Toppers

UPSC IAS Topper’s Answer Sheets PDF collection 2018

Hello friends here is a collection of 2018 UPSC toppers answer sheet PDF’s to help you understand how to approach mains or what we can learn from their writing style and so on. Hope this helps you to improve your mains score.

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Kanishak Kataria Rank – 1

Akshat Jain Rank – 2

Junaid Ahmad Rank – 3

Srushti Deshmukh Rank 5

Karnati Varun Reddy Rank 7

VAISHALI SINGH Rank 8

Pujya Priyadarshani Rank 11

Namrata Jain – Rank 12

ANKUR KAUSHIK rank 37

ALOK KUMAR rank 41

SUMIT KUMAR RAI rank 54

Kanishak Kataria AIR 1 Mains GS Strategy, Sources and PDF Notes

UPAC Topper Kanishak Kataria AIR 1 started sharing his Strategy, Sources and PDF Notes via a Telegram channel .

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Kanishak Kataria UPSC Topper marks

In His own words :

Hi, I will be sharing some Evernote notes which I used. They are derived from my classnotes, some test series trivia, other online and offline information. There might be some typos here and there. Please bear with them. These notes are in no ways exhaustive. They were supplemented by other offline material, for both Prelims and Mains.

Kanishak Kataria Notes

Kanishak Kataria Books List:

In his own words: Many people have asked me about my booklist. It’s more or less similar to my friend Prudhvitej’s booklist (AIR 24 UPSC 2017) – replace all classnotes with Vajiram classnotes. It’ll take me sometime to arrange all the information. Till then you can refer to his sources: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lpa7-LoNMQ36OsDuyJtJDCpu89bMJ50f

CAUTION:

  • The given booklist is neither exhaustive nor sufficient for qualification in prelims.
  • Much of it was constrained by my optional.
  • Depending on own level of comfort, students should refer to the books.
  • I DID NOT copy any other topper’s booklist.
  • I just got a basic understanding and then read what I felt most comfortable with.
  • Each topic was also updated through Test series reverse learning – Vajiram and Vision – both available online.
  • Internet was also used to improve the collected information.
  • All class-notes are from Vajiram classes made by myself and NOT COPIED.
  • Vision PT 365s were referred for all the topics, specially Environment and Science and Technology.

History

Ancient History:
  • Jain Sir class notes
  • Only few chapters from NCERT (couldn’t remember much)
  • Test series reverse learning
  • Medieval: No bandwidth to prepare. Only relied on test series trivia.
Modern History
  • Parmar Sir class notes
  • NCERT
  • Spectrum (selective reading)
Art and Culture:
  • Vajiram class notes + test series.
  • No bandwidth to read any book.

Indian Polity

  • NCERT: Indian Constitution at Work
  • Vajiram Classnotes -Ravindran Sir, Abhey Sir, Abhilash Sir, Gautam Sir
  • Laxmikanth

Geography

  • NCERTs – XI, XII
  • Vajiram classnotes -Shivarpit Sir, Manocha Sir, Amit Sir
  • Self Map work
  • Rajtanil lectures – Only Physical Geography
  • Internet – pmfias

Economics

  • NCERT – XII Macroeconomics
  • Vajiram classnotes -Vibhas Sir, Samyak Sir, Kapuria Sir, Sanghi Sir
  • Sriram booklet (not end to end but topic wise)
  • Economic Survey – Part II
  • Internet – Investopedia, Arthapedia, Vikaspedia etc.

Science

  • Vajiram classnotes -Bindu Ma’am for Biotech, Binoy Sir for Space Tech + Nanotech,Rahul Sir for everything else
  • Internet reading

Environment

  • NCERT Biology XII – last 4 chapters
  • Vaishali Ma’am class notes
  • Self notes using Unacademy, Internet
  • Shankar Book- selected chapters (didn’t like the book that much)

Current Affairs

  • Daily newspaper without fail
  • IYB: only class notes from Vajiram
  • PT 365s
  • Internet
  • No time for Magazines and Monthly compilations

Schemes

  • Newspapers + Vision PTs

Kanishak Kataria Strategy and Mathematics Optional

Watch From 41 Minute Onward:

Evernote links :

Ancient History :

  • Own strategy: Had very less time. So tried to cover class notes only. If someone has time/interest, please refer to other standard books like XIth NCERT and/or Nitin Singhania. Ancient History Notes in the “history” notebook are from Jain Sir’s classes at Vajiram. A lot of information has been added to it through test series materials.Those facing issues in this particular topic along with paucity of time, can try to cover these notes. Hopefully, they will be of some benefit in the examination.

Kanishak Kataria AIR 1 Answer sheets PDF Download:

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Anudeep Durishetty AIR 1 Mains GS Strategy, Sources and PDF Notes

With 1000 marks spanning across four papers in Mains, GS feels like one giant, insurmountable mountain. The point of this article is to convince you that those fears are unfounded.

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I’ve written this post assuming someone who had already read the foundational books for GS Prelims. If you haven’t read them as yet, you should first read my post on GS Prelims. At the end of this article, I embedded download links to my complete GS notes and answer copies.

As you start reading the books I mention here for GS mains, please keep the following points in mind:

