Essay copies:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vphNSgiueOjSKueaZrywmelD5aobrKCj?usp=drive_link

I was walking by this lane when outside a cafe I saw a neon signboard that pushed me to write this particular piece in the eleventh hour of Mains 2023. It read “The secret ingredient is always love”. And if there is one thing I want you to carry to your examination hall when writing your essays, it is this.

I will add some suggestions about what to do for your essays in this piece, but there’s something much more important that enabled me to get a 134 & 128 in two consecutive essay papers. It is a very good and consistent score across two mains.

However, it has very less to do with my language/vocabulary and more to do with the spirit that I carried to the examination hall, the thinking, thought, belief, conviction, ideals and values that I took with myself while I walked into that hall once in January of 2022 in the midst of winter and once in September of the same year.

The first time I wrote mains, I had gotten covid like symptoms, cold and fever 2-3 days before the exam were to start. The couple of days before January 7th, I would lie down on my bed for whole of the day revising ethics while discussing it on call with my friends and sipping the many cups of soup and kadhas my mother made to cure me.

Nonetheless, when I walked into the hall on the morning of January 7th, I still had cold, my nostrils blocked, I had applied anti fog solution to my glasses as it fogged up in the winters of Delhi, I told myself that “I have got this”.

On the morning of my essay paper, I gathered my spirit that I knew would make me a civil servant. The spirit that dreams for a country doing better for its citizens, the spirit that dreams of dreams with optimism, that hopes against hopelesness of life.

(And to feel it more deeply, I had made an “Essay Playlist” which had songs and poems that would stir me up. )

I really think the USP of essays that are scoring well in civil services now are our individualities.

Our emotions, our thinking, our perspectives, our outlook to life which is “ours”, woven with ideals, aligned with constitution, brimming with hope and creativity. So tap into that and let your personality shine through the essays you write.

Let the examiner know, you are somebody who has a wonderful thinking of your own and can express it in a manner that engages the reader. Let the examiner know you have an insightful sense of the world around you, of its problems and issues.

More importantly, that you can be a civil servant who can also find constructive solutions for the same.

How to approach an essay: Some thoughts

• Choose the topic you’re most comfortable with, the topic for which you feel from the depth of your being. In 2022 Mains, when I read the topic “ Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. “ I smiled because I felt like I could write something heartfelt in this. I love poetry and I remember by heart many verses of many poems which I can use. So I used them and wrote it well which were also rewarded
• Breaking down the topic- my process
  • On the last page of the essay copy I would write down the topic. First, I would pick up every keyword/phrase of the topic. For eg “poets” “unacknowledged” legislators of the world”. For each such word or phrase I would think of every related word/idea/thought/quote that would come to my mind and jot it down. After this segregated thinking where I have tapped into my knowledge base to bring together relevant ideas, I would string together a structure. Which can vary from essay to essay and person to person.
  • One can use frameworks of “time-history, present, future”, of dimensions-social, political etc, of institutions- legislature, judiciary, executive, media, army etc. And very often use multiple such frameworks to write an essay. These are boxes of thought which will enable one to think and structure ideas and essays.
• Keep possible introductions for every traditional theme ready– eg. an anecdote for health/ education/ science / sports. So you can use that bit across any theme whether mainstream or philosophical. For eg- I had seen on BBC the story of a climate refugee Minara Begum. I had kept her story for environment related essays. And this is a story one can use across essays for a human touch.
• After introduction try to keep a tiny little paragraph where you “tell them what you will tell them”. This could be a small paragraph where you write in brief the themes you will touch in your essay or the topics you will dwell upon.

• In terms of spacing and structure, the first 2-2.5 pages are to be devoted to the introduction and related discussion and telling them what you are going to do.
• After which you discuss the main themes of the essay, as per the flow and frameworks you have chosen for your essay.
• The last page of your essay must be for your final conclusion- where you discuss the “big bang ideas related to the theme”- this is where you talk about Gandhian Talisman/ Nehruvian Idealism/ Rig Vedic Philosophy/ Upanishadic thought- basically all the big deep ideas that you must already have collated. If you have begun your essay with a story, this is the page where you end it with the same story.
• On the 2-3 pages before the conclusion, you dedicate it to your positive/constructive suggestions to improve whatever issues you might have touched upon in the essay. This is your opportunity to let the civil servant in you shine through. This is the part which will tell the examiner ” this is my officer!”
• As you pour in your ideas please keep the flow intact. Use connecting words, to connect paragraphs.
• Let each paragraph discuss one key idea.
• Ideas and thoughts are appreciated if they are substantiated by data, examples, and case studies. Integrate them simply by keeping your sentences simple and ideas flowing.

All the knowledge that you have acquired over the days and nights and years of struggle are enough to write a beautiful essay. On the day of the exam, just remember everybody else is also under the same pressure and tough condition as you are. The topics will be as much a surprise to all as it is to you. It may make you feel blank for a couple of minutes. All you need to do is have faith in your capabilities. Pick up topics that resonate most with you and if possible allow them to be a little diverse and distinct.

It may not feel like your mocks and practice papers, it will feel different. I used to feel I am writing diluted versions of essays I otherwise used to write. But that is just the “exam hall effect”. It is the effect of starting to write your mains examination.

If you allow yourself to keep calm and gather all your capabilities to do a good job in those three house, believe me you will do wonders in the exam.

All the very best!

P.S.-

The essay playlist:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ZZa2ZSRCSY_TWp-1I4y9FCC3QVV_Aqw&si=atMnVOzMRqAGLTWo

The spotify playlist: