Atul Nivruttirao Dhakne, AIR-737 CSE-22 Prelims Strategy

Dr. Atul Nivruttirao Dhakne, a MBBS graduate from BJ Government Medical College in Pune, has shared his practical prelims approach and strategy. He is from Beed District, Maharashtra, and is also the Founder-President of Lift For Upliftment, a pioneer NGO that provides free offline/residential coaching for NEET to underprivileged students. In the last 7.5 years, over 200 of his students have become doctors, and he also teaches physics and biology for NEET.

Unique Perspective towards CSE Prelims (GS)

It is often said that the prelims is the most unpredictable part of the UPSC CSE exam. However, with utmost humility, Dr. Atul Nivruttirao Dhakne begs to differ from this notion. He feels that the GS paper of the prelims has followed a similar thematic approach since the last 10 years. It is this thematic approach that helped him clear three consecutive prelims (2020, 2021 & 2022) after failing the first two attempts (2018 & 2019).

Thematic Approach for GS Prelims

The themes refer to the subtopics that are regularly asked in the GS papers. Although the nature of the questions and the options pattern may change (as seen in the 2023 prelims), the themes themselves have not changed. For example, every year, there is a question on the Bretton Woods Institutions in the economy section, and this trend continues.

These themes comprise 65-70% of the GS paper. Considering the cut-offs of the last 5 years, it has never been more than 50%. By focusing on these thematic studies sincerely, Dr. Atul was able to crack the GS cut-off plus 15 marks, even without touching current affairs for his 2021 and 2022 attempts.

How to Find Themes?

The answer lies in analyzing previous year papers. Dr. Atul used the original question paper PDFs available on the UPSC website, rather than relying on any "ready-made" prelims solved paper books. This is because the book authors often imprint their own perceptions about the questions, rather than providing an objective evaluation.

To find the themes, he followed these three layers of analysis:

1. Static versus Current Questions: Identifying which questions are based on static knowledge and which ones are based on current affairs.
2. Subjects of Static Questions: Determining the subject from which the static questions are asked.
3. Subtopics of Static Questions: Tracing the specific subtopic from which the static question is asked, by referring to the source books.

By doing this exercise for 3-4 previous papers, Dr. Atul was able to identify the repetitive subtopics, which he considered to be the "themes." This helped him identify at least 30-40 themes that carry a weightage of around 55-65 questions.

How Themes are Helpful?

1. Prioritizing Studies: The themes help prioritize the study, as the subjects and subtopics with higher weightage can be focused on first. For example, the economy carries 18-22 questions, of which 70% can be solved based on static knowledge, making it the most important subject.
2. Prioritizing Subtopics: The themes help identify the subtopics within a subject that carry more weightage, such as the banking sector topic in the economy, which often includes conceptual questions on inflation and money supply.
3. Predicting Unpredictable Subjects: Subjects like ancient-medieval history, art and culture, and science & technology can be made more predictable by identifying the repetitive themes. For example, questions on the Mughal empire, the Vijayanagar empire, ISRO, and various technologies.
4. Understanding UPSC Demands: The themes help understand the specific demands of UPSC from a particular topic. For example, the questions on inflation and money supply require conceptual clarity, while the questions on animals in the environment demand knowledge about their habitat, IUCN status, and foraging habits.
5. Boosting Confidence: By identifying the repetitive themes and patterns, aspirants can feel more confident and less distracted by the uncertainty often promoted in the market.
6. Preventing Distraction from Bulky Current Affairs: The themes help identify the type of current affairs questions asked in the exam, allowing aspirants to focus only on the relevant current affairs, particularly in the areas of economy and science & technology. This prevents them from getting bogged down by the bulky current affairs content.

My Experience about Coaching Mock Tests

Dr. Atul Nivruttirao Dhakne believes that the relevance of private coaching mock tests is primarily in revising static subjects like polity, history, economy, and environment. This is because none of the mock tests match the level and approach of the UPSC exam, even before the disastrous 2023 prelims. The coaching mock tests often make aspirants prepare for the tests themselves, rather than the UPSC exam, leading them to get habituated to the coaching's vocabulary instead of the UPSC's.

Furthermore, the coaching mock tests do not follow the thematic approach. Some coaching institutes even ask factual questions or questions from current affairs of the same day, which are not representative of the UPSC exam. Dr. Atul has seen aspirants scoring 130+ in coaching mock tests and then scoring below 80 in the actual UPSC prelims.

Therefore, his strategy was to solve at least 5-10 previous year UPSC papers in a 2-hour simulation mode in the last 15 days before the exam. This helped him get good practice in UPSC vocabulary and identify his weak areas for revision, even though he already knew some of the answers.

Dr. Atul suggests using the coaching tests only up to the last 30 days to revise static subjects, with a focus on analyzing mistakes and remembering them, rather than worrying about the marks scored. To detox from the coaching test approach, he recommends solving 10 previous year UPSC papers in simulation mode on a daily basis and analyzing the mistakes accordingly.

The Myth of Current Affairs

According to Dr. Atul, what makes the UPSC syllabus bulky for an aspirant is the current affairs component. While the static subjects cover around 15-18 books with a total of not more than 1,500 pages and carry a weightage of 70% with certainty of source material, the current affairs magazines of a year have 1,200-1,500 pages in total and carry just 30% weightage, with uncertainty about the source.

This fact helped Dr. Atul devise a formula of static-to-current affairs study time as 4:1. This means that if he was going to study for 5 days, 4 days would be allotted to static subjects, and only 1 day for current affairs. This ratio was strictly followed in the last two months before the prelims, which helped him achieve an accuracy of around 80% in questions asked from static subjects like polity, economy, environment (if read from the PMF Environment book), and modern history (80% of questions asked from Spectrum).

Dr. Atul believes that one of the reasons aspirants miss the cutoff by 1-10 marks is not revising the static subjects intensively in the last 10 days of the exam, despite studying hard for the prelims. He suggests checking which static questions were answered incorrectly, rather than blaming the current affairs questions.

By analyzing previous year papers, Dr. Atul concluded that the must-do current affairs are only in the areas of economy and science & technology, and even then, only for certain themes, not randomly.

He also feels that some coaching institutes or portals romanticize about certain current affairs questions being asked from their sources, but he believes that this is like a spoonful of water from an ocean. The more important question to ask is whether the current affairs questions mattered for clearing the prelims or if the static knowledge was the primary factor.

Moreover, some coaching institutes trace the static questions from The Hindu newspaper, but Dr. Atul sees no need for this if the static knowledge is strong, especially for subjects like environment, history, and art & culture.

Dr. Atul believes that "STATIC IS THE KING!" and that current affairs can help in the mains (particularly in GS3 and IR), but it is not a deciding factor for clearing the prelims.

My Take on 2023 Prelims

Dr. Atul Nivruttirao Dhakne acknowledges that the 2023 prelims was a "game-changer," but only for people who relied on elimination techniques. For those with a thematic approach and a good hold on static knowledge, the GS paper (he intentionally avoids discussing the CSAT) was still fair.

By tracing the questions asked in the 2023 prelims paper, Dr. Atul observed that only the pattern of options had changed, not the pattern of the questions themselves. He had previously analyzed that there is no shortcut trick for subjects like polity and economy, and that thorough preparation in these subjects helps aspirants solve the questions accurately. Therefore, his thematic approach still worked for the 2023 prelims.

Conclusion

Dr. Atul Nivruttirao Dhakne emphasizes the following key points:

• Static knowledge is the king.
• Original previous year papers are the best guides.
• There is no alternative to hard work on subjects with well-defined sources.

He wishes all the best to the aspirants.