36th BCS Preliminary Preparation Strategy: Bengali (Kaler Kantho)

The difficulty level of the BCS examination has always seemed somewhat overrated to me. While it’s true that this is a competitive exam, it’s even more true that there usually aren’t that many candidates who actually pose real competition. Most people prefer to intimidate others about these two exams. They speak about what they know; they also speak about what they don’t know. Let me share two facts.

• In this exam, 50% of candidates go just for a stroll, without any real purpose, almost like attending a get-together. (The funny thing is, some of them actually succeed! The ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ type! There’s no point in feeling bad about their success.)

• Only about 7% of candidates are worth considering as real competition.

This means your competitors aren’t as numerous as you think. The BCS examination has no specific syllabus, so it’s impossible for anyone to prepare 100% for this exam. Keep in mind, thinking you’ve learned everything perfectly, then forgetting sixty percent of it and properly utilizing the remaining forty percent—that’s the art. For doing well in this exam, knowing what to study is far less important than deciding what to leave out.

For Bengali, thoroughly study all the language and literature questions from previous BCS exams and job solutions. You might not get many repeats from there, but you’ll get an idea of what types of questions you should skip while studying. Understanding this question pattern mapping is extremely, extremely, extremely important when preparing for any competitive examination.

Language.

What to study from: Previous BCS exam questions + job solutions + 9th-10th grade grammar books + Hayat Mamud’s Bhasha-Shiksha + guide books

How to study: Look at the syllabus carefully. Write down all the topics on paper. Then, topic by topic, mark and repeatedly read those chapters from grammar books and guide books. Don’t bother trying to remember questions that don’t stick even after repeated reading. One difficult question gives 1 mark, one easy question also gives 1 mark. Rather than spending time on 5 marks worth of difficult questions, it’s better to spend that same time on 20 marks worth of easy questions. Study with intelligence, not emotion—understand and be selective.

Literature.

What to study from: Previous BCS exam questions + job solutions + Soumitra Shekhar’s Jiggasha + Humayun Azad’s Lal Nil Dipaboli + Mahbubul Alam’s History of Bengali Literature + guide books

How to study: Study the questions from previous BCS preliminary and written exams to get a good understanding of what types of questions appear and what types don’t. Then read reference books selectively, marking and skipping sections. Not everything in reference books is useful, so learn to control the temptation to read everything. It works very well if you can prepare for the written exam while studying the literature section, because it won’t require any extra effort. Rather than trying to memorize, it’s better to try remembering through repeated reading. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to answer some questions in the exam hall no matter what—preparing the literature section with this mindset will keep your spirits from getting too low.

Some tips about BCS preliminary:

• Buy 2-3 job solution books covering 10th to 35th BCS, and solve the PSC non-cadre exam questions (if possible, at least 250-300 sets) with understanding. Mark them and revise at least 2-3 times. Read the mind of the question setter, not the mind of the guidebook writer. You’ll need to thoroughly examine newspapers, internet, and reference books.

• Buy two sets of written exam guide books and finish reading previous years’ questions and suggestions. Complete studying the topics that overlap with preliminary according to the syllabus. This way, half your written preparation will be done. When reading references, understand whether the book actually needs to be read. More than 60% of written preparation overlaps with preliminary.

• Most students first read reference books, then start solving questions. This has two problems. One: you don’t get time to solve many questions. The more questions you solve, the better. Two: Most parts of reference books aren’t useful for BCS exams, yet reading entire books wastes time and creates unnecessary fear about BCS. Besides, there’s no need to remember so much. ……. So, walk the opposite path. I did the same. Make one question the source of three more questions. It’s difficult to flip through reference books, that’s true. But if you can make this effort, it will benefit both your preliminary and written exams—that’s even more true.

• Skip reading current affairs, current world, today’s world, economic survey type books for preliminary. At most 5-6 questions come from very recent topics in preliminary, which are only found in those books. Among these, at least 2 can be answered by reading newspapers. What if we forgive the remaining 4?! Why do people take such pain for these 4 marks, I can’t understand. Actually, reading those torturous books gives you a feeling like you’re really studying. This falls into the category of very sophisticated procrastination.

This article was published as the main feature on the ‘Chakri Ache’ page of Kaler Kantho on Wednesday, September 2. I’m providing the link below: