Kartikeya Jaiswal AIR 35, UPSC CSE 2021
Hello Everyone
I am Kartikeya Jaiswal (AIR 35, UPSC CSE 2021). This will be my official channel for sharing my strategy, notes and other CSE-related stuff. My strategy may not be the best one or the most suitable for you. So, as the description says, Critically Analyse before Consumption. Hope to help some of you.
I graduated from St. Stephen's College (University of Delhi) in 2020, with B. Sc. (H) in Mathematics. My Optional was also Mathematics. This was my first attempt. I have created this channel to be a one-stop solution for the queries people had regarding my strategy. Adopt what suits you, if at all, discard the rest.
Coaching Institutes I was associated with:
- Took VisionIAS GS test series for Mains (in Feb., 2021)
- Took IMS Maths test series for my Optional, i.e. Maths (in Feb., 2021 and Oct., 2021
- Took Mock Interviews at Byju's, Chahal Academy-cum-Dikshant, KSG, Vajirao and Reddy, Unacademy, Vision, Rau's and Sankalp.
Note:
- I read VisionIAS monthly magazines (free pdf is uploaded on its website.
- I read VisionIAS and Insights daily current affairs (freely available online)
- I accessed IMS notes (for Maths) from the Google Drive link on their Telegram channel and got the pdfs of the notes printed. These notes were my source material for self-study of Maths. Only for Physics-related portions, I used Krishna Series books. No other books for any other Maths topic. Solved previous years' IMS tests for practice.
- I only solved Prelims tests through pdfs which are freely available online and solved various quizzes and open tests by different institutes.
- Used mains tests pdfs, which I could find freely available online, for practice.
- For essays, no test series. Only got some of them evaluated by my friends and seniors (a bunch of aspirants and non-aspirants). More on this in the Essay related post (Coming Soon...)
Current Affairs Sources (Prelims and Mains)
Newspaper (The Hindu) - When I started preparing, I took 1.5 hrs to read. In a few months, the time reduced to 45-50 mins. I felt 45 mins. to be the optimal duration. Try speed reading the articles in general and read only the keywords carefully. Always bear the Syllabus and PYQs in mind.
Daily CA material tailor-made for CSE
1) VisionIAS Daily CA - Covers news comprehensively. Gives some background information also. E.g.- An article on a newly launched scheme in renewable energy sector, would also cover past schemes of that sector and some stats. Overall, quite useful.
2) Insights Daily CA - Often a direct copy-paste of newspaper articles, or its own website's past articles. But helpful, coz by repetition, it facilitates revision. More revision, better absorption.
Monthly Magazine - VisionIAS. Got its pdf printed on my own, every month. Read only these for repeated CA revisions. Had Maths optional, so no time to make Yojana for the ultimate Kurukshetra.
Union Budget and Economic Survey - Read their Analysis (not just Summary) by VisionIAS.
Note:
1) Personality Test (Interview) preparation requires a different strategy to cover CA thoroughly, which I'll be sharing in due course.
2) Note making strategy for CA will be shared shortly. Strategy for CA will be shared shortly.
Booklist for Static parts of the Syllabus -
Both Prelims and Mains (primarily GS 1, 2 and 3)
Ancient and Medieval (A&M) History - Tamil Nadu board 11th Std History book, supplemented by NIOS textbook for A&M history. These were my Core Materials. Read 12th NCERTs for A&M history only after finishing the Core texts, for covering anything that may have been left out.
Art and Culture - 11th Std Fine Arts NCERT. Read through VisionIAS material on A&C a couple of times, was quite good.
Modern History - Spectrum (by Rajiv Ahir)
Post Independence History - 12th NCERT for Political Science and Spectrum's last few chapters.
World History - Old NCERTs of 9th and 10th Std. for World History, by Arjun Dev
Geography - 11th and 12th NCERT, G. C. Leong and Maps (bought an Oxford Atlas, but only used it for the full size Maps attached at the end and for map drawing practice)
Polity - Laxmikant and Bare Acts of the Constitution (These days they ask Direct questions from the Constitution). Read 11th NCERT for basic knowledge of political science (I am from Science background)
Economy - Sriram IAS book on Indian Economy (quite good) and 11th and 12th NCERT (Except 12th std. Microeconomics)
Environment - Shankar IAS book (cursory reading). Focused on a topic specifically only if asked in a PYQ or repeated often in Prelims mocks. Went through the last 4 chapters of 12th Std. Bio NCERT
Science and Technology, IR, Internal Security etc. - Newspaper; Daily news material on VisionIAS and Insights website and VisionIAS monthly magazines.
Extras -
1) Made short notes on Landmark Judgements by SC in the past (gathered material from the internet) - Name of the case, year and key observations in the verdicts.
2) Made notes on important provisions of Bills passed/being discussed by the Parliament and of "policies" brought out by the government ("Policies" and "Schemes" are different)
3) Made a list of important committees and commissions, particularly for important sectors, e.g. Agriculture, Electoral Reforms, Centre-State relations, Poverty etc.
4) Noted down only the Recommendations of 2nd ARC (in detail, for Ethics Report and just the gist for the rest)
5) Made a list of all the SDGs, for ready recall during Mains answer writing. Writing a few schemes and stats related to each SDG may be doubly helpful.
6) With only a few months left for Mains, made a list of key stats, in sectors like Education, Healthcare, Environment, Agriculture etc. for quickly quoting in Mains answers.
7) Took notes of key observations by SC in contemporary cases (2020 and 2021)
8) Made a list of India's rankings in key global indices and noted down the indices brought out by NITI Aayog, RBI etc.
Tip:
Since my Mains answer writing speed was slow and I almost always left 1 or 2 answers while writing Mains tests for GS (1, 2 and 3), I adopted the following Sequential Order in answering the questions in Mains tests. This strategy helped me finish all my answers in all the papers of final exam:
1) First, wrote Q9 and Q10 (10 markers were allotted 7.5 min. each). So, these 15 min. built the rhythm of answer writing and warmed up my brain and fingers for answer writing.
2) Then, wrote Q11 to Q20. After having built the rhythm, all these 15 markers were at the Core of my 3 hr. journey (about 10 mins. were allotted to each 15 marker). Now that my brain has been activated and my fingers warmed up, the best content comes out for the part which has the lion's share of marks. One can't afford to rush through the 15 markers at the end, because this way, the marks lost would be many more.
3) Then came to Q1 to Q8. These 10 markers are going to be direct questions. Plus one has built quite a momentum by now, to quickly recall points for answers. You'd be surprised to know that you'll start finishing these questions in even 5-6 mins., instead of the 7.5 mins. allotted. Even if one has little time left at the end and the only option left is to rush through Q7 and Q8, guess what, the examiner won't ever know that you faced a time crunch. This is because the last questions have been so carefully sandwiched amid the well-written ones, that they leave little trace of their existence (Ah! now don't call me Sherlock 😂). The "usual suspects" as last answers are Q10 and Q20, but both of them are already well-written, so Hakuna Matata ;)
Ethics (GS 4) -
Always started with the Case Studies, to have a fresh mind for solving them. But ever bear in mind that they must only occupy half the time, at max (not more than 1.5 hrs.). The theory part carries almost equal marks and may prove quite lengthy, if not given adequate time.
Essay Strategy
General Essay Strategy:
Essay (Marks 135):
Please NOTE: It is extremely extremely important to read what UPSC has said in the notification regarding the demands of Essay paper. Ever bear that in mind.
1. Looked at toppers' videos who had scored well in the Essay paper.
2. Looked at Anudeep Durishetty Sir's blog and essay notes, to see how the content of essays can be diversified. Learnt how starting on an engaging note and ending on a positive, solution-oriented note, are pre-requisites of a good essay.
3. Read Vikram Grewal Sir's essay blog and essay answer sheets to know how to make essays interesting.
4. Did not join any Essay test series. Got my essays evaluated from College seniors and friends (a mixed group of people, which included CSE aspirants and non-aspirants)
5. Almost always started my essays with an anecdote and never with a quote (quotes are short and may not suffice to carry the narrative forward). Often I used 2 different anecdotes, with a seemingly different background, but a common underlying theme (NCERTs also often use this method for intros). But remember to end the essays, preferably, with a reference to the anecdote characters, if any. It looks more holistic (I always forgot this, even in my final essay)
6. Had a repository of witty quotes by persons, such as Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Benjamin Franklin, R.W. Emerson (essentially people I personally admired) and the conventional biggies- Gandhi, Lincoln, Luther King Jr. etc. for sprinkling in the middle of essays, to substantiate my point with crisp articulation. (Will share the pdf soon)
7. Simple, lucid expression always helps. Flowery vocab not required, but an occasional display of strong vocab exhibits good diction. Using words that crisply express the crux of entire sentences, reflects a command over the language. Look how newspapers talk. Try to learn new words from them.
