Friday 31 August 2012

The journey beckons

I just saw the cadre allocation... have been allocated Odisha cadre... feeling good. It is a commendable job done by DOPT- cadre allocation before FC is something that I never thought of... now everything seems to be set for Mussorrie... The dream journey... after so many sleepness nights, so many ups and downs in last 4 years, Finally I'll be heading towards the academy in less than 24 hrs... I dreamt something 4 yrs back, and it came true with all the necessary add ons ... Getting into IAS, that too home cadre is the ultimate dream every civils aspirant dream of... so I m really thankful to the almighty for whatever bestowed on me...

         While preparing for exam in Delhi, I went to Shimla for a break after 1st PT results, went to Haridwar- Risikesh with parents but never went to Mussorie... the Shimla plan was initially for Mussorie but for some reason or other we changed it... from that day onwards I decided that I'll be goin to Mussorie only after getting selected i.e. only for LBSNAA... I used to think that if I wud go to Mussorrie before then I wont be clearing the exam... I knw this sounds funny, complete superstition... but I followed... Superstitions, beliefs and faith work beyond the domain of science but it helps to condition one's mind...

        now, the packing is done... Most challenging part was to meet the demand of joining instruction- oxford shoes, trekking shoes, 4 sets of bedsheet and pillow cover and what not... I ended up packing 2 big baggages now... before getting a single penny as salary, we OTs are asked to spend so much... anyways loving it... Public services meant for the aam admi of India with all the sophistication is all what makes IAS  an interesting career... anyways it is we people who will be responsible now on to bridge the gap between the people of India and the Govt...

          

Monday 20 August 2012

Writing an Essay

Essay is a compulsory paper in Civil Service Examination carrying 200marks... It plays a prominent role in getting a rank... Marks obtained by candidates varies in a wide range of around 40-140... So in these years of low scoring game in UPSC, essay along with interview play vital role.. I would be focusing on essay here...

              Lets discuss some of the important aspects of it...

1. Choosing the right choice of essay- Every year UPSC asks around 4/5 essays from which 1 has to be written... So choosing the right Essay is the most important thing...  It should be chosen only on the basis of your knowlege and comfort level in that topic.. Devote some 5-10 mins in deciding which one to write... Some time one particular essay seems tempting from 1st look and we decide to write that without even reading the other ones... So read all the options and think about them for few seconds and then decide... There is a notion in civils preparation arena that it's not good to write the most attempted one as it fetches less marks... But I feel nothing lyk that happens, you'll be awarded marks only on the basis of your write up...

2. Brainstorming- This is very vital.. around 45 minutes should be given to this process... At the rear part of ur answer sheet jot down what ever point that is coming to your mind regarding that topic without bothering about the logical flow...  Then make the structure of the essay... i.e.
                          Introduction
                          Body
                          Conclusion

              Prepare an introduction, write it there itself... This is important, as one shouldn't experiment with words at the very beginning of the essay itself in the fair txt...

              Then the body part... I usually follow the formula of writing both +ve and -ve aspect of any essay as most of the topics are opinion and explanatory in nature... Lets take the example of the essay that I wrote this year " Creation of smaller states and the consequent administrative, economic and developmantal implications " .... I, 1st wrote about the postive implications then the negative one and finally in the conclusion I integrated everything and wrote in the futuristic lines on which the Govt is thinking i.e. bringing 2nd SRC- which should consider various aspects and not only 1 single factor as it was done in 1st SRC i.e. language...
So rearrange ur points under +ve and -ve columns...

3. Writing the essay- around 2hrs should be devoted to this part... Elaborate the points that you have already written in the rear side of answer sheet. Make it a logical flow of idea. Even if you come across a vey good point while writing, that you haven't noted in the rough part but at the same time it is disturbing the flow of essay then avoid writing it. Because its not an issue if you miss 1 point but are writing 20-22 other points.

              Always try to write in simple english.. Avoid cutting any word or sentence... Don't make your essay very short or very lengthy.. 1000 to 1200 words is ideal.

4. Quotes and anecdotes- These things fetch extra marks. Always try to quote Indian persons only, preferably the big trio-GNP( Gandhi, Nehru and Patel).. Gandhi ji is timeless and even relevant today.. Quoting Gandhi ji is always safe.. So prepare some quotes from internet...

5. Review/ Revision- after writing of essay, devote some 10-15 mins and read your own essay.. rectify any grammatical and spelling mistakes... UPSC has given 3 hrs to write a single essay.. So it'll expect it to be complete in all aspects... Do underline few points that u want examiner not to miss...

                 It's always advisable to write atleast one essay at home before you write in the examination hall.. Do write one essay and get it evaluated from teachers, friends and somebody who is not from the field of civil service preparation.. take the feed back and improve on that...

Books that are helpful:-

India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha
My Experiments with truth by MK Gandhi
Discovery of India By JL Nehru..

