Tips for DJS Mains Examination

TIPS FOR THE DELHI JUDICIAL SERVICES EXAMINATION

STAGE- MAINS EXAMINATION

Preparation for the mains examination should ideally be complete before the preliminary examination has even taken place. This has two advantages: first, the conceptual questions in the preliminary examination become easier to attempt; second, after the prelims exam, revising the syllabus for the mains exam becomes more manageable, especially when the time gap between the prelims examination and the mains examination is just 20-30-40 days.? ?

Attempts should be made to cover the whole syllabus. Don’t ignore any small Bare Act or any minor legislation merely because that minor legislation has less weight in terms of marks. Every mark counts. Every question counts, and every answer counts. Thus, an attempt should be made to write an answer to every question asked, even if it requires that the candidate may have to write a less lengthy answer to a few questions.

Attempts should be made to identify the ‘key issues’ involved in every question. The candidate should confine his answer to those ‘key issues’ only. Attempts should be made to identify every question's ‘key demand,’ and the answer should revolve around that ‘key demand.’ Don’t extend the length of the answer to get more marks. In DJS, the length of the answer does not necessarily determine the score.

The candidate should ‘front-load’ the main points in his answer. This implies that the candidate should highlight and place the main points of his answer at the very beginning of his answer. Though the answer length does not necessarily determine the marks, an attempt should be made to write at least one and a half pages for the ten-mark question, three pages for the twenty-mark question, and five pages for the thirty-mark question.

Mains examination requires an in-depth horizontal study (as opposed to a vertical study), which is based on an in-depth study of frequently repeated areas occurring in the previous year's examination question papers. Mains examination requires a conceptual understanding of the theory attached to a particular section or provision of the law. Emphasis should be placed on understanding the logic and the theory behind the law.

There should also be a study of the celebrated case laws and the latest case laws (i.e., case laws decided one or two years back). Subscription of SCC and DLT for the last 1-2 years during preparation may help to revise the latest case laws. Cases are like garnishing; they may not be mandatory in every answer, but they may help to get a few extra marks by supplementing the answer. Writing 1-2 cases per long answer does increase the chances of getting higher marks. The candidate should refer to and consult one or two law textbooks per subject for the mains exam. That is more than enough.

There is a recent trend in DJS to ask questions from traditionally considered non-important areas. Hence, the Bare Act understanding of the whole subject is a necessary pre-condition to solve and crack the Delhi Judicial Services Exam.

The mains answer should be precise but comprehensive. Don’t write general theory. Don’t write a general answer. Be very specific and use specific hard-hitting language in the answer. Don’t beat around the bush and directly come to the point involved. But, think twice before writing a particular answer because writing a wrong finding or conclusion may cost a loss of a few marks.

During the preparation period, integrated study should be done for most of the preparation period, i.e., study together for both the Prelims and the Mains. Prelims specific study should be done only 30-45 days before the Preliminary examination. Also, one should never start studying for the mains only after the preliminary exam is over. During the study for the Prelims examination, emphasis should be given to Bare Acts and celebrated/important case laws.

MAKING SELF NOTES

Making self-notes of 50-70 pages per subject is mandatory because a few days before the exam, it would be tough to read a standard textbook and cover the complete text given in a standard textbook before the exam. Self-notes should not exceed 50-70 pages because otherwise, it would be difficult to cover and revise the self-notes in a limited time span.

The self-notes should contain: (a) precise points, (b) surrounding case laws, and (c) the theory/logic behind the law. It is essential to ask oneself: Why? How? What? When? Where? Regarding each provision of law involved. Merely knowing the factual law is not enough. One should know the concept behind the law as well. The jurisprudence of the law is critical. The legal theory of the law is equally important. Superficial knowledge is never enough to crack the Judicial Services Examination. An in-depth understanding of the law is a necessary pre-condition to clear the Judicial Services Examination. The mains examination paper is checked by an experienced law professional. Hence, a superficial understanding of the law will not fetch high marks. Merely cramming up some law is insufficient to crack the Judicial Services Examination. Instead, one should have a critical understanding of the law.

Familiarity with core concepts of all laws over a period of time helps create the required depth in understanding of the law. Thinking and deliberating about points of law is also an essential part of the preparation. One should always research the areas of doubt and should show curiosity. It helps to create the required depth in understanding of the law.

OTHER ADVICE

Try to learn practical aspects of the law, understand the practical workings of the court, and understand the stages of a suit/trial in a real court of law.

