In course of UPSC preparation, Mains hold the key to your selection as per me. It is obvious with the weightage of Mains in total score. Now the important question being, how to prepare for UPSC mains Well, I would provide you four fold strategy for this. GS paper I-IV. Here you need to do one important thing. Take out the syllabus of UPSC mains and prepare Notes exactly for the topics mentioned in the syllabus. For eg- E-tech in the aid of farmers. Definitely it won’t be sufficient, but it would help you to set the outline of your preparation. Now you can suffice through newspapers, important events going on and then comes the test series. While writing is the key for mains, but at the same time it ccan be used to build content. You can follow the mains test series of KSG or Vision and even Insights, You can build content through these materials. Essay- I would urge you all to give special focus on this, This paper doesn’t need extra content. it is based on the content collected for your GS papers. FOr essay, you have to ace the technique only. You need to prepare theme based notes and diagrams, For eg- One broad theme would be women, science and ethics, Agriculture, Vulnerable section etc. Optionals- Yes it is a significant portion of your preparation and it is the best opportunity to increase your marks. Ace yourself for Paper I of the optional. It has limited syllabus and you can score better marks. The second paper would be dynamic in nature and if you are good in GS you will probably be benefitted in this paper too. (P.S- it applies to some optional only like History, Geography, PSIR, Pub ad, Sociology etc) Confidence- Yes I would include it to be one of the most important factor. Don’t get discouraged by anyone that I have so many content, I know many keywords, I have better words, These should be avoided. Write simple, which could be understood and is sufficiently covering the dimensions of questions. Don’t worry too much for key words of question or answer writing key pattern. Many authentic videos are available on youtube which you can follow. Follow renowned teachers such as Dr Khan of KSG, there are free youtube videos available for understanding the answer writing. All the best!! I hope some of you might get benefitted from this.
If you have any questions for me, ask away in the comments.