What Strategies should be Adopted in Examination Hall for CSE Prelims?

• The preliminary examination evaluates your patience, tenacity, and optimism in the exam room against all obstacles, not just your ability to memorise a lot of knowledge.
• A civil servant must possess the capacity to maintain composure under intense pressure, and the UPSC tests applicants for this quality in the preliminaries. It has also become normal practise to see aspirants repeat their success every year after passing the preliminary exams.
• So how do these students clear the prelims examination despite such immense pressure? Are there strategies adopting which a new UPSC aspirant can achieve this feat? Few of them includes –
  • Time Management: The management of time in the exam room is the most crucial factor, something we cannot stress enough. In a race against time, try to connect the information you already know from basic reference books with the comments made in the question. In this situation, answering as many practise questions as you can is quite beneficial.
  • Elimination Technique: The elimination technique increases the likelihood that you will mark the correct response by allowing you to immediately remove any choice from your response that you deem to be redundant or untrue. The question should absolutely be tried in a situation where the candidate can rule out two alternatives. In such a case we would suggest you mark any one of the remaining answers as the probability of you marking the correct answer is almost 50%.
  • Extreme Statements: Finding extreme statements in the options is another tactic that students frequently use. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, for instance, "failed to satisfy the financial needs of rural India." Here, the claim obviously contradicts financial inclusion, which is a key component of the Jan Dhan Yojana. As a result, the assertion can be declared false and incorrect.
  • This means that by eliminating extreme statements, you still have a chance of coming up with the correct response even if you have no prior knowledge of the issue. Therefore, the recommendation would be to examine the options after skimming a question rather than skipping it entirely. This tactic will undoubtedly help you score higher in the preliminary exams.
  • Note the Question Terminologies: Also, take careful note of terms like "Not," "Incorrect," "Only," etc. when reading the question paper. For instance, many applicants have been observed to mark the correct statement in a question that asks, "Which of the above claims is incorrect?" since they did not notice the question's language. To succeed in the preliminary exams, these mistakes must be prevented.
  • Exam Hall Ego: Another typical error students make in the exam room is wasting time on questions that are entirely motivated by ego. Let's say Student A spent hours reading polity but was unable to answer a simple polity question in the preliminary exams. Aspirant A experiences remorse in addition to a decline in confidence as a result of this. Based solely on his ego, he wastes his precious time trying to solve the polity question, only to realize later that he could have fetched marks in other un-attempted questions. This clarity of thought is normally found lacking in new aspirants and needs to be kept in mind. The objective of the candidate in prelims is not to top the examination but to clear the exam. This means you should fetch marks, no matter from which subject.
  • Marking of OMR Sheets in the Last Minute: Another error frequently seen is pupils marking OMR papers in the last few seconds. Many students were heard grumbling after the preliminary exam because their invigilator had not given them enough time to mark their OMR sheet. Avoid using this logic since it is absurd and unreasonable.
  • CSAT Paper: Students should concentrate on their areas of strength when completing the CSAT examination, which serves as the prelims' qualifying exam. Numerous students have been seen to fear the CSAT paper's ability and reasoning sections.
  • A wonderful way to improve your chances of passing the aptitude section is to review some of the fundamental principles from Class 10. The students can also rely on passages and comprehensions to ensure they sail through the minimum cut off. Solving few CSAT papers would go a long way in building up that confidence.