Last Miles to Mains - Some Pointers | Mains 2018

nandini

Checked ForumIAS out of habit and I'm glad I did. The article still gives goosebumps and motivation!

Ma'am.. which pen did you use last year?
And how is the qualify of paper compared to standard a4 pages. Asking this because v7 gives impression on back side of sheet. And still unable to find anything as smooth as v7.

#firstmains

I used a very basic ball point pen - cello butterflow I think. Quality of paper in essay wasn't that good, but was good in GS

I love Butterflow. The black is better.

They have revamped it also.

Another pen which lot of people use is Write o meter. I didn’t personally like it, but what happens is very year at the community meet I end up borrowing pens from the selected candidates. More than once .and invariably everyone has a write o meter!

Maybe because you don’t have headache of refilling it often.

Butterflow will finish before the first paper.

@nandini Did the refill last for the full length of the paper for you?

I don't remember clearly now but I carried along a load of butterflow pens for mains. But as far as I remember, it barely lasts the length of the paper, though it's very smooth to write with.

The_wolf

Checked ForumIAS out of habit and I'm glad I did. The article still gives goosebumps and motivation!

Ma'am.. which pen did you use last year?
And how is the qualify of paper compared to standard a4 pages. Asking this because v7 gives impression on back side of sheet. And still unable to find anything as smooth as v7.

#firstmains

I used a very basic ball point pen - cello butterflow I think. Quality of paper in essay wasn't that good, but was good in GS

I love Butterflow. The black is better.

They have revamped it also.

Another pen which lot of people use is Write o meter. I didn’t personally like it, but what happens is very year at the community meet I end up borrowing pens from the selected candidates. More than once .and invariably everyone has a write o meter!

Maybe because you don’t have headache of refilling it often.

Butterflow will finish before the first paper.

@nandini Did the refill last for the full length of the paper for you?

Sir.. Is it write o metr gel? Or ball? The pen is good no doubt....

Neyawn

Checked ForumIAS out of habit and I'm glad I did. The article still gives goosebumps and motivation!

Ma'am.. which pen did you use last year?
And how is the qualify of paper compared to standard a4 pages. Asking this because v7 gives impression on back side of sheet. And still unable to find anything as smooth as v7.

#firstmains

I used a very basic ball point pen - cello butterflow I think. Quality of paper in essay wasn't that good, but was good in GS

I love Butterflow. The black is better.

They have revamped it also.

Another pen which lot of people use is Write o meter. I didn’t personally like it, but what happens is very year at the community meet I end up borrowing pens from the selected candidates. More than once .and invariably everyone has a write o meter!

Maybe because you don’t have headache of refilling it often.

Butterflow will finish before the first paper.

@nandini Did the refill last for the full length of the paper for you?

Sir.. Is it write o metr gel? Or ball? The pen is good no doubt....

I didn’t know the gel version exists. Back then it was ball pen.

Three people in my group used to use it. Then at community meet I asked for pen from a few people. I ended up with three pens and didn’t know which one belonged to whom. They were all that write o meter.

Neyawn

Checked ForumIAS out of habit and I'm glad I did. The article still gives goosebumps and motivation!

Ma'am.. which pen did you use last year?
And how is the qualify of paper compared to standard a4 pages. Asking this because v7 gives impression on back side of sheet. And still unable to find anything as smooth as v7.

#firstmains

I used a very basic ball point pen - cello butterflow I think. Quality of paper in essay wasn't that good, but was good in GS

I love Butterflow. The black is better.

They have revamped it also.

Another pen which lot of people use is Write o meter. I didn’t personally like it, but what happens is very year at the community meet I end up borrowing pens from the selected candidates. More than once .and invariably everyone has a write o meter!

Maybe because you don’t have headache of refilling it often.

Butterflow will finish before the first paper.

@nandini Did the refill last for the full length of the paper for you?

I don't remember clearly now but I carried along a load of butterflow pens for mains. But as far as I remember, it barely lasts the length of the paper, though it's very smooth to write with.

I lost my pencil box / with Admit Card in the second half of my Philosophy Optional paper.

Had to struggle entering the hall.

I borrowed the black ( or blue ) Butterflow and it was so good , I wrote to my hearts content.

I got 201/300 in that paper. My own lifetime and Philosophy optional lifetime highest score

Arsenal752

Checked ForumIAS out of habit and I'm glad I did. The article still gives goosebumps and motivation!

Ma'am.. which pen did you use last year?
And how is the qualify of paper compared to standard a4 pages. Asking this because v7 gives impression on back side of sheet. And still unable to find anything as smooth as v7.

#firstmains

I used a very basic ball point pen - cello butterflow I think. Quality of paper in essay wasn't that good, but was good in GS

I love Butterflow. The black is better.

They have revamped it also.

