Many students work very hard for the IAS prelims exam, but they unable to qualify because of flaws in the preparation process. Candidates are advised to make sure that you do not make these mistakes. Below we are listing 5 mistakes to avoid:

Ignoring the Basic Books

There is tendency to start studying from advanced level books recommended by most of experienced or senior IAS aspirants without studying from the basic books. They are then unable to understand about what they study and resulting total waste of time. It is required to first study from NCERT's and other beginner level books before moving onto other advanced level books.

Avoiding Making Notes

Most of the candidates find making notes a tedious task and do not make proper notes. However, making notes not only helps in learning process but it is very useful for a revision few days before of the examination.

Skipping the Newspaper

Another major mistake that many aspirants make is that they do not read the newspaper daily. Instead, they completely depend on monthly magazines and annual current affairs addition to update themselves on current issues. However, this is not very efficient and this is because an aspirant then endup mugging the limited content given in the magazine and lack of proper understanding of the issue. See, magazines should be used as supplements and not substitutes to newspapers.

No Planning & Strategy

This problem is faced by many aspirants that they study hard but without the proper strategy, they give more time to subject & topics they love to study and ignore them once they find boring. As a result, before the examination they find they have left out the vast majority of the syllabus. Thus, candidates are advised to sketch a broad timeline of what subjects or topics they have to complete by when. Time dedicated exclusively for revision should also be set aside.

No More Practice

A very effective way of revising for the IAS prelims exam is practice of past years papers. Another benefit of practicing of previous years questions is that it will help recognizing the most important topics as well as the understanding of the type of questions asked by UPSC. Those candidates who appear for the IAS prelims exam in the previous years but did not cleared even after working hard should assess themselves and see if they made any of these mistakes.

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