Kartikeya Verma IPS

Most curated and practical advice for competitive prepration, UPSC Sutra in literal sense. Written by my batchmate Siddharth Shukla.

Link for full poem -

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7N7FyBGbDyk&t=106s&pp=2AFqkAIB

🇮🇳

In light of the recent unfortunate incident of Kolkata medical college, it is important to identify the basic cause of such incidents and know what can we do at our individual level to prevent such things in future. These are two short notes I came across, and found relevant for sharing as an concerned member of the society.

Please find time and read them to inspire change, even at smallest level.

To state it categorically, this is not to blame anyone, but to motivate people to take upon their civic responsibility to create a safer society. Please consider it in appropriate light.

Jai Hind! 🇮🇳

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/ias-officer-here-is-my-advice-upsc-aspirants-9488975/lite/

Important thing to understand about UPSC CSE.

DON'T MAKE IT LARGER THAN LIFE.

Parliament related stats. Helpful for GS2 and PSIR.

Resource map of world and India for quick revision and interlinkage for Mains

Some FAQs regarding Mains preparation.

Prelims is less than a day away. The game now is about mental status. Final 7-piece advice for exam hall on D-day:

1) Be fearless. Shed all the pressure of clearing the exam, and give your best with a relaxed mind. It is a time to reap dividend of months of your prepration. Believe in your prepration. Don't give the exam with a pressure to clear it, but with a pleasure to getting an opportunity to show your prepration.
2) Everyone is equally unprepared. Feel comfortable with your prepration. Everyone has left some or the other part of the syllabus. Divert your mind from what you haven't done to what you have done.
3) Have no ego or rigid mindset. There is no question that you must must attempt. Leaving the question is always an option. Don't take any prejudice in the exam on the number of questions you have to do, or any subject specific questions you have to do. Be agile and decide this after seeing the paper. Lately, what questions to leave has become important determinant of the exam.
4) Be comfortable with your vulnerabilities. Don't panic if you don't get 3, 5, 10... questions in a row. Especially if ut the case in initial questions in your set. Just stay calm and do the next question in sequence.
5) Be cross-disciplinary in thought process. Many questions would need different subject knowledge to get to the answer.
6) Avoid silly mistakes regarding "incorrect", "not", "false" etc statement. Stay attentive to what is asked in the question, and underline what you read.
7) Take care of OMR. OMR is only thing you send back for prelims. Make sure to fill it attentively and correctly. If you fill ORM at the end, do so once at 90 minutes into the exam, then continue with the rest of the questions. Don't leave it for the end as it can get problematic in hurry.


Outside the exam hall, must note that this year, the entry into exam venue would close 30 minutes before the scheduled commencement of exam in each session. Make sure to reach on time. Seeing the hot weather in many parts of the country, keep yourself hydrated. Make sure to carry extra copies of exam documents and required stationary.

In all, stay calm and fearless, keep your eyes and mind open and try to give your best without any worry of how the result would be. Even after everything, result depends of many things beyond our control. So make sure you do best of what you have and can.

My best wishes to you all. Do well! 💫

By this time next Sunday aspirants would be coming out of their prelim centres. Feeling good?


With less than a week to prelims, it is crucial to set your mind and body in synergy with the exam date.

You have read enough, you have completed most, didn't see something... Everything is fine now. No need to worry about it. Your cumulative knowledge will help you in the examination.

What to do for next week?

Two things -

1) Sreen books/notes of different subjects that you read in last few months. Mind it, it is screening, so just keep on changing the page and glance what is written. No need to go into detail, just refresh in your mind that these were the topics.
While revising the subjects, keep your favourite and stronghold subject for last. Read it just a day or two before the exam. This will help you stay confident.

2) Set your body clock and momentum for the exam. Attempt a full syllabus test every alternate day till exam, i.e. on 10, 12, 14... So that you set the rythm and give prelims in 16th in same comfortable rythm. Attempt the tests as per timing of the real exam to set your body clock right, and fill OMR to have some practice on that too. Attempt about 2-3 CSAT tests in similar pattern with GS tests, according to CSAT exam timings. Do not bother yourself with how much you score in these tests. They are just to set your mind and body right.

Sharing Maps PDF again as some were facing issue to download it.

Above are few of the resources I used for quick revision before the exam. Hope you find them useful and utilise them with best of your wisdom.