The 10X factor between India and China

China's forex reserve is nearly 10 times of India.
China's share in world export is nearly 8 times of that of India
China's illiteracy is nearly 10 times less than India
China's IMR and MMR is nearly 10 times less than India
Chinese GDP is nearly 5 times of India.
Chinese per capita income is also near 5 times of India.

Need to go a long way to reach near Chinese level of development.

How To: Write a good essay

How to score good marks in Essay?
With the change in the civil services exam pattern, paper of essay has become a make or break deal. For the past few years, cut off in the mains exam is trending near 35% to 40%. In such a scenario, the essay paper has become a decisive factor in whether one would land in IAS hit zone or not. Thus a candidate can ignore essay paper at their own peril.

Earlier UPSC used to ask one topic but now it asks us to write on multiple topics. This has positive as well negative aspect. On the positive side, it will help in reducing uncertainty in the essay. One of my friends had scored 120 out of 200 in a year but slumped to 21 in the very next year. Similarly, another friend who score 46 out of 200 in year 2012 and score 140 out of 250 in year 2013. With two essays, hopefully this uncertainty in the scoring pattern will reduce. On the negative side, this will put more pressure on the students. I know many people who had not practiced enough to deal with multiple essays, ended up screwing both the essay. For some of them, essay writing became same as subject answer writing. Some ended up making wrong selection in the heat of things. Many of them could not write the conclusion part properly.

Thus morale of the story is that a candidate should understand that weight of essay paper is same as subject paper 1. Thus essay paper should not be meted with any step motherly treatment. Thought essay paper does not demand any dedicated preparation. The content for essay writing develops gradually from the regular newspaper reading and subject learning. But one has to practice the answer writing on a consistent basis. It requires a perfect mix of speed, expression, knowledge and creativity to score real good marks in essay paper.

I have background of engineering thus essay writing was something unnatural and alien to me. In fact, it was the essay paper which killed my chances in cracking the exam in the very first attempt. Over the years, I practiced and practiced and practiced hard. I prepared myself mentally and informational in such a manner that I could write essay on any topic in any situation. I will attach six essays which I had written over the years. I have picked one essay each from my first attempt and second attempt. Two essays each from third attempt and fourth attempt are selected for this purpose. This will help you in understanding the gradual improvement in my approach of essay writing. The book also discusses the reasons behind my low marks in year 1, average marks in years 2, less than average marks in year 3 and good marks in year 4. It will help in clearing many doubts which irk the candidates who pick the pen to write their first essay in the life time after they clear prelims.

Over the years, I have met number of students selected or preparing. All of them have some common set of questions. I will discuss the issues related to essay writing in a Q&A form. This will help in easy understanding and clear presentation of thoughts.

Q. What does general coaching walah says about the Essay?
A. Most of the coachings treat essay writing as a mechanical exercise. It fulfills their purpose of attracting engineering graduates who find it easier to write essay in a defined structured manner. Even I started on the same line. The only key to come out of this structured mechanical approach is to “read, read, and read with write, write and write”.
This is what most of the coachings has to offer: An essay is divided into three segments. Introduction, Body and Conclusion. The Introduction is generally 10% of the essay. It contains the thesis. The body elaborates the teaching. The conclusion is the summary of the essay containing a bird eye view of your body. It is also nearly 10% of total length of the essay.
In my experience, no coaching walah ever tells the student about what is thesis, how to write a thesis, how to make a beginning. Most of them are limited to the discussion of “what of essay exam rather than how”? Even if some teachers touch upon these aspects, the viewpoint is very theoretical and limited. In my view there are no good coaching available for essay. In fact essay is something which does not require coaching. The content is gathered by regular reading of the newspaper and current affairs. There are various techniques which help in developing good content despite our limited world view. The expression comes from reading and writing practice. The context arises from the topic and multi-dimensionality of our viewpoint.

