The moment you decide to stop fighting for your dreams, that is when you are truly defeated. No doubt, three months is a considerable amount of time. But what is more significant than three months are the days you waste in the coming months, thinking about those three months. I have seen many aspirants losing their will power solely on the notion that they have wasted time and no longer want to get back to the studying. Gone are the three months, and no one can do anything about it. But what you have in front of you are many more months to make yourself a splendid Civil Servant. In its simplest form, Murphy’s Law states that “If anything can go wrong, it will”. So, while in this case, wasting a specific time of your preparation is the worst thing that can happen, what could make it even worse is not picking up where you left. The whole Civil Service preparation process is a long and tedious journey that can drain you physically and mentally. And every aspirant goes through this- including the toppers. There are no aspirants who have utilized every single day of their preparation to the fullest like a robot. The attitude an aspirant must cultivate is to fight back and pick up the pace in their preparation when they start to slack off. Many reasons will cause the aspirant to waste their preparation time.

1. Irrational Fear- The fear of the Civil Services Exam and the burden of hope carried by the aspirant tend to crack them while preparing. While the exam itself is straight forward, the myth surrounding it makes it tough to crack. The fear that arises out of this situation creates a mental block in the students. This is one of the primary reason for the students to lose focus. After seeing that this was a significant concern, we at Officers’ IAS Academy decided to support each and every one of our students to the fullest by starting a mentorship program to track their progress, both academically and mentally.
2. Social Media- There are just two types of information around you- what you need and what you don’t. While in real life, this comes as a mixture of both, in social media, the information displayed is mostly unwanted to an aspirant, and more often, it is addictive. So unless you are dedicatedly watching only UPSC related channels, try to avoid them.
3. Bad company- While it is certainly good to have a motivated study partner, it could also backfire if your companion is not helping you in your preparation. If you are someone who can study on your own, then it would be wise to follow that. Or, if you prefer to study with someone else, kindly make sure that you and your study partner are of the same wavelength, and one should not be a burden for the other.
4. Lack of a proper time table- Channeling your resources and time is of paramount importance as the Civil Services Examination syllabus is vast. Hence, if you aimlessly study without a time table, you might end up wasting your time instead, as one must prepare accordingly for each stage- Prelims, Mains and Interview. While every subject has its own importance, it must be noted that the time you devote must be based on your strength/weakness, weightage etc. Without understanding it, a plain reading of books is as good as wasting time.

Civil Services Examination is a journey of dedication and hard work. Roadblocks are expected at every stage of this journey, and aspirants are requested not to lose their hope and continue working hard irrespective of what happened in the past. Many outstanding achievements occur after countless failures in real life. Please keep this in mind and let go of your past mistakes and learn from the mistakes you made. This virtue of aspirant will take them to heights and give them the success they deserve.