  1. Along with these books, get a printout of the syllabus and read it carefully. Your final aim must be: for each topic mentioned in the syllabus, you should have enough content to write a 250-word answer.
  2. Go through the past five years’ question papers to understand the breadth and depth of questions UPSC usually asks. It’ll give you a good perspective of what’s important and what’s not.
  3. Use the internet extensively, especially for topics like Science and Tech. Your target must be to gain knowledge, be it through books or through the internet.
  4. For all subjects, you have to superimpose current affairs over it, especially for GS-2 and GS-3. For both these papers, current affairs form the nucleus. You will inevitably do a lot of reading on the internet, so use Evernote to organise and highlight content like this.
  5. Give adequate time for revision. Without it, you will not be able to recollect whatever you may have read. So please dedicate enough time to it, whether you are giving a mock test or the actual exam.
  6. Many aspirants commit one fundamental mistake: they read and revise, over and over, but never practise. Remember that the examiner checking your copy will have no idea about the number of books you’ve read or the number of hours you’ve slogged. Your answers are all that he has to judge you. So it makes sense to learn it, practise it and perfect it.
  7. Mains exam demands not only our memory and intelligence but also endurance. If you lack prior practice, writing relentlessly for 6 hours a day and do this for 5 days will cause both mental and physical fatigue. The only way to overcome it is to practice enough before the final exam.
  8. General Studies demands only a peripheral understanding of an expansive set of topics. So it’s important that you try to gain minimum sufficient knowledge over a diverse set of subjects rather than obsessively focussing on one topic. For instance, it doesn’t make sense to read World History for three months at the expense of all other subjects. Always maintain that fine balance between all the topics and don’t get imprisoned in one.
  9. In GS, there will be very few questions where you will have absolutely no clue. Even if you only have a vague idea, write those generic points. For instance, in last year’s GS-1 paper, for the question on Malay peninsula, I knew no specific fact except a vague idea that Singapore had a partition story similar to India. So I just wrote a generic answer comprising of problems such as ethnic strife, insurgency, and economic collapse. The examiner checking my copy might have given 2-3 marks for it, which I am sure any aspirant would gladly take.
  10. You must develop the skill to speed read a committee or an organisation’s report on your computer (reading online saves you a lot of time) and highlight important lines as you read along. In the second reading, this highlighted portion is what you need to revise. It should look something like this.
  11. In GS papers, map of India is your most effective tool for illustration. For example, I drew India maps and labelled relevant parts for questions on river linkage (GS-3), North-East insurgency (GS-3), Inland navigation (GS-1), India’s 18th-century fragmented polity (GS-1) etc. Practise it enough so that you are able to draw and label it under 60 seconds.
  12. If you are taking a test series, please give those tests with all the seriousness of the final UPSC exam. In the mock test, if you take 10-15 additional minutes to finish the paper, you are cheating no one except yourself. Observe strict time limits.
  13. You will never feel content with your Mains preparation and there is always a nagging tendency to just keep reading and procrastinate writing answers or skip an upcoming test. You have to overcome this reluctance through conscious effort. Suppose before a mock test if you were unable to finish the syllabus, you can postpone your test by a day or two, but don’t skip it altogether.
  14. Perfectionism is your enemy. If you keep referring to countless sources to make that “perfect notes”, if you keep postponing your mock tests in order to write “perfect tests”, this mentality will bring you to ruin. Getting a good score in Mains is about attempting all questions to which some answers are excellent, some good and many above average. So instead of waiting for that elusive perfection, start imperfect and then keep improving.
  15. When you are buying coaching material, always ask yourself: “what new is this material adding to my preparation?” If you can’t answer that question convincingly, then the material probably isn’t really useful.
  16. Just because I am AIR-1, it does not mean that my notes are the best or that this book list is the last word. If you have been studying some other material, that’s fine, too. To succeed in this exam, the source of material is not important. What’s important is you to understand the concepts, memorise the facts well and have a firm grip over the entire syllabus.

The list of books for GS Mains:

GS 1

Indian Art and Culture

  1. An Introduction to Indian Art – Class XI NCERT
  2. Chapters related to culture in Ancient and Medieval India NCERTs
  3. Centre for Cultural Resource and Training (CCRT) material
  4. Heritage Crafts: Living Craft Traditions of India -NCERT
  • For someone who is starting just now, this topic can overwhelm them. So I suggest beginners read this section after they get acquainted with other GS topics.
  • In Art and Culture, questions asked by UPSC in recent years are more analytical— which requires both the factual content and good analysis to answer the why and how. You can answer such questions well only when you understand the historical background in which such art was produced. This is why it’s important that you read NCERT XI Ancient India for it gives you that historical context.
  • For instance, don’t just memorise features of say, Sangam literature or Chola architecture, but understand the social, political, religious and economic context in which such grand art was produced. They will form the analysis part and will help you write great answers.
  • Make good use of the internet to watch both visual and performing arts to understand how they actually look in real life. You will be able to recollect such visuals more easily. They will help you write a decent answer for questions which you only have a vague idea about.
  • Wherever relevant, draw diagrams to illustrate your answers. For instance, you can draw a rough sketch to show the features of a Stupa, Dravida, and Nagara style architecture, Paleolithic art, Folk arts such as Warli, Harappan pottery etc. You don’t need to be a Michelangelo for this, but you must ensure that the fundamentals are correct. For example, in Warli art, human bodies are represented by triangles, heads by circles and hands by simple lines. Just get these basics right. Link to download diagrams is given at the end of the article.
  • Art and Culture requires a ton of memorisation and there’s really no shortcut to mastering it except through multiple revisions.

Modern Indian History

  1. A Brief History of Modern India- Spectrum Publications
  2. India’s Struggle for Independence – Bipan Chandra (Read selectively for topics not covered in the Spectrum book)
  • Questions on Indian history are something that every serious aspirant will answer well, so you really cannot afford to let go of these questions. If you had done your prelims preparation for this topic well, that is good enough. You just need to practise answer writing.

India’s Post Independence History

  1. India Since Independence by Bipan Chandra
  2. For certain topics, I made notes from this book. Download link is given at the end.

World History

  • I prepared entirely for this topic from this outstanding book: Download
  • Since revising this big book before the exam was difficult, I prepared concise notes from it. I also practised maps to demonstrate major world historical events.
  • Link to download my notes and maps is given at the end of the article.

Geography

  • The study plan is the same as for prelims, which I’ve explained here.

Indian Society

  • This is a generic, nebulous topic with no style or structure. Questions are sometimes vague, philosophical and the challenge we face is not so much in lack of content as in presenting it concisely in 200 odd words. To understand the basics, read NCERT Sociology Std XI and XII. Make concise notes on each topic that includes: a crisp definition, latest statistics, govt schemes, criticism of these schemes; causes of issues such as communalism and regionalism, historical and current examples, their impact on our society, and your suggestions as the way ahead. (you can get these suggestions from the internet or ARC 2 or some committee report). In case if you find good coaching material for these topics, that’ll do as well.
  • For this topic, a generic answer with proper structure and subheadings that cover multiple dimensions is good enough to fetch you marks. You can find my notes at the end of the article.