Critical thinking to generate more points: Suppose you are happen to choose a topic like “Social Media: boon or bane” or let say a philosophical topic like “Be the change you want to be”. Most of us start energetically. We list down all the relevant point that we could generate on the issue but ten minutes into the topic and we realize that our knowledge base is exhausted. Immediately we start sweating out of nervousness. In a three hour examination where one has to write on the multiple topics, we end up wasting precious initial ten minutes. This has risk of becoming our break moment. How to deal with this scenario?

In such situation, a technique of critical thinking helps in generating more points.
Step 1: Uninhibited Listing of Topics Whenever you see any topic, list all the words which come to your mind by looking at the topics without thinking deeper about the topic.
For example the topic of “Social Media: boon or bane” let us list the possible things that come to mind:

Step 2: Cross connection to generate detailed thoughts
Take any word from generated word list. Let us say we pick a word “game”. We can develop
some thoughts on this. This will make one good paragraph of our essay.
“Games like Candy Crush or Farmville has become a source of entertainment for a large number of people.” Games lead to internet addiction. Games waste time.

Now take the word “Game” and club it with other words. Clubbing Game with Money can help in another point that “Making online games can help in generating money”. Game and Knowledge can lead to another point that “Quiz games help in improving knowledge base”.

For some cross couplings, there are no points that come to our mind. We can simply drop them.
For example, for Games and messages nothing is coming to my mind.
Repeat this exercise for all the word you had gathered in the list. You may realize that

Step 3: Grouping of words
Once you are done with step 2, you’ll see that you have large number of positive and negative points with you. So now is the time to discard irrelevant point, and group together the relevant points.

Step 4: Thematic categorization of thoughts to give more streamlined outlook to the topic
Now you can capture big themes. For example, Democracy has themes like Social capital, Democracy, Knowledge awareness, Terrorism, Games, Privacy issues etc. These can be clubbed under the supra heading of boon and bane. While themes of social capital, democracy, knowledge can be grouped under the heading of boon, the issues of terrorism, privacy and internet addiction can be clubbed under bane.

Step 5: Some visionary lines or thoughts on the topic
Think of the way the particular issue has affected our life. For example some simple yet insightful lines on social media could be:
“Social media has made World Wide Web from mere repository of raw knowledge to a platform of Information Exchange.”
“Face book has become the new staple diet of internet age generation.”

Step 6: Chart preparation
Prepare a mental map like this.

Q. Importance of quotes in the Essay?
Quotes are a powerful one-liner. They are sum total of some one’s life experience.
Candidates are often in dilemma whether to put quotes in the essay or not. The answer is simple.
As with the other things in the UPSC, here also balance and originality is the key. Putting quote is good provided it strengthen your argument.
A quote without elaboration is not considered good. It gives examiner a impression that person has just mugged the quote without understanding its real application.
Using too many quotes is also not appreciated as it takes the originality away from your essay.
The essay is your view on the issue. Thus, quotes should only come to support your argument.

Many of my friends have scored good marks without putting a single quote in their essay. Thus, another wise strategy could be to use the words of the quote without putting it as a quote. Put it as if it is your own idea and explain it in detail with numerous common life examples.


Q. How to make a good beginning of an essay?
Story: Hypothetical or Real
Quote
Case scenario development
Figures and facts
Importance of the issue
Historical evolution
Spatial evolution

The first impression is said to be the last impression. The examiner makes an initial judgment of person’s intellect, thought process, and knowledge base from the first few lines of the essay. Thus, many times I see that people write their whole introduction in rough so that not even a word goes wrong.
Many quasi-engineer (a term to describe engineering graduate with social sciences subject) end up wasting quite some time in finding a right opening to their essay. During my evolution from a poor essay writer to an average essay writer, I discovered general lines along which one can open the essay. Some of these threads are discussed below:

India's GDP

An interesting observation!
India can achieve the magic mark of double-digit growth rate with some simple effort. All it requires is a four-pronged strategy. Here you go:

First, A ten percent increase in digital penetration will boost our GDP by 1.4%.
Secondly, A five percent increase in FDI 2% increase in GDP. Possibly this is the reason why Modi Ji is always out of the country.
Thirdly, The passage of GST bill will add another 1.5 to 2% in the GDP. This will substantially reduce the tax parity and would help in attracting greater FDI by improving India's rank on "ease of doing business" index.
Fourth, The use of Direct benefit transfer policy for transferring subsidies directly to UID-linked Jan Dhan account will boost the economy by another 1.2%.

