The Civil Services Exam (CSE) is one of the most prestigious exams in the country. That is the reason it attracts vast number of candidates who compete for this service. The Exam is highly demanding because of its huge competition, vast syllabus, too lengthy procedure (it takes almost 15 months from the day of its notification to final results). In such situation maintaining motivation to keep one self going become extremely important. Motivation is the driving force towards the achievement of goal. The level of motivation determines your success in the exam. More is the motivation – more is the chance of success in this exam. Since motivation is short lived one has to constantly energise oneself to remain motivated.
Here are the ways to keep yourself motivated for the exam.
1. Find purpose/goal
Why you need to clear this exam? Is its extrinsic motivation that is driven by extraneous factor or Intrinsic motivation- driven by internal aspiration? If you are the one who have consciously decided to prepare for this exam knowing well the difficulty level of exam, you are more likely to motivated to give your 100%, rather than one who have decided to prepare for the exam because of external influence.
2. Fall in love with the work you do
If find the work interesting, you will do it with more energy and enthusiasm. If you are reading newspaper or studying any subject for the exam, fall in love with that. Your productivity will increase, thereby pushing you towards achievement of your goal.
3. Break the goals into smaller parts
Prepare every day target, like- for today you decide to complete 2 chapters of modern history, 2 chapters of Indian polity along your newspaper. Same way you fix a target tomorrow and so on, in this way you complete whole syllabus on time, without unduly pressuring yourself.
Syllabus for both prelims & mains exam can be found here – UPSC Syllabus
4. Keep yourself away from negativity
There will time when you will have self-doubt, fear of failure, nagging people around you, all this will suck your energy and demoralise you, take you away from your goal. So, try to find emotional support from your family, friends or anybody in whom you can confide, find strength and positivity in your life and keep away from all sorts of negativity.
5. Evaluate yourself regularly
See previous year question paper, practice test series, do answer writing, evaluate your performance on regular basis so that it gives you confidence and builds up your spirit.
6. Focus on Present
It is said that unnecessary worry about future and what happened in past spoils our present. So, see what you can do today, don’t worry about past mistakes and failure, learn from it, prepare proper schedule, stick to the timetable, modify your strategy if it is not working, sets small- small goal which will take you to the final goal.
7. Don’t overlook your health
Health is wealth, the exam involves multiple stages and almost take 15 months to complete the whole procedure. If one fails in any stage, has to start from scratch, even if someone fails at interview stage has to start again from prelims. So it is highly demanding and strenuous and at time might become frustrating. It might take toll on your health if you don’t take care of it properly. So, do keep everyday at least half an hour for exercise, yoga or whatever workout that suits you. Taking healthy and timely food should also become part of your daily routine. Don’t forget that “a healthy mind resides in healthy body.”
Remember that the knowledge alone is not sufficient to clear the Civil Services exam. The recruitment process is designed to test your endurance and discipline over a period of two years for which motivation is the key factor. Hope you will find these tips useful in preparation of your exam. Good Luck!
It is a great blog post about ias exam..I am always read your blog helpful and informative tips. I like it thanks for sharing this information with us
It is a great blog post about ias exam. .I am always read your blog helpful and informative tips. I like it thanks for sharing this information with us
Ms. Hari Chandana Dasari is a top IAS officer in India from the 2010 batch of the Telangana State Cadre. Currently, serving as the Collector and District Magistrate of the Narayanpet district, Telangana.
Previously she worked in various zones of the GHMC covering a span of over five and half years tenure and was instrumental in bringing the Hyderabad City onto the National and International forum, with her wide variety of Eco-friendly and path-breaking initiatives in all spheres of Urban administration.
Known to come up with ingenious schemes for the betterment of the poor and the needy, she has been quite effective at implementing them to the tee. Initiatives like Feed The Need, Pet Park, Plastic Recycled Foot Paths, Usage of Drones for the first time in fighting mosquitos, Give And Share, Durgam Cheruvu Rejuvenation are some of her spectacularly successful projects that have led to the betterment of the ecosystem. Her contributions also include the initiation of “She Toilets” and “She Marts” in Hyderabad, popularly known as Pink Public toilets and most vibrant for the first time securing an ISO 14001 certification for a Govt office ~ Zonal office – GHMC Serilingampally, India’s first Zero Waste Office.
Her guidance and effective persuasion as the jurisdictional civic chief were crucial in the construction of the World’s Longest Extradosed Cable-Stayed Bridge erected at Durgam Cheruvu, Hyderabad.
Hari Chandana’s contributory to the introduction of luxury toilet cafes (LOO Cafes) in the city of Hyderabad which enables citizens free of cost access to hygienic washrooms is much lauded as well, so much so that these are being implemented in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
It is indeed no wonder she was selected as one of the Top Four Successful & Dynamic IAS/IPS officers making a difference across the Nation in Shekar Guptha’s ‘ThePrint’ and among the top 10 IAS officers chosen by the better India for her contribution toward Green Governance.