Stress is a common thing to happen before any exam. Especially when you are writing one of the toughest exam in the world and have great expectations from this exam, the quantity of stress is bound to be even higher. Having stress is not a bad thing. In fact little bit of stress keeps you cautious, aware and in control of what you have to do in the exam. The problem is when stress overpowers you and your emotions. If you can't keep calm even for 10 minutes and your mind keeps wandering and you start getting all sorts of negative thoughts then stress is BAD. In this post I will discuss how to minimize stress and what to do to keep your mind in control and happy.
Lets see what could be the reasons for having STRESS at this point of time, given that you have just one week before the exam DAY:
1. You might have not prepared some section of syllabus and are afraid that UPSC (let's call it THE EXAM) might ask you questions from those section. You might not be able to answer it and so your attempt might go waste this time.
2. You might have given some test series recently and are consistently scoring just around the benchmark (say 80-90). You are afraid that you might fall below cut-off and will fail.
3. Or you might not have given any test series and are feeling that because of it you will not have an edge over other competitors and will lose in the EXAM day.
4. You might be getting anxiety attacks because you might be feeling that the syllabus is overwhelming and you may not answer questions correctly.
5. For many of you this would be your last attempt. And you might be over-Stressed thinking what if you don't make through.
6. For some it may be a matter of prestige as failure is not in your dictionary and you are hell-bound to score maximum and for this you are pushing yourself to an extreme limit. This in turn would be over-stressing you.
7. For some of you the reasons could be trivial, like Center of Exam being in a place where you are uncomfortable with. For some it could be a matter of marriage as losing this attempt would decide whether you get the person you desire or whether you get fixed for some marriage you did not desire.
And then there could be plethora of reasons why you are stressed.
So, what to do? Lets reason out some things stated above and then list down some ways to limit UNWANTED stress.
Remember the graph of stress vs productivity is as below:
1. Whatever you prepared is good enough to crack this EXAM. Have this confidence. No one is able to complete the SYLLABUS of UPSC completely. No matter what you do some questions will always go above your head. HAVE YOU HEARD of ANYONE getting 200/200 in Prelim GS PAPER 1.
The paper itself is set in a way that there will be 10 questions for which you will never be able to answer in the Exam hall given the complexity and time constraints.
What you need here is the right strategy. There will be 30 questions for which you will be able to answer without any worry given that you have prepared even slightly from at least 3 sections (say Polity, Geography and Culture or Economy or History). Now these 30 questions give you 60 Marks. What we need is 50 more marks to be safe and well beyond cut-off.
So the next part is solving Medium Easy questions. These are approximately 40 questions. To solve this you need to have little clarity around concept and the total sections you should have covered should be at least 5 and you should be well versed in at least 3 (say History - Economy - Polity or Geograpahy - Maps or Environment). Given that you solve even 30 questions from this section you would get 60 Marks and that would make your total to 120. Now, 120 is very decent score, good enough to sail you through to MAINS.
By the time you solve 60 questions you CLOCK would have already crossed 90 minutes. REMEMBER to MARK THE OMR every 10 questions. DO NOT WAIT FOR the LAST MINUTE.
Assuming you have 30 minutes left, try to find out 15 more questions out of the remaining 40 which you think could be right. Try the ELIMINATION method. If at any question you get stuck assume that the question is a TRICK. MOVE ON to the NEXT.
With this clear Strategy you are bound to WIN THE PRELIM PAPER 1.
Whether it is your first, second or last attempt, do not bring in negative thoughts into your mind. What should come into your mind is your hard-work (how much ever it be, given that every person has some different ability and acumen).
Lets list down some points to do at this STAGE of TIME:
1. MEDITATE FREQUENTLY. You don't have to wait for morning or evening to do that. ANYTIME you feel you are getting anxious just lie down and relax. Try to find the source within your MIND and BODY where the THOUGHTS are COMING FROM. SOON you will realize the disturbance is all due to thoughts. SO REGULATE WHAT YOU THINK.
It is true, "WHAT YOU THINK you BECOME".
2. Drink plenty of WATER everyday. 1 Glass full of water every 2 hours. Also, remember to CARRY 300 ml water bottle on EXAM day. Try to SIP regularly every 10-15 minutes. DO NOT GULP DOWN WATER as this might make you visit RESTROOM and every minute lost matters!
Also, Carry a WATCH on the Exam Day and keep it on your desk right next to your QUESTION paper. This EXAM is as much about managing time as it is about getting above CUT - OFF.
3. Try NOT to WATCH any WEB SERIES or MOVIE or even Listening SONGS in LOOP as this might affect your mind, vision and distract you from REVISION.
4. DO REVISION of your NOTES. Every 40 minutes take BREAK. Walk to the terrace and come down in 5 minutes. OR Go drink water and PAUSE on your SOFA for some minutes and come back. WHATEVER you do, DO NOT GET DISTRACTED. Like don't sit down to WATCH TV, or TALK on UNNECESSARY STUFF with any other person.
5. Whenever you feel tired or exhausted just lie down on the BED and try to RELAX. If thoughts keep coming then divert them to the EXAM SYLLABUS. Here is the SYLLABUS link if you need it handy.
6. DO NOT EAT JUNK FOOD or WASTE your ENERGY in WRONG THINGS. This is the time to build your energy and strengthen your NERVES.
Practice the above and not only will your STRESS GO AWAY but also you will feel more CONFIDENT and ACTIVE.
ALL THE BEST.
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