The sum total is 6.1%. Even if we normalize these figures then we can conservatively hope for five percent increase. This will push India beyond the magical figure of ten percent. See so simple.

And if we wish to breach the 15% mark then we should focus on Transport sector, most specifically road sector. This will add another 4% to GDP.

Art of speaking

Why do we speak so fast? I have noticed the tendency of speaking fast among many people. The biggest culprit is me myself. Trying to speak really fast, saying maximum possible things in minimum possible time. It makes me wonder about what part of my personality drives me to become so rash? Does it remain restricted to speaking or would it spill over to my other attitudes and behaviors? What kind of general impression does it convey impatience, or rashness or anxiety or dominance or restlessness or fear or need for approval? What should be done to curb such behavioral practices?

A little bit of introspection reveals that most often it is an attempt to win an argument. Or putting my viewpoint on the matter as quickly as possible in a bid to avoid any possible misinterpretation. Why do I want to avoid misinterpretation? It is because I care about my impression. And why so? It may be due to high need for approval and recognition.

I was reading on Quora about this. It is also related to the length of breath and inability of the person to control the air in the vocal cord. As the air fills the vocal cord and we find it difficult to release it slowly and gradually, We often end up speaking super fast.

Further, sometimes it is due to our reluctance to hold a viewpoint in our mind for some longer duration. Somewhere, We fear that we may forget to mention this later and this point may become obsolete in few minutes because topic might be changed. Therefore, We tend to stuff that one extra point in our limited conversation time which makes the entire sentence look cluttered and fast.

Another source of this type of speaking style emerges from the way we learn English. In the early days, there was a lot of fumbling, stammering, and interruption in the speech. Most of the time, it was due to lack of correct vocabulary and sometimes it was due to inability to form a correct sentence. Therefore, a general counter-strategy was to speak fast. This helps in keeping tongue's pace with the mind. We are able to suppress that Ummm sound. Over the years, it became a habit.

When it spills over to other behavior, it shows up in our eating, reading and almost every other walk of life. Ultimately, we are a integrated whole so habits of one domain have contagious effect on other domains as well. Most specifically it shows up in my writing where I ignore articles, correctness of grammar and spellings in order to write more and more in less and less time. Sometimes, it takes away the elaborative aspect of writing and make it look abstract and baseless.

But the real issue is how do I fix this? Swami Vivekanand once famously remarked that once you know the problem then you have solved it for 80%. Rest 20% is only implementation. For me, the fix is to observe myself very closely. Notice my breath and take longer breath whenever possible. Don't mind loosing a argument once in a while. and Keep maun. Try to understand that other person also have a need for approval. He also wants to prove his point so keep listening.

In this regard, I love Modi's style. Whenever a delegation goes to meet Modi, he puts a finger on his lips and do not speak untill the other group has finished their point. This way he ensures that when he speaks, no one interfere. Thus he use all the time to collate his thoughts and express them articulatively.

Anyway, Enough for the day. Will write the rest later.

How To: What should I do for hobby development?

Hobby on your DAF is the best fodder for the examiner to ask you some unstructured and unexpected questions. Moreover, in the pursuit of civil services, most often the pursuit of the hobby is sidelined. Therefore, this is one area where the candidates lack conviction and confidence.

A big question thus arise is what should be done for choosing a hobby and developing it. Over the years, I had following observations.

Firstly, candidates who even leave the hobby section empty and are able to justify this in the interview board, manage to score good marks. So putting hobby is not essential.

Secondly, The best way to answer a hobby question is to pursue it. It is not you who answer in the board. It is your confidence which speaks. So either you must be an artist who can lie to the board without being caught or better pursue it in reality. Now, the first choice is too risky so better go for the Second. And the best practice is to make it part of your weekly or monthly routine. So that, you do not have to engage vigorously just after mains to gather some insights into it.

