Strategy and Reading Materials for UPSC IAS,
IAS Coaching in Dehradun
If someone ask which is most important factor that decide your success if you are willing to work hard with all dedication…………There will be only one answer:Study material.
If you are preparing for civil services you have to develop skill to differentiate between general knowledge and general study.syllabus for all exam is almost same but standard of question is different in different exam.it means you have to understand what kind of right material can help you in upsc exam.
study material for IAS exam should……..
cover all relevant aspect of topic in which upsc is interested.
it should be simple & self explanatory.
it should be authentic otherwise your all hard wok will go in vane.
Many student relied on notes of various institutions but that is not correct way of preparation,.notes may be helpful for understanding some topic and to generate awareness about depth of topic.
Best practise would be to study from books even if you are doing some coaching classes. Atleast in your initial period of preparation you should develop habit of reading from books. Atleast once you should read from book.
Solving old question paper of UPSC IAS exam is most important aspect of strategy for clearing upsc ias pre exam.Any IAS coaching institute can help you teaching the basic material and even they may provide some test also but mark my word till you yourself donot solve previous year questions asked in upsc pre exam ,you will not have the feeling of level of questions.
we will suggest Strategy and Reading Materials for UPSC IAS, that will be helpful for pre and mains both.
Indian Polity :
The pattern of question in CSAT era is simpler than earlier .if someone prepare it very well strike rate may be very high 90-95%. it is simpler than other section of syllabus even if upsc ask difficult questions. The material availability is easy but you are required to do lots of practice to understand the language and meaning of question by practicing old paper of upsc.
BOOKS
Indian polity —M Lakshmikanth (TMH publication).A book that is good for pre and mains both in simple language.one must read it 5-6 times for better result. you can buy online too on amazon.
Introduction to constitution –D D Basu. Good and concise book,only issue is language.difficult to understand for fresher.
Democracy in india :NCERT (old or new) Contemporary world :NCERT.
Indian foreign policy….Rajiv sikari/muchkund dubey.
website of ministry of foreign affairs…http://www.mea.gov.in/
Latest bill and current issue—PRSINDIA—http://www.prsindia.org/
My gov : https://mygov.in/
Social economic programmes : Vikaspedia
Prime Minister of India website
HISTORY BOOKS FOR IAS EXAM
If you analyse the old papers of history ias pre exam you will find the increasing number of question on art and culture (difficult too). History consist of Modern history:easiest to correct either be factual or twisted ,strike rate may be 90%.in prelims one should cover from coming of European power to independence.but in mains mostly focused on history after 1857 to independence.
A Brief History of Modern India–spectrum publication (must read book.once read this book,then only any other book)
Modern india –12th old NCERT (BIPIN CHANDRA)
From Plassey to Partition and After: A History of Modern India-
Ancient India : No fixed pattern of question ,sometime upsc ask 5-7 question and make it difficult part to attempt .most of the time 3-4 question upsc ask in prelims.there is limitation to prepare it.no solid material by reading which one can ensure 100% strike rate.one should prepare it in such a way so that simple question can be attempted.
Ancient history :R S Sharma (old Ncert)
or New Ncert can be also helpful
Medieval india :UPSC ask either no question or 1-3 question. book by sumit sarkar (old ncert) is good.TN Board book for 11th class is very good book,if you want to prepare ancient and medieval history for ias prelims concisely.
Tamil Nadu board (11th class) is also very concise and useful book for ias/ukpsc.
Art & culture …nowdays very important topic not only for pre but also for mains.there is too much details given in every source.but by smart work ,output can be increased.TMH (Nitin Singhania book may be good choice)
Art and culture : spectrum , NIOS Material
website : http://ccrtindia.gov.in/
Geography for UPSC IAS EXAM
In general difficult to prepare due to large syllabus and scope of question.one has to prepare basic concept of geography (Lithosphere ,atmosphere,hydrosphere,biosphere) that account for 40% of question.most of the difficult and twisted questions are asked from this part.2nd part is indian geography which is easy questionwise as well as preparation wise.Nearly 50% question of geography are asked from this part.3rd is world regional geography from where 10-15% questions are asked.Map reading along with book reading is must to understand concept and to remember it longer duration.
Oxford student Atlas/geography through map (K.siddhartha) : Atlas visualisation should be in your habit whenever you study geography.there is so much data in Geography,you need not required to memorise them but analyse those data by correlating them with map.Mind map of location is very important.
Basic books : NCERT 11th & 12 th geography
You may prefer to use book written by Dr Khullar for 11th and 12th (saraswati publication) that is based on NCERT and up to date along with solution of question of NCERT.
