Hii everyone I will start with geography optional. There are few things I feel which are very necessary to be addressed.
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Geography Optional Preparation Strategy by Anjali Shrotriya -AIR 44
Fear of geography optional Often I have seen aspirants thinking that geography is a very low scoring optional. And with the huge syllabus its very difficult to ace this subject I would like to clarify that all the optionals have same range of marks and even the distribution. Geography is no exception. People every year are clearing with geography optional and will continue to do so. Infact the best part of geography is we have already read it in our class 9th and 10th. So there is an element of familiarity. Please don’t fear the subject. It is a very good optional and a very interesting one. Done in a right manner it will yield a lot of benefit.
Why geography? 2.1 It has a huge overlap with GS. Your some topics of essay, GS 1 geography and GS 3 Agriculture , Environment and ecology , Disaster management is taken care of. Also in prelims it helps a lot. Plus interview too. 2.2 Geography also because one can draw a lot of maps and diagrams in Geography which gives a good impression to examiner. 2.3 As a subject its very relatable. What we study in geography is what is actually happening around us. So it makes the subject very interesting.
Biogeography and Environment geography: Savinder singh and Rupa made simple books.
Perspectives: RD Dixit and majid hussain. Referred sudipta adhikari for some topics.
Models and theories: Majid hussain and K siddharth
Regional planning: No book.
Population and settlement: No book.
Economic geography: No book
Paper 2:
Referred DR Khullar book amd RC Tiwari for Indian geography.
My teachers and coachings that I took help from.
Shabbir sir: Foundation class , Mains support program (2018,2019,2020,2021), Mains enrichment classes( 2018 2019 and 2020) , Geography mapping classes. My base was very solid. Thanks to shabbir sir. He is ana amazing teacher. I was fortunate to be a prt of his closed group. He checked all my answers and made me write almost 700 answers in a span of 2 years. I alqays joined his classes when I couldnot clear prelims im 2018 and 2019.
Sachin Arora sir : Did World geography classes ( was an eye opener), Masterstroke test series (one of the best ) , attended few classes of topics I found difficult. Followed him for this attempt on unacademy as well. He has amazing diagrams . I literally copied them in my notes.
Atyab Ali sir ( IASBABA): Got associated with him in 2020 and 2021. He was kind enough to go through my answers and pint the nitty gritties. Also last year subscried to IASBABA geography foundation class and saw the videos before mains results came out. Atyab sir has a novel way of teaching and I made notes out of his class. Very nicely he has dealt with all topics. Went through all the test papers and solutions of their test series. He is always approachable for all doubts and guidance. He helped me a lot with my interview too.
Shankar IAS: Took Karthikeyan sir’s test series this year. I couldnot write tests but went thru all the solutions. I found the solutions and questions very good.
Special mention: Satyam Choudhary Sir ( IRS 2020 Batch) : He was a constant support . He went through my answers and gave me a perspective on answer writing I was unaware of. His knowledge and interlinking is great in geography. I learnt a lot from him.. Shikha Vatsa madam: She helped a lot with my answer writing and prelims. Dimple nankani madam: I had all her notes of geography. Very concise and very helpful. I used her notes for all the topics almost. She helped me with PYQs and all my doubts.
It might seem a lot. But this was across for 4 years. I always wanted to improve and get that 1/2 marks more. So I tried to learn from all the teachers around. It worked for me. But its not necessary that one has to join all the classes. People manage to get top scores even without coachings. For me I always needed some external push hence I took all the help I wanted.
Toppers and blogs I followed:
Mudit Jain sir ( Ex-IPS and IRS now): I was fortunate to know him. His blog had all the information needed to start geography and not just geography but for all other GS subjects too. Pls go thru the blog once. I used his handwritten concise notes too for some topics. Also he has shared his geography copies. Pls go thru them as well.
Pratham Kaushik sir’s strategy on geography is very good. I think there is a DKT Talk and a post on insights regarding it.
This is the most important part any optional. Once the basic books and notes are prepared one can move towards answer writing. The best source of answer writing is starting with the PYQs. I had a friend of mine with whom I used to discuss all PYQs and wrote them. If you donot have sufficient time then brainstorm all the questions and write the structure. It helps a lot in examination. Donot make a group of more than 3 to discuss. 3 is good.
I also had the luxury of 4 attmpts so some of the answers i wrote taking time. This was done initially when i trying to work on my answer writing amd improving the content. I did this work under Shabbir sir and his team checked my answers and reviews them. I am sharing a couple of those answers. These r like model answers but helped a lot to me in internalizing the structure diagrams and content.
The above answers have been written without any time constraint. These cant be emulated in real time. But while writing answers i read a lot. That helped me to understnd the subject. When I wrote answers I learnt how can I compress the information into short and write in 2 to 3 pages. And then finally including the diagrams and schematics in my answers. This made my preparation holisitic.
People always ask me what kind of diagrams can be drawn in perspective. This answer has 2 diagrams. Pls see the graphs. And you may recycle them in other answers of perspectives too
Anjali Shrotriya -AIR 44 Motivation
I wrote this and pasted on my table like some 3 years back. The oath that trainee officers are made to take has been inspiring me to study study and study till I reach where I wanted to always. Mains is the most decisive phase of this exam. Nothing is more certain in UPSC than mains. To all those who are feeling not to study or to give up please remind yourself that these 3 months will be the game changer of the next 30 years of your life. These small things kept me going on my worst days.
For certain topics I have prepared some small 1 page notes in form of introduction diagram, facts/statistics, case studies ,best practices and conclusion. These have helped me in revision a lot. Such things can be done for topics that are mostly asked by UPSC.
I learnt this from Shabbir sir who told me to make such 1 pager topics for most repeated themes in exam.
