Wk #34: How much priority are you giving to UPSC PYQs?

Dear Aspirants,

I have taken a decision today to change my priorities in my preparation plan.

Even as I reflect on this decision, I wonder what took me so long to reach this point.

From now on, I will be giving the UPSC Previous year questions (PYQs) the highest priority. This will be the case for Prelims, Mains and Optional questions.

You might ask me, what else were you doing apart from these. In the initial few months of my preparation I did practice questions that we're posted on some of the coaching institute's website.

Then I joined a test series. (Which I didn't complete :/.) Did you also do the same? Please tell me that at least one of you reading this has finished a Mains based test series completely. I will personally congratulate you for your dedication.

Am I saying that all test series are bad? Please don't jump to that conclusion. Let me explain a bit more.

Questions that are given in Test series and even those that are posted on many websites on a daily basis are good to give you an idea about what you could expect in the final exam.

But are they more important than UPSC PYQ? Definitely not.

The question I asked myself is, if I have not finished even the last five years PYQs, what am I doing with all the other fancy questions?

Unlike Buddha, I didn't sit under a tree to get this realisation. I met a teacher who gave some inputs that enabled this thought process.

If you are practicing UPSC PYQs for the first time after clearing Prelims, you should note that the competition is much ahead of you.

I don't intend to discourage you. This is just a strong thought that has hit me hard. Better late than never.

If you have never glanced through the PYQs, maybe this post is a reminder from the Universe for you to do so.

Think through and see if this makes sense to you. Let me know if you have a contrary view. I would love to hear it.

My Daily Quiz Scores - 30 MCQs per day

I managed to do only 30 MCQs. I will plan to get back to the 50 MCQs per day. Also as the August month comes to an end, it would good to revise all the mistakes made while taking the quizzes in the past four weeks.

One Question to think about

That is all for this week! All the very best for Week #35

See you again next Monday :)

Best Regards,

Satya