8. Always end with a positive way forward, but be practical in solutions.
9. One can also make rough templates of intro and conclusion to common essay topics, as Anudeep Sir did.
Essay Practice:
When I started my preparation (Sept., 2020), I wrote an essay per week (on Sundays). Continued this for a couple of months, but as the burden of Maths and GS preparation increased, I left Essay practice. Again during May-July, 2021 (when prelims got postponed), wrote an essay daily and boosted my practice. Between prelims and mains, wrote an essay every 2-3 days. When I wrote GS tests between prelims and mains, I scheduled them as they were going to be in the Final Exam (2 papers each, on 2 consecutive days). And to make things more realistic, I always put a 3 hour essay test (2 essays) immediately before the GS test days. Basically practising in a way that increases the number of essays I wrote and their resemblance to Final Exam schedule, as the mains neared.
Essay Writing in Exam:
Gave first 15 mins. to jot down 20 points in rough (in both essays), which'll form the themes of my 20 odd paragraphs (remember to have coherence and a sense of fluidity in these themes of paragraphs). Rest 1 hr. and 15 mins. for writing down the essay. Strategy borrowed from Vikram Grewal Sir.
Do not make paragraphs long-ish. Keep sentences crisp too. Underline important words. Use indentation to show clear break in paragraphs. Ever be tethered to the topic, but analyse it comprehensively.
Choosing an essay:
Choose an essay for which you have maximum examples, data, facts and anecdotes. Basically adequate content. Do not be carried away by popular choices. Be doubly sure that you properly understand every term of the topic.
Philosophical Essays:
1. The real problem for me in such essays was to gather material that could fill those 10+ pages. I realised, the key was to substantiate the point of the essay with diverse examples in such topics.
2. Since SPECLIH (Social-Political-Economic-Cultural-Legal-International-Historical and Environmental, Technological etc etc) are the dimensions we usually cover in GS based Essays and are quite mundane, my focus was to bring examples from unconventional, but interesting sectors. This included MELA (Music-Entertainment, i.e. Cinema etc.-Literature-Art), Religion and Mythology, Social media etc.
3. A Youtube channel named "The School of Life" introduced me to the ideas and philosophies of great thinkers, artists and writers of the past, which helped me illustrate my points efficiently.
4. I also had some evergreen poems like "The Psalm of Life", "Invictus", "If" etc (again, my personal favs) ready in my head to be quoted, if needed. I also read through the themes of some of the all time best books, like "1984", "The God of Small Things", "One Hundred Years of Solitude" etc to be cited as examples. Quotes by well known personalities were anyway handy. All this reflects that the candidate is well-read.
GS topics based Essays:
1. Usually SPECLIH framework is followed, but other ways such as Temporal approach, Problem-Solution approach, Individual-Society-National-Global approach etc, as suggested by Anudeep Sir in his notes, can be tried and perfected.
2. Sprinkle facts, figures, Constitutional articles, laws, SC judgements, committee/international reports in the essay for authenticity of arguments.
3. If the topic of the essay highlights a problem, always use at least 35%-40% of the essay to give out solutions to the problem
4. A couple of pop culture references in these essays wouldn't hurt.
Important Essay related Notes and Links Coming Soon.
1) Links to Anudeep Sir's Blog and Essay Notes:
https://anudeepdurishetty.in/upsc-essay-introductions/
https://anudeepdurishetty.in/writing-a-good-essay-in-upsc-mains-explained/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jmVMGOzAk2d9B5Y0HQ9XpVF5Mh2IXGku/view
2) Link to Vikram Sir's Blog (His essay answer sheets are available on VisionIAS portal):
https://besankahalwa.blogspot.com/2019/07/essay-kaise-by-vikram-grewal-air-51.html
Tip:
I used Unomax Geltron pen (Gel pen) for Mains. I personally felt that handwriting in gel pens looks good. Plus, after practising too much with pens having a thumb grip (which is actually for better grip while writing and is present in most pens), I developed writing cramps. To lessen the pain, numbness and to prevent the issue further, I wanted a pen without a thumb grip. Geltron came to the rescue. My younger sister accidentally helped me in this. (Thank you :)
PS - To tackle writing cramps, I practised some exercises too.
