My Notes 
              
                                                PRELIMS BOK LIST 
              
              1.  Ancient-Medieval: Lucent book & civil services chronicle 30 pages notes. 
              2.    Art-Culture: Nitin Singhania notes and TN board book. 
              3.  Modern India: Bipin Chandra 78 pages notes. 
              4.    World Geography: NCERT 9-10-11-12, G C Leong & Optional notes uploaded. 
              5.  India Geography: NCERT 9-10-11-12, Vajiram Yellow Book & Optional notes. 
              6.  Map work: Prem Patel. 
              7.  Environment: Shankar. 
              8.  Economy: Sriram. 
              9.  Polity: Laxmikant. 
              10. Science: Current. 
              
                   For Current Hindu, Vision monthly and Insights compilations are more than enough if read 
                   these religiously 
              
              
                                                       My Mains strategy revolved around 
              
                                                       A. Concise material (static + current). 
              
                              B. Notes making from Hindu + Vision monthly + Insights secure compilation. 
              
                                       C. Multiple revisions of entire course content (4–5–6 revisions). 
              
                     D. Guessing what UPSC could ask from a particular news and training my mind accordingly. 
              
                                                 E. Optimizing time between Prelims and Mains. 
              
                                                       F. And lastly, Answer writing in tests. 
              
              
                                                         Paper wise – Topic wise Sources 
              
                   ESSAY: No book needed. Here one can find strategy used by Apurva Pandey to score grand 175 
                   in essay in 2017. 
              
                                                              MAINS GS-1 HISTORY 
              
              1.  Ancient-Medieval: Lucent book & civil services chronicle 30 pages notes. 
              2.  Modern: Bipin Chandra 78 pages notes. 
              3.    Post Independence: Pol Science NCERT notes. 
              4.  World History: Sparknotes website & Arjun Dev NCERT notes. 
              5.  Current: Hindu, Vision monthly & Insights secure compilation. 
              
                                                              MAINS GS-1 SOCIETY 
              
              1.  IGNOU MATERIAL: Topic wise Doc and PDF files uploaded. 
              2.  Current: Hindu, Vision monthly and Insights secure compilation. 
              3.  Census: Notes uploaded. 
              4.  No need to follow any book. IGNOU material is enough to answer all questions. 
              5.  For society keywords dictionary 
              
                                                           MAINS GS-1 GEOGRAPHY 
              
              1.  World: NCERT 9-10-11-12, G C Leong & Optional notes uploaded. 
              2.  India: NCERT 9-10-11-12, Vajiram Yellow Book & Optional notes. 
              3.  Census: Notes uploaded. 
              4.  Current: Hindu, Vision monthly & Insights secure compilation. 
              
                                                         MAINS GS-2 POLITY AND IR 
              
              1.  Current: Hindu, Vision monthly & Insights secure compilation. 
              2.  Static: Laxmikant, Google & Rajiv Sikri. 
              3.  Static linked with Current (ex poverty, RPA, Governance etc): Cover aspects like what-why- 
                   how-prob-sol-govt measures. 
              4.  Reports: ARC 3 page summary Court cases, Committee Names/Reports in news, SDG etc. 
              
         
         
         
                                          MAINS GS-3 
         
         1.  Current (Eco-Env-Security-Sci): Hindu, Vision monthly & Insights compilation. 
         2.  Static: Sriram & Google. 
         3.  Static linked with Current (Inc growth,PDS,MSP, Subsidy, Food Processing, 
            Agri,Irrigation,Cyber, Security, Computer): Cover aspects like what-why-how-prob-sol-govt 
            measures. 
         4.  Disaster & Environment: Current & March 2012 Yojana. 
         5.  Science: Follow only Hindu, Vision & Insights. NO BOOK NEEDED. 
         6.  Security: Current & Editorials. 
         7.  Reports: Economic survey, IPCC, SDG etc. 
         8.  Click here to learn how to use economic survey without even reading it. 
         9.  Mains GS-3 Posts. 
         
                                          MAINS GS-4 
         
         1.  Ethics 74 page notes 
         2.  Read any book but not more than 1 book. 
         3.  Syllabus itself is the best source. Learn terms mentioned in the syllabus. 
         4.  Google for definitions and keywords. I made my own study material using Google. 
         5.  Click here for Ethics dictionary. 
         6.  Ethics Section-A answer writing. 
         7.  Case study answer format. 
         
         
         
         
         
         
                                       How To Make Notes 
         
            I managed 463 in GS in 2017 CSE. Many people make a mistake while trying to get more 
            marks. They try to jump directly to answer writing and skip notes making. 
         
            I have mentioned before that I used to write 10 points and 15 points for 10 & 15 markers 
            respectively. 
         
            From where these points will come? Of course from well made pointed notes that are revised 
            about 5–6 times. 
         
            Hence I gave due importance to notes: 
         
      
      1.  Made current notes from The Hindu+ vision monthly + insights compilation. 
      2.  Newspaper – How, What and What not. 
      3.  Made notes on MS Word. 
      4.  E-notes help in easy mutations-editing-additions-sorting. 
      5.  As you revise your e-notes, edit them& make them as concise as possible. 
      
       Process: 
      
      1.  Divide content paper wise and topic wise. Example make separate doc for GS-2 IR, GS-2 
       Policies, GS-3 Science, GS-3 Security etc. 
      2.  For newspaper, you can use hardcopy or online edition. In my last attempt, I read The Hindu 
       online and directly copy-pasted important lines. It saved time. 
      3.  Vision monthly magazine has a time lag of 15 days. So there is no option but to wait. 
      4.  Meanwhile, revise your newspaper notes once. This will give you good idea of what news you 
       have in notes. 
      5.  From vision magazine pdf add to your newspaper notes only what‘s missing. 
      6.  Do same with insights compilation. 
      
      
                       Mains REVISION Strategy 
      
      1.  Revise notes at least 4-5 times during the course of preparation. I used to revise all my MAINS 
       notes 5 to 6 times. 
      2.  Revise according to test series plan or create your own plan in line with a test series if you are 
       doing self study. 
      3.  It is MANDATORY to write 1 test per week. 
      4.  Make sure that you give each and every test after proper revision only. 
      5.  As optional revision is also needed (3-4 times), concise notes shall be kept ready in advance. 
       Then only revision of whole optional is possible in 1 rest day provided before optional exam. 
      6.  Keep reviewing your timetable. 
      7.  For last 15 days before MAINS, newspapers can be skipped and entire course shall be revised. 
      8.  Revise relatively easy subject first. 
      9.  Keep GS-1 last and revise society notes for essay paper. 
      10. Ethics shall be prepared so well that you don‘t need to study it at all in last 15 days. 
      
      
      
      
                       Guess Questions In Advance 
      
      1.  Prioritize issues with multiple revisions. 
      2.  Once notes of particular issue like GST, Privacy, Energy security, Cyber etc cross 2–3 pages, it 
       becomes important. 
      3.  At times there are questions from one-off news. 
      4.  Keep important dates/events in check. Example, WIA 100 years of formation led to women 
       rights question in 2017. 100 years of Champaran can lead to a question in CSM 2018.