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Cracking Civil Services Along With a Full Time Job

Civil Services Exam

Each year lakhs of aspirants think of preparing for Civil Services examination and each year aspirants get perplexed thinking about the following carefully worded line –

“Job ke sath kaha hopaega IAS ka exam. Samaj nahi araha ki exam du ya Naukri Karu.”

At the outset, let me tell you that Civil Services can be cracked along with a full-time job. Sure, you’ll have to be more disciplined, more focused and definitely more determined. But it is possible. 

The fact that Civil Services preparation is strenuous, makes a lot of aspirants opt out of jobs to invest time on CSE 100%. Now that is ok but for aspirants who don’t want to leave their secure jobs, there is nothing to worry. All you need to do is stay methodical and have a damn good strategy.

3 Important Points to Consider for Working CSE Aspirants

ROUTINE

You have got to prepare a plan (a time table/schedule) and stick to it. This way you’ll save precious time and will get the work done at the earliest. Without a plan, not only frustration get the better of you but also you’ll exhaust yourself.

TIME INVESTMENT

Being a working professional, your time during weekdays will be limited. Nevertheless, you still have to devote 4 hours daily – 2 before office in the morning and 2 after office during evenings. On weekends and holidays, you will have to invest maximum time.

RESOURCES

Compile all the resources beforehand and then begin preparation. If you don’t have good resources in your city, ask a good bookseller to get them for you from Delhi. They do that easily. Personally, I will not suggest coaching to working professionals. A study by yourself. That is what I did. It saved my time and I had a much better grip of the Syllabus. Do enroll in test series but that can wait for later.

10 Tasks Expected Out of Working CSE Aspirants

  1. Read the Hindu daily and make notes so as to have a ready in hand repository once the exam draws closer.
  2. Read and make notes on at least one important event daily – national or international. An event that you know will be important from CSE point of view.
  3. Relate the current affairs that you have been reading with your General Studies syllabus because that is exactly how UPSC frames questions.
  4. Alternate subjects from General StudiesFor instance keep 2 days for Geography of India, 2 for history so on and so forth. This way you will be able to complete all the subjects within 2 weeks.
  5. Lay special emphasis on International Relations andEnvironment. Damn important seeing the recent trends.
  6. Once a week, read the India Year Book Make this book your bible.
  7. Once a week read a magazine like Yojana and Kurukshetra. It’ll be very useful.
  8. Devote some time (even if its 1 hour) towards Mains preparation. This is very important. Keep a track of syllabus from NCERT books.
  9. Devote time to optional preparation at least twice a week.
  10. Invest time on Sundays exclusively for revision. Weekly revisions of previously learned aspects are essential.

Remember that Civil Services preparation is about hard work and smart work both. Avail the best of your time and make your attempt count. Best wishes.

CIVIL SERVICES – DAILY DOUBT SOLVING SESSIONS – LEAVE YOUR QUERIES HERE

Akriti Mattu

11 Comments

  1. Hi mam
    I am graduated in history . Now i would like to do PG in history in central university bfore writing CSE.Could you please share your good ideas to plan a comprehensive planning for to years which includes from prelims to personal interview. I think, as working professional or something more than them students can do it. Along with this i have confusion whether coaching with PG will make easy our path to ias or not and what should we do and don’t. I expect good ideas and thoughts as usual.

  2. Thank you so much for this. I’ve been reading your blog from some time now. Its one of the rare blogs on the net where no copy pasting as been done. The way you are guiding aspirants for free is amazing.

    I know you’re a busy woman but it will be really nice if you post articles on CSE preparation more often.

    Thank you.

  3. Hello mam,

    I found this answer and your blog through Quora. First of all thank u for guiding people like me. Secondly, I want to ask you is it necessary to go to Delhi and prepare ?

    • Hi Srini,

      Going to Delhi and preparing is the mos hyped thing about CSE. Its neither necessary nor should be required. What surely is needed is a methodical preparation strategy, die hard curiosity, long sitting hours and more than anything else – Passion. Prepare at home or Delhi – the bottom line is ‘prepare well.’

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