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“I have 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!
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–
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.
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 another author, that should do as well. I also
read DD Basu, but found that a) it was more analytical/dense, b) not as well organized
as Laxmikanth (it is good for Mains, though).
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?)
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
10. Balance of Payments- current account and capital account. 11*. Current Account
Deficit. Financing it with capital inflows.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Also go through social reforms that were happening in parallel, cover all religions.
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.
Cover latitudes and longitudes, 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.
1. Read the question carefully. More importantly, study the options carefully.
2. Can you confidently eliminate any of the options based on your preparation?
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.