even if you just devoted 2 minutes of your long tea break in discussing what others had been studying.

Here are few such question which only need a calm look at the question and common sense and you can’t mark them wrong even if you mark them while half asleep:

BUT if you got these incorrect then you need to start studying from this moment itself.

This blog is specifically for the junta who joined the final 4 FLTs with us. If you have joined and haven’t attempted the FLT #2, please do so. Click here.

Here’s the list from the FLT #2:

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Q.3) India successfully tested the Reusable Launch Vehicle technology demonstrator recently.

What are the benefits of developing a reusable launch vehicle?

1. It shall cut down on the cost of satellite launches.
2. It shall be a step forward for manned space missions in future.

Select the correct alternative using the codes given below.

1. a) 1 only
2. b) 2 only
3. c) Both 1 and 2
4. d) Neither 1 nor 2

Q.4) In recent times, few places have been in news due to local movements centred around ecological/environmental issues. In this context consider the following pairs:

1. Mithi Virdi : Maharashtra
2. Niyamgiri Hills : Odisha
3. Plachimada : Tamil Nadu

Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?

1. a) 2 only
2. b) 1 and 2 only
3. c) 1 and 3 only
4. d) 1, 2 and 3

Q.6) After Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh, which of the following pairs represents the western most and eastern most states of India?

1. a) Rajasthan and Nagaland
2. b) Jammu & Kashmir and Manipur
3. c) Rajasthan and Manipur
4. d) Jammu & Kashmir and Nagaland

Q.13) Which of the following is/are the pollutants released into the air by combustion of fossil fuels?

1. Oxides of carbon
2. Oxides of sulphur
3. Oxides of hydrogen
4. Oxides of nitrogen

Select the correct alternative using the codes given below.

1. a) 1 and 2 only
2. b) 1, 2 and 3 only
3. c) 1, 2 and 4 only
4. d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

 

Q.14) Which one of the following conventions/protocols is associated with prohibition of trade in wildlife and plants that can threaten their survival?

1. a) Nagoya Protocol
2. b) CBD
3. c) Cartagena Protocol
4. d) CITES

Q.20) Consider the following rivers:

1. Alaknanda
2. Ramganga
3. Pindar

Which of the above rivers flow through Uttarakhand?

1. a) 1 and 2 only
2. b) 1 only
3. c) 2 and 3 only
4. d) 1, 2 and 3

Q.22) A joint sitting of the two houses of the Parliament may be called upon by

1. a) the Prime Minister
2. b) the Rajya Sabha Secretariat
3. c) the President
4. d) the Leader of the house in Lok Sabha

Q.24) With respect to the Indian freedom struggle, a violent incident at Chauri Chaura led to the withdrawal of which one of the following movements?

1. a) Civil Disobedience Movement
2. b) Quit India Movement
3. c) Non-Cooperation Movement
4. d) Swadeshi Movement

There are 6 more questions in this paper (FLT #2) which everyone should have got correct. But we won’t prick you more.

Hope you are writing your Full Length Mocks seriously. Learn from the explanations but do not go easy on them when you are attempting the tests. There will be many among you who will score an ace on subjects they did not even study properly, but could make an educated guess on.

Make sure you are one of them!

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The FLTs are being held at prelims.civilsdaily.com

You already have the Civilsdaily app, we believe. Over this last one year, you would have read a collective of 5,000+ newscards. Now is the time to go and revisit them month wise/ category wise.

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Use this demonstrated 5 step process to revisit your preferred news category month wise.

 

I want to share with you all another episode that happened two months back. I was worried feeling numb you know the problem was i knew what i had to do what i need to do  but i was not able to do anything. I was just blankly staring at walls.

So to all those Bhatakti aatma  aka wandering souls. I have something to say: stepping into this arena of upsc was your decision am i right?? ..And if you are not able to push yourself to do what it takes to get through this thing ..question yourself if you really wanted to this and if yes is your answer.

So its time to pamper yourself a little bit give some time to yourself. Remember those days when you really did not wish to go to school especially kinder garden time and how your parents used to pamper you ..my appa knew what could infuse in me  the zeal that refreshment so he used to let me scribble in walls when i was fussy about going to school.. me and my crayons created wonder i was happy..and then appa used to ask me that do you want to school go now

..He made my mood all right all set so that i go to school without dragging…He knew school is necessary for me to learn a new alphabet  he also knew that i was least interested to go but he made arrangement in such a way that i was ready for school.

Key of this story was you need to pamper yourself if you are bored ..there are things which are necessary which you can not escape and you have to do it…in simple terms a kit kat break is all you need give time to things which will let your tensions you worries go away you will feel refresh

Then tell me if you can’t make yourself happy while reading things how would you be able to tackle other things ..life is beyond books too remember my words 😉 this thing is just a phase which you need to live its not struggle its purely passion which you are pursuing..everyone should hold some onus to themselves

Like if you see my diary pages you would get an idea let the doodle do the  talking part..i am sending another page which i always refer and give an option to myself what to do before i say i don’t want to study. I know you all have your idea of happiness…do give it time and then see books. Do something that gives you butterfly jitters or something that make your brain cell works efficiently …

I don’t know what future holds for me but i am living each day whether it was first time knowing about buddha circuit or about law commission recommendation. I am always filled with ooooooo excitement talking to myself that is it so ? How come i was not aware of it ?. Bring that oomph in you boredom will fade.you will do wonder i am just poking you all by sharing my side of story.

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PS: This can irk will give an impression that i am non serious candidate but its okay i don’t want to be called serious. Like i said i fell in love with its syllabus so i am into it its became passion like in IR we say natural allies  so it’s sort of like that for me and it works but i do take care of my little brain  aka self interest .

