Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission conducts Group 1 exam consisting of three stages – Screening Test/ Prelims, Mains and Interview. The first stage is the Preliminary exam, and there are two papers in this stage which are of objective type. In the second level, Mains has seven papers in total, out of which two papers are qualifying in nature. The final stage is the Personality Test/ Interview, which will be conducted by the APPSC Board.
The Group 1 exam is conducted for the recruitment of various posts in A.P. Civil Service, State Tax Services, Police Service, Jail Service, Excise Service, Transport Service, and so on. These are all prestigious posts at the state level, and lakhs of candidates aspire to become one. Since there are only limited vacancies available, the competition level is very high, and many get filtered in the first level itself. Therefore, it is necessary to have the right preparation strategy to crack APPSC Group 1 Exam.
In this article, a few useful tips to prepare more effectively for the APPSC Group 1 Exam will be discussed. Those candidates who have already started or are going to begin the preparation might find this article helpful.
Tips to Prepare for APPSC Group 1 Exam 2022
Level one of the APPSC Group 1 exam is objective in nature, and the second level is descriptive in nature. The Mains level has to be prepared even more comprehensively than the first level. The first level doesn’t expect the candidate to write new answers; rather, it is a level of multiple choice questions where the candidate has to identify the right answer. Therefore, the aspiring candidates have to approach these two levels distinctively and have a different preparation strategy to clear these two levels.
Let’s discuss a few tips to crack the APPSC Group 1 Exam:
- Gather study materials – There are numerous sources and study materials available in the market nowadays. The aspirant will often get misled and diverted if they use more than three sources to study the same topic. Therefore, it is necessary to select and gather the right study materials required to start the preparation process. It is often advised by the toppers to stick to one source and keep revising from the same, instead of reading the same concept from different sources. The aspirants can cover their basics from NCERTs or recommended State Board books.
- Different sources of current affairs – The importance of current affairs has increased significantly, and on both levels, there will be questions from this section. This is a dynamic part to be covered by the aspirants, and it is best to follow two to three sources for current affairs. Even if some piece of news/information is not covered through one source, the next source will make it up for that. BYJU’S provides comprehensive coverage of daily current affairs, and the aspirants can make use of this source and can follow official ministry/government websites for other updates.
- Practise elimination method – The Prelims level of the exam has multiple choice questions, and the candidates have to practise the elimination method to identify the right answer before the examination. Even if the candidates can eliminate a few options, they will be close to finding the right answer. This technique will be extremely useful in the case where the candidate is not very sure of the right answer. Given the increased competition level these days, the candidates have to take an intelligent guess in identifying the answer and attempting the question.
- Focus on qualifying papers – There are two qualifying language papers at the Mains level. Usually, the candidates focus less on these papers when compared to the General Studies papers. Then it becomes problematic to clear those qualifying papers. Therefore, it is essential to spend some time preparing the qualifying papers also.
- Revise and repeat – Try to revise as many times as possible to clearly remember the facts and concepts. Revising consistently is one of the major factors which will help you crack the exam. If the aspirants revise periodically, they will feel confident during the exam day and feel less pressured when making intelligent guesses.
- Practise previous years’ question papers – For both Prelims and Mains, the aspirants have to practise previous years’ question papers and also give as many mock tests as possible. The practice of going through the previous years’ question papers can be started well before the preparation because that lets the aspirants know the type of questions asked in the exam. This will help in streamlining the preparation from the beginning itself. The Mains level is descriptive in nature, and this level needs a lot of practice because answer writing is different from knowing the answer. The candidate might know the answer but still will be facing the difficulty of presenting in the paper, and that’s why Mains answer writing practice is also important to crack this level of APPSC Exam.
Like any other state civil services exam or Civil Service Examination conducted by UPSC, the APPSC Group 1 exam also has a vast syllabus. The aspirants can check out the APPSC Group 1 Syllabus from the linked article to know the syllabus of various levels of the APPSC Group 1 Exam in detail. Before starting the preparation, it is advised to read the entire syllabus at least once and get familiar with all the topics.
