Why Most Candidates Fail in MPSC State Services Examination

MPSC State Services exam is NOT easy to clear. There is no Pass or Failure in this exam. This exam is different from your school or college exams. Here are some of the reasons for failure:

• Time Management:  You need to manage your time in the exam very well because this exam is not mere a knowledge test but time test. You may be a bright student but you may not be able to answer every question in given time, right? In Preliminary exam, all you have to do is use the “Discriminatory” method while selecting one correct (most appropriate one) answer from the different options. There may be two or more correct answer but you need to choose the most suitable answer. This is not like the school or college exam. The main purpose of this Prelims exam is to eliminate huge number of candidates to choose only the best who can serve the country using their skills, knowledge, judgement, etc. Do not waste your time in answering tough questions, go for easy questions first and then the tougher ones.

• English : English is the main drawback for students from Marathi medium. English subject is compulsory in MPSC Main exam. However, it is also important for Prelims exam preparation. You may not get everything in Marathi. You may have to read English newspapers to know current affairs of national and international level. Not every Marathi newspaper covers all such events. Neither Marathi news channels cover them so you have to watch English news channels if you want to remain in touch with latest happenings around the World. In Main exam, English is a compulsory subject and many candidates fail to get minimum passing marks in this subject so they fail in the final examination and do not even get a chance for Interview. You have to survive English hurdle to remain in competition with those candidates who have excellent English speaking and writing skills. To overcome this hurdle, read at least one national newspaper daily like Times Of India, Indian Express, or The Hindu; these papers will provide you necessary tools to cut-through the exam. Listen to English news channels for different events; even sports news will help you improve your English.  Listen carefully what they say and try to understand what they are saying. Keep a paper and pen/pencil with you and note down words that you don’t understand. Later on you can check them in a dictionary. Reading English newspapers, listening to English news will help you in improving your written as well as spoken English.
• Study Approach: Most candidates are fresh graduates who fill-up the MPSC State Services Exam form just to show-off. It is being a status symbol now-a-days.  “Majha Mulga/Mulgi raajyasevechi pariksha detoy; to/ti ek divas Collector hoil.”, “Arey yaar main MPSC ka exam de raha hoon!”; such is the power in letting other people know that our son/daughter is going to be the Dy Collector, Dy. SP some fine day. But do you think this is so simple? No, simply NOT!  This is so because their approach to the exam is same as their college exam but you know, this is wrong approach. MPSC State Services Examination is quite different from the college exam. In college exam, you need to write the right answer but in MPSC exam, you need to write/choose the most suitable answer using your analytical skills. So your approach should be very different while preparing for the exam. You should use extensive study approach, i.e. you should read more than one book for a given topic. The reading should be such that you cover every aspect of the topic/subject. You should know the different angles/issues involved therein. You should not mug-up everything but you should understand everything. Knowledge is the main thing in this exam. As I said earlier, the competition is growing everyday so to survive this you need to be knowledgeable. Then this exam will not be difficult to clear. “Clear” doesn’t mean “Pass”. You have to score above the minimum passing marks but there could be many candidates who may secure the minimum marks so only the candidates who get higher marks will be selected and not everyone who get the minimum marks. You understand what I mean? Candidates fail in this exam because they do not follow what has been explained above. Please remember, in this exam, there is no right or wrong answer but the most suitable answer.
• No Luck, only Hard-work: As everyone knows, there is no substitute for hard work, right? There is no such thing as Luck, that is what I believe. Here is a test. Can you sit day-dreaming of becoming a Film Actor like Amitabh Bachchan and do nothing? No, you cannot sit idle and become an actor. You have to learn acting or do it yourself. You have to practice a lot and know every aspect of acting. You have to acquire acting skills then only, after so much of hard work, you can become a successful actor. There are actors who are actors but not successful actors, right? So to win the competition, you have to work hard and acquire knowledge of exceptional quality. To clear MPSC State Services Exam, you need to work hard and there is no substitute other than this; not even Luck. If you have high level of knowledge, you will clear the exam and you don’t need Luck at all. People fail because they do not work hard enough. Working hard means studying a lot, spending hours and hours everyday on learning everything that is supposed to be known in a given subject. Mastering a subject takes lots of hard work. Many candidates who do a job or business, or undergoing further studies, spend only 2 hours or so for the preparation of this exam because they do not have much time but this is not sufficient for you people who want to leave this job/business and become a Dy. Collector or Dy. SP or even a Naib-Tehsildar. You need to spend at least 4 hours everyday. If you look on your daily schedule, you can easily manage 2 hours in the morning or afternoon and 2 hours in the evening or night. You have to work hard else leave this dream, ok?
• Wrong or Insufficient Study Material:  Firstly, many candidates try to solve question papers first to know what level of knowledge they have. This is wrong approach. You are going to do this in actual exam so what is the point in knowing what you know about the subject without learning and mastering it first? After trying the papers themselves without studying first, some people get discouraged and depressed to find they do not know anything. You should learn everything about it and master your subject and then test yourself. This will then be easy to answer any question when you have basic understanding of the subject. Secondly, candidates choose wrong study material. If you are preparing for MPSC State Services, why you try to read books of PSI/STI exams? Go for books that are especially written for MPSC State Services and they cover each topic/sub-topic. Refer to the study plan I have prepared and note down the listed books/study material from the plan. Try to collect as much study material as you can. Get at least 2 books/reference material for each topic/subject so that you can cover everything. Remember, the fight is tough and only those candidates survive who are equipped with excellent knowledge –  “Survival of the fittest” is the Guru Mantra for this examination.
• Mock Tests: Most of the candidates either doesn’t know the importance of the practice tests called “Mock Tests” or do not want to know because of insufficient time available with them for the preparation of this exam. In the absence of this practice and experience, they fail. Please remember, practice makes the man perfect. You need to solve old and sample question papers under the exam conditions before the actual exam. Solve as many question papers as you can. You must try to solve at least 10000 (Ten Thousand) questions in total. If you have studied well, you will answer all questions correctly. If you are able to score above 85% of the questions, you have studied well. But remember, there is negative marking so your marks will be deducted from the total score. For example, if you have answered 200 questions and only 170 (85%) are correct and 30 (15%) are wrong; then 7.5 marks will be deducted from 170 and your score will be 162.5. So it is very important to answer only those questions that are known to you and leave those you do not know what are the answers for them. This will make sure that you get maximum marks without being penalised for the wrong answers. I hope you people have understood the importance of the extensive study, right? Please post/share your thoughts in the box available at the bottom of this page.