"Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light"

- Dylan Thomas

Hello, this is Rishabh Kumar Rewar (AIR 104, UPSC CSE 2020). I'll be sharing my Mains strategy,
sources, notes and everything in between (read fundae) with special emphasis on GS. Please
bear in mind that this article is supposed to serve merely as a suggestive tool, and not a
definitive strategy that everyone should emulate as it is. The beauty of an exam this complex is
that there are atleast as many ways (if not more) to crack it, as there are the people who've
succeeded. So kindly, cherry-pick certain elements of this article that you feel might suit you,
and experiment. If it works for you, good. If it doesn't, be flexible enough to course correct and
change your approach.

Here are my GS scores -

GS-1 100
GS-2 107
GS-3 85
GS-4 122

Now, before we start with our Mains preparation, I deem it wise to recall the tale of Icarus -
In Greek Mythology, Icarus was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of
the Labyrinth. Icarus and Daedalus attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that
Daedalus constructed from feathers and wax. Daedalus warns Icarus first of complacency
and then of hubris, instructing him to fly neither too low nor too high, lest the sea's
dampness clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignores Daedalus’s
instructions not to fly too close to the sun, causing the wax in his wings to melt. He
tumbles out of the sky, falls into the sea, and drowns.
The next three-month long journey (our escape from Crete) will have quite a few parallels
with the tale of Icarus -
a. Balancing Juggling GS with Optional
b. The importance of performing well in all papers - being above average in all papers is
the key
c. No place for complacency in these 3 months
d. Maintaining that sweet balance between overwork & burnout

Now that this basic premise is established, let’s jump to the fun part -

Rishabh Kumar Rewar – AIR 104, CSE 2020

Jayant & Rishabh UPSC CSE Notes and Strategy - https://t.me/jayantrishabh
HOW TO: MAINS
Mains journey can be divided into 4 Ps - Planning, Preparation, Practice, Performance.

1. PLANNING - If your plan is good, 50% of the job is done.

Know thy foe – Thoroughly analyze the PYQs and Syllabus. Each and every word of it.
Analyze the trends and types of questions being asked. Then move on to planning your 3
months.
Here's how I suggest you can do it -
o Fix a date by which you expect to be "mains-ready" (by mains ready I mean, you
are prepared to attempt Mains examination the next day).
▪ My mains-ready date was - First/second week of December.
o Work backwards and plan the remaining time in weekly slots. So you roughly
have 7 weeks. Divide each week for GS & Optional
▪ I used to do Optional on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & GS on
Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Leaving Sunday for essays and buffer.
o List down all subject/units of GS & Optional - and estimate number of days that
you think will be needed to cover that unit. Accordingly, allocate these
subjects/units in your weekly plan.
▪ My final timeline looked something like this (couldn't find a photo of my
actual mains plan) – here the numbers (2,3,4 etc) refer to the number of
days allotted to that subject

Rishabh Kumar Rewar – AIR 104, CSE 2020

Jayant & Rishabh UPSC CSE Notes and Strategy - https://t.me/jayantrishabh
 o Within the allocated days for a subject, the goal should be to prepare it
comprehensively. This includes -
▪ Revising notes/Making new notes - I made new Mains notes from scratch
for most subjects within this period
▪ Answer writing practice - can follow TLP by IASBABA, or any other source
▪ Writing sectional tests of that subject - I had Visions IAS Mains test series

2. PREPARATION - this includes everything that is to be done for a particular subject within
the time you've allotted it.
o Note Making – having a consolidated one-stop source of notes for each subject is
a must. Everything you read and feel is relevant should be added to your notes.
And these notes should be revised multiple times. Mains GS syllabus might look
lengthy, but it isn’t. Go through it subject by subject keeping the syllabus and
PYQs in mind, and it will soon seem very doable.
o Sharing my sources for each subject -
▪ GS-1
• Modern Indian History - Vision Notes (enriched it from Bipin
Chandra) + Test series solutions
• Society - Vision Notes + Mains 365
• Geography - was optional subject, so didn't do much for GS
• World History - made concise notes, inspired from Shreyans
Kumat Sir's (https://t.me/shreyansupsc) World History notes
• Post-Independence - Vision notes
• Art & Culture - didn't really prepare much for this (read Vision
notes, but wasn't very relevant for mains) – However, my Prelims
notes of Art & Culture (shared in the channel already) did help in
the actual exam.
▪ GS-2
• Polity - Made notes from Atish Mathur Sir's website
(https://www.atishmathur.com/) + Mains 365
• Governance - Vision notes + Mains 365 – make consolidated one-
page-per-topic notes & supplement them with data.
• IR - Vision notes + Mains 365
▪ GS-3
• Economy & Agriculture - made notes from NITI Aayog's Strategy
for New India @75 document
(https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2019-
01/Strategy_for_New_India_2.pdf) + Mains 365
• Environment - Mains 365
• Disaster Management - Made own concise notes
• Science & Tech - Mains 365
• Secuirity - Vision notes + Mains 365

