UPSC preparation strategy & book list from zero level

UPSC preparation

I am going to brief you about some of the most important things that you should know before starting with the preparations:

*Read the notification: UPSC releases the notification in february that marks the official of the exam calendar. usually, the dates of the exam(prelims) is released a year before in the interest of candidates, but the final dates are released in the notification covers include eligibility, syllabus of prelims and mains, and the number of vacancies and exam pattern in addition to the exam timelines.

*Print a copy of the syllabus: Next, you should print a copy of the syllabus(from the notification) and keep it on your study table. At this point, sit down and read the syllabus end to end for all subjects. The syllabus of prelims is mentioned very briefly, hence move to the syllabus of the mains to get a complete picture of the syllabus. Additionally, you can download a list of micro topics that experts from various test-prep institutions have put up online and keep it with yourself.

*Previous year papers: you can download them from the official website of UPSC or get a book from Disha publications/Arihant or just browse online. I’d suggest, read at least five times and try to realize demand of upsc. However at this point, we are reading the previous year’s papers just to get a hang of what kind of questions are asked in the prelims and Mains.

*Make study plans: Prepare a robust strategy and come up with your own strategy to cover the syllabus of the exams in order to solve the type of questions that are asked in the paper. Your aim should be to make yourself informed enough to answer at least 70% of the questions asked in prelims and Mains. It is because, if you look at the cutoffs, it is always less than 70% in most cases. So, prepare a monthly, weekly and daily plan wherein you should keep your weekends free for revision.

Once, the above four steps are done, it’s time you should actually begin your preparations:

*Start with NCERTs: There is really no alternative to it you have to read class 6th to 12th selective ncert.

*Standard Books: There are some standard books that are recommended for each subject. Go for reading them after you’ve covered NCERT of that subject. NCERTs serve as a foundation, while these books take you from beginner to advanced level. watch the youtube videos wherever you get stuck, you will surely get some free videos online.

1.Polity -Laxmikant.

2.Economy -Ramesh Singh +Marunal Video Lecture.

3.History -Spectrum , Bipin chandra .

4.Art and Culture – Nitin Singhania.

5.Environment – Shankar Ias .

6.Science– NCERT books class 6th to10th and 12th Biology.

7.Geography– Certificate Physical & Human Geography by Goh leong

*Revision: Revision is extremely important for this exam. make sure you revise all the topics at least thrice before you sit for prelims and one more time before you sit for mains.

*Test series: Mostly ignored yet extremely important aspect of preparation. it is extremely important to keep a tab on your preparation and the mock tests are the only way to give you a reality check from time to time. Do not take the score to the heart or get disturbed by the score initially. work on improving it.

*Mains Answer-writing practice: Do not begin with answer-writing initially, gather some knowledge first, then go about practicing answer-writing.And get it evaluated from your mentor or study group.

*Optional selection: The choice of optional is yet another area of confusion. I’d suggest you choose the subject that you’ve studied in graduation, but if you want to go for some other optional paper, just be sure of that, go through the syllabus and previous year papers to understand it.

I hope i have covered almost all the introductory steps for starting UPSC preparation.

Thank you so much