Hello,

The syllabus of UPSC is very vast, so in order to prepare for this exam, you need to be thorough with it, this is extremely important, along with this there are few important things to do such as make your foundation strong by going through NCERTs book first and then move towards standard books and keep resources minimal, revise time and again. You have to go through previous year question in order to understand the type of questions that are asked, and definitely the importance of reading newspaper on a daily basis cannot be rule out ever.

In recent years, UPSC has also framed prelims questions based on Mains Syllabus,so having an integrated approach is important from the start. Whatever questions UPSC frame is in some way or the other related to its syllabus, hence the importance of learning it by heart. Also, in two years of your preparation, you'll read so much, that you'll eventually develop conceptual understanding of the subjects which matters in UPSC, and you'll end up writing something in your answer sheet in mains for questions that may seem unknown,UPSC doesn't expect anyone to be an expert at anything, this itself explains the reason why so many people who haven't done very well in school or college,made it to the final list.