Guidance for ALL Competitive exams

Indian Telugu Civil Servants Association

Competitive exams guidance

by

Srujan Nakidi IRS

 

SKILLS REQUIRED  FOR COMPETITIVE EXAMS AND HOW TO DEVELOP THEM:

 

General Studies:  [Rely mostly on NCERT/Telugu Academy/Telugu medium 6th-10th & +2 books]

o   Economy,

o   General Science ( Human Biology, Physics, Chemistry),

o    Polity,

o    Modern History,

o    Geography (Physical, Economical-crops, industries etc).

o   Current affairs – The Hindu, Eenadu, Udyoga sopanam, Yojana, K Nageshwar rao articles, Radio news, DD News.

 

Ø  Note : many people think questions in exams are mostly factual (general knowledge - capital cities, date/years etc. ), but in reality 70-80% are conceptual (general studies eg. relation between bank interest rates and inflation etc.)

 

General English:

o   Grammar,[Wren and Martin or Raymond Murphy]

o   Essays [Rajendra Pal and Premlata Suri grammer book]

o   Keep Oxford Pocket Dictionary with you always.

o   Word power made easy by Norman Lewis

o   Reading stories, News Paper

o   News and current affairs in All India Radio (AIR), DD-News

 

Mathamatics:

o   Simple equations, Percentage, Average, ratio, speed and distance, time and work, puzzles etc.

o   Read Medaduku meta, Medaduku padunu – both by Mahidara Nalini Mohan

o   RS Agarwal Quantitative aptitude, Shakuntala devi puzzle books

 

Logical Reasoning:

o   RS Agarwal Modern Approach to Logical reasoning

o   Old question papers

 

Some suggestions :

1                    Prioritise what you read – identify what is important for exam; 20:80 principle i.e. 20% most important topics will fetch you 80% marks in exam.

2                    Practice answers writing.

3                    Read Notification and Syllabus-Cover entire syllabus

4                    Preliminary Ground work:

                                            i.            Collection of Books[spend some time in library or book shops to pick up good books]

                                          ii.            Selection of Coaching Centre that suits you

5                    Fix your boundaries through syllabus and previous actual question papers- not model papers.

6                    Prepare time table covering entire syllabus. Synchronise/tune with coaching classes.

7                    Write synopsis and revise 2-3 times. 

 

8                    Take control of Preparation:

                                            i.            Self-evaluation in preparation

 

                                          ii.            Preparation for changing situations or to accommodate multiple exams: eg. Bank, Groups and Mains

9                    Health Grounds:

                                            i.            Balanced diet, regular exercise – walk daily

                                          ii.            Duration of Minimum sleeping-Rest

                                        iii.            Good and satisfying hard work

10                Books:

                                            i.            Guidance [eg. How to crack civil services, Raj Bapna's mind power books, how to read books]

                                          ii.            Telugu Academy – NCERT ( Basics will remain same)

11                Current affairs:

                                            i.            News, news analysis and current affairs in All India Radio (AIR), DD-News

                                          ii.            Yojan, kurukhetra

                                        iii.            Guidance provided in newspapers- Eenadu-Chaduvu, K Nageshwar rao articles in Eenadu, Sakshi-Bhavitha etc.

 

12                General Knowledge and General Studies:

                                            i.            General Knowledge is basic and general information and generally in the shape of bits / objective type (State capitals, Vitamins etc)

                                          ii.            General Studies is concept based, analytical and application.

 

Few tips for memory :

a.       Read properly, slowly until you get clarity. Don't over read i.e. don't read everything you come across, but be choosy. Try to understand. This leads to interest in subject, concentration and memory.

b.      Apply subject in day to day life. Eg. Vitamins – which is good for eyes etc?

c.       Reciting (kallu musukoni mananam chesukovatam), writing short notes and revising it help a lot. Read-Recite-Write-Revise.[3RW]

d.      Mnemonics (eg. SMART – simple, moral, accountable, responsive, transparent  for good governance)

 

See below websites for jobs

               http://srujannakidi.blogspot.in/

http://www.apspsc.gov.in/

http://www.upsc.gov.in/

http://ssc.nic.in/SSC.html or http://ssc-cr.org      [staff selection commission]

http://www.freejobalert.com/

www.ibps.in/   [bank]

              www.rbi.org.in/