Ravi Dhawan Rank 6, CSE 2010

> Proper weekly and daily time table to complete the syllabus on a day-to-day basis and weekly target.

> Be tension free and cool and relaxed always. Do not hammer your brain with any wrong thoughts or self denial etc. Avoid filling your mind with lots of books and material Just read selected material 2-3 times. Buy something only if it has anything very new and important and relevant.

> He is a film fan and even 3-4 weeks before exams he watched movie but at home not in hall, in order to save time of travelling. He again insisted to keep mind free from any tension or burden, so he liked to watch movies.

> He see daily news on TV and also some important discussions / debates on channels like Times Now and NDTV.

> Have a discussion with friends on course topics, group study benefitted a lot but before exams for revision 1-2 week prior exam revise alone but be in touch with friends.

> For last 60 days make a daily + weekly time table and stick to it.

> For rest of the time period he studied from Monday to Friday then movie on Saturday and long sleep on Sunday and Sunday evening with friends or family and same schedule from coming Monday again. He adjusted time as per classes and class test times.

> Two newspapers one like Hindu and TOI plus one business n.paper like Economic times of Business Line etc. But focus mainly on editorial and important articles not the entire newspaper. Also he don’t read sports from newspaper and instead read it from monthly magazine like Chronicle.

> Magazine- 1st choice – Civil Services Times; 2nd – Chronicle and Yojana.

> He prepared Summary notes out of important articles of Chronicle and News paper editorials and kept it in separate file. Also he used method of ticking with pencil the number of time article or note he revised. For newspaper articles and notes and edits, he also downloaded them and saved them in a separate folder instead of keeping the cuttings and studied them before mains exams.

> He took classes in final year of B.Com. For GS he took classes at Vajiram & Ravi; For Commerce – Rankers Classes at GTB nagar, and Pub Ad at Pawan Kumar Sir. Ask more and more questions in class room and clear all your doubts Ask even silliest of the question.

> For optional, he preferred his class notes for Pub Ad and Commerce both. For GS mains he already completed usual NCERT books, notes of Crack IAS, VajiRam and current affairs magazines published in last months of two three different classes, for history he read only for modern history from history book from spectrum publication and left for ancient and medieval, Geography – Indian Geog and Economic Geog, for international relations – notes of Vajiram and book named Contemporary relations of India with world from Civil services times special issue, Polity – class notes + vajiram material + DD Basu (2 times), economics – class notes, economic times, NCERT books.

> Make sure to revise hand written notes 3-4 times.

> Success mantra is to link 3-4 topics in same answer but be brief and content oriented. You need not to put over professional language but simple language will work.

> Writing practice – he did not dedicated much time for that apart from usual class note writing and some writings on certain topics at home.

> Time management inside exam hall is most important. For any answer first take 2 mins in mind then frame and proper structure of answer from Intro till conclusion, then write with readable writing. Avoid using 2 inks to save time. Answer should be brief; to the point with relevant example as far as possible.

> Attempt all questions and do not leave any question Just write 2-3 para on each question of whatever you know about that question because it will fetch 3-4 marks and no negative marking will be attracted.

> For interview – Just be yourself, do not give wrong answer instead politely say that I do not know that particular item, but it will be a blunder that you do not know something that’s related with your optionals, also familiarize yourself well with your exam bio data that you would have filled for mains exam, answer should be brief and do not gave example otherwise interviewers will dig more and more in those examples and it will become difficult to answer their questions as was his experience.