It was mid 2006 when I met Randhir Kumar, (AIR 3; CSE 2005) the very next day the CSE result was announced.
For a youngster who come from a small town of Bihar, (Ahiriya, check if I have spelt it correct) success in Civil Services Examination was no small achievement.
He admitted in his prior attempt, he had half-hearted effort but once he cleared Preliminary Examination this time, he left no stone unturned and for both his optional subjects-Public Administration and Geography, he joined the leading institutes.
He did not forget to acknowledge the valuable contribution these teachers made in his preparation.
Sharing the secret of success he said, just before Mains I became very selective and did a lot of guesswork-what to read and what to leave. But one thing he did was whatsoever he read, he learnt it thoroughly.
The key point here is once you prepare yourself in a nice way, you will have all the time before examination to do some intelligent guesswork and reap the benefit.
Outcome: you will be able to achieve much more than what you are capable of.