Table of Contents   Quick  Reference  Links  .......................................................................................................  1   Quick  Snapshot  of  Prelims  TS  Modules  @Civilsdaily  ..........................................................  2   A.   What  Are  the  Various  TS  Offerings?  ..................................................................................  2   B.   How  Do  You  Differentiate  Between  These  TS  Modules?  ....................................................  2   C.   Growth  Chart  Of  A  Flagship  TS  Student:  ............................................................................  4   Salient  Feature  of  CD’s  TS  for  IAS  2018  ..............................................................................  5   A.   [New]  Increased  Focus  On  Advanced  Books  ......................................................................  6   B.   More  Stress  On  High  Scoring  Subjects  And  Dedicated  CA  Tests  ..........................................  7   C.   [Upgrade]  1  on  1  Mentoring  sessions  with  Flagship  Students  ............................................  7   D.   [Upgrade]  Increased  Focus  On  Smart  Hacks  (Tikdams)  ....................................................  10   E.   [New]  Video  Explainers  For  Enhanced  Learning  ...............................................................  14   [Free  Download]  Products  common  to  all  TS  modules  .....................................................  15   [Bonus]  Make  Best  Use  Of  Civilsdaily’s  Efforts  At  News  Curation  .....................................  15   A.   [Infograph]  All  op-­‐eds  are  important  but  some  are  more  important  than  others  .............  16   B.   Understand  Newstrails:  Connect  the  dots  .......................................................................  20  

Quick Reference Links -   -   -   -   -   -  

Detailed Timetable @Prelims 2018 – Click2download Difference between CD’s TS modules – Click2view USP of CD’s TS – Click2view Join Flagship TS [Starts 7th July] – Click2join Join Advanced TS [Starts 30th July] – Click2join Join CA Only TS [Starts 30th July] – Click2join

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Quick Snapshot of Prelims TS Modules @Civilsdaily A.  What Are the Various TS Offerings? Flagship Prelims TS is the super set of all the IAS Prelims offerings by Civilsdaily for the year 2018. In other words, if you buy the Flagship TS, you get everything that CD has to offer for Prelims 2018 preparation & more (via CD Prime membership*) With 32 meticulously crafted tests, dedicated mentor support and monthly current affairs compilations, Flagship Prelims was one of the most sought after TS for students @IAS Prelims 2017.

B.  How Do You Differentiate Between These TS Modules?

Hi-rez image: Click2download Detailed Timetable (Excel): Click2download Timetable (Synch with your google calendar): Click2join How to add this public google calendar to yours? Click2read Join Flagship TS [Starts 7th July] – Click2join

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N4S: Students of the Flagship module benefit from the graded increase in testing standards (L1 to L3) with timely mentor support to fine tune their testing outcomes. The Flagship Module is designed keeping in mind the needs of: 1.   First timers (IAS aspirants) who may be attending coaching classes but need healthy checks & balances to be aware of Pan India competition 2.   Office going junta who can pace their self-study regime within the bounds of structured timelines

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C.  Growth Chart Of A Flagship TS Student:

N4S: Dedicated static & dynamic tests and mentor support are the key to your growth

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Salient Feature of CD’s TS for IAS 2018

The [upgrade] and [new] features are a culmination of our learnings from TS @IAS 2017.

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A.  [New] Increased Focus On Advanced Books -   Don’t get comfy with NCERTs: Many TS start with tests on 6-10th NCERTs and give a false sense of comfort that they are covering the basics (from the start of time). -   CD’s learning from 2017 TS: However, majority of students start with the most relevant sources - eg. for Polity it would be Laxmikanth, Bipan Chandra or TN NCERTs for History etc. -   Be Practical with your time: We noticed a similar pattern with our 2017 students as well and we recommend the same as relevant books are more advanced and cover 80-85% of the basic books + additional details making them the best utilization of your time. -   Don’t wait for Nov/ Dec: We wanted to bring our TS in-line with the pattern of study so you don't have to wait for novermber/december to attempt tests on relevant books. Please note that we are not against the basic books (NCERTs and likes) but we feel these should be adjusted in your time-table by yourself. Email us at [email protected] should you have any concerns in this. While we are at it, here’s one more learning from our 2017 TS: Limit your reading sources: Focus on being thorough to be able to recall and reproduce at will rather than passively covering too many sources. Last year, we included many books in our Prelims Time Table thinking that people will judge us on the number of sources we cover. We realized this was not a good approach. Reading close to 20 books thoroughly in 1 year is impossible for the 99% of us. The questions being asked these days are very detailed and require at least 3-4 revisions of the relevant books. We recommend diversifying sources only once the relevant books have been covered. Detailed Timetable (Excel): Click2download Timetable (Synch with your google calendar):

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B.  More Stress On High Scoring Subjects And Dedicated CA Tests -   History, Geo, Polity, Eco have dedicated tests. That’s because these have to be mastered at the best level and not a question should go unanswered -   That being said, Polity, History and Geography have standard reference sources (Basic & Advanced) and that makes it all the more important for you to leave no stone unturned -   Your coaching classes also tend to pick the static subjects in that order and hence we have prioritized Polity, History & Geography -   Only TS that offers dedicated CA monthly tests: In-line with the present UPSC pattern. The CA tests will also cover Sc. Tech, Enviro questions from the static part -   Basic Science & Enviro: IAS (CSE) and IFoS (Forest Services) have the same Prelims and IFoS tends to inspire a larger component of Science & Enviro. Our dedicated Advanced tests will take care of these.

C.  [Upgrade] 1 on 1 Mentoring sessions with Flagship Students -   We are blessed to have a great community base where students from all walks of life and stages of preparation collaborate together with meaningful discussions -   Sometimes, their interactions inspire us to go a mile further. Example: [PRELIMS-2017 Revision Mode] Current Affairs – Subjectwise Topics list thread started by Arun M inspired our content team to make a series of high impact prelims listicles - [Prelims Exclusive] Govt Schemes, Imp. Acts, Missiles, IR Pacts etc. | Listicles for Revision But there are times when we all feel a need for focused attention based on our exam taking temperament, study habits, reading patterns etc. and we need a bit more personalized approach to resolve our academic issues. At CD, the only thing we demand from our students is “Earnestness in efforts”. Not hard work, not smart work, not top ranks in mocks but earnestness in efforts. We are ready to work hard with you and look past your momentary lapses in hard/ smart work BUT the earnestness should never wane away. To ensure that there are checks and balances in place, from this year onwards, we will be upgrading our analytics backend and monitoring your attempts to get a sense of your improvement areas and help you master the art of smart hacks (Tikdams!)

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Here’s a quick snapshot of how students @IAS 2017 made use of our Mentoring:

Hi-rez image: Click2view

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Here’s how the upgraded mentorship program looks like: -   Post-test analysis is the most important part of giving a test -   Flagship Students will now be required to maintain post-test analysis excel sheet for all L1 Tests - the format will be made available on the site before your tests start on 7th July 2017 -   These will be mailed to us before the 1-1 call sessions

Here’s how the format would look like: Guessed/ Doubtful Un attempted (C1) (C2) 26. IRDA Number 54. IDA member of WB 87. HAM 40:60

Post Test Analysis (C3)

Total Q (C1+C2+C3) 100

C1: Guessed/doubtful Should be filled by you while you are doing your test. If you come across a question which you knew partially and guessed, fill the number with few keywords from the question. C2: Un attempted This number will be displayed after you complete your test. These are questions you had no clue about. C3: Post-Test Analysis This column corresponds to the number of questions you were absolutely sure After the test, you need to analyze these 3 columns. So Col1 + Col2 + Col 3 = 100. Aim: 1.   Your first aim is to minimize Silly and Wrong column. These are apparently topics that you've covered and you were confident that you will get it right. But you didn't 2.   Your next aim would be to get the number of un attempted questions down and Guessed/doubtful down. You have to maximize your attempt. 3.   Finally get more number of guessed questions right. Learn the Art of Tikdams!

