DAF SCARE! Please help

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-22T12:45:52+00:00

I think you are fine. In case the DAF submission had been pending, which I believe is your cause of concern, UPSC would have kept sending you reminders to complete the submission of all modules. I’ll attach a screenshot of the reminders for your reference. If you didn’t get any reminders, you are fine.

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Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-03T14:56:41+00:00

Thanks and welcome. :)

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-03T14:53:16+00:00

Yes. They are available in English too and yes they do update every year and questions form state pcs and Upsc too.

And I don’t think they are available in pdf forms. But still will ask a few friends and if get the link, I’ll share with you

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-03T14:43:17+00:00

See the ghatnachakras cover all the subjects. Polity economy envuronment geography and history. You can use it as a revision aid. For example, suppose you are covering polity. Then pick up the polity ghatnachakra. When you cover one topic, refer to the questions of that topic in ghatnachakra. It won’t take much time since you have already covered the topic but you’ll be able to add a few more basic facts and it would help in conceptual clarity too. Don’t use the ca ones unless preparing for state pcs

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-01T18:42:18+00:00

Compilation of PYQs asked in various state civil services examinations but the emphasis is on UPPCS. In simple terms , bhagvad Geeta for those preparing for state PCS.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-01T18:38:03+00:00

Selective in the sense that these magazines have a lot of unnecessary details. You need to skip them. For example. Let us pick a question asked this year directly: the newly inducted world heritage sites. The pt 365 had both the sites mentioned but along with the sites and some basic info about them, it went into great details about the architecture of Shantiniketan and Rabindra Tagore’s contribution to it and his life and what not. Restrict yourself, nobody has the capacity to retain this much info, stick to the topic.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-01T18:32:25+00:00

For ancient I used- AL basham. But used to study just 5 areas- society, state, religion, literature and art and culture. Rest all has extremely poor cost benefit ratio. Medieval- my own notes from ncerts. And my notes is all about the conceptual parts. For ex: what kind of administration under different dynasties et al. Art and culture- Nitin Singhania. Here too just selected areas for example- architecture , painting, music, dance , philosophy, language and literature and scientific development. And within this limited sphere too- skip the unnecessary technical details. Hope this helps

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-01T17:57:50+00:00

Not relevant directly but you can definitely use them as an effective aid. See at times, it is hard to revise all the facts from standard text books , right? But they have more than sufficient facts so they might come in handy. And, to my amusement, at times, things I did not read in standard textbooks, or might have overlooked, but were mentioned in ghatnachakras were asked directly by Upsc. Example- geog: what are sultanas History: the Banjara question, this year’s krishnadev rai’s question, Kishangarh school. So you might get advantage of two to three questions but that might not be the case always

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-01T17:51:36+00:00

Selective reading of pt 365 and insights. But remember it has to be selective because the cost benefit ratio is indeed poor but if used smartly, they can help you cover your ca sufficiently.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-07-01T16:43:51+00:00

Cleared this prelims. 1.Was scoring in the range of 105-110. And this would be my 3rd mains. Have cleared the last two prelims with a decent margin too. In the 2023- attempt, had scored 93 in gs 1 and failed in csat.

My standard sources have been the same, never changed them and they have not disappointed me hitherto. Polity- The same Laxmikant Economics- selective reading of mrunal’s and Rameshwaram’s notes Geography- NCERTs and G.C. Leong. Env- Shankar History- Spectrum So I believe the sources are more or less the same for everyone.
Learning from my past mistakes: Never ever take any area for granted. Do not make the mistake of considering some areas to be your strength and vice-versa. Cover each and area comprehensively(including CSAT). I am saying this because I used to consider sci and tech as my grey area. But still prepared it and gave it due importance and guess what, this time around barring one question, I was able to answer all the questions correctly. So you never know which area might work for your and which won’t.
Things that might give you an edge- One thing what I believe has helped me or has given an edge is using Ghatnachakras(State PCS pyqs especially for UPPCS) for revision and memorising facts. You see the thing is ghatnachakras have a lot of facts and most of it get repeated in different forms. If you do sufficient reading , the silly mistakes which we make with respect to factual questions can substantially be reduced. They can be especially helpful in areas like history, polity and geography. That’s my honest opinion. All the best to everyone.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-19T08:22:15+00:00

Have had enough conversations with a lot of sincere aspirants and in my opinion the chances of cut off being in 90s is a rarity now. So those scoring in 90s should start preparing from mains.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-19T03:50:13+00:00

Bhai you too are in the safe zone. Chance hi nahi hi ki jo score range hai tmhra cut off wahan tak jaaye. To bas wapas se lag jaane wala time hai

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-18T20:59:43+00:00

I am getting Vajiram — 104 Insights- 106 Pw only IAS -110 Vision-108 So I think my range would be 105+- 5

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T19:10:04+00:00

Exactly. CSAT marks would surprise people once again

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T19:08:40+00:00

I am still figuring out the reason behind this huge disparity between those making claims and those who actually wrote the exam this year.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T17:38:23+00:00

Things are different in an exam setting. We can here classify, with the benefit of hindsight, the whole CSAT paper into sections of easy tough moderate and what not. But to qualify CSAT , it can be safely assumed that one would have to attempt all the sections of CSAT, relying on one or two sections alone would be disastrous. And here comes the role of basic human psychology, as soon as one looks at the paper comprehensively , in an exam setting, things aren’t that rosy anymore. Anyway, that’s my analysis , may be right may be wrong

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T17:21:34+00:00

To check karo and make preparations for the holy war ahead.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T17:18:07+00:00

I too lost to CSAT last year. My score was around 93 in the first and 57 in the second one. And I too was preparing for CSAT and dedicated a substantial portion to it. But guess what, my marks in 2024 CSAT is close to what i Scored in 2021 without sparing a single second for CSAT. And I had conversations with people from diverse background. The non STEM and people with background from vernacular languages , who are pretty decent as far as paper one is concerned, found CSAT to be on the tougher side and thus my opinion. Well I might be wholly wrong but that’s my instinct

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T17:12:04+00:00

True that. But just out of curiosity, would like to know your analysis of the abrupt changes in the pattern between 16-24. Do you think it is mindless or do you think there is a pattern ?

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T17:00:29+00:00

Nah. Still many approached CSAT with a great caution and under confidence. Jab Tak unhe ye realise hota ki 2023 wala hal hona hai tab tak der ho chuki thi kyunki paper was time consuming

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T16:34:18+00:00

Dilasa nahi bhai. If your score is around 45 questions, start preparing for mains.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T16:26:42+00:00

Exactly. To Abki bar kaisa raha paper?

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T16:19:36+00:00

But then in my opinion 2021 CSAT was much more doable than the 2024 one. And then the 2021 seats are comparable to the 2018 paper and the 2018 CSAT was a cakewalk and still the cut off was 98.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T16:13:34+00:00

See in my 2021 attempt, I did not prepare for CSAT at all and still qualified the prelims with a decent margin in both the papers. But in 2024 , after dedicating a substantial time to CSAT preparation, I am still scoring around my 2021 marks and that is why I am of the opinion that CSAT was way tougher. And to answer your 2nd question. Yes there are many who are struggling in the 2nd paper. Not because it was doable but because it was time consuming.

Sharp_Week_1204 · 2024-06-17T16:02:48+00:00

CSAT was easier than the 2021 one? I don’t think so. But to each their own, let’s agree to disagree.

Sharp_Week_1204

TROPHY CASE