Tip:
Whenever searching anything on the internet, directly related to the exam, e.g.- a govt policy or scheme, appending "upsc" word at the end of the text can bring you material which is tailor-made for CSE, thereby saving your time and enhancing accuracy of the search.
However, when searching about stuff in general, it's better to avoid adding "upsc" at the end, which may instead become a limiting factor in widening your horizons of knowledge.
Tip:
Map making for Mains answers (Geography questions in GS 1)-
1. Maps are usually expected to be made within a box, with proper labelling and on the top right part in the answer space. Add proper legend, if needed.
2. Maps shouldn't be too small to be indecipherable or too large to be a disproportionate encroachment on answer space.
3. It is advisable to be able to draw a decent looking India's map for quick execution in Mains (quite important). Drawing important parts of World Map, e.g. Indo Pacific region, may suffice. You'll never have the time or the space to draw the entire world map.
4. How I learnt making the right sized India maps - Had an Oxford Atlas. In it, small sized maps of India are made, showing extent of empires, mineral distribution etc. Used to keep an A4 sheet below that page of the Atlas and redrew the outlines of the maps on the Atlas itself, again and again. This gave me an idea about India's map boundaries and left an impression of the outline on the A4 sheet below. Then again drew the boundaries on the faint impression received on the A4 sheet. This gave me a 2nd practice and taught me how to draw a map on a blank sheet. Slowly one learns to draw India's map without any impression on the paper and in a decent shape. The same method can be used for World Map.
5. Practice holds the key to good map making (actually everything). Give 5-10 mins. to this map making exercise and you'll be a pro at it by the time you write Mains.
For GS answer writing, I'm now going to upload some of my evaluated Mains tests, so as to convey the answer writing strategy more directly and to also show my own shortcomings. Notice everything very carefully, even the words in the questions, which have been underlined and encircled. Everything has been done for a reason. You may look at the answer sheets and feel that you've noticed all that was relevant. Believe me, when you get your answers evaluated, you'll be surprised to know that there were things that were hidden in plain sight. Have a look.
I'm now going to upload some of my very initial Mains tests (evaluated), when I had just joined the GS Test series, so as to make you aware of what mistakes are to be avoided. It was through these initial tests, that I learnt the nuances of Answer Writing. Of course, I couldn't be perfect till the very end.
Note-making and Revision of Static Parts of Syllabus:
1. Started full-fledged prep from Sept. 1, 2020 with Static part (Had a set of standard books recommended by most toppers)
2. During the 1st iteration, only focused on finishing a READING of the standard books, without worrying about how much of it I could really understand. The aim was not to study deep, but to have gone through it all once (also works as a self-assurance mechanism). Read the books once by 31st Dec., 2020
3. For note making and revisions, Jan. 2021 onwards, I took up the full-size drawing sheet, in its vertical position, folded it in half and then again in half. So this divided the sheet into 4 columns through the folded creases. Remember, such CHARTS are going to be my go-to material for all future revisions, both for Prelims and Mains. Took up a book, say Spectrum for Modern History. Quickly kept going through every para/page of it and noted the only the important details (relevant for both prelims and mains) of it in the chart in small handwriting. (e.g.-1. Arya Samaj-1875-Bombay-Dayanand Saraswati-Back to Vedas-....; 2. Glacial Till-Unassorted-coarse and fine debris-dropped by melting glaciers-angular rocks)
4. Repeated this exercise for all standard books and got about 10 charts ready by Feb 20th, 2021, covering the static syllabus. Stuck them all on the walls of the room in which I studied. This gave me 2 revisions. One while going through the books page-by-page and the other while writing the important stuff down (better retention also). And an invaluable asset had been created for all future revisions.
5. The goal is to cut the clutter (stuff like prepositions, conjunctions, articles etc.), fit as much as possible in fewer charts and strike a balance such that the chart info is crisp, but comprehensive.
6. In geography, I also made some small diagrams from NCERT, which I realised were very important (e.g. Landforms chapter, cyclone and fronts formation, planetary wind belts etc.). GC Leong was only covered by its diagrams. Its Table on World Climate Types was very useful, but otherwise, no text of it came to the charts. Try to make diagrams wherever you think they're important, or can be replicated in a Mains answer.
7. One can always add further information on the charts, as and when needed or acquired (e.g. through mock tests)
8. PDFs of 3 of the charts will be shared shortly, for reference.
Utility of this method:
1. Quicker revision. Saves the thousands of seconds one could waste in simply turning the pages of the book/A4 sheets
2. Better revision. After repeatedly viewing the charts on the walls, information gets imprinted in one's brain, as if it's a picture on the walls. One can easily recall in which corner of which chart was a nugget of data stored. Helps in Prelims and in Mains.
