Hai frndz.this post is specially for newbie’s(like me) who have no access to coaching and preparing on the own and targeted CSP-2013

Note: I am a new bee u may know more than me if anything is wrong senior players can always comment and correct me…

So guys hardly 50 days left for prelims exams(thanks for upsc to maintaining suspense on the notification and diverting our mind and wasting lots of time)..Ever one is in tensed mood. What to read and what not to read. How to tackle the exam and big question is will I qualify FOR MAINS..?after long struggle and surfacing through many websites finally I came to some conclusions which may be useful for you.

• Coming to polity its own word Laxmikanth Indian Polity (16questions last year)+I recommend to glance through last 10 year polity question and understand the concepts.dnot ask me about dd basu I never saw it..its ur choice u can go through it..

• Well about history Modern India (say Spectrum) <10 questions last year>Pay special attention to:

i) Charter Acts, Govt of India Acts, Indian Councils Acts etc.

ii) Socio-cultural movements

iii) Movements led by Gandhi

iv) Alternative streams (Communism, Tribal/peasant movements, revolutionary movements etc)

• If u dnt have time ignore ancient and medival.dnot read about the Harappa and places those are useless stuff.medival can be ignored safely but u have to read Aryans and Vedic culture and NO EXEMPTION to Jainism and Buddhism one question always comes and read ncets from 7-12 and bipin chnadra.in modern India forgot about the governors general and wat they did just start from 1857 revolt and read about eminent personalities from 1858 upsc has a habit of asking 1 question from that say dadabahi naorji last year..i found a wonderful material for history .read it and enjoy but ignore med vial world history ignore it but its compulsory for mains.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/62205950/History-in-English

• The MAIN point is 7th class social studies ncert..read geography and history from it..last time around 5 questions from single book…

• Geography ncerts 7-12 + any gs manual specially tmh more importance to Indian geography and if u have no time then just read 7.11.12th ncerts they cover lot

• Economy I just relied on murnal+Indian year book and leave about economic survey and murna l has give detailed explanation about the each and every chapter glance our it. If u r new to this part.1st get basics right and money supply, banking, IIP and most important rbi monetary policy and fiscal plicy and fiscal deficit and current account deficit(a bit may come this year)and rgess scheme etc.

http://mrunal.org/

• For environment nios material and ignou material + murnal articles and Indian year book +moef releases.be prepared well in this topic bcoz 20 bits from this section. the questions are very general and based on current affairs. in this part don’t mug up useless factual data but understand about our environment how it works and mug up all the national parks. Tiger reserves and there location upsc asking one bit from them in last 2 years be careful about the nios material u don’t need to read it fully only selected topics

• Read carefully about schemes in economy and yearbook. every year two bits from it. never neglect

• Coming to current affairs read one magazine of ur choice and Hindu newspaper .well every one says that but wat if we not purchased any magazine from June 2012 and not so through with hindu.who will give us the magazines of last one year…so guys if ur in this position I would give a idea. Follow pd online it has all the issues from last year+upscportal magazine which I found very useful for newcomers they provide important articles of hindu at last which a very great u can download them at zero cost. most imp point is ignore all the factual data like sports persons ,presidents and places were summits blah blah etc .keep eye on schemes ,environmental issues and more on S&T . Jan to April the current affairs are most imp never miss them..

• For S&T above magazines + hindu articles on s&t and mrunal have gave nice glance of hindu section. leave rest to the god

• Ncerts (7-12)+mrunal+yearbook+any gs manual (preferred tmh)+nios .read them 2 or 3 times and look at last 2 years papers and read them 5 or 6 times to understand the how questions appear in the exam..

• Read above all plus hindu is mandatory if u have time glance through Indian express which is also very usefull+use any gs manual and don’t read science part in any gs manual and if u have any coaching material can go through it.

finally don’t look for shortcuts or quick fixs.istead look for the things which makes above martial or books to understand easy and I am not saying that u only clear prelims if u read above books. but if u read them u have more chances to clear .i have one friend he doesn't know about Indian yearbook he reads manorama yearbook and never studied economic survey ,never follow any magazine regularly, never made notes never visited mrunalblog..He cleared prelims in his two attempts how I always wonder(may be bcoz he has no fb account and never waste time like many of us)so finally what I say is never leave any subject if u want can leave some topics based on ur preparation like ancient and medieval history in history section but when u read ncerts of 7-12 u will cover imp topics in ancient and med vial so what I want to say Is read ncerts very carefully …

when u read ncerts read like ur the upsc paper setter and now u want to frame nasty upsc standard questions from basic silly points from the lessons or paragraph or book which u r reading then ur mind will be think very differently and u start to look for logical points. when u find such a logical points underline and make a notes from it(I am soo lazy to make notes ,so I write side itself in that small place) but note making is very imp for final revision y bcoz image that there are 15 days left for prelims then is it possible to read above all books and master it.?its almost impossible and in tension u ended up with digging ur own grave ..it ultimately u .u have to make up ur mind…

last point is many are saying that cutoffs will be so high bcoz ifs candidates are also writing and sum came up with opinion that this time environment section will be tough bcoz of ifs candidates frndz as per my knowledge the upsc notification says they don’t required subject knowledge so they don’t increase standard of questions what upsc will do is reduce there number or make some other section like economy tough so that ifs candidates don’t have much advantage (upsc do exactly opposite to what we think to happen).

many persons especially how appeared for cat exam saying that u cant master gs ,so u make more practice for csat and score around 150+marks and some 60 marks in paper one to qualify. well this somehow it works for some persons but what I say is be balanced and aim 70-95 marks in paper one and 120-140 in paper two.so,that u can manage prelims easily and sail through it so friends that’s all it was 1st article and I not written this article to get more likes or shares I just want to throw sum light for fresher’s .if u have any good tips or suggestions plz do post to help our fellow mates.

ALL THE BEST…