Five messages for the last weeks before Mains

This is when you feel most stressed, when every new current affair shakes your confidence and self-doubt creeps in. Remember: Mains checks your analytical ability, not rote learning.

1. Use the Lego Method in every question, essay and case study. Applying it alone gets you above-average marks.
2. Make the right subparts and give each a heading that links it to the demand of the question. Do this and you’ll find 3 or 4 extra subparts in every paper: 20 to 30 marks more.
3. Templates for why, challenges, suggestions, introduction and conclusion are there to fill those subparts with content.
4. Spend 3 or 4 hours writing all your mnemonics by hand. That is what you keep with you on exam day.
5. The puzzle approach: treat each question as a puzzle. You already have the content. Break it into subparts, use 3D4C and your mnemonics, and write.

Hint: 90% of aspirants fail to form proper subparts. It’s better to make mistakes now than in the exam.