Hi friends,

This is an initiative by myself, AIR 23 and Abhisek, AIR 369 to guide Chennai based aspirants. I'd personally guide students wrt Geography. Abhisek has scored 317 in History optional making him the topper. He'll be helping in history.

Hello Friends,

Today I'll start by sharing some of my History answer scripts to help aspirants get some idea on how to approach to answer writing in history

Hello guys.
I never expected to score 317 in optional ... Though confident of scoring good in paper 2.
2017 mains(my first) I scored 284 ( 121 163).

Paper 1
Standard books
Upinder Singh- Ancient India
IGNOU BA + JL MEHTA + NCERT - medieval
This year I focussed more on maps.
And finally worked out last 20 years question papers to make sure no topics was left..

I didn't refer any coaching material .... Neither joined any test series at Balyan or any other in Delhi..

Had my own notes and revised them regularly and practised old questions..

Paper 2
Modern India - India's struggle for independence + B L Grover + old questions

World- Norman Lowe + Jain and Mathur + Crash course history ( YouTube)..

If you see people I didn't do anything new or extraordinary... I just kept it simple...
Ensure that my answer has few facts , Historical sources, diagram and link with contemporary world that's it...plus attention to map part

Tips on Prelims

Hi guys,
This is Rishab. I've cracked Prelims in all my three attempts. I'll share my last month strategy with you guys.

1. Solve as many mocks as possible. And if you've solved them, then revise them periodically. I had solved somewhere around 50 mocks and revised them twice.

2. Work on your map daily. Every year geography has so many questions on map. Don't skip map for the next 30 days. Cover India and World map thoroughly in the next 30 days.

3. Analyze your plus and minus. Know your accuracy level in getting the number of questions right and wrong

4. In the last one week, focus on Polity and History. They're factual subjects and you need to remember facts accurately. Hence learn them thoroughly in the last few days such that you can remember.

5. Geog, envi and economy are conceptual ones. So complete them now when the stress level is low. Later the stress can get very high which may lead to a situation of underperformance

6. Don't compare yourself with any of your friends. That'll do more harm. You make a plan and stick to it.

7. Finally be confident about your prep

Tips for Prelims :

1. Practice doing a mock with some sort of disturbance. You'll be writing test in govt schools with no working fan, horn sound, dancing tables etc. Get used to these.

2. When you're writing the test, the invigilator will come and give the attendance sheet to fill in. Don't make mistake in that. Also there's no guarantee that you'll get the entire 2 hrs. The time may be 5-10 mins short. So be mentally prepared to face any challenge in the examination hall

3. Enter the hall just half n hour before the commencement. If you go there you'll find people reading books which you've never heard of. Ignore them.

4. Eat a healthy BF. Possibly something less oily and spicy. Keep you well hydrated from now itself. Decide your meal diet from now till the exam. Don't eat oily stuff or outside food.

5. Revise a lot. This one month of revision = year long prep. So revise properly. Don't read anything new now. No use.

Apply for CAPF AC Exam. It is comparatively very easy. Just two papers. And the exam is on August. Before that prelims results will also come. Its a good back up. This year I've got qualified for CAPF AC interview. The post is good for those who want to get into the uniformed services. You can prep for CSE even after getting into CAPF AC. There's one year gap between the declaration of results and the start of training. So don't miss the opportunity.

There's age criteria with 25 for general and 28 for OBC. So note on that. Also, it's a technical position. Medical test will be conducted. This year I had seen people getting eliminated due to low height, low chest expansion etc. If these aren't things bothering you, you can give a try. The interview for CAPF will also give you a glimpse of how CSE interview will happen. It's beneficial in multiple sense. So do apply before the deadline

Seeing the poll results History looks like an hard nut for all. Let me share a very simple and effective strategy.

1. Focus Revision on Modern India- You get minimum 7-8 questions from this... And particularly Gandhian Era, peasant revolts, Governor Generals and Socio Religious movement

2. Those who haven't touch Ancient/medieval. Don't go for it know.

3. Focus on art and culture particularly
Architecture, north eastern Dances, festivals and tribe. Be thorough with
Sikhism and 10 Sikh Gurus, books of Dara shikoh.

4. Go thorough Vision pt 365 for art and culture

5. Finally solve all previous year Questions from History ( very important) to know variety of questions + there are repetition in history (polity to some extent).