Another pen which lot of people use is Write o meter. I didn’t personally like it, but what happens is very year at the community meet I end up borrowing pens from the selected candidates. More than once .and invariably everyone has a write o meter!

Maybe because you don’t have headache of refilling it often.

Butterflow will finish before the first paper.

@nandini Did the refill last for the full length of the paper for you?

I don't remember clearly now but I carried along a load of butterflow pens for mains. But as far as I remember, it barely lasts the length of the paper, though it's very smooth to write with.

I lost my pencil box / with Admit Card in the second half of my Philosophy Optional paper.

Had to struggle entering the hall.

I borrowed the black ( or blue ) Butterflow and it was so good , I wrote to my hearts content.

I got 201/300 in that paper. My own lifetime and Philosophy optional lifetime highest score

Butterflow has totally gone down the drain sir. I used to be the biggest proponent for butterflow from 2012-2016. But cello started having serious quality issues post 2016… nowadays out of 10 butterflow refills, only 1 or 2 will be smooth. Rest will barely work after 30 mins of writing.,

I ordered 50 refills from all across the country in packs of ten after 2017 prelims since I was adamant on using it, but all of them were the same, useless.

Then I decided to drop it and embraced rorito which worked great. However, this time I have adapted and moved on to the dark side, going to be using v5. Wrote 15 full tests and am comfortable with it.

Arsenal752

Also, as always, thanks for the superb article @Neyawn sir

However, i am going to be ignoring the part about not giving tests and writing three answers everyday, i feel simulating the entire exam process is extremely necessary to build stamina which is necessary for mains.

Here is my schedule, thankfully i have been able to keep up with it so far.

kamena

Also, as always, thanks for the superb article @Neyawn sir

However, i am going to be ignoring the part about not giving tests and writing three answers everyday, i feel simulating the entire exam process is extremely necessary to build stamina which is necessary for mains.

Here is my schedule, thankfully i have been able to keep up with it so far.

Lagta hai abki baar 50 ke under la ke hi maniyega....

harry90

@Neyawn kindly comment on the efficacy of the Reynolds ball pen..the simple one others also...is it fine or not impressive?

nandini

Checked ForumIAS out of habit and I'm glad I did. The article still gives goosebumps and motivation!

Ma'am.. which pen did you use last year?
And how is the qualify of paper compared to standard a4 pages. Asking this because v7 gives impression on back side of sheet. And still unable to find anything as smooth as v7.

#firstmains

I used a very basic ball point pen - cello butterflow I think. Quality of paper in essay wasn't that good, but was good in GS

I love Butterflow. The black is better.

They have revamped it also.

Another pen which lot of people use is Write o meter. I didn’t personally like it, but what happens is very year at the community meet I end up borrowing pens from the selected candidates. More than once .and invariably everyone has a write o meter!

Maybe because you don’t have headache of refilling it often.

Butterflow will finish before the first paper.

@nandini Did the refill last for the full length of the paper for you?

I don't remember clearly now but I carried along a load of butterflow pens for mains. But as far as I remember, it barely lasts the length of the paper, though it's very smooth to write with.

I lost my pencil box / with Admit Card in the second half of my Philosophy Optional paper.

Had to struggle entering the hall.

I borrowed the black ( or blue ) Butterflow and it was so good , I wrote to my hearts content.

I got 201/300 in that paper. My own lifetime and Philosophy optional lifetime highest score

I always carried 2 pencil boxes - one extra one in case I lose the primary one.

kamena

so @Neyawn u said no 3 hour test........but forum is providing same from 15-19................ur integrity is breached ...........any way good article for first timers.........hum log ke liye revision lesson tha

Haha, Not at all.
Read carefully. There are two things I want to tell you . The second is ...

The first is to write the tests in exam environment for three days at a stretch .

I didn’t mention that because I cannot endorse a product in my article. And views are personal.

I have written the Mains and I know that every year after the Mains, the speed increases because of the 4 day torture.

The open test helps do exactly that.

Also a few questions also end up coming from there.

In fact last year, I still remember both Abhishek Surana ( AIR 10) from Delhi Center and Pushplata ( AIR 80) at Gurgaon Center writing the open test. Surana was the only candidate writing with Physics optional and he wrote the test on ALL days.

I would fully endorse it, just that I wouldn’t do that in a blog post.

What I am trying to say is that daily writing 1 tests wastes energy.

Writing it in exam situations will end up wasting up two days time, but works magic in terms of relocating the exam discipline ( if forum people enforce the discipline , that is )

Especially for first timers, this is most useful as they will
Immediately realise that their biggest challenge is not that they don’t know, but that most will
Leave 4-5 questions because of speed issues.

I have to already write one set of optional test n one ethics set n one essay.......so i will write no other test......i will focus on revision ..
.
.situation tight hai............iss baar preparation is not good......n i agree test lilkne sl se speed badhti.....some day ago..

While writing second test in a day.

I suddenly feel that i m.writing fast.....