Certificate Physical and Human GeographY : Goh Cheng Leong
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change …
INDIAN Economy books for UPSC IAS exam
This is one of the difficult section of general study.difficulty is because of candidates are not habitual to use economic term in daily life.Economic issues and their complexity makes it to understand clearly.clear connection among the principles,examples and issues and applied application is necessary to answer IAS prelims and mains questions.In general UPSC ask 15-20% question from this section.but if one include question of social economic policies and programmes it weight increases to nearly 25% in GS paper.
we can divide whole syllabus …
- Basic understanding of term , definition and concept.
- to use this basic to answer applied question.
- social and economic policies and programmes.
- current affairs related to economic issues
use Ramesh singh along with economic survey and internet.
Current affairs for Indian Economy
Investopedia
Arthapedia
Ecology and Environment
New pattern started in 2011 has added this section more prominently in ias pre exam paper.if you look at ias pre exam paper of 2011,2012,2013,2014,2015 ,you will find that continuously this section account for nearly 20-25% of pre paper.Many part of this section overlap with geography section.But distinguishing part of it from geography is current affairs based question along with issues related to climate change and global warming,biodiversity,government policies and action.
Current affairs of ecology and environment
NIOS ENVIRONMENT MATERIAL
ICSE BOARD : 11th ENVIRONMENT BOOK.
NCERT BOOK (12TH BIOLOGY, LAST 5 CHAPTER)
Textbook of Environmental Studies for Undergraduate Courses by Erach Bharucha.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
General Science
very difficult to social science background candidate.normally they try to avoid it.on other hand science graduate think their natural command over science and so do not much read about this portion.As result almost all candidate negelect it.they do not think to prepare it properly.Contribution of this section varies from year to year that makes its preparation more vulnerable. most of the time they ask basic concept and their application in common man life,but many times they correlate with current happening in science.Mixed of basic and current make it difficult to many to answer it correctly.If you look the pre paper ,you will find mostly question from Physics biology and chemistry.Either they do not ask from chemistry or ask 1-3 question from application part.In case of biology ,focus is on human body ,their function and disease and nutrition.
SCIENCE : 9th and 10th NCERT
Biology :11th and 12th NCERT
LUCENT /ARIHANT GENERAL SCIENCE
Science and Technology
The best strategy to prepare for science and technology section of GS3 paper is to analyse the trend ,areas and depth of questions asked in new pattern of upsc mains exam ie in 2013,2014,2015.If you look the paper you will simply find out that answering those question require just knowledge of current happening in science and technology and responses and policies of government of india and new policy initiative at world level.But questions are mostly related to Indian concern.
But to write in lucid and scientifically correct answer that a layman can understand you should have basic knowledge of each part of syllabus mentioned in paper . so prepare basic part of syllabus through INDIA YEAR BOOK chapter on science and technology and website of various scientific department.You can use books of spectrum and TMH for basic part.Basic part seems lengthy,so go through only important aspect of a chapter.For current happening you can see the science and technology news updates.
Remember for writing technically correct answer ,you must prepare basic part either through books or from internet.Read some article published in The hindu or TOI.
Science and Technology : Ashok kumar (TMH)
science and technology news updates.
Current Affairs FOR UPSC IAS EXAM
How to study current affairs? Should candidate read only one newspaper or one current affairs magazine or both? Should candidate consult multiple news paper and website.
Any news material on line or offline will help only if you have the basic understanding of subject matter.you have to develop ability to find out relevant news for ias exam.You have to find out critical element in news that is extra and you do not know about it. You have to understand news in holistic way so that you can write about it in 200 words.
There is multiple sources for current affairs that create confusion among new candidate.They think how one can read such large number of news.They waste large amount of time on reading current and forget about basic part.Remember basic part is very important for prelims.although all website take news from same original source but some trimming, cut and paste,add/subtract and present it.so try to read from authentic source and try to reduce number of sources.one should read Atleast The hindu and PIB.other papers depending on availability of time or weekly basis .
SAMVEG IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS
(Daily Analysis of Most Important News for IAS,PCS,Civil Services Exam from The Hindu,Indian Express,Business standard,PIB,PRS,IDSA,Frontline TOI and from GOI ministry.)
Daily News
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/mainpage.aspx
http://www.business-standard.com/
RS TV (BIG PICTURE, DESH DESHANTAR, SAROKAR).This is very important source where best expert discuss pros and cons of important issues and challenges that india is facing currently.