GS 2

Polity, Governance and Social Justice

Static Portion:

  1. Laxmikanth
  2. Polity Notes (this will provide analytical content. Download link is given at the end of the article)
  3. ARC 2 (One of the best reports ever written for the government. It’s been more than ten years since the reports were published, but the content is still priceless. Read complete reports, memorise only recommendations)

Current Affairs:

  1. The Hindu
  2. The Big Picture on RSTV
  3. CivilsDaily current affairs material
  4. I also referred to Insights/ForumIAS current affairs material for topics not covered well by CivilsDaily
  5. PRS India for latest legislation
  6. All India Radio – Spotlight (used to listen during my commute to the office)
  • Open your answers with Constitutional articles. Question on Governor? Art 153 must be there in the first line. Question on Civil Services? Art 312 is where you begin. If there’s a technical term like ‘Parliamentary Sovereignty’, ‘Political democracy’ or ‘Social Audit’ — define them in your introduction telling the examiner what you understand by those terms.
  • Supreme Court judgements are very important. Make a list of important judgements (both historical and current) and quote them to substantiate your answer. For example, when you are answering a question on Free speech, quoting SC judgement in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India case will add tremendous value to your answers.
  • For a debatable topic, always write both sides of the issue even if not explicitly asked in the question. Example: A question might ask: Do you agree that Civil Services is in need of drastic reforms? For this, explain under a subheading why drastic reforms are needed. And in the next paragraph, counter by saying why drastic reforms are harmful. In the end, you can add the view of ARC 2/Hota/Surendranath committee to convey your view and end on a balanced note.
  • For miscellaneous topics like the comparison of Constitutions, RPA Act, SHG, e-Governance etc refer to any good coaching material to have 200-word worth content. Source latest examples and issues from newspapers and quote them in your answers.
  • Prepare thoroughly on Govt policies and bills. PRS India is an excellent resource for all the latest legislation in the offing and The Hindu for policy criticism. But the newspaper is patently leftist and they publish articles incessantly and nauseatingly ranting on policies they don’t like (Eg: Aadhar). But as someone aspiring to be a civil servant, you need to be more dispassionate. This is why you must actively pursue articles with a contrarian and balanced opinions like this and this.
  • Cram latest statistics pertaining to health, employment, women, education, poverty etc. Also apart from committees, you may quote authentic reports from reputed organisations such as Lancet, Transparency International, UNICEF, FAO etc to substantiate your point. I made notes on important statistics that can be used for all papers of GS and essay. Download link is given at the end of the article.
  • Conclusion: Wherever possible, end with a committee/ commission recommendation or observation. For instance, a question on Centre-State relations should invariably end with Punchhi Commission, a question on death penalty with Law Commission and a question on Indian Constitution with NCRWC. Referring to Sustainable Development Goals, Preamble, DPSP is also another good way to end your answers.

International Relations

  • Any good book that adequately covers the historical aspect of India’s bilateral relations.
  • Current affairs: The Hindu, India’s World on RSTV, CivilsDaily or Insights or ForumIAS depending upon the topic.
  • Questions on IR will be almost, always be about the current happenings in the world. But before you run after the Hindu or some other latest magazine for this section, it’s important that you understand the historical background of India’s relationship with other countries. This is indispensable because every bilateral issue that you see in the news can be traced back to history. Once you understand this historical context, this topic becomes uncomplicated.
  • For example, let’s take India China relations. Don’t merely focus on Doklam crisis and troop positioning, but understand the larger context of our border dispute with China, the agreements we had signed starting with the Simla Accord of 1914. For India-Sri Lanka, don’t just concentrate that India voted for or against Sri Lanka at the UN, but understand how India always championed peace between the Tamils and the Sinhalese, the 1987 accord, its fallout, Sri Lankan civil war and what India did during these times. When you have that bigger picture in mind, each part of the puzzle becomes easier to fit in.
  • For miscellaneous topics like diaspora and international institutions, refer to any good coaching material.
  • Draw map wherever relevant. Example: for India-Iran relations, you can draw a rough map to show how the Chabahar port helps us to bypass Pakistan and reach Afghanistan. Act East policy can be demonstrated with arrows pointing from India and showing our specific relationship with Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and ASEAN, MGC, BIMSTEC etc.,
  • Each bilateral relationship or a global grouping is multi-faceted. To make your answers comprehensive, always write a multidimensional perspective that includes: the strategic dimension, defence co-operation, technology, education, culture, diaspora, trade and investment, co-operation in global fora etc.

GS 3

Economy

Static part:

  1. Standard resources I already mentioned in my prelims post
  2. Budget (any coaching material compilation)
  3. Economic Survey (gist)
  4. Niti 3-year Action Plan report (a good resource for policy recommendations that come in handy while you write conclusion)

Current Affairs:

  1. The Hindu
  2. CivilsDaily
  3. I referred to Insights/ForumIAS current affairs material for topics not covered well by CivilsDaily

Indian Agriculture, Land reforms, PDS, Food Processing, LPG, Infrastructure

  1. Mrunal.org
  2. Vision IAS
  3. The Hindu and CivilsDaily for current affairs
  • You need to remember that for GS-3, questions revolve around current affairs and there is no dearth of material. It may sound counter-intuitive, but the trick is to restrict yourself to material that’s good enough for you to write a 250-word answer for all topics. It’s very important that you don’t get sunk under the heap of current affairs and coaching material.
  • So for each topic mentioned in the syllabus, make concise notes from the resources mentioned above. I also found Niti Aayog’s 3-year Action Plan report really helpful for this paper. And just as I had mentioned for GS-2, statistics and committee reports are very important.

Security

  • Vajiram and Vision IAS material
  • The Hindu and CivilsDaily for current affairs
  • Prepare crisp and clear definitions of technical terms such as cybersecurity, terrorism, organised crime, money laundering, left-wing extremism etc.
  • For questions on border security, draw India map to illustrate.

Disaster Management

  • Fundamental reading: CBSE book
  • Prepare concise notes on NDMA (structure, functions, rules etc), international agreements such as Sendai Framework, latest current affairs from newspapers, internet and coaching material.
  • Draw diagrams to illustrate concepts like river embankment, land zoning, watershed management etc.

Environment and Ecology

  • Shankar IAS book
  • The Hindu and CivilsDaily for current affairs
  • My handwritten notes (Download link given at the end)

Science & Tech

  1. The Hindu
  2. Vision IAS Mains 365
  3. YouTube
  • This topic terrifies many aspirants, and for good reason. There’s no single book or resource to help one navigate this section and it all feels like one big haze. But there’s good news: the questions asked in S&T are mostly from current affairs and you are expected to have only a general understanding of the topics.
  • During my preparation, I used to note down in my book whatever scientific term or technology that’s frequently talked about in news. For instance, these days we repeatedly encounter terms such as Artificial General Intelligence, Blockchain, Machine Learning, Cryptocurrency, CRISPR-CAS9 in news and on the internet.
  • Note down all such scientific concepts that are in news and then scour the internet (especially Youtube) to understand them. There are many explainer videos on Youtube that explain the concept so well that even a school student can understand it. For instance, take this excellent video on blockchain technology. Once you see it, it’s impossible for you to miss a question on blockchain and its practical applications.
  • Apart from the above, you need to learn fundamental terms and technologies used in Space (PSLV, GSLV, Cryo Engine etc), Nanotech, Nuclear Research (Fast breeder reactor, Uranium enrichment, Nuclear fission and fusion etc.), Defence (Cruise missile, Ballistic missile, Stealth Bomber etc), Biotech (Gene editing, Stem Cells, GM food etc), Communication (LIDAR, RADAR, LiFi, 5G etc). Any comprehensive material of a coaching institute will be sufficient for this (I referred to Vajiram printed notes).
  • Whatever S&T topic you are learning, always focus on the concept, why is it in news, practical applications, potential threats, benefits far into the future etc. Just do this and you will easily handle this topic in the final exam.

