If you want to achieve a job in Indian Administrative Services and want to do something in life, ask yourself have I achieved success, am I there yet? If no, then what are the things that could lead me to success? These are greatest thoughts to ponder, and I bet all those who succeed in life in some way or the other must have asked these questions to themselves at some point of time. Students often complain that they do not know where the time goes. Whether one is an executive, a student or a homemaker, everyone wants to achieve more in even a minute of the day. The key to success is Time Management and therefore it becomes important to squeeze out the most out of even a second.

Many youngsters around all of us can be seen spending their time in frenzy of activities like watching movies, playing games, gossiping, roaming around etc. Over here, we are not going to blame all of them, but yes, we are going to discus why these youngsters are not able to achieve more from their life. It is because they do not concentrate on the right things. With the over-accelerating competition in the arena of education, students need to understand that they are perpetually busy but it does not necessarily mean that they make optimum utilization of their time. And therefore students today are in great requirement of managing their time effectively.

You must have heard the child in your neighborhood saying he is busy; it is important to note here that ‘Busy’ stands for two kinds of people- those who are chaotically disorganized busy and calm effective busy. It is to be understood that the latter ones lend up themselves in something more productive as far as work is concerned. Enhancing the effectiveness is something that calls for some standard Time Management skills.

In order to manage your day, it is better to have a personal sense of time log; this will help you track how you spend the day. Divide each day for a period of two weeks into one hour intervals and write down what are you going to do in the two slots. Under them you can divide the activities and examine your time log. You may come to know that very little time goes into top priority works and more time is wasted in coffee breaks, chatting and receiving phone calls. Try to deduce the time spent on these ineffective activities or stop doing them altogether. After cutting down on these things you will find that your efficiency level is increasing and obviously the end results will be on your side. Also, just take a look at the following points, as these can prove to be helpful while u prepare:

o While preparing for a set of subjects in IAS syllabus, ensure that you would be appearing for a multiple choice question papers, where subjects such as History, maths and geography may prove to be highly scoring. Choose subjects whose preparation material like IAS Exam Material books, IAS Comprehension Test, reading material and guidance books are easily available in the market.
o Your General Knowledge will definitely pay in your IAS prelims examination which can be improved through keeping a tab on day to day happenings by reading newspaper, watching television news, etc.
o For all those who are lucky enough to clear IAS mains and reach interview stage, then bookish knowledge itself won’t do. Mind alertness counts when somebody asks tricky questions on “how many steps you walked to reach the office?”
o Improving the personality is quite important as this will definitely be one of the criteria for selection. Physical and mental wellbeing is quite important for IPS.
o Try to enhance your communication skills as the civil servants must be proficient in at least one foreign language.

The syllabus consists of two papers, designed to test a first-hand and critical reading of texts prescribed from the following periods in English Literature : Paper I : 1600-1900 and Paper II : 1900-1990.

There will be two compulsory questions in each paper : a) A short-notes question related to the topics for general study, and b) A critical analysis of UNSEEN passages both in prose and verse.

Paper-I Answers must be written in English.

Texts for detailed study are listed below. Candidates will also be required to show adequate knowledge of the following topics and movements :

The Renaissance : Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama; Metaphysical Poetry; The Epic and the Mock-epic; Neo-classicism; Satire; The Romantic Movement; The Rise of the Novel; The Victorian Age.

Section-A 1. William Shakespeare : King Lear and The Tempest.

2. John Donne. The following poems :

- Canonization;

- Death be not proud;

- The Good Morrow;

- On his Mistress going to bed;

- The Relic;

3. John Milton : Paradise Lost, I, II, IV, IX

4. Alexander Pope. The Rape of the Lock.

5. William Wordsworth. The following poems:

- Ode on Intimations of Immortality.

- Tintern Abbey.

- Three years she grew.

- She dwelt among untrodden ways.

- Michael.

- Resolution and Independence.

- The World is too much with us.

- Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour.

- Upon Westminster Bridge.

6. Alfred Tennyson : In Memoriam.

7. Henrik Ibsen : A Doll’s House.

Section-B 1. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travels.

2. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.

3. Henry Fielding. Tom Jones.

4. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.

5. George Eliot. The Mill on the Floss.

6. Thomas Hardy. Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

7. Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Paper-II Answers must be written in English.

Texts for detailed study are listed below. Candidates will also be required to show adequate knowledge of the following topics and movements :

Modernism; Poets of the Thirties; The stream-of-consciousness Novel; Absurd Drama; Colonialism and Post-Colonialism; Indian Writing in English; Marxist, Psychoanalytical and Feminist approaches to literature; Post-Modernism.

Section-A 1. William Butler Yeats. The following poems:

- Easter 1916

- The Second Coming

- A Prayer for my daughter.

- Sailing to Byzantium.

- The Tower.

- Among School Children.

- Leda and the Swan.

- Meru

- Lapis Lazuli

- The Second Coming

- Byzantium.

2. T.S. Eliot. The following poems :

- The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock

- Journey of the Magi.

- Burnt Norton.

3. W.H. Auden. The following poems :

- Partition

- Musee des Beaux Arts

- in Memory of W.B. Yeats

- Lay your sleeping head, my love

- The Unknown Citizen

- Consider

- Mundus Et Infans

- The Shield of Achilles

- September 1, 1939

- Petition.

4. John Osborne : Look Back in Anger.

5. Samuel Beckett. Waiting for Godot.

6. Philip Larkin. The following poems :

- Next

- Please

- Deceptions

- Afternoons

- Days

- Mr. Bleaney

7. A.K. Ramanujan. The following poems :

- Looking for a Causim on a Swing

- A River

- Of Mothers, among other Things

- Love Poem for a Wife 1

- Samll-Scale Reflections on a Great House

- Obituary

(All these poems are available in the anthology Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets, edited by R. Parthasarthy, published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi).

Section-B 1. Joseph Conrad. Lord Jim

2. James Joyce. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

3. D.H. Lawrence. Sons and Lovers.

4. E.M. Forster. A Passage to India.

5. Virginia Woolf. Mrs Dalloway.

6. Raja Rao. Kanthapura.

7. V.S. Naipal. A House for Mr. Biswas.