SECTION A
Essay
125 marks
Courage to accept and dedication to improve are two keys to success.
WRITE IN
90 min
1,000–1,200 words
Reading the topic
The topic names two qualities: the courage to accept reality, including one's failures and limits, and the dedication to improve steadily. The examiner wants an essay showing that success, for individuals, organisations and nations, rests on honest acknowledgement followed by sustained effort.
ThesisSuccess begins with the courage to face failure honestly and is completed by patient effort to improve, and neither alone is enough.
Dimensions to cover
- 1Individual: admitting a weakness takes courage and is the first step to correcting it
- 2Organisation: institutions that hide failures repeat them, while those that study them improve
- 3Nation: economic crises have led to reform only when governments accepted their scale openly
- 4Science: every experiment that fails is useful only if researchers accept and learn from it
- 5Mental health: acceptance without self-blame prevents despair and keeps the will to improve alive
Counter-view
- Some argue that acceptance breeds resignation and that success needs refusal to accept limits. The essay should distinguish accepting facts from accepting defeat
Open and close
- Open: Open with ISRO's chairman visibly moved after Chandrayaan-2's lander was lost in 2019, followed four years later by the same team celebrating Chandrayaan-3's landing
- Close: Conclude that acceptance gives the right starting point and dedication gives the distance, and success needs both
Where marks usually go
- Writing a motivational speech without analysis or counter-view
- Discussing only 'dedication' and neglecting the courage to accept
- Equating success only with money or exam results
Examples that fit
- CaseAfter Chandrayaan-2's lander crashed in 2019, ISRO analysed the failure and redesigned the lander; Chandrayaan-3 landed near the lunar south pole in August 2023.Indian Space Research Organisation, Chandrayaan-3 mission page
- HistoryIn 1991, facing a balance of payments crisis, India acknowledged the crisis and launched liberalisation in the July 1991 budget.Union Budget 1991-92 speech; Economic Survey 1991-92
- ThinkerThe prayer associated with theologian Reinhold Niebuhr asks for serenity to accept what cannot be changed and courage to change what can.Reinhold Niebuhr; Elisabeth Sifton, The Serenity Prayer (2003)
- CaseToyota's practice of kaizen, small continuous improvements based on frank reporting of problems, made it a model of manufacturing quality.Masaaki Imai, Kaizen (1986)