Third, Devote your time immediately after Mains for hobby related activities. So for example, if you have filled book reading then better read few books about which you can speak. Keep in mind the kind of question which board may ask, in case you happen to appear for the Interview. If you have filled meditation then better meditate to practically experience it. and if travelling then better go on some tour.

Fourth, Do not give unnecessary importance to the hobby. And do not really pursue just for the sake of exam. Rather, give an intense thought to the question, "What are the activities which I really like to pursue?" I am sure you'll have an answer. Everybody has some or other activity which they like to pursue apart from studies or their routine things.
For those who are still not able to find a credible answer and who are not daring enough to leave the section empty Meditation, Net surfing, Solving puzzles, Debating, Watching movies are some safe hobbies. One can gather the titbits of these in a short time.

Fifth, Prepare the answer to the question "How would you use your hobby in the administration?"

Another noticeable thing is there is a difference between hobby and activity. Though one does not need to put too much energy on this subtle difference because for most of the candidates, it is one and the same thing. We use them interchangeably. However, Interviewer may raise a flag on this. So be prepared.

That's it. Nothing much on this. There are lots of other scattered things like find like-minded people who pursue a similar hobby, find questionnaire on the Internet, watch youtube infotainment videos on the subject, and read any one book on the subject for your own feel good thing. But a smart candidate can always manage without this superfluous effort.

How To: What are various sources which I should refer while preparing for General Studies?

This is such a subjective question. The content of civil services changes almost every year. New portals, audio, video resources are appearing each day so the relevance of this question itself is under question. Despite this, I had compiled a document which listed various sources for those who feel confused. The document was compiled after taking inputs from some 5 to 10 selected candidates.

I am not attaching the document here. Instead, I'll directly put it on the doc file which I should prepare for my book.

How To: Psyche of student – Illusion of Knowledge/Learning Outcome/Learning Strategy

Some random moorings of my life

Recently I had one absolutely gratifying experience. It added a lot to my confusion. The confusion of whether rejecting every non-scientific thing of our life in a common envelope of superstition is our naivety or highhandedness over our little success in the field of Science.

Another thing I witnessed is an abysmal state of affairs in the field of Education. A aam aadmi may shiver at the very thought of educating his child for the professional education course. For medical course, the donation is nearly 50 to 60 lakh. For engineering course, a donation is nearly 7 to 10 lakh. The Fee is separate from this. It makes me wonder about why a middle-class government employee won't involve in corrupt practices? It's a vicious cycle in which our society has got trapped. Very sad. The first step in breaking the corruption is to ensure enough amount of seats in quality colleges and end of the undercover parallel economy of donation. How it happens is another interesting story but will write about that some other time.

Nowadays, a lot of my time goes into counselling, mentoring, guiding my nephew, niece, younger brothers, and sisters. One or other secondary work engulfs my time. Somewhere the rudeness is missing. I want to devote my infinite time to their welfare but not at the expense of my own target. Sadly, I have stopped running and exercising also. But the hasn't got any better. I wish some course correction happen in next few days. Almost every weekend gets consumed somewhere or other.Somewhere the calm of past few months is missing somewhere. Maybe because of certain anxiety or some frustration.

Have lot more to write but the clock is always ticking. This blogging is also going to stop in coming few days. Somewhere I need to take extraordinary measures to put things back on track.

WatsApp, Phone, blog, running, exercise, reading... the real thing gets lost somewhere. But I won't let that happen. Come what may. Will write later.

How To: What are general tips on reading tactics/techniques?

Read Newspaper
Read magazine
Read textbook
read Internet resource

Read for prelims
Read for Mains
Read for Interview

Modi Ji ke joomle

Dumping a part of it here... Will put them properly when I prepare the first draft for the book.

Japan FDI in India: Red Tape to Red Carpet
3D: Democracy/ Demography/Demand
Ladakh: 3P's Parytan/Paryavaran/
India-Bhutan: B2B [Bharat to Bhutan]
Hindu female pantheon:
Education: Saraswati
Finance: Lakshmi
Security: Mahakali
Food security: Annapurna

India-China: Inch towards Miles (Millenium of exceptional synergy)
Governance: India- Country is forward but government is backward

Idea of gobar bank
Village Birth Day

Politics is democracy's second nature. They can't be separated.
Society-driven approach over government-driven approach

Deen Dayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate scheme
"Shram Yogi should become Rashtra yogi and hence Rashtra Nirmata"

There should be an atmosphere of corporate government responsibility on the lines of corporate social responsibility.