GS 4

  • 2nd ARC reports: Ethics in Governance, Promoting E-gov, RTI, Citizen-centric Administration, Personnel Administration. Read all ARC reports completely, memorise only recommendations.
  • For moral thinkers, Google them to read about their major contributions and for misc topics such as corporate governance, I referred to Vajiram printed material. I also prepared some notes for certain topics (download link at the end of the article)
  • I went through the syllabus and tried to define each term in clear words and simple sentences. I found this exercise very useful because these definitions inevitably formed the introduction to most of my answers. For all of ethics paper, the essence can be distilled as just this: a clear and simple definition of the term and a real-life example to illustrate the concept. You can draw flowcharts and schematics wherever apt.
  • It’s important to understand that each question is an opportunity to display your ethics. This will be best demonstrated by the actions you did or some other personalised/ real-life examples you quote. Reflect on your childhood, school life, college time, professional career etc and glean examples that are simple, unpretentious and at the same time bring out your ethical values clearly. For some questions, you can also quote historical examples from the lives of great leaders.
  • For case studies, my aim was not so much in writing ingenious, extraordinary solutions, but to write something that’s realistic and practicable and finish the paper no matter what.
  • I always started with Q1 and not with case studies because I could not see how one mark in Section B (case studies) is superior to one mark in Section A. I gave equal importance and dedicated equal time to both the sections.
  • Rest of the GS papers have 20 questions each, Ethics has only 14. But don’t let that number 14 fool you. I’ve always found GS-4 to be the lengthiest paper of all. Every question in Section A has many subparts that drain an inordinate amount of your time. In fact, if we go by the absolute numbers, we write more words in GS-4 than in other papers. So to manage your time well: Abide by the rule that you must complete at least 80 marks worth of questions in each hour, irrespective of whether you start with Section A or Section B.
  • Just before GS-4, you would have had written three stressful GS papers that would put your body condition under severe mental and physical strain. But it’s important to stay mentally tough during this crucial period and push your endurance limits so as to survive another 3 hours of relentless writing. Remember that it’s all in the mind— it can be your biggest enemy or your greatest strength.

My Notes

GS 1

GS 2

GS 3

GS 4

Misc

Essay

 

My GS Answer Copies

GS 2

GS 3

GS 4

Essay

GS may look insurmountable at first, but remember that it’s always the small steps towards the summit that count. Through effective planning and adequate practice, anyone can conquer it.

My best wishes.

Until next time,
Anudeep.

Via How to conquer GS in UPSC Mains, Explained .  Re-posted in full instead of Linking. Wanted here in full for a benchmark. Our links are auto updated and not provided in original post.

UPSC Topper Pratham Kaushik (Mains Highest score)

These are marks of UPSC Topper Pratham Kaushik, he got all India rank 5 in Civil services exam 2017 conducted by UPSC, scores were uploaded on UPSC website. He is the Top scorer in mains !

All India Rank : 5

  • Essay:  146/250
  • GS Paper 1 : 112/250
  • GS Paper 2 : 130/250
  • GS Paper 3 : 144/250
  • GS Paper 4 : 115/250
  • GS Total:  501/ 1000
  • Geography Paper 1 : 166/250
  • Geography Paper 2 : 161/250
  • Optional total : 327/ 500
  • Written total : 974/ 1750
  • Interview : 143/275
  • Total : 1117/2025

UPSC Topper Anudeep Durishetty Marks

These are marks of UPSC Topper Anudeep Durishetty, he got all India rank 1 in Civil services exam 2017 conducted by UPSC, scores were uploaded on UPSC website.

All India Rank : 1

  • Essay:  155/250
  • GS Paper 1 : 123/250
  • GS Paper 2 : 123/250
  • GS Paper 3 : 136/250
  • GS Paper 4 : 95/250
  • GS Total:  477/ 1000
  • Anthropology Paper 1 : 171/250
  • Anthropology Paper 2 : 147/250
  • Optional total : 318/ 500
  • Written total : 950/ 1750
  • Interview : 176/275
  • Total : 1126/2025

UPSC Topper Nandini K R Marks

These are marks of UPSC Topper Nandini K R, she got all India rank 1 in Civil services exam 2016 conducted by UPSC,found her marks on net posting them here.

  • Essay: 142/250
  • GS Paper 1 :131/250
  • GS Paper 2 :103/250
  • GS Paper 3 :116/250
  • GS Paper 4 :104/250
  • GS Total: 454/ 1000
  • Kannada Literature Paper 1 : 164/250
  • Kannada Literature Paper 2 : 167/250
  • Optional total :331/ 500
  • Written total : 927/ 1750
  • Interview :193/275
  • Total : 1120 /2025
  • AI Rank : 1

 Prelims Marks 

  • Paper 1 : 141.34
  • Paper 2 : 88.33

UPSC Topper Gopalakrishna Ronanki Marks

These are marks of UPSC Topper Gopalakrishna Ronanki, he got all India 3rd Rank in Civil services exam 2016 conducted by UPSC,found his marks on net posting them here. He wrote the exam in Telugu .

  • Essay: 154/250
  • GS Paper 1 :123/250
  • GS Paper 2 :100/250
  • GS Paper 3 :113/250
  • GS Paper 4 :124/250
  • GS Total: 460/ 1000
  • Telugu Literature Paper 1 : 162/250
  • Telugu Literature Paper 2 : 160/250
  • Optional total :322/ 500
  • Written total : 936/ 1750
  • Interview :165/275
  • Total : 1101 /2025
  • AI Rank : 3

Prelims booklist and strategy by Siddharth Jain AIR 13

Siddharth Jain AIR 13  has shared his Prelims booklist and strategy in his official blog,These are the suggested books and sources from which one has to study for prelims.

