{"id":272,"date":"2022-01-05T06:12:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T00:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/?p=272"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:42:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:12:56","slug":"common-myths-about-upsc-civil-services-exam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/common-myths-about-upsc-civil-services-exam\/","title":{"rendered":"Common myths about UPSC Civil services exam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Being the most popular exam in the nation, there is no doubt that this examination has so many rumours attached to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The common UPSC myths are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More Hours = More Marks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00b7 It is the most common myth that to get selected in the Civil Services Examination, one must study for&nbsp;<strong>15-20 hours.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00b7 However, those who cracked the exam and experts suggest&nbsp;<strong>6-10 hours per day&nbsp;<\/strong>depending on how effective your study is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00b7 Though the timing depends on the individual, the quality of hours one puts in matters a lot for this examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00b7 More important is how long you can put the efforts&nbsp;<strong>consistently<\/strong>, rather than putting an extraordinary effort into a single day and not studying for the next few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Know everything:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Another myth is that an aspirant&nbsp;<strong>must know everything under the sun<\/strong>&nbsp;to clear this examination.<\/li><li>&nbsp;Though the syllabus is vast, it is a&nbsp;<strong>defined<\/strong>&nbsp;one. The aspirant is expected to have a basic knowledge of subjects like Polity, History, Geography, Economy, etc, and to apply this knowledge whenever needed.<\/li><li>&nbsp;Even though current affairs cannot be defined, a&nbsp;<strong>systematic approach<\/strong>&nbsp;like the following newspaper regularly and daily news analysis from a quality resource will help in solving this.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More books = More Marks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Civil Service Examination&nbsp;<strong>does not expect you to have a Ph.D.<\/strong>&nbsp;in every subject. Rather keep the books limited.<\/li><li>Get thorough knowledge of the basics, NCERTs, and get&nbsp;<strong>conceptual clarity&nbsp;<\/strong>on the subjects.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For more details on books, refer to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/What-are-the-best-books-for-UPSC\/answer\/Shankar-IAS-Academy-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Best books for CSE<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Poor academic record -&gt; Can\u2019t clear UPSC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>UPSC CSE takes into consideration the marks obtained only in this exam and your previous academic performance does not matter till mains.<\/li><li>Though it may play a role in the interview,&nbsp;<strong>so many candidates cracked the examination who had backlogs in colleges and were even college dropouts who took some other degree later<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Poor English = Can\u2019t clear UPSC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&nbsp;Also, the exam doesn\u2019t demand superior English.<\/li><li>Just&nbsp;<strong>basic English knowledge and clarity to communicate<\/strong>&nbsp;are needed.<\/li><li>Further, UPSC also allows candidates to write in their&nbsp;<strong>regional language<\/strong>&nbsp;in the Mains examination.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Intelligence:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\" id=\"block-1dbd2a33-547d-43a0-8f03-66f0d9bac674\"><li>Through the Civil Services Examination, UPSC is trying to recruit the best minds of India who are interested and capable of contributing to society.<\/li><li>It requires a&nbsp;<strong>positive mindset, consistent dedication<\/strong>&nbsp;to giving your efforts. These can be developed by anyone who has the will to do it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Memorize everything:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\" id=\"block-38c18ba9-6de7-47e4-9512-233df98180e1\"><li>There is also a myth that aspirant needs to memorize each and everything.<\/li><li>To achieve that many aspirants follow various sources and try to mug up everything. This is not going to help them in the examination.<\/li><li>Understanding the concepts and having a&nbsp;<strong>clear idea of the basics is the key<\/strong>.<\/li><li>Even the&nbsp;<strong>answer writing skills can be improved&nbsp;<\/strong>by having enough practice.<\/li><li>Try&nbsp;<strong>maximum revision<\/strong>&nbsp;before the exam and take mock tests to yield the best results.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Many attempts to clear:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\" id=\"block-bbb55afa-58d1-434f-a209-576dbbea9223\"><li><strong>Believe<\/strong>&nbsp;that you will clear in this attempt and you will. The number of times a candidate attempts the exam is not relational to the chances of getting cleared.<\/li><li>Do&nbsp;<strong>smart work.<\/strong><\/li><li>Maintain your physical and mental health over time.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being the most popular exam in the nation, there is no doubt that this examination has so many rumours attached to it. The common UPSC myths are: More Hours = More Marks \u00b7 It is the most common<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-upsc-strategy","category-upscblogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2652,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/2652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}