Shreyans Kumat Notes and Strategy UPSC:
Ecology and Environment
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1. Very important topic for Prelims - will continously fetch many questions as IFoS exam is clubbed with CSE

2. Sources I had used:
- Shankar IAS Notes
- Vaishali Ma'am Notes (Vajiram)
- Vision Monthly and Daily Hindu for Current Affairs
- Insight IAS Prelims compilation
- Govt. Websites and Wikipidea of Major National Parks

3. Approach:
- Tried covering important topics from Shankar and Vajiram notes and supplemented them with current affairs
- For Reserves, National Park etc. - tried remembering Biosphere Reserves, Ramsar Sites and Few Major National Parks through Maps - Remembered major Flora, Fauna and geographical features in the above. These can be used for option elimination during Prelims.

4. Also, went through websites of UNDP, UNEP, World Bank etc. to cover the initiatives in India.

5. Test Series for Environment:
- Previous Year Qs in Shankar Notes
- Sectional Test of Vision and Vajiram

Shreyans Kumat Notes and Strategy UPSC:
Modern History
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1. Attracts significant number of questions in Prelims every year. Important static portion which requires good number of revisions

2. Sources I had used:
- NCERT (Bipan Chandra)
- Parmar Sir Notes (Vajiram)
- Vajiram Yellow Book for Modern History
- Crash Course Videos online
- Tables at the end of Spectrum

3. Approach:
- Tried getting an idea about the basic timeline after two initial readings of NCERT and watching a ~3hr long modern history crash course video online
- Supplemented information from the Vajiram yellow book into Parmar Sir Vajiram notes
- Created Governor/Viceroy wise event list (as shown in sample notes) to easily revise and remember them
- Used Spectrum tables as the source of factual information not yet covered

4. Test Series for Modern History
- Sectional Tests of Vision and Vajiram
- PYQs from last 5 yrs UPSC papers

5. Modern History has a lot of things to remember. Discussion of storyline and questions with friends helped me a lot in getting confidence in the subject.

Shreyans Kumat Notes and Strategy UPSC:
Ancient and Medieval + Art & Culture
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1. Low level of cost benefit/input output ratio. But as it is a competitive exam, selective and effective study is preferred.

2. Sources I had used:
- Tamil Nadu XI NCERT
- Jain Sir Notes (Vajiram)
- Fine Arts NCERT
- GK Today Notes (Selective for Literature, Music, Dance etc.)
- ExamRobot for previous year questions
- Vajiram old yellow book (only some important pages)

3. Approach:
- Multiple revisions of TN NCERT, Fine Arts NCERT and Jain Sir Notes to memorize
- Made different documents like Ancient History Timeline, Maps (uploaded above) to aid in memory
- Used to write difficult words in Devnagri Hindi for better retention
- Used PYQP to identify prominent topics - like Bhakti-Sufi, Jainism-Buddhism etc.
- Analysis of options asked in PYQs for better coverage
- Used ExamRobot to identify other questions asked in those prominent topics in other UPSC exams.

4. Test Series:
- Sectional Tests of Vajiram and Vision

5. One of the most difficult portions for me as it required lot of sequences, dates, names etc. to be memorized. Took me multiple revisions but I still wasn't confident till the end. But these revisions did help in elimination of options in the final exam and I was able to do most of them correct.

6. As it is purely memory based topic, discussion and storytelling of timeline with friends can help in better retention.

7. Also, watched YouTube videos for dances, referred to Images of artifacts and visited National Museum in Delhi - were some of the efforts to aid my memory.

Shreyans Kumat Notes and Strategy UPSC:
Polity and IR
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1. Very important subject - attracts many crucial and interesting questions every year

2. Sources I had used:
- Laxmikant Latest Edition
- Ravindran Sir, Gautam Sir, Abhilash Sir, Abhey Sir, Iqbal Sir, Pavneet Sir Notes (Vajiram)
- Constitution Mobile App
- Bare Constitution Book
- Vision IAS Monthly for Polity and IR Current Affairs
- IAS Parliament for International Organisations
- Prslegislature website to fill gaps

3. Approach:
- Multiple readings of Laxmikant (almost whole book is notes, was futile to make notes out of it) and Class notes
- Had made notes for Constitutional and Non-Constitutional bodies (shared above) which were at the end of Laxmikant
- For Polity, Original Constitution and SC judgements were the go to guides for any final interpretation
- For Prelims, FR, FD, DPSP and basic terms were really important. Discussion and Analysis with friends used to help
- Current Affairs were also very important for both Polity and IR .Monthly magazines and compilations used to help a lot

4. Test Series:
- Sectional Tests of Vajiram and Vision
- PYQs from last 5 yrs UPSC Papers

5. Basic conceptual understanding is crucial for polity which develops from multiple readings. Questions in prelims majorly tries to confuse on that front. Post mock test analysis and discussion with friends aids to the understanding.