Best wishes to everyone attempting prelims 2022. I'm feeling a bit of FOMO to be honest, prelims has been an annual ritual in the last 3 years of my life. 😅
Let me note down a few last minute points which helped me in clearing the IFoS cutoffs in all those 3 attempts. Strictly personal opinions, do take with adequate amount of salt.
1. Consciously avoiding unnecessary pressure:
Don't set unrealistic targets for the last day prep, and definitely don't try to learn totally new info. Spend the day calming revising some priority topics, and maybe revisiting some PYQs to get into the UPSC mindset.
2. Get adequate amount of sleep on the day before prelims, you don't want to be fatigued during the exam. I slept very little on the day before my first prelims, and nearly screwed up CSAT because of cloudy judgement.
3. Get all the necessary items and documents in order the day before, don't leave it for prelims day morning.
4. Be unreasonably early to the exam center: don't leave anything to chance and don't get into any unnecessary pressure situations.
5. Attempt maximum questions, especially if you are aiming to clear IFoS cutoffs. I've always aimed for 90+ attempts, and I attempt every question in which I can eliminate at least one option. Statistics, hence.
6. Don't give up on any question: try to get maximum use out of whatever little information you've got on the question topic, and supplement it with your logical reasoning. More often than not, you'll be able to eliminate one or more options.
7. Time is the ultimate constraint: Wear a watch, and use it. Remember that bubbling in 100 questions is a time consuming process, and plan accordingly. Definitely don't leave bubbling for the last; you don't want erratic bubbling due to time pressure or time running out before you've bubbled in the answers you've got.
8. Follow a multi-round approach. Do a quick first round to round up all the easy questions, and then come back for the difficult ones. Never take the risk of wasting too much time on any single question in the first round. That's a luxury, take care of the essentials first.
9. Don't take unnecessary risks in CSAT, you just need 33% marks. Be calm and look for the low hanging fruits; easy math questions, straightforward comprehension questions. Don't get stuck up on theory and formulas in the math part, simple logic and common sense can often lead you to the answer instead.
10. Be confident: there's no such thing as a perfect attempt. Everyone makes mistakes along the way, everyone has regrets. So don't let your regrets get your confidence down, play the hand you've been dealt right now in the best way possible.
11. Prepare for surprises: in my 2020 prelims, the first 6 or 7 questions were all from agriculture, which was a very minor subtopic till then. In 2021, three sports questions appeared out of nowhere. Don't let such surprises get you down. Always remember that no one has prepared well for those questions; and thus there's no relative disadvantage for you.
tl;dr - be chill, prelims is not the end of the world, give it your best shot and enjoy the process.
