Strategy for preparing for IAS personality test
Dear aspiring officers, I want to tell you a famous story. Mohit and Rohit were two friends. Them in two different but equal parts of the forest. They were asked to cut the trees and were given five days’ time for this. Mohit started work on the first day but Rohit did not come to work that day. Next day too, Mohit continued his work but there was still no sign of Rohit. On the third day, Rohit reached for cutting trees and after that, both of them remained engaged in the work of cutting trees till the fourth and fifth day. On the fifth and final day, everyone was surprised to see that although Rohit had started the cutting work late, still the number of trees cut by him was more than Mohit.
When the reasons for this were searched, it was found that Rohit was planning his strategy for the first two days. During this time, he surveyed the entire area of his work and found out in which areas the trees were of raw wood and in which areas they were strong. Also, only after spending sufficient time in sharpening his tools. Started harvesting on the third day.
This is the importance of an unbeatable strategy. Therefore, based on the lessons learned from this short story, we should prepare a good strategy for our personality test.
1.when to start preparation
There is an important question related to the preparation strategy for personality test. Right time to start it. After the end of main/main examination, there is fatigue and stress both physically and mentally. So in my opinion you should take a break for at least 10 to 15 days. Only after this you should start preparation seriously.
Many people will argue that why start preparing so early. First, wait till the results of main examination are declared and even after that, you get enough time to prepare well. I do not agree with this idea because first of all this test is not that simple. You can confirm this with people who have taken this exam before. The dimensions of this examination are different and more complex than the other two.
Secondly, this is the final stage of your examination and now your competition is with those candidates who have passed the examination twice of the highest recruiting agency of the country – UPSC. Therefore, you cannot ignore both this competition and the competitors. When there is so much at stake, the destination is so close and the goal is so big. You cannot rely on luck. Let there be no let up in efforts. You may not have to regret that if I had started preparation a few days earlier, perhaps the situation would have been different today.
During the first few days, prepare only for a few hours. It started with your daily newspaper. This can be done by reading magazines and watching news broadcast on television. This will not be a very tiring task for you. During the next few days, you can increase your speed and start planning and making intensive preparations.
2 . Self Analysis:
Before you start your preparation, I would strongly advise you to self-analyze your strengths and weaknesses. By this time you will have learned a lot. You must have given preliminary and main examination and must be well aware of what kind of preparation is required for the examination. Which subjects are you well versed in and where do you still need to work harder?
You should make two lists, the first list should be of those qualities which are to be tested during the personality test and the second should be about your inner strengths and shortcomings, which are expected according to the first list. Now your goal is to increase your inner strength and get rid of your shortcomings. There may be two types of shortcomings within you, first, those which you can overcome during preparation and second, those which you believe are almost completely impossible to overcome or difficult to control in this short period of these few months. .
For the first type of shortcomings, you should take advice from the right people and prepare a “Victory over your shortcomings” or WOW (winning over weakness) plan. For the second type, you should prepare a strategy from the beginning that how you can keep them hidden during the personality test and during this time how you can prevent the board from entering the area of these shortcomings.
Based on this, you will have to make a plan for your preparation. In this plan, your goal and each of its sub-goals should be tied to the time limit. In fact, I would like to suggest that your entire planning should be done day by day. This means that you should have pre-determined goals for each day. After this plan is completely ready, take blessings from God, your parents, teachers and elders and start your preparation adopting an optimistic attitude.
3.“Diary Friend”
Dear friends, from my long experience of ten years in the field of personality development, I can tell you one thing with full confidence that by writing on paper to achieve any goal or to understand any subject, the chances of achieving it or understanding it are manifold. increases. On the basis of this thought of mine, I am going to present before you during this preparation, your dearest friend whose name is “Diary Friend”. In simple words, it will be a small diary. In this diary, you can write down new events/issues, any good analysis that you have read or heard somewhere, your doubts, good phrases or words, any thoughts going on in your mind or any such incident that you think is right. , will write. I have called it a friend because like a true friend, it will stay with you throughout your preparation, help you all the time and improve your work efficiency beyond expectations.
4.The War Approach
Don’t just read, also assimilate. Don’t just understand but also learn to reflect. Don’t just watch but watch carefully.
Here I will discuss further on this topic because I fully believe in the efficacy of this mantra. Let us understand this war approach and the logic behind giving it this name.
It is often seen that during the preparation for personality test, a kind of peace and satisfaction comes in the candidate. They think that now there is no need for deep and careful study like the preliminary and main examinations. They ‘only’ read books, newspapers and magazines and do not absorb what is written in them. The question arises that what is the difference between these two, to read and to absorb? When one merely reads something, one does not make a conscious effort to retain it in memory even though it is very necessary. As a result, after a few days or weeks, the subjects studied start disappearing from his mind.
Therefore, whatever you read, try to assimilate it in your mind. It has two benefits first. While giving your opinion on any topic during the personality test, you will not have shortage of ideas and secondly, you will be able to express your views on these topics in a planned and organized manner based on their priority.
Now I will discuss the understanding part of war approach. We have already said that you should not only read but also imbibe. to do this
Lost it. Promise yourself for the next day that you will cut down on wasted time. You will have to compete with yourself regarding time management.
5. Squeezing The Time Out:
If you are not able to give full time to the preparation of personality test due to your personal or professional reasons, then this discussion of mine is completely suitable for you. You will not have big time slots to prepare thoroughly for the personality test. Therefore, my dear aspiring officers, you will have to try to squeeze precious moments of time out of your busy and hectic schedule.
Always carry a handbag with you which contains your “Diary Dost” (Interview Diary) along with some books, magazines, newspapers etc. along with pens and pencils. Whenever you get time, read a chapter of a book, read a magazine or just revise various points/topics written in your diary. While analyzing the time at night, you will be surprised that you have stolen extra time without any change in your daily routine.
If you love technology then you should always keep your laptop, tab or smartphone nearby and while studying, you should save the related points/topics in your electronic notes.
6.Stress Management:
Stress and anxiety are an integral part of any examination. During this stage they are at their peak
There are civil services interviews because there is a lot at stake now. Now we are not in a position to ignore them. Therefore, you should have an efficient plan to relieve stress and stay away from it. Let us first try to find out why we feel stressed.
There are two types of stress, internal and external. External stress is caused by external factors like people (people with negative thinking and pessimism, people and friends who are jealous of you and deliberately want to sabotage your preparation and losers) and circumstances (sudden accidents, family or financial problems etc.)
Now as far as the stress received from individuals is concerned. The simple way to avoid this is to maintain distance from such people and stop talking to them till the exam is over. But there may be some negative thinking people around you with whom you cannot do this. What to do with them now? This task is also equally simple. Once you find out that a person has negativity in his thinking, stop listening to him as soon as he starts talking negatively. What I mean is that you should not listen to his words attentively and do not let his negative words influence your mentality. You don’t have to take his words seriously.