Prelims booklist and strategy

These are the books and sources from which one has to study for prelims

  • Geography :Read the Ncerts of class 11 and 12.Watch Videos on Mrunal by Rajtanil solanki mam on geography(This will help you in both prelims and mains). Book by mahesh kumar barnwal on geography(available in market and online).Memorize world maps(for this you can type how to memorize european countries using mnemonic on you tube(just an example,you can do this for various continents),this will make things easier for you)  .After this you can refer NCERTS from class 8 th to 10th if time permits.
  • Culture:Indian Art and culture(By nitin singhania),Refer to CCRT(But it is complicated,so atleast see the topics mentioned in CCRT),An introduction to Indian Art (11th class NCERT),Learn folk dances and music if possible from spectrum book on Indian culture.Further in Indian Year book there is a chapter on various states>Go through it.
  • Polity:Indian polity(Laxmikanth) plus second chapter of India Year Book .
  • Environment:Shankar Ias notes on environment(Available in the market)
  • Economy:Videos on Mrunal plus Sriram notes on economy(available in the market)
  • Science and technology:Shankar Ias notes on science and technology(available in the market) plus Science Moniter(It is an episode from Rajya sabha TV,the videos can be seen on you tube)
  • Science:Instead of doing all the Ncerts, pick any coaching material related to general science.They generally compile the Ncerts material
  • History:
  • Read the old Ncerts of class 11th /12th(There is world history in class 12th i guess.If so skip it for prelims).After that pick up the new ncerts on ancient and medieval Idnia and go through it quickly(i.e.give more time to old NCERTS).
  • Spectrum (for modern India)
  • For history between 1757-1857 ,old Ncert (12th class) by Bipin Chandra

 Other than the above mentioned sources I did current affairs from Vision IAS material and followed almost all the videos on Mrunal.org.

Further i learnt all the national parks,wildlife sanctuaries (whatever was possible).

MY STRATEGY FOR PRELIMS

If we analyse via probability,our chance of getting positive marks in any question increases even if we can eliminate one of the option and randomly chose from the other 3.So I was very sure that I will attempt all the hundred questions.This may not work for the ones , who are not  good with intelligent guesses.I practiced many mock papers ,so that I develop the skills which will help me in making calculated guesses.(The strategy might backfire. I am just telling what I did)

Further join or pick up a test series which has separate tests for each of the section.Example a separate test on polity .This will ensure that you practice each and every section nicely.Then you can give combine tests.

I used to google the last year questions to get a hint about the source of questions.I practiced questions from last year papers.One can buy a book (i bought vishal publications book) to practice last year papers.

UPSC IAS CIvil Services PRELIMS STRATEGY: Kumar Ashirwad, Rank 35

I will share some suggestions that I feel could really help you. Not all of these suggestions will be exactly suitable to you. You can modify some suggestions to suit your own style/approach. I will attempt at giving a broad framework or strategy rather than the specifics. Feel free to tweak the framework if you deem it rational.

Read the Full article on UPSC IAS CIvil Services PRELIMS STRATEGY: Kumar Ashirwad, Rank 35, Prelims GS-1 Marks 140 (2015).Alternatively you can compare our suggested books list too .

AIR 3rd ranker Explains why to read news papers for UPSC

Jasmeet Singh Sandhu wrote a reply on Quora explaining his process on reading the news paper and why it is important. Re posting it here in toto.

Namaste All

Thank you once again for all your wishes. I am here to share a few ideas on newspaper reading. Remember this is my way of preparation and worked very well for me.

  1. Please dont read newspapers just for reading as a habit. I have not read any magazines and periodicals in the two attempts I was successful in.
  2. I have just read The Hindu and The Indian Express.
  3. In cases where you feel you waste time and have not picked up important issues, I suggest you skip newspaper reading for 3/4 months at a stretch. But you can’t skip newspapers in August, September, October, November and December if you are giving Mains in December.
  4. Skipping newspapers will free up your time a lot. This added time must be used for other endeavours.
  5. Now when you skip newspapers, you should cover that up by reading Insights on India’s daily current affairs and Secure Questions and Answers compilation paper wise. Also read IAS BABA’s monthly magazine and its Yojana and PIB Gist. Also go through the PRS. The coverage of issues from these will overlap a lot. In any case please read the newspapers and supplement it with the above resources.
  6. This will do two things. For those who don’t know how to read, it will guide you what was to be read and prepared from an issue. This will help you a lot when you return back to newspaper reading. Also for those who know how to read, it will inform you what exactly is to be prepared from an issue. In any case the above resources are wonderful and always stick to them.
  7. Now in a newspaper, we get news. UPSC doesn’t ask news. It asks issues connected with news.You need to go in depth of these issues. Again resources in point 5 will exemplify what I am saying.
  8. I want you to learn from these resources and not me as I learnt from these resources and you should prepare from primary resources. Still if people feel they require my assistance, I will try and upload a video for this by June end.
  9. Also note down from newspapers 10 quality facts, acts, schemes, policies, committees on all issues such as health, education, Parliament, Judiciary, Energy, Power, States, Bureaucracy, Agriculture, Industries, Services, Urbanization and as many more issues you get.
  10. I will utilise your knowledge from point number 5 and 9 to explain how simple answers can be constructed to give good marks. I will try and upload a video again around July for this.
  11. Till then follow the above tips. I want you all to be well versed with the style of resources I have mentioned and have 9th point prepared. No need to do random searches on Google. Read more and more of the resources I have told you above.

All the above resources are free and can be found free on websites I mentioned. My guidance videos will be as well free. Please don’t pay any money for all this. I am doing all this as a sense of deep gratitude I hold for aspirants, their aspirations and the huge burden they have on them. You all are my idols as I have seen the hard work you all put in. You are all true champions.

Best Wishes

UPSC Topper Tina Dabi Marks

These are marks of UPSC Topper Tina Dabi, she got all India rank 1 in Civil services exam 2015 conducted by UPSC,found her marks on net posting them here.

  • Essay: 145/250
  • GS Paper 1 :119/250
  • GS Paper 2 :84/250
  • GS Paper 3 :111/250
  • GS Paper 4 :110/250
  • GS Total: 424/ 1000
  • Political Sci & IR Paper 1 : 128/250
  • Political Science & IR Paper 2 : 171/250
  • Optional total :299/ 500
  • Written total : 868/ 1750
  • Interview :195/275
  • Total : 1063 /2025
  • AI Rank : 1

Update : Prelims Marks 

  • Paper 1 : 96.66
  • Paper 2 : 98.73
  • Total : 195.39

UPSC 2015 topper’s Answer booklets

Vision IAS has uploaded the answer sheets of 2015 toppers , the booklets includes answers of Tina Dabi,Artika Shukla,Shashank Tripathi,Ashish Tiwari,Sharanya Ari and Karn Satyarthi.

