A Brief Introduction about me Name —Rahul Dev Boora AIR 76 , UPSC CSE 2020 Attempt —2nd Optional —-Mechanical Engineering Graduation —-B.Tech Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 2019 Coaching —-No just took mains test series Residence —Hisar , Haryana
HISTORY — for Ancient and Medieval I read TN board book (very crisp and concisely written ) and for MIH i banked upon Spectrum by Rajiv Ahir plus for land revenue settlement (which is missing in spectrum ) i went for 4-5 pages of NCERT book
CULTURE —-Class 11 NCERT (Introduction to Indian Art ) and selective chapters of Nitin Singhania (see a video on youtibe by any learned teacher of which chapters to read ) ———Plus i also read some IGNOU notes on UPSC mains topics (you can find it here —https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/18JDPfmRA8CnGD-cfGViKU-rpjgk4hSQv )
SOCIETY — Class 11 and 12th Sociology NCERTs (especially of class 12th which focus on Indian Society )—-Note : many aspirants neglect these ncerts —don’t become part of this buncH
GEOGRAPHY —- Class 11th and 12th NCERT and climatic region by GC Leong . Also , For concepts i am not able to undeerstand by reading i refer to Rajtanjali Mam videos on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMPO60DOTKQ&list=PLAMBum9_RkuNDtzpNQlCRcaOrNqrD4Gf7 ) —-This is old link i don’t know if new videos are available for it —-ALSO MAPS AND CONCEPTS AVAILABLE AT pmfias site also proved helpful
DISASTER MANAGEMENT —Geography NCERT plus it is largely current affairs based from VISION IAS monthly booklet and random searches from google
POLITICAL SCIENCE —-class 11th and 12th NCERT and Laxmikanth as advance source (Note : in it people tend to neglect “Indian Constitution at work ” and “Political Theory ” NCERT but in my view they are really important and many questions of polity in prelims are coming from political theory , also class 12th ncert are also really enjoyable read for post independence
Governance —- Read 2nd ARC Summary from GS score , NITI @ 75 is also okeish to read , and make small notes on e gov , poverty , unemploymant , HRD issues from searching these topics from internet and keep on updating them
Int. Relations —From Vision IAS Monthly Booklet and C Raja Mohan articles from Indian Express
Economy —Class 11 microeconomics and Indian economic development NCERT book and Mrunal Video Lecture (Note : I made own notes fromMrunal Lectures and in subsequent years keep on updating myself rather than going for new videos and new mrunal material ) ,Indian economy by Sanjiv Verma book , Economic Survey — Vision IAS Summary , Budget —-listen to FM budget speech (it is really worthy and enjoyable ) and Yojana Special Budget issue every year
Agriculture — Google each topic writtent here and made concise notes and keep on updating themselves from new data and newspaper articles
ENVIRONMENT —-Shankar IAS and last few chapters of class 12th Biology NCERT
CURRENT Affairs — Daily newspaper and VISION IAS monthly booklet
NEWSPAPER —- I prefer The Hindu for prelims and Mains (one can also pick The Indian Express ) —-for Interview Prep i read both newspaper daily
MAGAZINES —-Yojana —-many people neglect it but to me it proved very useful from govt. schemes pointwise as well as form essay perspective as in each issue it gove holistic viewpoint of covered theme
The Big Picture on RSTV also proved very helpful ( It looks like on sansad TV it come with name of PERSPETIVE )
Website i refer during initial phase f my preparation —-In very start i followed INSIGHTS IAS daily curent affairs and 5 MCQ daily —-it helped in finding out what to read and what not to in newspaper and how to link news with UPSC topics
Rahul Dev Boora UPSC Prelims Strategy
PRELIMS STRATEGY ——
Start exclusive prepartion for prelims 90 days before prelims date
2. Give 40-45 tests (35 Vison ias tests , 3 AITS of vision , 2 of forum ias , 2 of next ias ) —-also on each of the 3 sundays before the d-day sunday gave tests at actual time by filling omr and feeling the same pressure of d-day —-this will really prove beneficial
3. Finish giving tests 15 days before prelims and then just give tests on sunday —-in last 15 day revise your tests
WAY TO REVISE TEST FAST —-when you give each test —-write Good and importand question you found on front page of test and also on the sidespace available next to questions write if you learned something new which you may forget —-on reviison just revise these good questions and your sidenotes ( see sample picture below of this strategy )
Also attempt the test in 2 rounds —-you will make lest mistakes in difficult question in 2nd round and you mind will be less sticky and will be thinking more multidimesnionally ( i used to attempt 55 question in 1st rounf and 40 in 2nd round )
Rahul Dev Boora UPSC Mains Strategy
MAINS STRATEGY ——
