I cleared the prelims exam twice. In 2012, I cleared without
attending any classes, and by studying on weekends while I was working
full time. I learnt a few things along the way that I wish someone told
me earlier!
Tip 1. Do not read books from cover to cover.
When I was just starting out preparing for the UPSC exams, I would
pick up a book and starting reading it from the first page. I would
read till like the 30th page, get bored, and then put the book aside for
a while. When I picked it up later, I would forget what I read earlier.
This didn’t really help me progress with my preparation.
Instead, here is what I suggest you do– read a book with a specific
purpose. Before you pick up the book, you should have an answer to this
question– “what do I expect to learn from this book today?”. This will
help you navigate the book better. Go straight to the pages that will
give you what you need, read selectively, write notes and stash the book
away till you need it for a different topic!
For example, don’t just pick up Spectrum Modern India and start
reading it from the preface till the last page (that’s exactly what I
tried to do the first time). Instead, first figure out a list of topics
that you need to cover in modern Indian history. Then pick up your book
to tackle a specific topic, like “Causes and Consequences of the 1857
Revolt”. That way, you spend your time more purposefully. You will be
able to better track what you have read and what you have yet to cover.
Tip 2. Laxmikanth’s Indian Polity is an exception.
All rules have exceptions. Laxmikanth is one book that you could read
from cover to cover. This book is organized as per the requirements of
the prelims exam, and has helped me answer 16 questions in 2012 and 8-10
questions in 2013*.
But two important things to note here: read this book repeatedly, and pay attention to detail.
UPSC likes to ask us “edge case” questions and questions that we
could easily mark wrong if we read the book only superficially. For
example, 2013 Prelims had a question on whether the Attorney General can
be a member of a Parliamentary Committee. It is difficult to remember
this if you only read Laxmikanth once. Another question was on whether
nominated members of the Rajya Sabha can vote in Vice Presidential
elections. The one-time-reader is susceptible to marking this
incorrectly unless attention was paid to the detail that nominated
members cannot vote in Presidential elections, but can vote in VP
elections.
*Note: I am recommending Laxmikanth just because that is the book
that I used for Polity. If you have an equivalent book by some other
author, that should do as well. Although, I also read DD Basu, but found
that a) it was more analytical/dense, b) not as well organized as
Laxmikanth, so harder to look for specific things.
Tip 3. Economy questions are the easiest to get right
Economy may be daunting to some, but the questions are based on your
conceptual understanding of macroeconomics. If you have this conceptual
clarity, you can answer every single question accurately, without
having to memorize boatloads of data! So invest time in understanding
the concepts and analyzing how all the parts fit together.
What to study in economy?
1*. GDP (factor cost/production method, market price/expenditure
method, income method. Don’t just read definitions, analyze! When do we
use one method vs. another? How will each method give us a different
value?)
2. GNP (compare with GDP. When are the two different?)
3. NNP/NDP (why deduct depreciation?)
4*. Inflation (demand pull and cost push. Structural. Headline and core.
CPI and WPI. Phillips curve, stagflation and skewflation. Why has
inflation remained persistently high in India?)
5*. Monetary tools to combat inflation (there is always a question from
this area) – CRR, SLR, Repo, open market operations, government
securities and treasury bills.
6. Nominal vs real GDP/GNP/Net National Income etc. (i.e., current prices vs constant prices.)
6a. Base year selection (why does this matter? Why did we recently
update to 2004-05 and are now planning to update to 2011-12? Aren’t we
eroding the value of “constant” prices if we keeping changing the base
year frequently?)
6b. GDP deflator. Just the definition here.
7*. MSME industries- also just the definition and current thresholds
8*. Budget process (you may have this covered in Polity already. Look at FRBMA goals also)
9*. Deficits in the budget- fiscal, primary, revenue, primary revenue, effective revenue
9a. Deficit financing (monetizing vs borrowing)
10. Balance of Payments- current account and capital account.
11*. Current Account Deficit. Financing it with capital inflows.
12. FDI, FII, ECBs.
13. Capital account convertibility
14. Currency- fixed vs floating. LERMS (Liberalized Exchange Rate Management System).
15. Why is the rupee in a free fall? How is this good/bad for India? Why
are some countries competitively devaluing their currencies (“currency
war”)? NEER and REER if you have the time.
16*. Demographic Transition Theory (another area which frequently shows up in the exam)
17. Banking: all the stuff under
#5 above
+ base rate, priority sector lending, NPAs, SARFAESI Act. No need to go
into excessive detail. Read any conceptual stuff that shows up in the
newspapers.
18*. National Manufacturing Policy (asked in both Prelims and Mains last
year). Maybe also look at the National Minerals Policy this year.
19. Savings and investment rates (both expressed as % of GDP). First
understanding how they are different. India has a higher investment rate
than savings rate. How is that possible?
20*. Taxation- may be important this year due to GST. (direct and indirect. progressive and regressive. Pigovian. VAT, GST)
21*. RGESS may show up this year. Keep on the lookout for such current-affairs related topics.
22*. Inclusive growth. Maybe focus on gender inclusion.
23. Agricultural subsidies, PDS, Food Security.
Now, whenever you pick up any book on Economy, instead of reading it
cover to cover, you can use this list to study according to Tip 1 above.
I would recommend Ramesh Singh’s book, just because it is organized
better than other Economy books.
After reading all the above concepts, understand how things link up.
How are growth–inflation–fiscal deficit–poverty–rupee value–current
account deficit etc. all related? If RBI increases the CRR, for example,
what effect would it have on all of these?
There were around 10 questions from Economy in both 2012 and 2013!