FDI (First develop India) is responsibility of citizen and opportunity for outsiders
On East Asia: Act east/Link west

Scam India to Skill India
4C's of Nepal: Cooperation/ Culture/ Connectivity/ Constitution

On Swachh Bharat: Waste to Wealth

Sukhasya moolam Dharma
Dharmasya moolam Artha
Arthasya moolam Rajyam

India-China: INCH towards MILES (Millenium of exceptional synergy)
FDI: First Develop India
P2G2: Pro-people Good Governance
Idea of G-all
3D: Democracy, Demography, Demand
5Ts: Talent, Tradition, Tourism, Trade and Technology
ABCD and RSVP: Adarsh, Bofors, Coal and Damaad" or son-in-law, as well as “Rahul, Sonia, Vadra and Priyanka
HIT: Highways, i-ways (for information technology) and trans-ways (for electricity transmission)
B2B: Bharat to Bhutan
Look East and Link West
Red tape to Red carpet
SMART:
S for strict but sensitive
M for modern and mobile
A for alert and accountable
R for reliable and responsive
T for techno-savvy and trained

USTTAD — Upgrading Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development
NMET — National Mineral Exploration Trust
AMRUT — Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation
HRIDAY — Heritage Development and Augmentation Yojana
PaHaL — Pratyaksha Hastaantarit Laabh
PRAGATI — Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation
NITI — National Institution for Transforming India
ROAD — Responsibility, Ownership, Accountability, Discipline
5Cs — Collect River Water, Connect rivers, Channelize water, Control local water, Community participation
4 Ps: People, Private, Public Partnership

3 AKs– “Admired in Pakistan”: AK-47, AK Antony, and “AK-49
3 Ss: Skill, Scale, Speed
Chaal,chehra,chintan,charitra & suchita, suraksha, swaraj, swadeshi
3P's: Prakash, Paryavaran, Paryatan
4C's: Cooperation, Connectivity, Culture, Constitution

A lot more is there in the hard notes. But do not worry. Always remember, don't let the best become enemy of good. And do it even if it is the ugliest thing. Why? Because you want to do it. No if, No but, sirf jat.

How To: finish new reports/12th Five year plan/IYB/Survey/Budget

The best way to finish these reports is to have a group of four people with similar expertise and high level of commitment. Divide the chapter among yourselves and make a schedule.

Each person will be responsible for preparation of notes for his share of chapters. He will drive the discussion and ensure that he explain tit bits of that chapter to other.

It is beneficial for him as the best way to absorb some novel content is to teach it to others. It is beneficial for others because they won't be devoting unnecessary time in reading everything on his own. However one major caveat is that the person who is teaching or driving the discussion should have a complete understanding and should possess teaching prowess. Not to mention, such exercise is beneficial from interview preparation point of view as well.

However, those who are not able to find the like minded guys can choose to do one of the following four things.
First is find a quick summary from the market. Skim through it twice. Then pick the main book and read the main points given in the summary in greater detail.
Second is go for Mrunal or Insights or Iasbaba summary notes.
Third is to find any power point on the specific topics if available on the internet. Go through that and then pick the main book.
Fourth is to find some video lecture on internet and watch it. It is engaging but it takes more time.

Moreover, there is no need to do a PHD on these reports. Just finishing selected topics as told in coaching classes are sufficient.

For 12th plan: The full document is insightful.
For IYB: Just selected topics with a 200 question test paper of any coaching would suffice.
For survey: Summary + detail of selected topics with notes preparation is gud
For reports: Just capture salient points from newspaper or online articles. No need to pursue PHD in this.
For ARC: A very very quick read of some 2 or 3 reports is OK. You will not find anything new. Largely every one know about these things.
For Budget: follow 5 point approach for each sector and remember some figures.

