GS-1: Important areas, Strategy and sources
Greetings everyone
I’ve highlighted a simple way of tackling General studies-paper-01 with all mindmaps, sources and strategy.
Following Mind-maps(they are not exhaustive) will help in better understanding of topics-subtopics:-
UPSC Mains paper says: “The questions are likely to test the candidate’s basic understanding of all relevant issues, and ability to analyze, and take a view on conflicting socio‐ economic goals, objectives and demands. The candidates must give relevant, meaningful and succinct answers.”
Sources and Strategy: -
INDIAN art & Culture
Fine Arts book(11th), NIOS art and culture book
CCRT,
Read History NCERT’s (only art and culture related topics)
Strategy:
Read only a few chapters from each book that are related to Sub-Topics. For ex, you have to read only Chapters 2 and 3 from Class-12th:- theme-2 book, All chapters from theme-1(clas12th), Class-6th and 7th book, specific ones from class-8th
Try completing Art and culture simultaneously when studying History portions. it’ll be helpful
Modern Indian Hisotry and Post-independence consolidation:
NCERT’s(must read),
Bipan Chandra: Strugg for Indep(revise 2-3times)
Spectrum by rajiv Ahir
Chapter 6-12(from Post-indep consolidation) of B chandra
Strategy:
focus on all important events and contributions of personalities that are significant and have had important impact on nation till now.
Looking at the kind of questions they are asking from this part of the syllabus, your focus should be on understanding basic events from NCERT and keeping an eye on relevant current events. For example, Netaji Bose files were declassified in August 2016 and there were many articles comparing his contribution with Gandhiji and Nehru. Hence there was a question on Mains.
Every question from history is relatively easy and demands your analytical perspective. So while preparing these topics, try to read them analytically.
While answering, always answer them point wise. It look neat and clear to the examiner.
World history:
Norman Lowe/ Arjun Dev
Old history- class-10th world history
Indian Society and allied topics:
Indian Scoiety - 11th-12thNCERT or if time permits then Ram Ahuja(very good book) and Newspaper(indispensable source)
Other topics are quite dynamic in nature and they have no one-stop source to follow. try sccavenging newpaper, reports, magazines for these topics.
For Globalisation and women related topics, Ram Ahuja would suffice.
Strategy:-
These topics are quite generic in nature. So, the best way to prepare them is by understanding the basic concepts and terminolgies, underlying these topics. For this, Ram Ahuja and Ncerts are good books to begin with.
Keep track of these topics in newspaper, reports, magazines(yojana, kurukshetra will help). They’ll help in bridgin gthe gap.
Flow-charts are bonus if you can find them or write in your answers.
You’ve to use Internet alot for these topics. Wikipedia and google will form the base of your prepartion. Keep in touch with all the minsitry websites. For ex: MWCD, MHFW, NITI AAYOG, DOWN-to-EARTH etc.
Geography:
NCERT-Class-11th-12th books.
G.C. Leong
Savinder Singh(phy geog)(i preferred this book)(it’s totally optional)
Strategy: -
Understand the core conepts very well and try to relate it with dynamic topics.
Chapters on Climate change, geographical features, geophysical phenomenon are important. These topics are making the headline always. Try to cover them with fulll clarity.
Digrams and flow-charts are must for Geography questions.
Overall i’d say:
GS-01 is very scoring comparatively(aspirants have scored more than 140+). Sources are readily availibale and topics are generic in nature. So, try to complete these portions very well and asap.
A common mistake most of the aspirants commit is reading so many books for a single topic.This mistake costs both your time and ability to remember things clearly and concisely.
Stick to a single source and read it again and again. Remember The Same Source. Avoid the temptation of doing ‘Research’ on a topic.
Always Remember – UPSC tests Basic Understanding. Not mastery over a topic.
Make short notes on each topic. It is while making notes that readers tend to do RESEARCH and scout various sources. Stick to one book even if you are not 100% satisfied with it.
Remember that old saying? – Jack of all trades, master of NONE. If you try to do Research, most probably your name won’t appear in the Final List. I guarantee it.
For Paper-II (i.e GS-1) being thorough with Current Events plays a crucial role in enabling you to acquire analytical skills.
Hope this helps
~BRATMAN (https://www.quora.com/profile/Virat-Mittal-4)