Different things work for different people. I was really worried after CSAT was scrapped, and I thought the only way to clear prelims was to remember as many small details as possible. As a consequence, to ensure I actually remembered all that I thought I should remember, I started preparing questions for several topics.
For example, I have summarised Spectrum (for History), NCERTs (6-12) for Geography, DD Basu and Subhash Kashyap for polity, and Shankar IAS’s environment book in question form, usually chapter wise (all of these question files are included under relevant topics in the links above). For (i), Bipan Chandra’s ‘History of Modern India’ (I think this used to be an NCERT) is useful. This was the first book I read for my UPSC preparation. However, I didn’t make notes, and forgot most of it. Closer to the exam, I googled all the major incidents between 1717 and 1857, and made short notes on them (these include Carnatic wars, Battles of Plassey, Panipat, Buxar, Anglo-Mysore wars, Anglo-Maratha wars, and several important treaties, charters, and social reform movements). I consolidated all of these into brief notes in a timeline form.
You can find this. I think for the 1717-1857 part, this is enough for GS (the timeline notes go on beyond 1857, and till 1947; however, the notes in the link above are not exhaustive for period after 1857, and should be used only as a ready reference. Please see below). Once you’re done with all of this, a good way to revise is to download the meticulously prepared by Mrunal Patel, and available on his website.
He has taken questions from past History optional mains papers, and also from annual examinations of various reputed universities around the country. I copy pasted all of these into a word document, and you can find them. I didn’t write answers to any of these question because I didn’t have the time, but after I was done preparing World History, I ensured that I knew the answers to all of these. If you can do the same, I think there isn’t very much else that UPSC can ask from.
Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian subcontinent);. Factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India). Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc.,. Geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features (including water bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.
Salient features of world’s physical geography. Note: almost every year in prelims, there are some questions for which you need to know the world map. These could be locations of countries, rivers, famous landforms, seas etc. I found great website that lets you make a game out of trying to remember the world map. They have region-wise graphs for different countries, rivers, landforms etc., and close to prelims, I tried to ensure that I was doing this once a day. It helped. Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and. Developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies. Effects of globalization on Indian society. Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism. I made a list of prominent international organisations, and made short notes on each of them, focusing on their structure and impact on India.
My notes are. (I don’t think these notes are exhaustive; as with everything else, closely follow any conferences/ summits/ bilateral or multilateral meets of international organisations, and for whatever organisation is in the news, know at least the basics such as its functions, members, when it was founded, important recent policy announcements etc.)General Studies 3. This is too general. But try and remember key trends/ facts about each of the keywords. ARC report number 3; CAG report titled ‘Performance Audit of Disaster Preparedness in India’. Summary notes. Linkages between development and spread of extremism.
Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security. Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its prevention. Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism. Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate. Googled keywords from each bullet point above, and read whatever looked interesting. Consolidated notes, for each of the bulleted topic above. I’m mentioning two sources I read that I still remember:.
Read a few chapters from book by Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, titled ‘India’s Contemporary Security Challenges’. I don’t think this is essential, but if you some time, it’ll help you develop a good perspective. IDSA task force report titled ‘India’s Cyber Security Challenges’, available for free onlineGeneral Studies 4. After these two attempts at reading something for Ethics, I thought maybe it would be better to see what kind of questions UPSC asks. I printed the GS 4 papers for the last two years, and took two timed tests. After writing these, I was confident that there is no need to study anything at all for GS 4. The paper is extremely general, but one needs to have good writing speed.
So, in the end, my preparation for Ethics was simply writing 6 timed tests in total, 2 of which were past year UPSC papers, and 4 were from the Vision IAS test series. Some general tips:. Please don’t use jargon. Some people like to use words like ontological/ de-ontological, but I think one should write simple answers. Remember, the person checking your paper will not be an ‘ethics’ specialist (whatever that means), so is extremely unlikely to know what these theoretical terms mean. Every year, UPSC asks questions based on some key qualities for public service.
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They usually ask you to give examples of things like ‘fortitude’ and ‘magnanimity’. If your vocabulary is weak, you should try and read the question in Hindi as well. More often than not, it should be clear to Hindi speakers what the word means once they read the translation. I always tried to start my case studies with a brief summary (1-2 lines) of the dilemma at hand, and then very quickly outlined the possible ways forward. Only then I got to answering the actual sub-parts of the case study questions. Again, to re-iterate, please be very mindful of the time in the Ethics paper. Section A in 2015 paper was very lengthy, and I could only complete the paper in time because I was very strict about allocating only 7 minutes per 10 marks (I used a stop watch in all my papers for this very reason).