Here i owe a lot to my ideal Anudeep Durushetty (AIR 1 , CSE 2017 ) . So , do check his website — https://anudeepdurishetty.in/ —-aslo one can subscribe to his blogs which are quite informational and motivational
1. Read book —-Fundamentals of Essay and Answer Writing by Anudeep durushetty (I am skipping a lot of things of my strategy which are given in this book so before moving forward do read this book )
2. Try to analyze solve past year mains questions —- Mrunal have given a very good topic wise analysis https://mrunal.org/2020/05/download-upsc-mains-general-studies-paper-1-topicwise-2013-19.html#878 —-you can find similar anaysis of other gs papers on mrunal site —— of these questions drishti and one 2 other instituions have also given answers —-you can refer to them and add good points to your notes
3. Essay —- I must admit that I am not that good in essay but just for sake of completion i am giving some sources —-In anudeep book you can find method of how to write essay and some good starting and ending methods —-See essay copies of person scoring above 150 in essays (these are available on vision ias and GS score sites )——Also in my second attempt i jined GS score test series which i found really helpful and they gave good material too ——-along with that try to brainstorm 20-25 essay topics (say 2-3 topics every week )—-you can [ick to[ics by looking at past year paper of CSE ——gave eqaul time to both the essays Some mistake which i think i made in this attempt in essay —- A) I overwrote and excedded the word limit whoch in my opinion shows a cluttered mind B) I attemt the Patriarchy essay and since i read a essay on patriarchy just a week before final exam —-i was just writing what was there in that essay and because of that lack innovative original points of mine and alaso went a little offtopic ———try to avoid these mistakes
GS1,2,3 —-I have already mentioned the sources above .Just a addition to that I have made notes of statico-dynamic (core contetn is same but they reamin in news always with various govt. initiatives coming up ) topics of GS papers —-EG.—Communalism , secularism , poverty , urbanization in GS1 , eGov ,SHG ,Pressure group in GS2 , Foood Processing in GS3 etc —-it is lamost sure that questions will be asked every year on these topics —— I followed a 3 step ptocess for notes on these statico-dynamic topics a)Google these topics and make short notes (imp dats , statistics , case studies , eg. , govt. initiative ) form any of the two links of coaching academies coming up b)Solve past year que. on these topics and add imp. new points thay come across your eyes from sample naswers c) Do 5 que. of IAS Baba TLP programme on these topics and add news imp. points to your notes from the sample answers given there
HOW TO ATTEMPT THE GS Mains PAPER of UPSC CSE by Rahul Dev Boora UPSC Topper
I followed this methodology Firstly , attempt 15 mark questions —-within 15 mark question choose 8 que (you can do this within 5 min given to you before you can actually start writing ).These 8 que. are the on eon which you are confident to write good Secondly , go all out for 10 marker questions Thirdly attempt 2 que. you left od 15 marks ones
Always keep an eye on watch after each que. attempt so that you are alwasy lnowing whether you have to speed up or write at the same pace (tird option don’t exist —-you never have to slow down 😆) —These timing you will frame for yourself when you are giving mock tests
Always underline important things , committee recommendations , data , statistics etc. will fetch extra marks
GS4 —- Read 2 books i have mentioned above and read Anudeep durishetty book —Anudeep sir have very well elaborated the method of how to attempt the case study question
TEST SERIES——
Rahul Dev Boora UPSC Mechanical Engineering Optional Strategy
OPTIONAL STRATEGY ——
1. Solve past year questions of CSE and Indian Forest Service Mains —-all of these have to be on your tips —-you will find that 75 % will be almost repeated from it (Made easy have provided solution book —- just proceed with caution as somewhere thay also have given wrong answers )
2. Test series — I guess there is just one source here for us engineers —-Next IAS test series —-But i find it very unhelpful —-level of que. is much hogher than CSE and paper is much longer and nor is there good checking —-So , I recommend don’t waste your time and money here and just revise past year questions well
Also , try to see videos of Jivani Karik Nagizbhai and Price Tewatia —-they are really “BADSHAHs of Mechnaical Enginnering “
Rahul Dev Boora UPSC Notes
One can make such very short notes from MAINS 365 — it should include only things which you are going to underline in final exam — such short notes are very helpful in fast revision
Rahul Dev Boora UPSC Prelims Notes
Sample prelims notes
How to attempt UPSC Prelims Mock Test series for UPSC?
How to attempt prelims mock test so that you can revise It fast later
