the alternative cycles
the whole universe seems to obey the same mystical rule,life mirrors it,and we experience it when we study alone.what?the alternating cycles of the best with the worst,the lean with the peak.just like a sine wave there seems to be no respite from this wild ride,what should we do?
first,realize this is not just our own problem,but in fact a universal phenomenon.every candidate has to go through this,self-study or coaching class.
Gagan narang despite years of practice peaked in CWG and dipped in ASIAD didnt he?
its wrong to expect the cycles not to alternate because we are only human,and stressed out at that.then it is futile to imagine the cycling can be avoided.
But,what is achievable is reduction in the Lean time and increase of the peak time.
how you do that is again a personal affair,but here are my tips-
understand yourself-know what works best on you..In times of lean focus,do things you know will relax you..carefully observe your peak period and make a journal writing what all you did,read,studied and how you felt and so on..in lean times read the previous entries and try to emulate.if you notice,the oldest entries on this blog are of that type.it helps at time to recreate a burst or two of sustained focus.
also know how you get rid of stress the best,and do it in lean times.Use the lean period constructively and de-stress and re-motivate yourself.
personally i use the guilt-shock treatment..i leave my studies completely and indulge in a long time wish-watching a movie,going out to play a match,reading a novel,or just anything that tempted me earlier but i put it on hold.
i keep my books and scheduler both on the table,and at times open...i have learnt by experience that barely a day or two into the lean period guilt mounts...i drive that guilt higher.
at the same time i read interviews by toppers and other sites and blogs on civil services preparation online.Seeing these adds to my guilt and a feeling of being left out in the rat race.
i let both of the feelings grow till my tipping point is reached and its back to the books with a bang!
as i said the method may vary,but here you are no different from an out of form cricketer trying to regain his touch.its often said the best way to do that is spend time in the middle,and maybe for some thats the best way to maintain consistency.as i said,the cycles will come and go,but your goal and mind need both be steady and resolute,and the rest can be managed by self-understanding!
Showing posts with label CSAT strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CSAT strategy. Show all posts
Friday, December 10, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
strategy for CSAT paper 2-2
lets have a look at what remains in paper 2,and chart out basic pints on it.
the syllabus says
2.Interpersonal skills including communication skills
3.Logical reasoning and analytical ability
4.Decision making and problem solving
What strikes me first up is that not all things are taught and so not all things can be learnt.Some are to be grasped.
Taittriya upsanishad says that a great teacher is he,who when he teaches, "saha vishayam Prakashyante'.
or makes the topic glow(illuminates) and it is this glow that guides a student to greater endeavors academically.
Closer to our times,we hear that 'WE can take a horse to a pond,but can not make it drink'.
i guess many a teacher would agree with the second point,and so do i!
after all,interpersonal skills is all about how you behave in society.how you interact with various people in it,how you speak to me,how you respond when i speak to you and so on.simple thus far as its value free.now add to it simple things-how you speak to me when i am head of your department,how you speak to me when i am your junior who is slacking in work and refuses to follow orders,or how you speak to me when i as a government servant ask you for a bribe.
people vary,and so do their approaches to such things.I am most concerned about such questions as there is no correct answer to this as each is likely to pick what appeals most to him.Anyone who has given a situation reaction test in the SSB interviews knows what i speak of.
so this part you reveal what you have made yourself in response to society over your lifetime.not much to worry about correcting,but still enough material here to cause some anxiety.
3.Logical reasoning and analytical ability : Look at Shane Warne Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting-three very different captains who played alongside for the same team for a long time.They still vary in their leadership and that should give you a hint on this section,and the next ie 4.Decision making and problem solving.
make no mistake,any sort of responsibility,any leadership role brings alongside a lot of decision making.What do you use to make decisions?
Logic,Rationale,Information(which you filter from a mine of relevant data),and finally principles(whats right and whats wrong).this is what these two inter related points will check.
Logic can be practiced with definite results due to the simple fact that tests to check logical thinking are numbered,and practicing them enables good scores.Analysis is how your thought process works-this cant be taught and only a vague direction can be shown to you.rest of course is up to you.
making decisions comes naturally to us-we have been making them throughout our lives,so do not lose sleep over this.its just that the ones we will need to take in CSAT will be in imposed conditions with varying constraints needed to be filtered in.This is easy,only if you process things quickly and 'think on your feet' as they often say.
In short,after the veil of mystique has been removed from paper 2,it comes across a regulation paper that only tests what your thought process is like along with proficiency in english and ability to communicate-the basic trait of our species.
one need not worry-just gear up for it mentally!
all the best!
the syllabus says
2.Interpersonal skills including communication skills
3.Logical reasoning and analytical ability
4.Decision making and problem solving
What strikes me first up is that not all things are taught and so not all things can be learnt.Some are to be grasped.
Taittriya upsanishad says that a great teacher is he,who when he teaches, "saha vishayam Prakashyante'.
or makes the topic glow(illuminates) and it is this glow that guides a student to greater endeavors academically.
Closer to our times,we hear that 'WE can take a horse to a pond,but can not make it drink'.
i guess many a teacher would agree with the second point,and so do i!
after all,interpersonal skills is all about how you behave in society.how you interact with various people in it,how you speak to me,how you respond when i speak to you and so on.simple thus far as its value free.now add to it simple things-how you speak to me when i am head of your department,how you speak to me when i am your junior who is slacking in work and refuses to follow orders,or how you speak to me when i as a government servant ask you for a bribe.
people vary,and so do their approaches to such things.I am most concerned about such questions as there is no correct answer to this as each is likely to pick what appeals most to him.Anyone who has given a situation reaction test in the SSB interviews knows what i speak of.
so this part you reveal what you have made yourself in response to society over your lifetime.not much to worry about correcting,but still enough material here to cause some anxiety.
