Optional Strategy I’m sharing what I followed in these 5 days | Shubham Kumar: Strategy and Notes for UPSC(CSE)

Optional Strategy

I’m sharing what I followed in these 5 days which one gets after GS papers

1) Studying for 10-12 hours: at this point more hard-work/revision is directly proportional to marks.

2) Revising Optional thrice - 1st revision in 3 days, 2nd revision next 2 days, 3rd revision after language paper

3) Writing 3 hours test: Write test (any paper- paper 1 or paper 2) on 2nd or 3rd day.

I wrote 2018 PYQ paper (during 2020 attempt) of Anthropology paper 1 on 3rd day. Till this time I was able to revise whole paper 1 and half paper 2 (1st revision). I would suggest you to write 2020 paper for 2022 mains.

It serves 2 purpose-

a) Generally we get out of touch with optional due to minimum 12-15 days of only GS studies. Writing tests boost confidence and prepare us well for real exam

b) Increases your efficiency of revision - generally we become complacent and revise optional in very relax way for first 2 days and then realise that crucial time could have been better utilised (I realised this during 2019 mains)

4) Don’t study anything new (topics that you had left or any new examples/thinkers)

Even if you study now, you won’t be able to write in exam. Instead focus on their topics where return is maximum.

[In 2019 mains, I devoted 1 entire day to read archeology, thinking that I will write something in real exam. In real exam I was not able to attempt any single question from archeology (I was lucky no compulsory questions were asked from this topic). I had basic knowledge to cover for some compulsory questions from this topic.]

Best wishes for remaining mains papers !!

Shubham Kumar
-Views are personal