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"2,91,737 aspirants for just 89 seats. That's even worse than the selection ratio for CSE."
I remember reading data from a UPSC report to a friend, feeling lost and helpless some 50 days before my Indian Forest Service exam. I had to prepare two complete optional subjects, from scratch, in the next 1.5 months. For the uninitiated, an optional subject roughly has a syllabus equal to a graduation degree of 3–4 years.
A few months later...
When the marks were released, I had scored enough to land a rank in the Top 10 out of 2,91,737 aspirants.
So what happened in those 45 days?
Fortunately, I knew someone who had scored amazingly well in the same subjects a year before. When asked for advice, he said:
[1] There are going to be two kinds of aspirants here: Overambitious ones who will try to do everything possible, and second, Quitters who will give up just by looking at the data. Follow Buddha's Mdhyam Marg and be the third type -
[2] The secret is simply not to quit till the end. In fact, be offensive in approach and try to complete the syllabus in 70% of the time.
[3] For each topic, break it further down into micro goals and never exceed the allotted time.
That’s something he claimed he did in his attempt. It seemed unbelievable at first. How can someone perform so well by studying so little?
But assured of the person's genuineness, I decided to take a leap of faith.
And the rest is history!
While the advice was for one exam, it has stayed with me for the life.
[1] Most success in life is about the golden mean: Don't quit, don't overdo. Success comes when you do things in between.
[2] Inverse Parkinson's Law: Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the allotted time. Inverse Parkinson's Law is about shrinking the time so as to fit the work and complete it in time.
[3] Human brains hate anything abstract and long-term goals. It helps to break them down into micro-goals and enjoy the constant dose of dopamine with each completion to keep yourself motivated.
Coming back to Indian Forest Service exam, as the result of CSE was already out and I was sure of getting IAS, I decided to skip the interview to avoid wasting a seat. But the learnings of those 50 days stayed...
Pic: IGNFA, FRI Campus - Training academy of Indian Forest Service