PPS: thanks a lot to people who loved my handwriting and my story Sending a snapshot of diary to CD was just a random thing that happened .

PPPS: All the best for prelims 🙂 Had more to say but it’s enough for now me too need to go back to books it was a break time thing and i felt so happy sharing it with you all

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This post was an email from a reader. Has been kept anonymous for her comfort but we hope this brings some peace to all of you who have had some bad days. If you wish to write to us about your good/ bad days – email us at hello[at]civilsdaily.com

It was heartening to see that a few of you could connect with my day’s ramblings. Sometime such connections are nice to find and great to cherish.

Also – the other reader who shared her drawing was simply amazing. Baskin Robbins anyday 🙂 I loved the story that she had crafted on that page.

We all tell stories. Stories are an amazing way to create a sense of reality for ourselves so that we aspire towards a goal.

I felt so pumped to start reading a subject in the morning and marked 5 chapters which I will cover before noon. I told a positive story to myself, “I am going to cover the executive polity today and will look up for polity tit bits by Dr. V and that would make me a supremo in this section.” but but as luck would have it, I drifted off midway and switched off to history.

My story changed to, “This subject is so boring and I need to be a bit more diverse in my choices to keep things lively.”

And this flip flop kept happening which made me re-think this whole boring issue in detail.

The truth is studies do get boring. There is no glamour in rattofying Lakshmikanth line by line and switching from one subject to another is just escaping from reality. We think we are going to ace the book today and we see ourselves closing the cover page halfway through a chapter.

The gap between our realities and expectations remind me of this 😉

But back to serious stuff – how do I undo the boring aspect of studies? How do I brainwash myself into staying put with a boring subject? Anyone with any good, practical advices?

Hello,

It is usually recommended that you be well versed with the current affairs of upto an year back of your Prelims attempt.

For those appearing for the IAS 2016 Prelims, we advise that you go through with current affairs from August 2015 – July 2016.

If you have made your current affairs notes, revisit those bullet points. If you haven’t been regular with current affairs, get the back issues of Civilsdigest magazine from our Instamojo store – Click here. 

We released the CivilsDigest Ed#7 today

It covers news from May 20 – June19

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If you have joined our Full Length test series which starts on 11th July, you would have received a FREE download link to this latest issue. Please check your email.

Link to join the test series. The students who join the Full Length TS in the coming days will get their complimentary magazine within 24 hours.

 

 

Read someone’s diary entry in your blog. And i turned around pages of my diary what i have for july this time. I want to share it with you I have nothing inspiring say but this exam is best thing that ever happened to me for i fell in love with it. This is not everything to me but it’s something which makes me look past the extraneous detail and perceive clearly.

It changed the way i look at things. I don’t claim anything big why and what i am doing here I am doing it for myself; i am happy about it it’s not mean thing to say.

This time or the other time even if  it will be like climbing mountain or sailing over sea I will be accomplishing this thing.

I am in love with its syllabus and will be loving it always.

PS may irks many but this was not intended to offend any.

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This post was an email from a reader. Has been kept anonymous for her comfort but we hope this brings some peace to all of you who have had some bad days. If you wish to write to us about your good/ bad days – email us at hello[at]civilsdaily.com

Not everyone has a flawless academic record and experiencing setbacks is okay. Sometimes we get so haunted by one failure, which usually happens to be trivial, that we get too terrified to even try again. But as this proverb suggests, even if you fail seven times, you stand up on the eighth.

We received a few mails from the test takers saying that the quality of questions at CD is much ahead of those at Vision, Insights, Drishti (hindi) but that sometimes make the test takers feel a bit demotivated of their test taking abilities.

This post is intended for all those test takers – don’t worry about your wrong attempt in the mocks. Don’t go so hard on yourself. Your actual marks are going to be +10 from what you get here. Make sure you attempt the tests to the fullest abilities and then red the explanations thoroughly. 

This is the time to get out of Maslow’s basement

This is Abraham Maslow’s finest creation.

In his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”, Maslow arranged the motivation factors of our needs and deeds in an order of priority. A psychology student would need no initiation in this but for the rest of us, think of it as the bollywood equivalent of “roti kapda aur makaan”.

Only after one has his basic needs fulfilled will he think of achieving something for the others or look for nirvana for himself.

But why on earth are we talking about Maslow?

Because we want you to get out of the Maslow’s basement, go out and conquer the 5th step of the process. Think of how this translates for an average UPSC candidate –

Step 1, 2 are the basic preparation steps where you lay out the ground work – read up on NCERTs, get the regular books, make notes etc.

Step 3 is the social need when you discuss concepts with your peers, exchange views and tips and answer each other queries. You feel like a part of the family at CD when you help each other out and you slowly prepare your grounds for the Step 4

Step 4 is the testing time folks. Here’s where all that you have been through comes out to give you quick, timely feedback so that you prepare yourself for the FINAL NIRVANA on the Step 5 which is the UPSC day!

Do not MISS out on this step. Do not go back to the basement levels 1 & 2. This is the time to rise up to the occasion and learn from your mistakes. Don’t fall prey to a false ego hurt which you may receive when you hit a bad score. GET UP and GET GOING!

Mock #9 is LIVE and it will be closely followed by Mock #10. Both are based on current affairs.

The Full Length tests are starting on 11th July. These will be close group tests and will be accessible only to the students who register for them. If you haven’t already – REGISTER TODAY.

Look forward to more participation and more sincere attempts from you all!