71 TO 51: My Journey from Failure to IAS & Your Guide to Success

 

About This Book

Significance of the title:

In her first attempt in 2015, Ila couldn’t clear prelim stage of the exam as she could secure only 71 marks. In her second attempt she got Rank 51. The book takes you through her journey from failure in prelims to success in second attempt.

It basically has three parts-

In the first part, Ila talks about her back ground and her personal life-

1. What motivated her to join the civil services


2. What was the impact of her father’s death on her career decision


3. What role did her husband (that’s me by the way ) have in her preparation

After this brief background, we delve into how should an aspirant prepare himself to crack the civil services exam in the first attempt itself. There are following chapters-

1. How to start preparing


2. How to prepare while in college


3. How to prepare along with a job


4. How to revise


5. Prelims resources and strategy


6. What to do on the day of Prelims


7. Role of test series


8. How to use online resources


9. Why going to Delhi is not essential for succeeding in the exam (Ila prepared from Lucknow)


10. What to do after Prelims and before Mains


11. Time table for Mains


12. How to choose optional


13. GS I strategy


14. GS II strategy


15. GS III strategy


16. GS IV strategy


17. Essay strategy


18. Sociology strategy


19. What to do on the days of Mains


20. What to do after Mains and before results are out


21. Interview preparation


22. On the day of interview


23. After interview and before result

Apart from this there are chapters to motivate you and to keep you going:

1. When the going gets tough


2. What if you fail

We hope this book helps you in learning from our experience and not repeating the mistakes we did.