Practice mains answer writing and get it checked by a law faculty or a law coach.

Know the format of a judgment for the purposes of judgment writing, the format of an order for order writing, the format of a charge for the purpose of charge framing, etc.

Time management is critical. It requires practicing the multiple-choice questions and the mains questions in real-time through mock tests.

Think and then attempt the mains answers. Don’t just start writing general law and conclude with a specific answer. Think for one or two minutes to frame a possible answer to the question.

It is not necessary to overload each answer with 5/10 case laws. Even one or two case laws are enough per answer. Don’t write case law in an answer just for the sake of it. Only write those case laws that really supplement your answer.

Logic in the mains answer is most important. Logic should be legal logic that satisfies the demand of the question asked. Strong legal logic should resonate through the answer. Providing multiple logic or reasonings to the question asked is advisable instead of a single logic answer. Attempts should be made to connect this logic with the jurisprudence or the legal theory of the law involved. In DJS, the maximum marks are for appraisal of the law and the crucial facts involved.?????????

STUDY SCHEDULE

There is a requirement to invest a minimum of 6-8 hours of study daily for six days a week for at least one year to achieve success. It is advisable not to do a full-time job while doing this preparation. Otherwise, the preparation period may extend to 2-3 years. Also, in such a scenario, multiple attempts may be required to clear the exam. A casual study of 1-2 hours per day, along with a proper job, may be insufficient to clear the exam. There is a need to maintain a strict and ruthless daily study regime. One may reserve one hour daily for hobbies or entertainment. However, during the preparation period, studying for the exam should be the topmost priority in life.

A useful technique to prevent preparation from becoming monotonous and boring is to mix up the subjects to be read daily. For example, the Daily schedule should involve doing some G.K, some law, some language, some attempting MCQs, etc. ?

After the vacancy notification has been announced/published, one should increase his study hours to at least 10-12 hours daily. This regime should be followed strictly and involve maintaining daily/weekly goals and targets.

There may also be a need to be aloof from other things during the preparation period. One has to become a quasi-monk for 1-2-3 years to succeed in judicial examination. One should refrain from frequent hangouts during the preparation period. Self-discipline is essential. One cannot clear the Judicial Service Exam alongside having an active party life. One should keep away from regular distractions such as social media and the internet during the preparation period. Hard work alone is insufficient, but focus and discipline are equally important.

The candidate should not study without a strategy. It will be a useless exercise to study without any direction or strategy. One should use the previous year's question papers as a guiding light during preparation. Last year’s question papers should be consulted again and again. Questions may not be repeated, but the concepts and the topics may be repeated. There is a need to study critical areas of the syllabus in great detail and other areas in less detail. However, no portion of the syllabus should be neglected or ignored. Attempts should be made to revise limited standard textbooks multiple times rather than referring to multiple books causally. Regarding the study material, quality, not quantity, should be emphasized. There is a need to develop a habit of studying whole case laws on important areas of the syllabus. This may help in answer writing during the mains examination.? ?

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

The preparation for the general knowledge segment of the paper should not be left to be done at the end. Stepmotherly treatment of G.K. may be fatal to the success of the candidate. It is wrong to assume that by solid preparation of the law portion of the paper, one can go easy on the G.K portion of the paper. Preparing for G.K. requires daily study and daily tracking of the major national and international news and events. Making short notes regarding current affairs from the newspaper and monthly magazines is advisable. It is also not advisable to totally depend on one monthly magazine for all the major news and events. The current affairs of 6 months to one year before the exam should be prepared and revised. In DJS, there is a recent trend to ask current affairs questions regarding events that occurred only a few days before the exam. Hence, the current affairs should be tracked up till the exam date.

Regarding the static G.K., one standard book should be referred to. Here, an attempt should be made to give more emphasis to those portions of static G.K, which are more frequently asked in the previous year's question papers. These include: Geography; Books and Authors; Monuments and places; Important and Famous people, Legal G.K, etc. Traditionally, the DJS paper asks fewer questions from Biology and Physics. Occasionally, 1-2 questions may come from history. Legal G.K. is an important segment to be prepared for DJS. For example, the exam may include questions about famous legal personalities, law books, and law-related events.

