“Once Mains Begins…”: The Unspoken Trials of UPSC Mains
Kartavya Desk Staff
An aspirant walked up to us on 30th September 2024. It was a day after her first UPSC CSE Mains exam 2024 had gotten over. The first thing she mentioned to us was her experience of the previous 10 days.
She could’ve visited us a day earlier, but as anyone who has written Mains even once is aware, the days-long ordeal is not just mentally straining but takes a toll physically and emotionally as well. Therefore it is no surprise that at the end of it, all one really wants is to get a breather. She further continues that although she had been preparing for the exam since a few years, the experience of Mains as a kind of a 10 day ritual was not really accounted for in her preparation.
A glimpse of this ritual could be something like this- 2 papers of 3 hours each in a single day, writing 50 pages in those 3 hours, having exams day after day, benches without backrest, fellow candidates applying all sorts of pain balms onto their hands and wrists, candidates carrying glucose water/tablets/chocolates, and so on.
In addition to this arduous ordeal is the immense pressure of operating in a limited timeframe.. to be able to recollect hundreds of facts, figures, scholars, names and have the knack to be able to apply them on the spot. Thereby, to be able to perform this sacred ritual of Mains exam effectively, the most important key is PRACTICE.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
Till the multitude of concepts, data, diagrams, points are internalized that one starts to even dream of them! Since the inception of InsightsIAS we have been vigorously endeavouring to prepare candidates for Mains Answer Writing. Our initiatives like
• SECURE Free Daily Answer Writing initiative.
• SPG (SECURE PERSONAL Guidance Programme)
• SPG+ (SECURE PERSONAL GUIDANCE+ Programme)
• YLM (Year Long Mains Programme)
• Core Batch
You can check them out below: https://instacourses.insightsonindia.com/
Wishing everyone the best in their UPSC journey! Let us all give it our best shot. READ. WRITE. REVISE. READ. WRITE. REVISE. WRITE. Because once Mains begins with the first paper, time zooms past so fast, that it only ends with the last paper..