The start of New Year gives us an opportunity to explore new things, to do course correction and to realign our energies to achieve our goals with a new zeal. The start of New Year 2018 provides us with the new opportunities to crack various competitive examinations and be the part of our dream career. Recently the notification for MPSC examination for Gazetted officers has been released and in the coming days various other competitive examinations notifications including UPSC Civil services examination, Defence services, RBI Grade B examination, etc would also be released. With the right focus, systematic preparation and self belief, one can easily crack these entry barriers to the dream career.

The recently released MPSC examination notification for Gazetted level officers has created a sense of pessimism amongst some of the competitive examination aspirants as lesser number of vacancies (69 vacancies) are to be filled through this examination in year 2018. In an era of competition and the reduction in number of Government jobs in the upcoming years, the same trend is expected and one needs to brace up for the stiff competition. The mediocre thinking and loser’s approach has to be buried along with the mistakes of last year and a new, positive and winner’s mindset needs to be developed to emerge victorious in the competition of life for the upcoming New Year. Getting success in competitive exams is not an impossible task and it requires a specific methodology of preparation, a trick to crack the examination! There is a difference between a methodology adopted for scoring good marks at graduation level examination and that for competitive examination. Competitive examination expects a candidate to be aware about the happenings at national and international level related with a variety of issues. A curious mind, an analytical approach and a skill to express these things systematically through your writings or in the personality test would prove decisive in cracking these competitive examinations. In order to achieve this, a competitive examination aspirant must have the curiosity to follow the current events, occurring in and around us at the level of state, nation and global level. He should always try to find out the answers of questions ‘why, what, where, when and how?’ of various issues happening in and around us. In order to prepare systematically for competitive examination, the first requirement is a thorough analysis of the syllabus as well as understanding the pattern of questions asked in last few years of these competitive exams.

The content of the syllabus gives you an idea about the areas to be focussed on. It requires the conceptual and analytical understanding of the issue, through various relevant sources, extending from reference books to current affairs material to knowledge resources available from web- based content. The emphasis should be on conceptual clarity and its current affairs relevance, rather than entangling oneself into too many technicalities. The questions asked in the competitive exams are based on the conceptual clarity, their applied aspects and the most important is their relevance to the day to day current affairs. Secondly, the competitive examination aspirants need to develop the quality of being ‘jack of all trades and master of atleast one.’ That means a competitive examination aspirant should have the basic knowledge of all subjects like -History, Geography, Economics, Polity, Environment, General Science and Aptitude test and command over atleast one of these subjects which can be taken as an optional subject in civil services examination. Thirdly, it is a myth amongst the students that competitive examination preparation means only reading or studying some notes or books in an examination mode of preparation. On the contrary, the aspirant should always try to capture the opportunities meant for development of one’s personality which would be helpful in facing the Interview test. Apart from knowing the factual aspects of an issue, competitive examination expects a candidate to be in command over precise expression and writing skills. During your graduation days, you must take the opportunity to speak or express yourself in order to gain the confidence, which will certainly help you in scoring good marks in your Interview test. The candidates with versatile personality hold an additional advantage for cracking the competitive exams as these personality traits help them in crossing the different stages of the examination with an additional advantage.

Achievement of a dream career through cracking competitive examination is a skill and that skill has to be nurtured right from your school or college days. A systematic, disciplined and a stepwise preparation under right guidance is the ultimate key of success. As an Olympian is not created in a day, it requires a persistent perspiration of number of years together, similarly the topmost career as an IAS, IPS, IFS, Armed Forces officer can be achieved only by carving your personality right from your school or college days and hence it is necessary for an aspirant to start competitive exams preparation at the earliest. The start of New Year reminds us that-

‘New Year is not about changing the dates but direction; it’s not about changing the calendar but commitment; it’s not about changing the actions but attitude.’

(The author of this article ,Lt Col (Dr) Satish Dhage, is an ex Army officer and has been qualified for IPS (Indian Police Services) through IPS LCE 2012. Presently, he is Director, MGM Institute of Competitive Exams Aurangabad. For any queries or feedback, he can be contacted on email id : drsatishdhage@gmail.com)