HOW TO APPROACH THE UPSC CSE MAINS GS-1 PAPER ?
By AIR-2
GS 1 COMPRISES OF
10Q *10 MARKS EACH = 100
10Q*15 MARKS EACH = 150
TOTAL OF 250 MARKS
The sources that i mentioned here were the ones that i used as per the availability but they are not very rigid, can be substituted.
Now let us break down the entire syllabus into identifiable sub parts and tackle each one of them individually.
Indian Culture - Salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from Ancient to Modern times.
Sources -
UPSC PYQ 2013 onwards ( to get a fair understanding of what are the type of questions and not miss out on any repeated questions )
Nitin Singhania sir’s book of art and culture. - only the chapters i did for prelims but more specifically the chapters on LITERATURE, DANCE, ARCHITECTURE, COINS, TRAVELLERS, BHAKTI AND SUFI ( i am attaching my notes i made out of the book for pre and mains here itself on the channel)
Referred to notes of Vision ias for the architecture part which included ample diagrams. ( have included those as well in my hand made notes )
How I prepared ?
Once i was done reading the basic material for ancient and medieval
(I referred to RS Sharma for ancient and complemented it with ONLY IAS PDF and Satish Chandra (very selectively) for the medieval portion) then it becomes easier and more coherent to understand the art and culture part of it.
I went through the important chapters of Nitin Singhania and made notes out of it. Since it's a bulky book it becomes difficult to revise again and again.
Practised diagrams like stupa, Temples, Coins.
Practised pyq
2) Modern Indian History from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.
The Freedom Struggle — its various stages and important contributors/contributions from different parts of the country.
Sources
Spectrum, pyq, test series
How to prepare
went through spectrum once and then took tests.
Did PYQ
This is one part which we tend to do really well for prelims so it doesn't take a lot of time to quickly revise Spectrum once more for the mains.
This time I focussed less on the facts and more on the analysis and understanding.
I also made sure to use quotes given in the book itself.
3) Post-independence Consolidation and Reorganization within the country.
Sources
Vision IAS notes for post independence
Pradhanmantri series( watched it only because found it interesting )
Approach
After analysis of pyq. I found out that a maximum of 2 questions were being asked from this section so tried not to devote a lot of time
How to prepare
went through notes available for post independence. Practised PYQ. I believe not more than 2 days shall be given to this portion.
4)History of the World will include events from 18th century such as Industrial Revolution, world wars, Redrawal of National Boundaries, Colonization, Decolonization, political philosophies like Communism, Capitalism, Socialism etc.— their forms and effect on the society.
sources
Vision ias notes
Approach
Not more than 1 question being asked that too not every year so though the cost benefit was poor, I found this portion interesting and a lot of content could be used in essays and ethics. So I did this part thoroughly. Yet a maximum of 4 days should suffice
How i prepared
went through each word of the syllabus, practice pyq, test series
5) Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
Role of Women and Women’s Organization, Population and Associated Issues, Poverty and Developmental issues, Urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
Effects of Globalization on Indian society.
Social Empowerment, Communalism, Regionalism & Secularism.
sources
Vision ias material
Quotes, newspaper articles,data and reports collected
MAINS 365 society- SOCIAL ISSUES
Dipin Damodran Sir’s current affairs classes
(i had taken his course but mains 365 also equally covers the current affairs )
Approach
This was one part of the GS 1 syllabus that I took a lot of interest in. so apart from doing the basic notes i supplemented it with a lot of newspaper articles, quotes, reports, indices, data.
Used to keep revising it so that i could write a really interesting answer
How i prepared
Apart from this, i practised pyq and wrote tests
6) Salient features of World’s Physical Geography.
Sources - PMF IAS GEOGRAPHY
Distribution of Key Natural Resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub-continent); factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India).
A cursory reading of economic geography part of pmf ias but only to identify the pattern of distribution of resources, such that rubber would be found in tropical climate etc.
Made sure that I drew a world map in such questions and label the map.
Did pyq and tests
Important Geophysical Phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.
For this part again did the relevant reading from pmf ias , Supplemented these answers with environment mains 365 content
Pyq and tests as usual
Overall approach to attempt the paper
In the initial minutes given to read the paper, i started with Question 11 ( 15 marker) and tried to frame its answer in 2 mins
Did the same for at least 2 more questions.
As soon as the time to start writing began i jumped to writing the answers to Q11, 12, 13 which i had thought how to attempt and tried to write really good answers taking 11 minutes each.
Then with the same 11 minute rule, would attempt Q14- Q 20 (11MIN *10 questions= 110 MINS )
I used a digital timer watch to make sure i am precise with the timings, however if i exceeded the time limit in 1 or 2 question by 1 minute or two, i didn't panic,
But make sure to stick to the 11 minute rule.
By the end of 1 hour 45/50 mins your 15 markers should be done,
Now i started with q1 - q10 giving 7 minute each (10 questions *7 min= 70 mins
So the plan was to finish the paper exactly on time
And this comes with a lot of practice
Initially when i started to write full length tests, i could finish 13-14 questions
But it went on increasing till the day of mains examination.
How to attempt a question you have no clue about ? - try covering that aspect of the question you know something about, give any recent context regarding the same, and in the end after you have written 1 page, move ahead, leave the question instead of writing things that do not make sense, save 4 minutes there and use it to write some other answer.
Tried to use simple diagrams in GS1 especially culture, geography, and society.
Tried to make answers solution oriented, in the end write a WAY FORWARD after giving this heading
Wrote at least 3 points
This wasn't my conclusion. After this i also wrote a 2 line conclusion in para format.
I am also attaching tests of gs 1 that i wrote.