Question

how to crack civil services exam? what to study

Answer 1

Strategy

start with modern indian history from the death of aurangzeb.at the same time read polity from laxmikanth.so you will get a complete picture as polity is a reflection of history.devote at least 8 hrs a dayfirst reading should be fast. just skip any difficult portion but maintain the flow. donot try to understand everything in first readingin the second reading support laxmikanth from gktodaynow you will get complete understanding of why anything occurs on a particular date. for example charter act 1813 and 1833 abolished trading privileges of east india company. look at europe at that time napolean blocked entry of british goods in europe by imposing continental system. thus the other british merchants and industrialist pressured the government to open india for all.when you get bored by these two study geography as it is a different subject and interestingtry to  study for both prelims as well as mains. this will keep you yield per hour studied very high and you will be able to absorb more. reading only factual will result in poor understanding, passing of prelims but it will be very difficult to pass mainsthen take economics. donot use that ramesh singh indian economics book. sriram classes economics supported by gktoday and investopedia was my methodalways keep previous qpapers near you and glance through it when neededkeep rough pages near you and write any term that is important. for example formula of GNP etc. do not write every thing but only main termsat night while sleeping try to recall only important terms that you studied during day. make a note of all important terms that would require revision from time to timealways keep a tab of the time you spent on studying. if you sit to study write the time on something. if you get up do the same. at night count the time really studiedafter studying some topics try to solve some questions on these topics.do not read complete news paper. try to find any relation of news to the upsc syllabus. if it exists then only read. no body is going to ask you which actress said what to some bodydo not read all government reports. but ARC II is a must. read only its recommendationsthe same goes for any book. do not read all the book. skip if it does not appeal to upsc syllabus.give basic attention to all subjects. you may study some subjects deeply, but you must have a basic understanding of allwhen you study a topic completely. try to write answers to upsc mains questions. even if you cant write, do force this habit. thus it will help in long runthat's all i remember

Answer 2

Hy,
Civil services exam is considered to be the most toughest exam to crack. Well, I'm not demotivating u, but yeah 13-14 lakh students sit every year and i guess 3000-4000 qualify for the mains. But nothing is impossible, I repeat nothing.
Well the course of the exam include-
All the NCERT curriculum from class 6th-12th. I repeat all, geography, history, political science till class 12th, science and maths are acceptable till class 10th.
Besides it, current affairs and General knowledge, whatever is going around u.
Lucents GK book, Arihant GK, Competition success reviews are considered some of the good books.
Hope it helps.
Thanks.