For G.K., it would not be correct to depend solely on coaching material because, generally, coaching institutes focus more on the law aspect of the paper. It is essential to track news to solve tough current affairs questions regularly. One should be curious regarding current happenings. Certain segments of the newspapers can be given less importance, like political news, news regarding crimes, local news other than Delhi, news regarding entertainment/Bollywood, news regarding complex finance/business decisions, etc. Spending 45 minutes to one hour daily regarding preparation for G.K. is more than enough. This should compulsorily involve newspaper reading.

There is a recent trend to ask questions regarding leading current case laws, which were decided 1-2 years before the examination. Hence, there is a need to do an in-depth study of recent case laws, including decisions involving critical constitutional questions of law, etc.?????????????

MAINS

Read the previous year's questions repeatedly to understand the types of questions asked. It helps frame a bent of mind to answer similar questions that may come in future exams. Don’t assume that an area of the syllabus not previously asked in the examination will also not be asked in the future. The preparation should be wide, comprehensive, and broad in order to handle any questions that may be asked in future examinations. If you don’t know the answer to 2-to-3 questions in a mains question paper, it may indicate that you may not have prepared thoroughly for the exam.

Writing in direct, simple, and hard-hitting language is essential in the main examination. Unnecessary tough language should not be used because an attempt should be made to convey your answer in minimal words to the examiner. ?

The format of the DJS mains paper is not iron cast. As seen earlier, there may be changes in the exam pattern over the years. For example, in 2018, questions regarding books and authors were asked, whereas in 2017, no such questions were asked. Also, earlier, 5-6 long questions were asked in the law paper, whereas now 10-12 questions minimum are asked in each law paper. Hence, one should be prepared to answer questions in any given format or pattern. It would be wrong to assume that one can predict the paper. ?

INTELLIGENCE, HARD WORK AND SMART WORK

It is wrong to assume that just because one may be intelligent, one may clear the Judicial Examination with minimal effort. Solving question papers requires a person to know many details of subjects, which may not come naturally just because one may be intelligent. Hard work is almost mandatory for achieving success. However, hard work alone may not be sufficient. There is a need to do smart work along with hard work. This is because one needs to know how much effort to put in what area/subject to get the desired result. It is not advisable to mindlessly follow the advice of any person, including previous-year toppers. One needs to develop his own strategy by reading the previous year's question papers as the ultimate guide.

There is a need to think and deliberate about the possible questions and possible answers/model answers. One must ask oneself: why was this question asked earlier? Why is that topic important? What can come in future examinations if the previous year's trends are followed? One should never assume that one can predict the paper, but this deliberation and thinking may help to understand a few essential and major topics better. The strategy should be to read and think and revise and make notes and think and update notes. It is important to note that one should make notes only after understanding the topic involved completely. Otherwise, the notes so prepared would appear to be superficial.? ??

LANGUAGE

In DJS, generally, Hindi to English and English to Hindi translation comes for 60-80 marks. To successfully tackle this portion of the exam paper, one should do the following:

1.??? Read Hindi newspapers daily.

2.??? Maintain a diary of new Hindi words and their meanings to expand vocabulary.

3.??? Try practicing Hindi-English translation at least once or twice weekly for 6-8 months and try to understand and rectify the errors.

4.??? Try to quickly skim through basic Hindi grammar, Hindi pronunciation, Hindi sentence structuring formats, etc.

5.??? Attempts should be made to write simple and easy translations with easy words instead of using complicated words because the chance of error may be higher with going wrong with difficult words.

6.??? There is no need to do a verbatim translation of each and every word. The main aim is to convey the main idea of every sentence being translated.

7.??? Generally, legal language translation does not come in DJS; a standard Hindi-English translation is more common in DJS. ??????

8.??? Think and then only translate. It helps in avoiding mistakes. Don’t do translation mindlessly. Think twice and then translate, or else one may commit silly mistakes.

IMPORTANCE OF MAINS

Prelims is just a screening test that does not determine the final rank. Even the interview may be 2-5 minutes only (sometimes). And the interview marks have some correlation with the marks attained in the mains exam. Thus, the marks obtained in the main examination are a determining factor in achieving success in the Delhi Judicial Services Examination. Generally, the people with a low score in the mains examination have less chance to succeed even if they are called for the interview, as per my personal opinion. There may be exceptions to this rule. The main aim should be to achieve maximum marks in the main examination to secure a comfortable position in the final ranking.