Two more things:

For interview, I forgot to mention visualization technique.
For Emotional Intelligence: I forgot to mention that it keeps increasing and decreasing from time to time. An expert can fail in some situation depending on the mood, time and environmental factor.

How To: Prepare for Interview?

Interview preparation is three part process. First is to practice the behavioral etiquette. Second is preparation with DAF which include your hobby, personal profile, state or city and other related information. Every word of your DAF can generate a question for you. Be it your sir name or day of birth or school name. Third is preparation of current affairs. Here the rule is simple. Watch RSTV, Listen to AIR, read editorials with forming your own opinion in the end and discuss, discuss and discuss.

The intention of this post is not to list the ubiquitously available tips and tricks on the other forums. Here, I intend to summarize 5 things which I practiced and believed to have worked for me three out of four times.

First, Once you are prepared with your DAF, Current affairs and state/city related information, keep aside everything. Just sit idle for three days and talk to yourself. Raise questions and counter questions and find answers to them. Enter into monologue. I'll post such sample monologue in future.

Second is to watch comedy videos before interview days. This would help in relieving stress and enable some sense of humor.

Third is remain natural during the Interview. Don't show unnecessary modesty or humility. But if you are an arrogant bloke then better contain that. The idea is don't be subservient to the board. They are just like you. They also eat similar food and sleep naked in the bed.

Fourth is don't fear saying a No. Learn to say no with a smile. In fact notice your facial nerves and length of breath on a day to day basis. Specially in situations when you have to say No or you feel angry.Stand in front of mirror and notice yourself when you speak. Learn to look into other persons eyes. If eyes threaten you then focus on forehead or nose and lips area of face. But keep making eye contacts from time to time. And don't look at boobs or penis of respected members.

Fifth is practice to bring the civil attitude from today itself. Your personality won't change overnight. If you were anxious, stressed, arrogant, or poor at articulation a week before interview then don't expect some magic to happen on the day of Interview. So fix your thought process from today itself. Personality development is a long term process.
Remember, our thoughts become our action. Our actions become our habits. Our habits become our character. And our character becomes our destiny.

People have written whole lot of books on interview preparation so I do no wish to repeat
the same information. However there are some more points which could be added here. Will add them later.

Pillar of my strength

Few poems which have had defining influence on my life. Listing them here:

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,
चढ़ती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है।
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,
चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है।
आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है,
जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है।
मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में,
बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में।
मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

असफलता एक चुनौती है, इसे स्वीकार करो,
क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो।
जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,
संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़ कर मत भागो तुम।
कुछ किये बिना ही जय जय कार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।


This one from Atal Bihari Bajpai....

Kya Haar Mein, Kya Jeet Mein,

Kinchit Nahin Bhaybheet Main,

Kratavya Path Par Jo Bhi Mila

Yah Bhi Sahi, Woh Bhi Sahi,

Vardan Nahin Mangooga…

Ho Kuchh Par Haar Nahin Maanuga!

~ Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Coming back to life.

How To: Maintaining concentration while studying

Civil Services preparation is a long process. Most of the students invest their exciting youthhood closeting themselves behind four walls and focus on their studies.

The most common problem which most of the students face is their thoughts start wandering while they are studying and trying to focus on the subject. Most of the aspirants face problem in concentrating on their studies due to various familial, relationship distraction, hormonal temptations and work related anxiety. Controlling the hormonal arousal is not always under aspirants control. Some satiate themselves by finding the right partner. Some others manage with porn. Some other with a high degree of super ego composition in their personality become the victim of guilt feelings and do not know how to channelize their energies. Many of them could be seen queued up outside Ravindran sir's cabin seeking advice on how to better concentrate on their studies? I do not know how many of them find a satisfying answer.