TINA DABI RANK-1, 2015

ARTIKA SHUKLA RANK-4, 2015

SHASHANK TRIPATHI RANK-5, 2015

ASHISH TIWARI RANK-6, 2015

SHARANYA ARI RANK-7, 2015

KARN SATYARTHI RANK-9, 2015

GS Mains 2015 : Booklist/Sources

This is the suggested books list by  Ashish Kumar 9th ranker in CSE 2014,he shared this books list on his blog, where he shared shared lot of good stuff, do check it out.

I have tried to reproduce below the sources that I followed for my GS preparation along with certain popular sources that I could not follow. I have also included certain observations regarding the sources that I followed.

PAPER-I

Indian Culture

Followed

  1. GKToday Notes
  2. Old NCERT
  3. Tamil Nadu board intermediate level books
  1. Tried NIOS material but did not find it to be of any use and put it down after initial 50 pages
  2. AL Basham? Nopes. The font size scared me!
  3. My experience
    1. I found the GKToday material to be a good compilation.
    2. Old NCERT and Tamil Nadu level books help in getting some background of the chronology of dynasties, social structure
    3. Anything more than the above sources, I found to be a overkill given the constraints of time.

Modern History

  1. Read the thick Bipin Chandra (“India’s Struggle for Independence”) once in 2013. However it does not deal with pre-1857 syllabus. Also it deals with the post 1940 developments in a very trifling way.
  2. After reading the above books I stuck to
    1. Old class XII NCERT by Bipin Chandra : This also takes care of pre-1857 syllabus
    2. Spectrum Modern History
  3. The book by Bandopadhyay?
    1. This is a new book that is getting popular. However I did not get the time to read it for the mains
    2. I read some of it after the mains and found it to be much more balanced than the thick Bipin Chandra. It tends to get too trivial details at times. However that can be taken care of by proper underlining/highlighting
  4. My experience
    1. It is very important to keep the syllabus in mind while reading the book. This is because the syllabus says “…personalities..contributors…contributions from different parts of the country…”. So while reading as soon as you come across a particular personality make a mental note or a physical note somewhere. As soon as you come across a tribal movement make a note. Similarly remember the contributions made by various regions as an when you come across them in the book you follow.
    2. Why I liked Spectrum?
      1. Easy Retention
      2. Lots of information which can be linked and correlated to frame the answer
      3. Easy Revision

 

Post Independence Reorganization

  1. Followed Bipin Chandra’s India After Independence. This was my go to book
  2. Had read R.Guha’s ” India after Gandhi” which is a great book in 2013. It might not be so relevant from the purpose of exam but it is replete with immaculate details and dazzles you with the ‘idea of India’.
  3. Internet search
  4. My experience
    1. Bipin Chandra book is a thick book. Hence it gets very essential to underline the relevant details/make notes so that it becomes easier to revise.
    2. You might need to supplement Bipin Chandra with internet research to get a deeper insight/greater ‘fodder material’. For example the book does not go into detail the role of Lal Bahadur Shastri in the 1964-66 years or the role of B.R.Ambedkar in the Hindu Code Bill.

World History

  1. Followed
    1. Old NCERT class X book – The Story of Civilization
    2. Old NCERT intermediate level by Arjun Dev
    3. Synergy class notes
    4. Lots of internet search
  2. Norman and Lowe? : Heard that this is a great book. But paucity of time and the fact that it deals with post 1900 world made me decide against going for it
  3. My experience
    1. This section of the syllabus is pretty vast but interesting once you start correlating events.
    2. While NCERTs help get a base, they are insufficient if questions of the like of 2013 paper get asked. Thankfully the 2014 paper had easy questions.
    3. Synergy class notes helped in overcoming the inadequacy of NCERTs and provided with material to handle especially pre world war era questions

Topics related to Society

  1. Followed
    1. NCERT Sociology Books of Class XI and XII
    2. Vision IAS booklets on these topics available in the market
    3. My notes from the newspapers.

 

Geography

  1. Followed
    1. Certificate Physical and Human Geography by Goh Cheng Long
    2. NCERT books Class XI and XII
    3. NIOS material of senior secondary school level
    4. Internet search. For eg: the IMD site
    5. Vision IAS booklets on world geography and resource geography
      1. These booklets hardly served any purpose since they did not have any information worth the mains exam. However I still went through them just for the sake of completeness
  2. Books by Khullar/Majid/spectrum: Did not go through them due to paucity of time. However even if you do have time go only selectively through these books since these are huge books
  3. My experience
    1. Understanding the core concepts of physical geography helps a long way in understanding the Indian geography and correlating things. This should be done with the help of GC Long, NCERT and internet search.
    2. Connect the general events of current affairs with geography. This goes both for physical geography as well as resource geography. For example: a tornado or a gold rush somewhere may trigger off a question in the exam related to cyclones/sources of gold and likewise. For this keep the syllabus in your mind at all times
    3. As earlier, I tried to keep the number of sources limited and focused on revising them

 

PAPER-II

Polity

  1. Followed
    1. Indian Polity by Laxmikanth
    2. Sriram IAS Printed Polity Notes available in the market
    3. Vision IAS booklets available topicwise
    4. Gaurav Agarwal Sir’s notes on evernote
      1. I followed them mainly for Federalism, E-governance and Local governance
    5. Synergy class notes
    6. My own topicwise notes from the newspapers
  2. Reports?
    1. Except from what I could gather from Gaurav Agarwal sir’s notes and Vision IAS notes, I did not go through the ARCs or other commission’s reports for my mains. This was mainly due to time constraints.
    2. I went through a couple of ARC reports after the mains exam and found them to be very rich in content and insight. The good thing is that the recommendations are bunched together at one place so that after going through the material once, the revision is very fast. So if time permits, going through reports can be very useful.
  3. My experience
    1. Vision IAS topic wise modules were of great help in completing the syllabus and are of OK quality
    2. Gaurav Agarwal Sir’s notes are very concise and of high quality
    3. Following newspaper and editorials is a must for this section so as to be able to enrich your answers

Social Justice

  1. Followed
    1. Vision IAS booklets available topicwise in the market
    2. Own notes from the newspapers
    3. Certain very selective articles from Yojana
  2. 12th FYP?
    1. Again could not study this before the mains
    2. Did go through many FYP reports after the exam. So if time permits, one can give a shot at them with proper highlighting/underlining to allow easier revision
  3. My experience
    1. Remain updated with the newspapers and link what you read in the newspapers with this section

