UPSC Exam Strategy
UPSC will be conducting the Civil Service preliminary examination in the month of June 18. Candidates who are preparing for the exam can check the subject-wise strategies mentioned below:
1. Art
and culture - This is an important
subject in recent times for both prelims
& mains. Aspirants should give special focus to paintings, architecture,
dance forms, martial arts, folk cultures, etc. Student can refer to class 11
NCERT's Introduction to Indian Arts, NIOS book on Art and Culture as well as
CCRT website to prepare this subject thoroughly
2. History
- According to the few past years trend, UPSC is focusing more on ancient and
medieval history, therefore, students should devote equal amount of time to
ancient, medieval as well as modern historyTopics related to Indus Valley
civilisation, jainism, buddhism, mughals and southern kingdoms are important
from ancient and medieval historyRevising old NCERT's is the best way to
prepare this subject for prelimsAlso, students can prepare their own notes to
revise effectively during last few days
3. Geography
- The focus should be on Indian geographyUnder world geography, map reading is
more than enough. In map reading, special focus should be on areas which were in
news recently. For example, Syria due to ISIS or South China Sea due to Island
issueMap reading is also important in Indian geography, as at least one
question always comes in Geography paper based on Indian mapNCERT books of
class 8 to class 12 are the best source to prepare this subject. Besides,
certificate physical and human geography by Goh Cheng Leong is also very useful
book for prelims preparation.
4. Polity
- Special emphasis should be on chapters related to fundamental rights,
directive principles on state policy, fundamental duties, president and
parliament are the most important a part from this students should focus on
issues in the news and try to relate them to the provisions in constitution. In
recent times, UPSC is also asking more and more questions from government
schemes and policies. For studying conventional polity students can refer books
by Subhash Kashyap and PM Bakshi
5. Economy
- Current pattern of questions in economics is mainly related to basic
concepts, current events, international organisations, etc.To be able to
attempt the questions from economy successfully, student should first clear the
basic concepts from class 11 and class 12 NCERTsApart from this, regular
updates from news especially related to RBI and Government initiatives are
mustOne of the best ways to study economics is to continuously link news
articles with basic concepts of economics for better understanding of the
subject
6. Environment
- This subject has become very important since 2013 when prelims for civil
services and forest services were mergedVariety of questions are asked from
this subject and hence, it needs a thorough preparationYet, some important
topics for this subject are location of national parks and wildlife
sanctuaries, endangered species in India and their habitat, various
international conventions on climate change, basic concepts related to ecology
and environmentClass 9 and class 10 ICSE board books on environmental education
are very helpful in preparation of this subject
7. Science
and technology - Generally aspirants neglect this subject while preparing for
the prelims. But this subject is equally important to score well in
prelimsNCERT books of class 11 and class 12 of physics, chemistry and biology
helps in preparing the basics of this subjectCurrent events related to science
and technology is another major area from where questions are askedStudents can
focus specially on space related news, India's achievements, any revolutionary
innovations and Nobel prizes.
8. Current
affairs is also a prominent part from
last two years as number of questions are asked from current affairs . Also,
any current affair related to any subject mentioned above becomes importantBest
way to cover current affairs is to regularly read prominent news papers and
magazines