The remedy to the problem of concentration lies in the root-cause analysis of the problem. One must thoroughly understand the problem in order to devise a game plan to convert this problem into a productive push towards the goal.
Some general recurrent thoughts are:
1. Whether I would be able to clear the exam or not? What if I fail?
2. Imagining the sexual encounters with known and unknowns beautiful
3. General unnecessary thoughts of aggression, frustration and violence
4. Worry over familial responsibilities
5. Feelings of jealousy and competition against some friend
6. Guilt over wasting time in unproductive fashion
7. Sadness over getting poor ranks in the test series
8. Shame over failing in the exam
9. Doubt over one's abilities
10. Anger against roommates or friends for not doing their work or disturbing your studies
11. Despair over not being able to perform as per demand of the examination
12. Constant worry about future
13. Frustration over making a wrong decision or difficulty in accepting the change in life

There might be some other emotions or feelings which may dominate individual's mind. Sometimes a combination of these thoughts intrudes in our mental sphere taking our concentration and attention away. This has serious repercussions on our preparation process.

Firstly, It pushes us towards winner's mentality to loser's mentality. Instead of preparing for success, we start preparing for failure. For example, those who came with a dream of becoming IAS, now aim for SSC or Bank PO examinations.
Secondly, We are not able to capture the full content with such recurrent thoughts running in the background. We are not able to reflect on the text and our critical thinking takes a beating.
Thirdly, We take more time to study the same text thus we lose our pace. This further results in squeezing time from our share of rejuvenating activities. Thus setting a vicious cycle which transports us to the world of depression, despair, and other negative emotions.

Therefore, it is essential to identify these thoughts and nip them in the bud before they take over your persona and become part of your personality. But now comes the big question, "how"? Overall, these set of strategies could be divided into various heads.

Most of the intrusive thoughts are of sexual nature. To deal with this situation, One can follow a multi-pronged strategy. Firstly, accept the fact that given your age and natural process of hormone formation, such kind of thoughts is very normal. Everyone be it rank 1 or rank 100, have similar kind of thoughts in their mind. We are all humans. Secondly, release your energies in whatever way you can. Watch porn, masturbate, have sex or whatever. But do not unnecessarily repress your energies. If you can control, then that is the best. But don't repress it. If we repress it beyond a limit then it resurfaces in other forms of personality. For example, we start avoiding opposite sex. We loose our aesthetic sense. Instead of looking in the eyes, we start looking at female boobs and exhibit many other similar pervert behaviour.
Secondly, change your reading style. Feel the subject. Just ask yourself a question. Do you have these thoughts when you are watching a movie or talking to someone? Usually no except when the movie is some nonsense Bollywood masala. The reason being, all your senses are so engaged in watching the movie. The same should happen with your subject. Feel it. get immersed into it. Animate it. Talk it out. Write it down.
Thirdly, Meditate. This is something practical in the long term. There are no magic wands. No change is going to happen over night. But it is tried and tested method. All the high rankers are people with immense mental concentration. This way we can channelize our sexual energies into a more productive sphere. I have written a separate blog on meditation also. In short, it is about convincing your self and reading your mind-body coordination.

Second common distraction or worry while studying is anxiety about the future. For this,
Firstly, "believe in yourself". Create a magnetic field around yourself with the belief that you are going to crack this exam come what may. Believe that god is on your side and he has asked only one thing from you i.e. smart work. and believe in miracles.
Secondly, supplement this belief with other processes like introspection, schedule management, disciplined behavior and other things.
Thirdly, If one is so concerned about the future then he can settle in his plan b and prepare for the exam along with the job. I have written about plan B actions in other blogs.

Third common distraction is the problem with roommates or environmental setting.
For this, be assertive. Say upfront. It has following benefits.
Firstly, we learn to deal with such tricky situations and become more balanced over time.
Secondly, You would be better able to focus on the subject.
Thirdly, You can easily distinguish between your wellwisher and unconcerned.

Fourth, for the jealousy feeling one should accept the fact that while we all work hard, the ultimate selection is driven by destiny. So "Jiska hona hai, uska hona hai". No one can stop an idea whose time has come. So share your knowledge. Learn from others. Draw inspiration from your colleagues. No need to feel insecure.

This exam is like Tapasya. It is also an opportunity of self-purification. So for all other negative thoughts, one-word answer is "Be positive and kill the negative emotions". Feel like a monk. Be like a monk.