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D.  [Upgrade] Increased Focus On Smart Hacks (Tikdams) An year back or so, while analyzing the Prelims 2016, we wrote a blog - This Independence Day, break FREE from the Hoax of IAS Prelims’ Prediction Essentially it means that: 1.   Solvable by anyone: Any sincere student (with or without a TS that ‘predicts’ the UPSC exam) will be able to cover ~40% of the questions = ~80 marks 2.   Credit to Mock TS makers: Next 15-% questions are those sweet, warm serendipitous ones which your TS covered and you were lucky enough to remember them = ~30 marks 3.   Solvable via Tikdams: These are ~20% questions which can be solved without much prior knowledge of the facts in question. UPSC puts these up to test your presence of mind (after all being an IAS/ IPS officer is all about taking correct decision with smart elimination) = ~40 marks With increasing competition, you have to be able to attempt a minimum of ~140 marks of questions and with practice and some luck, you should be able to attempt ~150+ Together with Dr. Vipin Garg (AIR 20, CSE 2015) we developed the technique of smart hacks (he gave the term tikdams) 20% of our TS explanations comprises Tikdams/ Smart Hacks Last year, we released a PDF compilation of “The Art of Tikdams” and it has been downloaded over 10,000+ times till date. Get your FREE Copy – Click2download But in case, you want to see worked out examples (right here, right now) from previous years IAS Prelims, read through these 3 images: 1.   Understand that applying smart hacks (Tikdams) is not an exercise in blind guessing 2.   It presupposes that you have gone through the standard books and daily newscards well enough to be an average human being writing IAS prelims. Not too much to ask, right? 3.   Then it expects you to be a bit of a risk taker since that’s what UPSC is looking for 4.   Do not be overwhelmed by the complex worded questions (look at the question on Solar cells). They are the easiest of them all! Ready? Go ahead and see the difference between traditional approach and ‘Tikdam’ heavy one

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#1. Not a science major? No problem. Apply tikdams and get this squared off

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#2. Pushkar is famous for Brahma temple and that’s in Rajasthan (not MP). Too much to ask?

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#3. Who has time to go through the IPCC reports. Normal Yojna and Hindu hi nahi khatam hota!

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E.  [New] Video Explainers For Enhanced Learning For 2018, we will be testing our Flagship students at 3 different levels: -   L1 = Just above coaching level -   L2 = UPSC level -   L3 = UPSC ++ level The L3 questions call for a unique explanation model which seeks to cover the themes in question in a much more comprehension that it helps the student revise the static theory along with dynamic concepts. We did a pilot with this concept of Video Explainers for the series and here’s a video link to give you a demo – Click2view

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[Free Download] Products common to all TS modules -   -   -   -  

Monthly CA Magazines – Click2download Prelims Daily Compilation – Click2download Art of Tikdams by Dr. V – Click2download Indian Economic Survey (2016) PDF - Click2download

[Bonus] Make Best Use Of Civilsdaily’s Efforts At News Curation Everything that we talked about (Prelims questions framing methodology, Community support, Video explainers, Tikdams etc.) derive its meaning & rigor from our daily news curation. Our daily newscards (on Android App & Website) go through hours of efforts in terms of news selection, curation, value addition, N4S and B2B inputs and are served at around 12 noon daily

CD Link – Click2read Original Link – Click2read 15

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Over the last 2+ years, with your feedbacks and suggestions, we have evolved this process to meet the demands of changing UPSC patterns and your study habits.

A.  [Infograph] All op-eds are important but some are more important than others -   There is very little merit in spending 2+ hours on newspapers -   Most op-eds appear important on the first look but if you examine closely, they have a very little incremental value add and not all ‘views/ opinions’ are substantiated with facts -   Be wary of such opinions (& facts) which look juicy on the surface but have very little merit wrt. your UPSC prep. Remember: For the next 1 year or so, you are a UPSC aspirant and not a policy analyst. UPSC expects a GS level understanding of news and not a Masters level Policy Analysis N4S: The infographics that follow are made on a landscape view and it might be a tad difficult to view them over this PDF. Please open the Hi-rez link if you wish to avoid tilting your head J

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Op-ed Snap @Polity | Hi-rez Image – Click2view CD Link – Click2read | Original Link – Click2read

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Op-ed Snap @IR | Hi-rez Image – Click2read CD Link – Click2read | Original Link – Click2read

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Op-ed Snap @Economics | Hi-rez Image – Click2read CD Link – Click2read | Original Link – Click2read A decently complex op-ed which could be avoided unless you are well versed in the basics of economics. Need a video explainer to walk you through.

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B.  Understand Newstrails: Connect the dots Newstrail – Liquor Policy Of States: A New Era Of Prohibition Hi-rez image – Click2view Revisit the Polity Op-ed #1 which we discussed above and understand this Newstrail

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