Buts these books should be read in free time.. I would request people writing this mains not to read these books now and concentrate on their optional preparation but those people who failed in PT this time or planning to write next PT can read these books...

All the Best...

Thursday 16 August 2012

Geography for Civils

It has been quite a long time since I wrote my last blog here... the worst part is that I committed in my previous post that I would be writing about civils preparations in the subsequent posts, but I didn't.. So first of all, I beg apology from everybody- particularly from ppl who asked me regarding Geography optional preparation and I told them every time that I'll be writing soon... For last one month I had been travelling for various reasons, so I coudn't write... I am sorry for that...

           Now the prelims result is out, service allocation is done and everything is set for next mains... So I find it obligatory on part of me to write at least now before I forget the jargon of geography and Pubad and everything...

           This time around after the disclosure of marks of CSE2011, it has been observed that Pub.ad, Geography and Sociology particularly have been at the receiving end of UPSC... people who scored 350s in pubad and geography in their previous attempts have been reduced to 280s-290s... So a drop in average score is quite evident.. Some how or other I managed to score 376(201+175) in geography... So I feel like sharing my preparation strategy for geography here...

           To be frank enough, in this attempt I devoted most of my time towards Pubad preparation as I was not confident in it.. After PT results, all of a sudden I realised that Geography is almost untouched... It was almost a panic situation... I still laugh remembering about that time when I was sweating inside my a/c room.. I settled down in few days and revised the entire Neetu madam's(direction) notes in 12-14 days straight...
That gave me a sigh of relief... but the thing to be noted is that I had Geography as my 1st optional in both my previous PT attempts...So I had already read the standard books several times... so the cummulative effort had worked...

          Now lets approach the papers systematically

Paper1:-

               1. Coverage of syllabus- The structure of the paper has changed over the time.. now UPSC is no more asking 60 markers.. so the demand is that the candidate is required to cover the entire syllabus.. short notes have become compulsory too. So it is always advisable to know sumthing about everything rather than everything about something.... If somebody knows 2/3 points about a topic, it is good enough to write a 12 marker short note... So dont leave any chapter or topic.. atleast have some basic knowhow about all the subtopics written in the syllabus...

               2. Time management-  the major challenge is completion of paper.. this year as many as 16 questions were to be answered in 3 hrs which is a bit challenging... completion of paper shoud be given priority, at the same time standard of answer has to be maintained... I followed the formula of writing 2 full questions in first 1 1/2 hrs and 3 full questions in next... so initial 2 questions were well written which carried a good impression I suppose...

               3. Diagrams- draw as many diagrams as u can but don't draw redundant ones as it kills tym at the same time carries bad impression.. I had drawn around 35-40 diagrams in paper1... I drew diagrams in black gel pen with free hand in most of the cases there by saving time at the same time it was complimenting well to the blue gel written text... eye appeal works... so give emphasis to that...

               4. Length of answer- UPSC prescribes definite word limit for every answer... but its my own experience that its not a crime if u cross it... So it is up to you to manage time and space... try to write more than others... always start an answer from a fresh page...

Paper2:-

              1. Mapping- This the trickiest one to handle in geography optional.. previously it was an asset when UPSC used to ask to locate entries like Hirakud dam and Cauvery river... now they r asking almost anything.. but if one observes carefully, entire mapping question can be divided into 2 parts- static and current entries... they are equally distributed also... for example if 12 entries are asked then 6 has to be from static Indian geography and 6 from contemporary relevance.... candidate with above average geography knowledge can easily answer 4/5 out of 6 static entries.. So knowing 2/3 contemporary entries is good enough... my point is that its not advisable to go after contemporary entries as one cannot actually trace UPSC and time consumed in that process will be too much.. So read the static entries thoroughly from any source and for contemporary entries make your individual compilation from newspaper reading and all that entries that are available in the market of various institutes... I would request candidates not to get emotional with mapping and devote much time on it...

              2. India map and diagrams- minimum one India map has to be drawn for every paper2 answer.. Draw it neatly with 3/4th of page with proper bordering and indexing. Pick up diagrams from Khullar book- particularly unit 3 has very good diagrams...

             3. examples and case studies- these things are always appreciated... Newspapers and magazines like yojna and 'Geography and You' carry good case studies... anticipate the questions and prepare some examples with data for them... for example last year, 'civil aviation industry' and 'pharmaceutical industry' were in news and UPSC asked questions from that.. So be very vigilant while reading newspaper..

Books and references:-


  • Physical Geography - Savindra Singh
  • Human Geography - Majid Hussain
  • Models and Theories - Majid Hussain( this book has good compilation of diagrams)
  • Indian Geography - Khullar( unit 1 has to be thoroughly read.. unit 2 can be avoided.. unit3 is good, some chapters like water resourses, multipurpose projects can be read)
  • Dictionary by K Sidhartha
  • Any institute's notes can be supplemented for timely revision...


Queries are welcome... I'll try to address to the best of my abilities...