The Final Assault - CSE 2014 !!

As I begin preparing for my fourth and final assault (i.e. the attempt) on Civil Service Exam, I thought to outline a strategy and a timeline for it. May God takes away all my laziness, procrastination and casualness from me, forever. Amen :) !!

Strategy:
- To strengthen reliable areas like Philosophy Paper-I, GS Paper-I & III.
- To prepare unreliable portions like Philosophy Paper-II, GS-II, IV and Essay in a way so as to mitigate the uncertainty & low scores. 
   P.S. Essay has been quite notorious for me. Attempt 1: 104/200, 2: 046/200 and 3: 140/250.
- To deepen my knowledge of Philosophy in Paper-I and POR. I will have to include C D Sharma in my reading list.
- To make short notes of all the topics
- Periodic revision and answer writing practice

Timeline:

June 25-30: POR
July: IP & WP
After Prelims: SPP

Reading List:

1. Class and Printed notes of Patanjali Coaching for Paper-I (except CWP) and Paper-II
2. Class notes of CWP of Ignited Minds
3. IP- 1) Dutta Chatterjee 2) C D Sharma
4. WP- Y. Masih
5. To supplement SPP notes from Internet

Lets see how it materializes this time.

The Third Attempt

The euphoria of selection in second attempt soon gave way to the dysphoria by realization that I have to write the exam again. In between, came RAS Mains in June and my marriage in July. In August, I served my notice period at RBI. So effectively I started preparing for Mains from September 2013. 90 Days to go!!

In philosophy, this time I thought to deal with Contemporary Western Philosophy (CWP). I came across CWP classes at Ignited Minds by Amit Kumar sir. He taught in Hindi but it wasn't a problem for me. I can understand Hindi well and sir made it a point to say technical words in English also. I must say that sir taught CWP extremely well. It took around 15-20 days to complete this module. I completed Y Masih for WP and Dutta Chatterjee for IP. But I couldn't consolidate my learning because of my casualness and laziness. There was a last time rush and as usual the casualty was Philosophy of Religion. Completed (!!) it in 2 days. 

This was going to cost me dearly in my paper.

On the Exam day:

Paper-I: Most of the Questions were 'critically evaluate' types. As I didn't revise I couldn't properly answer simple questions like Ramanujacharya's saptanupapatti and 2-3 questions of WP. Dejected !!

Paper-II: As always, got overwhelmed by questions in Social-Political Philosophy (SPP). Knew so much so wrote more than necessary. Devoted 2 hrs 15 mins to SPP. Panicked !! Tried to answer the questions of Philosophy of Religion (POR) in a hurry and in short notes format. Paper over. Double dejected !!

Result:

Cleared Mains. Made it to the final list with AIR 149. Happy but dejected !! Have to write exam one more time :( :(

Marks:
Written Total: 663
                      Essay: 140
                      GS: 76, 69, 77, 97
                      Philosophy I: 98, II: 106
Interview: Alka Sirohi ruined me. Only 165. 

Conclusion:
- I have maintained a constant overall score in Philosophy: 40%. (Last: 242/600). 
- Score in Paper-I could be augmented by a minimum of 25 more marks. Needs more efforts, a deeper understanding and REVISION !! 
- Score in Paper-II could be increased by at least 10-15 marks. POR needs its due share of time and efforts. Good answers in SPP do fetch us good marks !!

"Itni shakti humein dena daataa, mann ka vishwas kamzor ho na"

Welcome to Philosophy

In Jaina Philosophy it is said that: "Parasparopagraho Jivanam" (Living beings sustain by helping each other).

This page is for civil services aspirants who have chosen Philosophy as an optional subject for Civil Services (Mains) Exam. It is for learning and sharing our learning experiences and best practices. We should help each other and grow together. 

We could have discussions, doubts, questions, answers, comments and such other things related to the topic of the blog. I would discuss with you, answer the questions, try to resolve the doubts- yours as well as mine :) on Philosophy optional subject. 

Let me take you through my journey so far:

CSE 2011:

In first attempt, I had the wonderful Political Science & IR as Optional I and a disastrous Geography as Optional II. I was ruined and was thrown out of the race after Mains. I was able to score only 219 in Geography while I managed to score a handsome 317 in Pol Science. However, it was not the fault of Geography. It was totally mine:

- I decided to go for Geography after the results of Preliminary Exam

- I dared to do Geography on my own in such short time

- I didn't have any background- academic or as interest, of Geography

- I didn't took coaching for such a technical subject of which I knew nothing

- I DID NOT (also 'do not' ;) ) HAVE REAL INTEREST IN THE SUBJECT

So I was thinking to change my Optional II. So by learning from my first experience, I chose Philosophy as my second optional. I gave thought to Sociology also as it is an allied subject to Political Science. But, to me, Philosophy made a more attractive combination with Political Science. ( I was impressed by Platonian Theory of Philosopher King- a combo of politics and philosophy :P ) Besides, I liked Philosophy and had been reading on and about Philosophical subjects since my school days. 

Other considerations:

- Concise syllabus (that is a nice way to put 'chhota syllabus)

- Paper II was an added attraction for me as 50% of its syllabus overlapped with Political Science. 

- Availability of coaching

- A motivated group of friends with the same optional 

- Intuition ;)

Now I was trying to be in the footsteps of 'Plato' !!

CSE 2012:

After the preliminary exam, I joined Patanjali classes in Old Rajinder Nagar for Philosophy coaching. As I told earlier that since I had real interest in the subject, I picked up things very fast and was able to grasp the concepts in a holistic way. Besides, the style of Dharmendra Sir was also good as far as exams are concerned. 

Overall, I was comfortable during the stage of preparation and I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

In the Mains, I was not able to complete Paper-I. I left around 40 marks of it. And questions worth another 30-40 marks were attempted by 'just playing with the words' and not with real content ;) Paper II was a morale booster and I was able to do it well and complete it within time. In totality, I had mixed feelings. I was disappointed by my performance in Paper-I while overjoyed with it in Paper-II. 

On 22nd February 2013 our Mains results were out and this time I was in. On 3rd May 2013 final results came and I was at the 476th position. When marks came out, I realized the soundness of my decision as Philosophy had paid rich dividends to me. As many optionals were slaughtered mercilessly and as I saw some of my extremely intelligent and hardworking friends being washed out of CSE race, Philosophy stood beside me. I scored 242 in Philosophy (Paper-I: 125 Paper-II:117). 

Spinoza said: "Whatever is going to happen, will certainly happen" ;) 

I got Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Central Excise). I decided to skip the Foundation Course and take another shot at CSE to improve my rank further. 

I will recount my experience in Third Attempt in a thread sometimes later.

Till then Ciao !! 

- Raja Banthia