Note: I have left out several things you find in Economy books, like
Planning, details on Indian Agriculture and Industry etc. I do not think
these are as important, but you can cover them if you like Economy, or
if you have a lot of time in your hands.
Tip 4. Tackle History smartly
I did not read Ancient history. I feel like it is too vast with a ton
of facts to memorize, plus only 1-2 questions ever show up. So the
return on investment is low.
Rather, focus on Modern India and study it thoroughly. By thoroughly,
I do not mean picking up a History book and reading it cover to cover.
Instead, split the syllabus into chunks and read+revise each chunk
smartly.
What to study in History?
- Political developments: starting from the Regulating Act of 1773 to
Indian Independence Act of 1947. Pay attention to detail because this is
another area where “edge-case” type questions are asked. Sample
questions– when did Communal Electorates begin? When was the Central
Assembly made bicameral? And you can have multiple options questions
like– Which of the following were introduced in the Minto-Morley
reforms? You will be given some 5-6 options, and given permutations of
those to pick from.
- 1857 to Pre-congress: there are some facts here about early political organizations etc.
- Pre-Gandhian INC: Bengal Partition and Swadeshi movement, Moderate vs. Extremist Debate
- Early Gandhian: Champaran, Ahmedabad Mill Strike, Kheda
- Gandhian INC: this is the biggest chunk. Non-Cooperation Movement,
Civil Disobedience Movement, Round Table Conferences, Quit India
Movement etc.
- Non-INC / “parallel threads” in the Freedom struggle: revolutionary movements, tribal and Peasant uprisings, Ambedkar, INA etc.
- Pay special attention to the participation of women and Indians abroad.
- Also go through social reforms that were happening in parallel, cover all religions.
How to study History?
Don’t just read through Spectrum like a novel. Read purposefully.
Make a one-page note for each event, where you note
Causes-Consequences-Important Personalities. At the end, you will have
around 40 pages of these which will make revision more efficient. Revise
often.
Studying Indian History this way should help you answer another 8-10 questions.
Tip 5. Focus on the basics for Geography
Study physical geography well, because it is conceptual and therefore
will not fail you during the exam. You should be able to get at least 5
physical geo questions on the exam if you study the “Fundamentals of
Physical Geography” NCERT XI textbook thoroughly.
Cover latitudes and longtitudes, layers of the atmosphere, pressure
belts, types of rainfall (convection, orographic, frontal), monsoons,
ocean currents, jet streams, different types of rainfall etc. Pretty
basic stuff.
I know geography can be covered more thoroughly than that, but I hate
memorizing stuff so I didn’t go any deeper into things like names of
dams, tributaries etc.
Tip 6. Study the above areas in depth, and the rest in breadth
The rest of the areas in Paper 1, like environment, culture, social issues etc. do
not
have a predictable base from which questions are asked. So you have to
cast a wider net here. Don’t stress out too much about these, just stay
curious and read whatever you can lay your hands on. Like wikipedia
articles, coaching centre notes, blogs etc.
For environment, Vajiram’s booklet was nice and concise. I also
searched online for endangered and critically endangered species in
India. Then I looked up to see what the basic criteria are for
classifying species as “endangered” or “vulnerable”. I also searched for
some government initiatives, like Project Tiger, Project Snow Leopard
etc. There were some 4 questions I could attempt based on this.
Tip 7: Guess smartly, but not indiscriminately
After you have attempted all of your “sure shot” questions in Paper
1, you will have plenty of time left in your hands! Spend this time to
go back to other questions.
Now, follow this process to smart guess:
1. Read the question carefully. More importantly, study the options carefully.
2. Can you confidently eliminate any of the options based on your preparation?
2. Can you eliminate any options based on common sense?
3. If you have eliminated at least 2 options, only then should you guess
between the remaining two. Otherwise, leave the question. This
restraint is essential, unless you want to end up with a negative score.
See this example from Prelims 2013:
Question: Due to improper/indiscriminate disposal of old and used
computers or their parts, which of the following are released into the
environment as e-waste?
1. Beryllium
2. Cadmium
3. Chromium
4. Heptachlor
5. Mercury
6. Lead
7. Plutonium
Options:
a) 1,3,4,6 and 7
b) 1,2,3,5 and 6
c) 2,4,5 and 7
d) 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7
Now I didn’t read up about this, so I had no clue. BUT common-sense
suggests that Plutonium, which is a heavy, unstable and radioactive
element, cannot be released. So if I eliminate option 7, I am left with
only one possible answer, which is b!
There are always 2 or 3 such questions, so be on the lookout.
Tip 8: How many questions should you attempt in Paper 1?
Obviously, you must first attempt all the questions that you are sure
about. If you focus on Polity, Economy, History and Geography as
mentioned above, you will be able to attempt at least 40 questions. That
should give you around 60-80 marks, based on your accuracy. Now the
challenge is to take this up to 100+ marks.
In your second round, go back and attempt all the questions where you
can reasonably eliminate at least 2 options. You should be able to get
another 40 questions that way. Accounting for negative marking, this
should get you well above 100 marks.
At the very end, I generally mark a few questions where I have a good “gut feeling” too, but do this at your own risk!
Tip 9: One simple rule for Paper 2: PRACTICE!
You won’t believe how many people end up running out of time because
they get stuck on one math question, or read a passage for too long
trying to figure out one ambiguous question. All your timing woes can be
avoided if you practice enough.
I suggest you set this as a baseline: practice as many tests as you
need to, until you are able to consistently score above 150 in CSAT.
What books should you read? I got the TMH manual for CSAT in 2011, it
was pretty good. It had some 8 tests in the end, which were pretty
good. It looks like TMH’s latest edition is much fatter and much
pricier! I haven’t tried any other manuals, but look through all of them
and make your own call.