3.Logical reasoning and analytical ability : Look at Shane Warne Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting-three very different captains who played alongside for the same team for a long time.They still vary in their leadership and that should give you a hint on this section,and the next ie 4.Decision making and problem solving.
make no mistake,any sort of responsibility,any leadership role brings alongside a lot of decision making.What do you use to make decisions?
Logic,Rationale,Information(which you filter from a mine of relevant data),and finally principles(whats right and whats wrong).this is what these two inter related points will check.
Logic can be practiced with definite results due to the simple fact that tests to check logical thinking are numbered,and practicing them enables good scores.Analysis is how your thought process works-this cant be taught and only a vague direction can be shown to you.rest of course is up to you.
making decisions comes naturally to us-we have been making them throughout our lives,so do not lose sleep over this.its just that the ones we will need to take in CSAT will be in imposed conditions with varying constraints needed to be filtered in.This is easy,only if you process things quickly and 'think on your feet' as they often say.
In short,after the veil of mystique has been removed from paper 2,it comes across a regulation paper that only tests what your thought process is like along with proficiency in english and ability to communicate-the basic trait of our species.
one need not worry-just gear up for it mentally!
all the best!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
strategy for CSAT paper 2-1
The syllabus for paper two is
(Paper II) (200 marks) – Duration : Two hrs
1.Comprehension
2.Interpersonal skills including communication skills
3.Logical reasoning and analytical ability
4.Decision making and problem solving
5.General mental ability
6.Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc. (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. –Class X level)
7.English language comprehension skills (Class X level)
in this fist post of the series on strategy,lets deal with-point numbers 1,5,6 and 7.
now those that are used to defense exams like CDSE and NDA/NA would realize that these parts form syllabi's of the said exams and would figure prominently in all papers.those not familiar would do very well to walk up to the nearest store (or Google) to find some previous years papers of these two exams and have a look at the said portion.
1.Comprehension: guys note a fact,this is simple comprehension.Means the ability to folllow and infer from given information on any subject.You may be given a table from the Economic survey and asked to answer questions involving interpretation of given data.Alternately the data may be a sociology field study or geographical tables and so on.The normal comprehension most of us have been exposed to comes under point 7 ie English language comprehension skills (Class X level).
there are a large number of small books teaching how to interpret tables and stuff,but i will not recommend them blindly,having never used any.so pick and chose according to your preference.
lastly,
7.English language comprehension skills (Class X level):is a tricky thing.not always will you find straightforward here.So practice with defense entrance exams question papers.and generally improve your hold of english-after all both mains and interview demand it after all.
on the whole i would say do not panic if all this is new to you.try getting used to this.Upsc has announced that prelimns will be delayed by a month.so you have time,and you know whats coming,just get yourself to accept and then face the situation.
attitude determines your altitude in life,so dont let yourselves down guys!!!
all the best!
(Paper II) (200 marks) – Duration : Two hrs
1.Comprehension
2.Interpersonal skills including communication skills
3.Logical reasoning and analytical ability
4.Decision making and problem solving
5.General mental ability
6.Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc. (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. –Class X level)
7.English language comprehension skills (Class X level)
in this fist post of the series on strategy,lets deal with-point numbers 1,5,6 and 7.
now those that are used to defense exams like CDSE and NDA/NA would realize that these parts form syllabi's of the said exams and would figure prominently in all papers.those not familiar would do very well to walk up to the nearest store (or Google) to find some previous years papers of these two exams and have a look at the said portion.
1.Comprehension: guys note a fact,this is simple comprehension.Means the ability to folllow and infer from given information on any subject.You may be given a table from the Economic survey and asked to answer questions involving interpretation of given data.Alternately the data may be a sociology field study or geographical tables and so on.The normal comprehension most of us have been exposed to comes under point 7 ie English language comprehension skills (Class X level).
this difference is important so do not expect all the comprehension to be from story like english passages.
5.General mental ability :this was already part of GS paper in prelimns and one would do well to check up previous years papers. RS Sharma and RS Agrawal are two veery common books used by the community of students to improve this part of the paper.not only this,R S Agrawal is often useful for point number 6 ie
6.Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc. (Class X level).
we used it in NDA exams and found the book sufficient to answer all questions that came.
as for second half of point number 6 ie Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. –Class X level)
this has been traditionally asked in Bank PO exams conducted the year round.A magazine called Mahindra caters solely to Bank PO exams,and has some stray information on this segment though its a waste to buy it solely for this,whats useful is the various previous and current papers of various banks,which give a clear idea of how questions will turn out to be.there are a large number of small books teaching how to interpret tables and stuff,but i will not recommend them blindly,having never used any.so pick and chose according to your preference.
lastly,
7.English language comprehension skills (Class X level):is a tricky thing.not always will you find straightforward here.So practice with defense entrance exams question papers.and generally improve your hold of english-after all both mains and interview demand it after all.
on the whole i would say do not panic if all this is new to you.try getting used to this.Upsc has announced that prelimns will be delayed by a month.so you have time,and you know whats coming,just get yourself to accept and then face the situation.
attitude determines your altitude in life,so dont let yourselves down guys!!!
all the best!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)