Rishabh Kumar Rewar – AIR 104, CSE 2020

Jayant & Rishabh UPSC CSE Notes and Strategy - https://t.me/jayantrishabh
 ▪ GS-4
• Ethics Gen (Part A) - Initially, read my Vision notes but did not find
them very helpful in answering questions, as I found it too
theoretical and largely irrelevant to the needs of the exam. So,
a) I made a table consisting of definitions & examples of all
major terms (almost 30-35). (inspired by Abhijeet Sinha
sir’s notes -
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=5904275E260F
976F!2444&authkey=!AH6GYBjFnERgT_Y)

Sharing a snippet of the same -

b) Also read Tanmay Vashishtha Sharma Sir’s summary of

ARC-ethics in governance report -

Rishabh Kumar Rewar – AIR 104, CSE 2020

Jayant & Rishabh UPSC CSE Notes and Strategy - https://t.me/jayantrishabh
 https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=FB3AEA73149A
580A!1515&authkey=!AHx9kCb31WChTrk
c) Learnings from test series – Ethics Part-A is a lot about
creativity and speed. I would recommend that one should
be prepared with 150-200 words worth of substantive
material for major keywords of the subject. This,
supplemented with the terms table & a lot of answer
writing practice should suffice.
• Case Studies (Part B) - Made a general template for different types of
case studies. Included various options and approached within that
template. And practised many case studies.
b. Importance of Peer Group
i. Having a passionate and committed peer group is very beneficial in Mains. It
helps you to plan and execute better.
ii. Can divide and allocate work to save time - Jayant and I used to team up while
making notes of Mains-365, NITI Aayog Strategy @75 document etc => helped
save time and effort in making notes.
iii. Spirit of healthy competition - "When the going gets tough, the tough get
going" - and the going is toughest when you see your friend advancing ahead.
On rough days when we didn't feel like giving a mock test, it was this spirit of
competition - the fact that it was unacceptable to us to be left behind - that
helped push us to our limits.
iv. Most importantly - Motivation and support. The UPSC journey (especially Mains
prep) is a very arduous and exhausting - physically, mentally and emotionally - it
is when you're at your lowest, only a friend who has gone/is going through what
you are going through, can help.
▪ If I have to define the role of a good peer group in one line it is - Picking each
other up & pushing them to improve every day.

3. PRACTICE: How to bell the cat that is Answer Writing

a. Choosing Pen –
i. I used Pilot V7 – very smooth flow, good grip, more speed. I personally
don’t prefer ball pens as it ruins my handwriting.
ii. Jayant used Butterflow – again very smooth and fast. He had a personal
liking towards ballpens.
Try writing a couple of tests with different pens, and go with the one you feel
most comfortable with.
b. To start off with answer writing, you can follow TLP by IASBABA - try writing a
couple of answers everyday, till you feel fairly comfortable and confident in
giving tests
c. Give a LOT OF TESTS - I had given almost 45-50 tests (GS + Essay + Optional)
within these 3 months.
i. Each test is beneficial in the sense that even if you don't get anything out
of value from the content of questions & model answers, the very