Revision- smart revision is key guys
All the best!

Hi Guys,

This is a late night update. Hope you people are burning your midnight oil. Keep on doing it. Don't give up at this stage.

There's a question about what's a good attempt? How many questions should one ideally do?

My strategy :

First reading : Usually 35-40 question with an accuracy of 90%. This is the most crucial part. In this I'll read all the 100 questions, mark the right ones, eliminate the wrong 1-2 options in other questions and eliminate those questions in which I've no idea

Second reading: 35-40 questions. Usually these are the questions n which I've eliminated two options and struck with two. The probability says 50% will be correct. With correct guesses this percentage will improve to 70%

Third reading : those questions with just one option eliminated. And those questions where I've a gut feeling about the right answer. Mark in such a manner that 50% of questions you get correct.

So in total, 85 for civils and 90+ for forest is must.

Now, how to know our accuracy level?

Follow the simple steps

1. Solve any mock. During the marking process, put some sign adjacent to the question. *, # or anything to mark that as your first attempt, second attempt etc.

2. Now after checking the entire key, go attempt wise analysis. See what's your accuracy in the first reading attempted questions, second one etc

3. Attempt more no of mocks to practice and improve your score.

All the best guys. Goodnight.

Seeing the poll results History looks like an hard nut for all. Let me share a very simple and effective strategy.

1. Focus Revision on Modern India- You get minimum 7-8 questions from this... And particularly Gandhian Era, peasant revolts, Governor Generals and Socio Religious movement

2. Those who haven't touch Ancient/medieval. Don't go for it know.

3. Focus on art and culture particularly
Architecture, north eastern Dances, festivals and tribe. Be thorough with
Sikhism and 10 Sikh Gurus, books of Dara shikoh.

4. Go thorough Vision pt 365 for art and culture

5. Finally solve all previous year Questions from History ( very important) to know variety of questions + there are repetition in history (polity to some extent).

Revision- smart revision is key guys
All the best!

From today I will start posting Relevant facts , topics improtant for Prelims 2019

Travels in Moghul empire - is based the work of Francois Bernier.

He stayed in Mughal court as physician of Dara Shikoh

Smart food initiative by ICRISAT

Nongkrem Dance Festival
(held annually in November) is a five day festival which is celebrated for the harvest thanksgiving by the Khasi tribe.

Communal Award is also called as Lothian committee or Indian Franchise committee

The Global Drylands Initiative by International Union for Conservation of Nature's efforts to influence
the global discource on Land Degradation and Sustainable Land Management.

The Speaker of Lok Sabha is the ex-officio President of all the Forums except the Parliamentary
Forum on Population and Public Health wherein the Chairman of Rajya Sabha is the ex-officio
President and the Speaker is the ex-officio Co-President.

Based on the poll I've found Economics is where people are facing a lot of difficulties. So here's a plan for you guys

1. Total 12-16 questions. Few questions from core economics (both conceptual and terminology based), one or two question on any report released, two to three questions on any govt schemes, budget and economic survey based questions, one or two in agriculture, industry, Current affairs etc.

How to cover core economics easily

1. Use shankar ganesh to brush up the easier concepts

2. Go to Mrunal.org and download his PPT on economics. They're one of the best freely available resources for economics. Revise those PPT.

3. Solve 3-4 mock tests on Core economics. I've solved Vision ias and ShankAr ias mocks. You can also do that. Check the syllabus and solve them. If already solved then revise them.

4. Solve UPSC CSE PYQP on economics. Use Disha's past 25 years solved Qp book for that.


Current affairs
1. Read budget speech and all the important schemes announced in it. Don't just focus on read the schemes but go to their website and see them in detail

2. If you've made economics based daily CA notes well and good, revise them. If not, pick up any two institutes prelims CA module and revise them properly. This is just a shortcut but you can click few questions.

Govt schemes
1. Your focus must be on the latest schemes in the budget or so. So focus more on these. Again, coaching institute booklets are available. One can refer them if personal notes are not available

Reports
1. Most of them will be covered by current affairs modules. If not, then download reports module pdf from iasparliament.com

Some tips
1. Go to Rbi.org and check the FAQ's and recent announcements. Every year one question wrt RBI or banking does appear. So checkout Rbi website once.

2. Use arthapedia.com for recent updates on any schemes. It's a website run by the IES officers. So it'd be very helpful for you guys.

All the very best.