SELF-PREPARATION FOR ESSAY PAPER

Self-Preparation for Essay Paper

1. The first step in preparing for UPSC Essay is to remove the hesitation in writing essays. So, begin with writing 300-to-500-word long articles on comfortable topics about which you have all knowledge and even a viewpoint.
2. Once you get comfortable with this stage, then move on to start writing articles on burning issues appearing in newspapers. You can even do a bit of research and pick up knowledge about the topic, make notes and then write longer essays, say 800 words. Write these essays on diverse themes.
3. Have a clear understanding of the parameters tested on the UPSC Essay paper and improve on them.
4. Now the stage for assessment, review and feedback should start. Find yourself a good mentor/teacher you can trust. Try to find a good teacher with impeccable English language skills, command on rhetoric and argumentation, sense of parameters tested on UPSC Essay paper, at least 15 years of teaching experience for UPSC Essays so that the teacher has already learnt from the UPSC exams and is aware of the challenges faced by the students. Moreover, the teacher should have time for 1-on-1 mentoring for you.
5. You need critical actionable feedback to improve yourself. This will require a flexible learning attitude from you as well.
6. The penultimate part of preparation is to get exposure of essay prompts/PYQs and writing essays on them.
7. The last part of preparation is to attempt Simulated Exams or Mock Tests to develop Test Taking Strategies.