Rishabh Kumar Rewar – AIR 104, CSE 2020

Jayant & Rishabh UPSC CSE Notes and Strategy - https://t.me/jayantrishabh
 exercise of attempting those 20 questions within 3 hours is quite
rewarding.
ii. Try to improve with each test - recognize your mistakes, improve your
presentation, structure answers better, improve time management, add
more data/maps/diagrams/flowchart etc
iii. Don't take feedback of tests very seriously. After giving a few tests, you'll
develop the ability to judge your own performance. Analyse your test
yourself. And improve. Be a better answer-writer (if such a word exists)
with every test.
▪ (Will soon share a comprehensive article on answer writing and what
makes a good answer + how to make those 3 hours count)
SIMULATIONS - this is something that I feel helped me (as well as Jayant) a lot. We planned 3
Mains examination simulations before the actual exam. It helped us to get ready for the actual
exam. Our goal was to leave nothing to chance, and be prepared for the worst. Keeping this in
mind, this is how our Simulations were planned -
• 1st simulation
9 December 9am-12 noon : Essay
10 December 9am-12 noon : GS-1
2pm-5pm : GS-2
11 December 9am-12 noon : GS-3
2pm-5pm : GS-4
12 December 9am-12 noon : Optional-1
2pm-5pm : Optional-2
• We did 2 more such simulations on 18th-21st December and 28th-31st
December.
• The aim was to finish each paper within 2:55 hrs => leaving 5 minutes as
buffer.
• We once even attempted 3 papers in a day (Essay + GS-1 + GS-2) - just to
test our limits.

4. PERFORMANCE - Execution on D-day

The Mains examination (Hell's week) is a very exhausting process. It tests your mental,
physical and emotional strength. Giving 9 three-hour long subjective tests within a week is
no small feat. And naturally, bringing your A-game here becomes challenging - because it
requires consistent focus and single-mindedness throughout a long time span.
Here are a few tips that might help -
a. Start sitting on a chair and table from Day 1 of your mains preparation. Get used to
sitting at a place continously for long hours.
b. Improve your focus span gradually. Contrary to Tolkien's words "Not all those who
wander are lost" - In Mains, if your mind wanders, quite a lot is lost.

Rishabh Kumar Rewar – AIR 104, CSE 2020

Jayant & Rishabh UPSC CSE Notes and Strategy - https://t.me/jayantrishabh
 c. Time management - there's not a minute to lose. Paraphrasing Kipling's legendary
work "IF" - "Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run".
Here's how I planned my GS papers -
i. GS 1,2,3
1. Attempt first five 15 markers (Q. 11-15) - within 50-55 minutes
2. Then attempt all ten 10 markers (Q. 1-10) - within 70 minutes
3. Lastly, attempt the remaining 15 markers (Q. 16-20) - within 50
minutes
• The rationale behind this was that the first few answers (Q. 1-5) of the
exam shape the first impression on the examiner. So they should be
answered with extra finesse. I realised that it takes me some time to get
into answer writing groove, and the first few answers aren't my best (as
my brain - being the tubelight it is - needs some time to start
functioning). So I answered a few 15 markers first to fight the inertia, and
then attempted Q. 1-5.
ii. GS 4
1. Attempt the Case Studies first (read the first case study in the few
mins you have when you get the question paper before the exam
starts) - 95-100 minutes approximately
• The first two case studies might take longer than usual, that's
absolutely normal. Pick up the pace in rest of the 4 case
studies.
2. Then Attempt Part A - 13 questions within 80 minutes. Challenging,
but doable.
• As I mentioned before, answer writing speed and time management is
very important in GS-4. It can make or break your exam.

Frankly, your hard work and preparation doesn't amount to anything if you fail to perform in
the exam. So be mentally prepared for putting in a 100% in those 3 hours. It’s a race against
time - treat it like one.

Lastly, I have two more thoughts to share for the students preparing for Mains -
• Don't be afraid to Overkill - this is your time. These 3 months are your "sattar minute” -
and 'ye teen mahine tumse koi nahi chheen sakta'. Push yourself. And remember, the
days you're not putting in the work, 10,000 other candidates competing with you are.
And when you meet them during the examination, they'll probably win.
In the words of Eminem –
“You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
you own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime”
• Be Prepared for Everything - If there's one thing I've learned being a Batman fanboy, it
is that you should always be prepared for everything. Have a contingency plan for your
Plan-B. Don't leave anything to chance. Plan to win. And the best way to be prepared for

Rishabh Kumar Rewar – AIR 104, CSE 2020

Jayant & Rishabh UPSC CSE Notes and Strategy - https://t.me/jayantrishabh
 the worst, is to go through it during these 3 months - that is to say, WRITE A LOT OF
TESTS!

I mentioned the story of Icarus in the beginning of this article, and it gave a fairly pessimistic &
precautionary lesson. Here's a different, but equally important perspective put beautifully by
Oscar Wilde -
"Never regret thy fall,
O Icarus of the fearless flight
For the greatest tragedy of them all
Is never to feel the burning light"

Feel the light!

Rishabh Kumar Rewar

Rishabh Kumar Rewar – AIR 104, CSE 2020

Jayant & Rishabh UPSC CSE Notes and Strategy - https://t.me/jayantrishabh