TIPS FOR MAINS

1.??? Read the question thoroughly, then think and write the answer. Don’t just half-read the question and write the answer without any format or strategy. Generally use FIRAC strategy. This means: starting with briefly writing the facts, then writing the issue involved, then writing the law/rule involved, then writing the application of the law to the facts, and then writing a suitable conclusion/decision. It should be noted that maximum marks are for applying the law to the facts, and the maximum marks are for the appraisal of the facts and the law. Merely following a format but not correctly analyzing the problem involved will not fetch marks.

2.??? Write analytical answers and don’t just vomit law without any application to the facts involved.

3.??? Don’t make the examiner try hard to understand your answer and the logic behind the answer.

4.??? Use multiple logic instead of a single logic answer.

5.??? Connect the logic with the core theory behind the law involved.

6.??? Don’t give a merely argumentative answer. Back your answer with theory and jurisprudence. The main aim should be to write academically sound answers. ?????????????????

EXAM TIPS

1.??? Maintain daily/ weekly targets & fulfill & complete those targets at any cost. It helps reduce indiscipline & lethargy & laziness.

2.??? 1/2 -1 day off a week is ok.

3.??? Don’t get distracted by anything, for example, social media, friends, family, entertainment, etc.

4.??? You have to be ruthless & very strict in your preparation regime.

5.??? Self-motivation & self-drive is mandatory. Otherwise, you will not be able to achieve your goal.

6.??? Remember: the quality of material used to develop self-notes is very important. Unless your answer reflects A Grade quality & depth, it will not get more marks than others.

7.??? Single-minded focus is very important.

8.??? Anticipate, but don’t think you can predict the whole question paper. It helps in fetching a few extra marks.

9.??? The ideal mains answer should show knowledge of:

a.???? Strong logic.

b.??? Theory of law.

c.???? Practical bent of mind.

d.??? Academic strength through cases, etc.

e.???? Experience/ maturity.

f.????? Doing justice within the four corners of the law; for example, the procedure is the handmaid of justice, etc.

10. Connect logic with core theory.

11. Write compelling answers as opposed to general answers.

12. Make study a regular part of daily life. Then preparation does not feel to be a burden. ???????

BENEFITS OF PRACTICING MAINS ANSWER WRITING

1.??? It helps increase writing speed, i.e., the number of words written per minute.

2.??? Timing of mock answers creates awareness of existing writing speed and helps create minimum writing targets for all types of questions.

3.??? Increase the quality of answers over-a-period of time by identifying flaws.

4.??? It Helps develop an ideal answer format for all types of questions.

5.??? It Helps in understanding the current level of preparation.

6.??? It Helps in getting critical feedback from a law faculty.

7.??? It Helps develop a style of answer writing with more scoring.

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DON'T'S

1.??? Don’t just pile up books & keep buying books in the hope you will one day study them. Fix your sources (with excellent quality) & go over them/go through them multiple times. Be inquisitive, be curious & learn the law like a child eager to know more & more & clear all your doubts through law resources/ internet. What is important is what you know & what is in your brain & not what somewhere which you have once read & forgotten. The key aim is to internalize law, especially the core concepts of all laws that are there in the syllabus.

2.??? You will compete against yourself & not with others. You try to be the best version of yourself in the given preparation period.

3.??? Never overstress about 1 or 2 tough questions appearing yearly. Try to keep your preparation broad and comprehensive.

4.??? Don’t give up preparation easily.

5.??? Never prepare without a long-term strategy & a short-term strategy. Casual reading is a number. One should always think, will this text help me crack the after doing the exam-cost-benefit analysis.

6.??? There is no shortcut to success. This is no easy way to succeed. But, strategy (proper strategy) helps in increasing the score & also helps in selection in a lesser number of attempts.

7.??? Always give a serious attempt, or else you may lose interest.

8.??? Preparation is not a 100-meter race but a long marathon. It helps to do consistent & patient hard work over a long period of time. Don’t run out of steam or enthusiasm. If your why is strong (i.e., why u want to crack the exam is strong), you can do hard work over a long period. Your want for success should be very high.

9.??? Don’t mark exam study as a burden, or else you will not be able to do it for a long time. Instead, make it a regular part of your life. ????????

10. Push yourself to work harder and harder every day, but don’t make it a point of stress or tension.

11. Don’t just prepare for the Judicial Exam just because someone else is also appearing for it, nor prepare for it just because of mere peer pressure, societal pressure, or family pressure.

12. Give your best possible shot to the exam preparation. Don’t leave any scope for negligence or laziness. Otherwise, you may regret it if you cannot achieve success.

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