 

International Relations

  1. Followed
    1. Rajiv Sikri book
      1. Did not find it useful owing to the time span that has elapsed after the writing of the book. The dynamic nature of the international affairs renders many things redundant in the present scheme of world fora.
    2. Selective reading of Vision IAS booklets to get certain background knowledge
    3. Notes from newspaper
  2. My experience
    1. There is no better source or perhaps no source other than newspapers for this part.
    2. Prepare country-wise/organization-wise notes at one place

 

PAPER-III

Economy

  1. Followed
    1. Ramesh Singh TMH book on Economy
    2. Vision IAS booklets available topicwise in the market
    3. Gaurav Agarwal Sir’s notes on certain topics
    4. Economic Survey chapter on Agriculture
    5. Own notes from newspaper
  2. My experience
    1. Again the main source for this part is newspaper
    2. Keep the syllabus in mind and make a mental link to the corresponding item while reading any news/editorial related to it

 

Science and Technology

  1. No specific preparation except the notes from newspapers
  2. The preparation to this part knows no bounds. Since there was no readily available book/material I preferred to skip this part

 

Environment

  1. Quick revision of the relevant portion from Shankar IAS
  2. Notes from newspapers

 

Disaster Management

  1.  Followed
    1. Vision IAS booklet
    2. Gaurav Agarwal Sir’s notes
    3. Own notes from newspapers

 

Security

  1. Followed
    1. Vision IAS booklet
      1. But did not find this booklet to be of much use
    2. TMH book on Security
      1. This is a thin book of around 140 pages but a very good one which covers almost all the topics
    3. Gaurav Agarwal Sir’s notes
    4. Own notes from newspapers
  2. My experience
    1. This is a very interesting component of the syllabus and is also both static as well as dynamic in content. Hence place premium on both newspaper as well as background reading.

 

PAPER-IV

  1. Followed
    1. SK Mishra printed class notes available in the market
      1. The class notes are in concise format which allows one to go through the entire material in around 2-3 hours
      2. However the notes do not provide any deep insight
    2. Mohanty printed class notes available in the market
      1. These are comprehensive but are too theoretical. This material approaches the syllabus as it were a philosophy or a psychology optional. It does not go into the administrative component of ethics in any great detail which is afterall what the syllabus demands and hence these notes were of limited value.
    3. Vision IAS booklets topicwise
      1. These are a copy-paste job from various sources
    4. Printed case studies material by Lukmaan IAS
  2. The book by Subba? : Heard of it but did not read it.
  3. My experience
    1. Not much good material is available. However in hindsight, I do not think you need to go through a number of sources.

The above is post originally written for billano786, I do not agree with some sources or books for some topics,but in general he cover almost all books.

GS Preparation and how to write mains answers by Anunaya Jha (AIR 57)

Anunaya Jha (AIR 57) has a whopping 418 in GS with 115, 100, 87 and 116 in GS 1, 2 , 3, 4 respectively. The blog that follows are his wise words. I am merely hosting the same. Hope this helps !

WARNING:

  1. The gyaan that yours truly is going to dole out in the following 1200 odd words is NOT going to guarantee a fantabulous score in General Studies.
  2. Take my advice with heaps of salt. Always remember, your path to success is very different from my path to success—what really matters is that we both succeed in the end.

Now that we’re done with the ‘pleasantries’, let’s come down to why I am writing this blog post. For starts, I am a successful candidate of CSE 2014. Add to it, that I scored decently well in GS in CSE 2014. Throw in the fact that I have qualified this examination twice i.e., 2013 and 2014 and improved my GS score by over 100 marks between the two cycles. And let’s seal the matter on the ground that it might just help you, maybe just a tiny bit.

I started preparing for the Civil Services Examination sometime towards the end of 2012, and fell in love with the syllabus from Day 1. I was a rather attentive lad in school and hence, when I started taking classes for General Studies, I had a strong sense of déjà vu. I think my job was well begun because I did not despise any portion—be it Art and Culture or Security or Science and Technology—and hence, the task was half done! So the first takeaway you have is that you should become familiar with the subjects and topics before taking the plunge for preparing full time. Know the basics of History, Polity, Economy et al, and once you get into the groove, bash on!

I have a confession to make, not that I have sinned but because I don’t wish to hide it from you, and that is that I have NOT (yes, NOT!) read a single book for GS throughout my prep. I have never read Bipin Chandra, or Mishra and Puri, or Lakshmikant or… well, I don’t even know what the other books are! My source of information was the notes that I made diligently in class whilst I was coaching and the internet. Yes, the internet is not a distraction. There is more to the world wide web than Facebook and Twitter. Use the vast resource, make it your constant companion. Whenever you hear a new word, google it. I learned so much from this open portal, and I am sure you can use it in a much better way!So, point two, reading books is not the only way to get a good score in GS. You must be inquisitive, and try to find out new things as soon as you hear of them. Newspapers are a great source of knowledge, keep them very close to you. Make precis of editorials, write the major news in bullet point. It always pays off in the long run, believe you me.

The first time I took the examination in 2013, I did not know how to tackle a question. I cursorily read the question, underlined the keyword(s) and barfed everything I knew about it on paper. Please do NOT do that! The examiner is not there to seive your answers for valid points. On the contrary, even if you have meat in your answers but it is covered in heaps of futile words strewn around, the person correcting your script will care two hoots about it. So how do you escape from such a kamikaze attack? Read the question properly. Underatand ‘what’ is being asked. Answer accordingly. And the most important aspect, linkage. Link things that are happening around you to the question being asked. Give A LOT of examples from the present day happenings. I have tried to give an example of this, hope it helps—

“ To what extent has the urban planning and culture of Indus Valley Civilization provided inputs to present day urbanization? Discuss.”

Why do you think this question was asked in the first place? Yep, that’s right! Smart Cities.
So link IVC and the modern civilization to the present day pet project of the government. Talk about Chandigarh grid planning. Issues of drainage and water logging and how that was addressed in IVC cities.

With regards cultural inputs, a distinct architectural features of houses in the IVC was that the kitchen and the lavatory were at diagonally opposite corners of the unit. Why do you think that is? Yes, hygiene. From there came the concept of keeping the two separate– kitchen being a ‘clean’ place and the lavatory, ‘dirty’. Ergo, those working in the kitchen would not be asked to work in the lavatories and those associated with the lavatories weren’t allowed entry into the kitchen. Varna comes from the root ‘varya’ or ‘to choose’ (your profession). Those working in the kitchen were considered inferior to those involved elsewhere. Thus came the concept of high and low in society. So although there wasn’t any caste system in the IVC, no Jati et al, but the seeds of modern day evils of caste system– it’s stringent vertical hierarchical structure– were laid way back in that period.

