Hello everyone. Myself Satyam Gandhi, AIR 10 UPSC CSE 2020. I will be sharing my strategy, answer copies, notes, tips and tricks for the next few weeks. I will also conduct few live doubt clearance sessions for aspirants. All the best to everyone. Jai Hind!
IR :- Only follow monthly magazines and newspaper articles + class notes
Two reports of Niti aayog are most important here.
GS 3:-
ECONOMICS:- Vision Value added material for each topic mentioned in the syllabus. + 2 reports of Niti aayog as mentioned earlier + current magazines + class notes
S&T :- Internet + magazines + class notes + Vajiram and Ravi yellow book on science and technology selectively
DISASTER MANAGEMENT:- Vision material for disaster management
ENVIRONMENT:- Shankar IAS book
INTERNAL SECURITY:- Vision value added material on internal security+ Vajiram and ravi yellow book on internal security+ Current affairs
GS 4:-ETHICS
Vision value added material + test series material of Lukmaan IAS
Divide these sections into monthly/weekly/daily targets and then make notes on them according to the targets.
Start writing answers only when you are done with your notes of that particular section.
Compile notes in a short, compact and concise manner from the above sources. Use a lot of diagrams and flowcharts in your notes.
I will upload my sample notes very soon.
Solve Previous Year Questions of mains after clearing the prelims.
Niti Aayog Reports are most important for GS2,3
For scattered topics :- Do from internet/vision value added material
Supplement notes of every topic with newspapers and current affair magazines
Motivational Post by Satyam Gandhi UPSC Topper
A sincere request to every person reading this post! 🙏🏻 Please share it as much as you can! 🙏🏻
Coaching institute joined by Satyam Gandhi UPSC Topper
A lot of confusion is there with regards to coaching institutes i had joined during my preparation. Lets make it clear.
GS Classroom coaching:- Vajiram and Ravi
PSIR Optional :- No classroom coaching, only crash course at Shubhra Ranjan IAS
GS Mains test series:- Vision IAS Essay test series:- Vision IAS Ethics test series:- Lukman IAS
Only Interview Guidance Programme:-
Vajirao and Reddy (not much useful; Okayish)
Unacademy (Panel was argumentative unlike real personality test ,but valuable feedback)
Drishti IAS (Cordial panel and Valuable feedback)
Insights On India by Vinay sir ( Extremely Helpful)
KSG ( Very Helpful, particularly the questionnaire that they provide based on DAF)
Chanakya Mandal ( Didn’t find helpful, probably due to online mode)
Baliyan IAS ( Didn’t find helpful)
Classic Academy ( Not much helpful)
Shankar IAS academy ( Helpful)
ALS (Helpful)
Now a days you might be seeing toppers photos including mine being published by every coaching institute mentioned above. The reason is that even if you enrol for interview guidance programme, they have the right(unfortunately) to publish your photo in their advertisement. No coaching institute can guarantee 300 or 400 selections, particularly those which focus only on Interview Guidance Programme to increase their ‘tally’ of selection. Thank you.
PSIR Optional Booklist by Satyam Gandhi UPSC Topper
MY COMPREHENSIVE SOURCES FOR PSIR OPTIONAL
PAPER 1 PART A:-
Political Theory by OP Gauba.
Shubhra Ranjan notes for western political thought.
History of political thought: from Plato to Marx by S. Mukherjee( Value addition for thinkers mentioned in syllabus; can be skipped if you don’t have time)
Modern Indian Political Thought by Bidyut Chakarbarty( primary source for Indian political thought- read selectively for thinkers mentioned in syllabus).
Ancient Indian Political thought by VR Mehta (only for value addition;skip if you don’t have time)
Shubhra Ranjan IAS crash course notes and model answers( immensely beneficial. She is very good in static portion).
Global Politics by Andrew Heywood ( primary material for static topics, used extensively).
Shubhra Ranjan institute notes.
Globalisation of World Politics by Baylis and Smith for selected topics( selective reading of IR theories).
Tushar gupta notes( for value addition; contains some very unique points).
SR Crash course notes and model answers( Model answers were useful)
Foreign policy magazine and indian express for dynamic portion + extensive use of google to read articles.
PAPER 2 PART B:-
Only IAS material ( primary source, make very short notes in organised format ).
Oxford handbook of Indian foreign policy by Malone, CRaja mohan ( used it selectively for topics mentioned in syllabus/ significant issues).
Current affairs for value addition:- Indian express and The Hindu were my primary source. Rest i used google to read articles from various websites including ORF.
Tushar gupta notes( very beneficial)
Shubhra Ranjan Crash Course model answers were useful.
Note:-
Don’t get bogged down after seeing such an extensive booklist.
You don’t have to read any book/source cover to cover. Just read selectively for topics mentioned in the syllabus.
I will be uploading a video regarding PSIR strategy very soon.