3. Making diagrams in charts helps us remake them in Mains answers. Diagrams can boost our marks in geography answers.
4. Writing consolidates our memory and helps in better retention
NOTE:
1. For Ancient and Medieval (A&M) History, I followed TN Board's 11th class History textbook (and once read through the NIOS text) and this was what I started out with. Since I did not know the chart method then, I made crisp notes on A4 sheets for A&M History (a total of 70 pages). These 70 pages was what I revised again and again for revision of A&M History
2. The PDF of A&M History notes will also be shared shortly.
I'm now going to upload my notes for A&M History.
Note Making for Daily CA (during Prelims and Mains prep):
1. Started with a bunch of A4 sheets and wrote the syllabus points of GS 1, 2 and 3 one-by-one on the top of each sheet as a heading. (I realised I was not the e-note kind)
2. Decided to write only the facts, information and govt steps/schemes on a particular issue, which I could directly reproduce in my Mains answers. (NOT anything from Prelims perspective, coz it is so factual and detailed that note-making eats up a lot of time, the notes become unwieldy in the long run and go unrevised at the end. Only made a mental note of Prelims based info)
3. Followed The Hindu newspaper, VisionIAS and Insights daily CA for the daily dose of news.
4. As and when the sheet for a particular topic got filled, a new sheet with the same heading carried forward the daily CA of that topic and the older ones were kept aside for future reference.
Utility of this method:
1. Notes are not too bulky.
2. One has a decent repository of important facts, past schemes etc. that can be quoted in Mains answers and are retained better because are hand-written.
3. At the time of revision, one can simply take out all the sheets which are from a certain GS paper (e.g. GS 3) and revise them all in one go, for quicker recall during Mains and even during Prelims
Credit: Tweaked the strategy of Mr. Vikram Grewal (IFS, AIR 51 in 2018) a bit, from date-wise notes to topic-wise notes. Many Thanks.
Since most of the key points of my Mains related strategy (for GS) have been shared in my talk at VisionIAS, any further topic-specific or paper-specific inputs would be shared as "Tips" in due course.
For some time now, I'll be briefly sharing my Mathematics Optional strategy for the ones interested. After that, I'll focus on Prelims related strategy.
Mathematics Optional Preparation Timeline and Outline of Strategy:
My Marks in Maths :-
Paper 1 : 132
Paper 2 : 149
Total : 281
NOTE 1 : "Topic", wherever mentioned, refers to the different branches of Mathematics given as part of the syllabus (13 in number), viz. Linear Algebra, Analytic Geometry etc.
NOTE 2 : "Day"/"Days", wherever mentioned, means the time allocated to MATHS in those days, not the entire Day.
1. Beginning Sept. 15, 2020, in the time allocated for Maths everyday, I just glanced through the pdf of notes of IMS for all topics (2 days per topic) to know : what is the material in each topic, which topics are lengthy, which topics I haven't studied before in college, which ones are difficult etc. Primarily did this because I didn't have the hard copy of notes for full-fledged practice. Of course, one may choose to ignore this exercise.
2. After finishing this by 15th October, 2020, for all topics, and getting the hard copy of notes by then, I made a plan by allocation of Hours (and not Days) for different steps included in covering a topic. These Hours were spread across 5 days, as not all hours in a day are being used for Maths (only 50%, the other 50% is for GS).
3. Steps for covering a topic (referred in point 2.) are : First Read the questions in PYQ from that topic, to know the pattern, important subtopics etc (2 hrs) --> Read the theory from IMS Notes (4 hrs) --> Solving that topic's questions from IMS notes and last 3-4 year IMS test series (16 hrs) --> Solving that topic's questions in PYQs on my own or with the help of available solutions, which were noted down in separate notebooks for future reference (4 hrs). PYQ here refers to Previous Years Questions (or Question Papers) from 2010 to 2020.
4. I should have ideally finished this 1st iteration exercise by mid-December, 2020, but due to the lengthy nature of Real Analysis and my weakness in the Physics portions, I could only finish it by January 31st, 2021
5. By this time, for the 2nd iteration, I had begun feeling the need for consolidated notes of all the important questions and theorems in IMS Notes of all topics. This was because they cover a vast variety of questions that could arise from a topic and those which use the various tricks and formulae, plus questions of very old PYQs, e.g. 1980s etc. For stuff like basic definitions, formulae and theory, I read from Kanishak Kataria (KK) Sir's notes, with my own add-ons, wherever needed.
6. Again, 2 days were allocated for each topic's note-making. This exercise gave me a written practice of all the important questions in the IMS notes, obviated the need to look at IMS notes ever again and significantly reduced the size of notes to be read now on. Samples of these notes will be shared shortly for reference.
7. This 2nd iteration finished by March 7, 2021. By this time I had joined an IMS test series for Mains (as Prelims was earlier scheduled on 27th June, 2021).
8. Before taking the tests once a week, my aim was to revise the topics of that test well, in the rest of the time. So for this, I used to glance through the topics' notes (my own and KK Sir's) and solve a few questions from IMS Tests of past years (2016-2019). Also, I was making a separate diary for noting down some special questions in PYQs, which require a certain trick or a logic-defying tweak in approach. This exercise, however, was very cumbersome, because even after 2 iterations, whenever I solved some new questions from IMS past tests or PYQs, I repeatedly realised my weak command over problem solving tricks and underlying theory, especially in the Physics related topics. Despite this, I continued this process till end of April, 2021, when the postponement of Prelims was announced.
9. After Prelims got postponed, my focus completely shifted to consolidation of all the weak spots in Mains preparation (both GS and Maths). In Maths, I first read through the theory, and wrote and memorized (yes, memorized) the standard problems of Physics topics (my weakest area in Maths - Alas! There was no other way). Besides this, I revised the notes of other topics, strengthened my weak areas and learnt problem solving tricks.
10. After enough consolidation, I jumped to full length tests. These were not the test series ones, but the ones of IMS past years' tests. They formed my question bank for test taking, plus practice in the spare time.
11. After this, one more iteration of notes-revision and test-taking happened (which included writing full PYQs as tests), for further consolidation of any weak areas and fixing even the minutest of gaps in my command over the subject. All this (the above points - 9, 10, 11) was done by 8th August, 2021.
12. Between 8th August to 10th October (Prelims date), my aim was to give only 2 hours for Maths per day (couldn't afford to go out of practice). However in the last leg of this period, I fully focused on Prelims and had to leave Maths completely. But the consolidation and test-taking earlier, gave me enough self confidence.
13. After Prelims, I again joined an IMS test series. First I gave one test every week, but later, scheduled them so that 2 tests could be given on a single day, as in the final exam. The rest of the days, I took 1 or 2 Maths tests per day from the IMS past years' tests. In the time left, continuous revision of notes took place seamlessly, to polish anything that may have been left out and to keep the formulae etc. in mind. This process continued till my Mains exam came in January 2022.
In the final exam, I had attempted all the questions in Mathematics. The questions from Physics part were completely new to me (no repetition from PYQs or IMS Tests) and despite my best efforts, I could only reproduce the formulae and start off a couple of steps, failing to do the complete proofs accurately in those questions. I had attempted those questions nonetheless. Questions from rest of the topics, were done quite well and presented neatly and stepwise.
After writing the papers, considering my performance, I was expecting a score of at least 320-330, which has been pretty doable in the past in Maths Optional (KK Sir could even cross 360). However, legend has it that no optional in CSE can remain at the summit for too long, and thus very few could even cross 300 this year in Maths. The average score in Maths has relatively come down this year.
One must, however, always remind oneself that "Full Effort is Full Victory" :)
I am now going to upload the samples of my own notes for some of the topics in Maths (referred in Point 6 above)
I'll now share the PDFs of Formulae in some specific topics. These were compiled to create a one-stop resource for topics which have a lot of formulae, which later eased revisions and saved time. The handwriting may not be very neat. Apologies.
I had also compiled lists of Counter-Examples in some of the topics, where they are used to disprove statements and they occur in abundance, for instance, in topics of Pure Math. Having all of them written at one place, gives greater clarity and aids quick recall in exam. I'll now upload them. Sorry for the lack of neatness.
Shorthand Notation has been used at many places in the notes uploaded so far. Please be doubly careful in interpreting the meaning and cross-check with IMS notes, if you're willing and able to.
I'll now upload the PDF of the chart which I made for General Maths Formulae, like those from Differentiation, Integration, Trigonometric Identities etc.
I'll be posting more, as and when I get the time. Please stay tuned.