So this may not be the perfect answer, in fact I am certain it isn’t. But what I’m trying to drive at is that you should try to get inside the mind of the examiner. Know the reason why something is being asked, and once you’ve decoded the message, go for the kill!

Another grey area in the CSM hitherto has been the GS Paper 4 on Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude. How do we write ‘ethical’ answers? Do we quote thinkers? Should we philosophise? Do we use a lot of jargon? My take on this is that you should include thinkers/concepts of philosophy/jargon only when it is absolutely relevant and understandably necessary. Don’t throw around terms and ideas, it’ll backfire. Majorly. Go simple, give loads of personal examples if you can (don’t drop any personal details, though!), and write to the point. I remember this question on Economic Development versus Environmental Degradation, and the strategies for sustainable development in the GS Paper 4 in 2014. Why was this question asked in the Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude examination? This should be a part of  Paper 1 and/or Paper 3, right? The reason is that they want to know whether you are aware of something called ‘environmental ethics’—the concept of Stewardship and Ecofeminism. Read up on such things (yes, use the internet!) and link it in the answers. Once you’ve given them a comprehensice answer, no one– absolutely no one–  can stop you from acing the examination.

With regards the list of books to read, and other sources, I may not be of much help. But then again, most of the source material and the booklist is readily available on several blogs. What I just wanted to put out there was the fact that GS can be made scoring with just a little effort. And no, it is not unpredictable if you know how to go about it. I learned it in a year, and I am sure you’ll get a hang of it much faster. Just be at it, you’ll shine. For sure.

How to Write Answers

I think one of the most important, yet most neglected areas in the course of preparation is answer writing. I had not written any subjective papers since school days and so after prelims I realized that I was in a tough spot. In the mock tests that I appeared in September 2014 , I could only finish 17 out of 25 questions in 3 hours . I realized then that all my preparation amounted to nothing if I could not present my knowledge to the examiner. Hence this is an area where I tried to improve my performance religiously in the next 3 months. In this process I realized the following:

  1. Love thy examiner

This one person holds the key to your success. It is not only fair but also logical for you to make his/her life as easy as possible. Remember that he/she is not doing you a favour by checking your answer-sheet. Its your job to generate his/her curiosity and then grasp his/her attention.

For this, you should keep a neat and legible handwriting, use considerable spacing and write in a logical flow. In case of GS , I tried and wrote in bullet points wherever possible. I wrote an introduction, then analysed the pros in the first section and cons in next and finally gave a conclusion. Your introduction should set the tone for your answer and conclusion should be balanced with a slice of your own outlook.

In political science, I wrote in short paragraphs and avoided bullet points as I personally thought that as a specialist writing an answer, paragraphs imparted greater maturity and connectivity.  As I stated earlier, put the most important point first and the least in the end. Also, use references of political thinkers wherever possible. For example, in the question on SAARC I wrote in the conclusion that following a functionalist approach ,we can resolve regional problems issue-wise leading to “peace by pieces”- which is the takeaway of Functionalist theory.

Such elements convince the examiner that you not only follow the news but you also think like a strategic affairs specialist. This is where I believe he/she will give you those extra marks which can propel you ahead of others.

Takeaway:  Try and make your answer sheet the most pleasing one in the stack.

  1. Keep points ready:

Answer writing has two parts- first and the more critical one is the recollection and organization that takes place in our heads and the second part is pure execution of the same. I realized that I was writing answers slowly because I had to pause and think. It was the first part that was pulling me down as my writing speed was fairly good.

So I started consolidating what I knew. I kept some points ready in my head for almost all topics. There are many topics which are in the news and seem important or broad issues at that. For example: In India’s role in UN peacekeeping, I clearly organized the issue into India’s past missions, laurels won, problems faced and need for reform. When I saw the question, I could tailor the answer to the requirements of the question much faster.

So, for speed not just writing practice but the whole exercise of retention and retrieval in your mind are very very important. While writing one point, you should plan about your next ones. By December, I could attempt 25 questions in 3 hours. In political science, I could attempt almost the full paper (left about 5 marks) because of my answer writing practice in GS mock tests.

Takeaway:  The faster you think, the faster you write

  1. Stick to your time schedule:

I had never given a political science test before the actual mains paper and so in the first paper my time management was horrible. I wrote 50 marks worth in the last 15 minutes. I am thankful that I got 136 because I am sure in those last minutes of blitzkrieg my brain was on auto-pilot.

In the 2nd paper, I managed time better and gave the right amount of time to each question. I ended up scoring much better in it ( 157) . Sticking to the time schedule is very important so that you can do justice to every question. Remember that attempting all questions well will fetch you much more marks than writing a thesis on 3-4 questions.

Takeaway: Your watch is your friend

  1. Innovate and Interlink:

Especially in a subject like Political Science where there are so many connections, linking events can fetch you more marks. For example in US-India relations, you must mention the rise of China and the possibility of US visualising India as a counterweight to China in its Pivot to Asia policy.

Similarly, give examples to reinforce your points which will add weight to your answer, Using key terms which you may have picked up from newspapers can help. For example: I remember writing about the possibility of formation of a “middle powers coalition” in the question related to Japan. This is a reference to possible cooperation between India, Japan and Australia in the Indo-Pacific considering greater Chinese assertion. I thought then that putting such an idea seemed like a gamble, but it seems to have paid off.

Takeaway: Train your mind to form a web of information

  1. Practice! Practice! Practice!

Needless to say, all of the above aspects can only be covered through thorough study, planned revision and practice in answer writing. Try and write answers of past years questions and try to observe the pattern and focus areas, especially in the recent years. You can then get them peer reviewed and assimilate the best points.

Takeaway: Do a little more when you think it is enough

With time, you should be able to plan an answer roughly before you put it on paper.

Hope this helps

Good luck! via Ananya Das (AIR 16, CSE 2014-15)

Ira Singhal blog book list,Answer and Essay Writing Strategy.

Ira Singhal ma’am has started a blog  to share her experience with  UPSC aspirants,she shared her experience with coaching,book list for mains and finally the most important Answer and Essay Writing Strategy.

After reading her blog, my respect for her honesty,hard work,Patience and bravery increased manifold and she is truly  inspiring.