The beginning of a new year brings new hope, new opportunities and a new zeal for fulfilling our dreams! The year 2017 is special for the competitive examination aspirants as number of examinations are scheduled in the upcoming months to fulfil your dream of becoming a Gazetted officer. The competitive examinations for total number of 57 types of posts would be conducted by UPSC, MPSC and SSC in the year 2017. The scheduling of these examinations, the recent changes in their examination pattern and the large  number of vacancies to be filled by the Government in this year offers a great opportunity to the aspirants in the year 2017. This article tries to focus on new resolutions to be adopted by the aspirants to capitalise over opportunities in year 2017.

Various recruiting agencies of Government including UPSC, MPSC and SSC had already declared the tentative schedule of examinations to be held in the year 2017. On detailed analysis of syllabus of these examinations, one can safely conclude that the knowledge related to English, mental ability and general studies including current affairs, is important to crack these examinations. A comprehensive, systematic and a focused approach of the candidates would be of great help to crack all these examinations. As basic athletic qualities are needed by a sportsperson for mastering any game, so is the requirement of mastering English, aptitude test and the current affairs knowledge, by every competitive examination aspirant. A strategy of aiming high and keeping UPSC civil services as the ultimate goal of competitive examination preparation would take a candidate on right path of success in these examinations. A detailed preparation of basic components of all these examinations will make a solid foundation for various types of competitive examinations. The additional study material specific to that particular examination and practice of previous years question papers as well as mock tests will empower the candidates for these type of examinations. Getting success in all these examinations requires a specific skill, a skill to analyse, a skill to practice and a skill to apply the knowledge in the given scenario! This skill can be easily acquired by the candidate through the path of analysis, practice and perseverance. The scheduling of examinations like STI, PSI, MPSC State services preliminary examination, UPSC civil services examination and further stages of these examinations in year 2017 are adequately spaced and you would get minimum one month time in between two consecutive examinations. The opportunity to retrospectively analyse and rectify yourself helps you not only to qualify in these examinations but to improve yourself to be amongst the toppers.

           The mantra for success in competitive examinations is not the domain knowledge of a specific subject alone, but the ability to remain relevant and fulfilling the expectations of a respective examination. The aspirants need not be slogging like donkeys for number of years in competitive examination preparation but need to be smart and updated in their preparation relevant to the examination expectations. The beginning of new year provides you the opportunity to revamp yourself to set your priorities right, to aim for high, to practice for the desired goal and to be consistent and the most important one, to be smart in your approach based on your SWOT analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats analysis).

The aspirants must understand one thing that passing any competitive examination is not an end itself but it is the means to achieve further ends like ultimately contributing to the organisation and the society. The candidates should not take this stage of preparation as the unwanted burden but should enjoy this phase of preparation as an opportunity to gain new knowledge and to sharpen the all rounder qualities of one’s personality. The knowledge gained in this process would never go waste in life and hence, there is a need of an attitudinal change in the aspirant’s mindset about positive attitude in their approach. Let’s adopt a new resolution for this year for achieving success by adopting a formula of ‘5 P for success’ in terms of clarity of Purpose, Positive attitude, Practice, Perseverance and lastly the politeness in your attitude for achieving the long lasting success in your professional life. So let’s make the new year 2017, a very Happy New Year…

(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)