Greetings,

So some basic information about Civil Services Examination:

- Eligibility criteria : Graduation (from any stream), age has to be minimum 21 years in the year you are appearing for the examination.

- Exam Pattern: the exam has 3 phases: Prelims (GS paper 1 200mm + CSAT 200mm) , Mains (2 GS Papers (300mm), 2 optional subject papers(300 mm), 2 language papers (300mm) and 1 essay paper (200mm)

- how to choose optional subject?

You should take a look at the official upsc website for the list of optional subjects offered and then shortlist your favorite ones. If your subjects of B.Sc. are also in there then check out the past year papers on them to judge for yourself whether you'll be able to study that subject in the required level of depth for the mains exam. Otherwise check some popular arts subjects like Anthropology, Sociology, History and Political Science which have pretty well defined syllabus and good study material that is readily available.

Base your optional choice on the following criteria:

- Your interest

- Time required to study the whole subject (some subjects have shorter syllabuses than others)

- Past year trends of selected students who have taken similar subjects

- going through the basic material for a few subjects before deciding

- How much time to give for preparation?

Since you are still in college, the earlier you start the better. You do not necessarily have to opt for coaching early on if you find it hard to manage it alongside your college you can use online resources to start clearing your fundamentals by referring to books (NCERT first because they are easy to understand and will cover a lot of topics) then moving on to high grade books that are often recommended for the exams.

- Make a strategy early on:

If you just let yourself go and decide to take your time with clearing the fundamentals, chances are you will end up procrastinating and wasting time. This college time of yours is crucial and if you make use of it wisely then you won't have to take multiple drops. So start by strategizing how much you need to cover in a year and break it down into micro plans for month and weeks.

Example - if you decide to cover all NCERT's from class 8th to 12th in 6 months time then you need to make plan for it. How much time will you devote everyday? how much time would you need to read one chapter? think along those lines.

- Study material:

Initially, start by the easy things like NCERTs which you can buy anywhere then you can refer to subject wise books (the extensive list for which you can find online) and if you join a coaching they will have their own material also which is usually consolidated and easy to read.

- Do not buy too many books for one subject, stick to quality over quantity

- Try to prepare subjects according to the mains syllabus rather than the prelims syllabus as your mains preparation will also work on prelims questions.

- Once you have completed your basics, join a test series and start testing your understanding of the topics you have covered.

- Current affairs:

Refer to one or at max two national newspaper of repute like the Hindu or Indian express. (dainik bhaskar or Patrika for hindi)

- Refer to one monthly magazine flike Pratiyogita darpan or chronicle to brush up your current affairs each month.

- make notes of some important events that happen from a mains perspective.

- Mindset:

- Be calm and analytical as much as possible. The course is so vast that you will be distracted and you will lose your cool every once in a while. do not let that happen and find an activity that keeps you engaged to cope up with dicouraging thoughts

- Find friends who are also pursuing UPSC and make study groups (if you prefer it) to share thoughts and notes on subjects.

- Get a clear understanding of the world around you and be a good student. UPSC is a journey not an exam so travel safely, slowly but steadily and you will do it.

Best of luck, this was not a comprehensive answer and there was a lot to include which I could not, unfortunately. But if you have further doubts the leave them in the comments and I will try to answer them as well.

Good day!