Civil Services Exam – Simplified and Demystified - IV

Studying Current Affairs

Current Affairs form a large chunk of syllabus and questions at Prelims as well as Mains.  People suggest reading a number of newspapers and magazines. Some of their list contain newspaper – Hindu, Indian Express, Economic Times and magazines – Yojana, Frontline, World Focus, Economic and Political Weekly, Economist, Kurukshetra , Chronicle, Civil Services Times and Civil Services Mentor and many more. A normal aspirant like me will leave the preparation just hearing the names of these. Is reading all these required? No. If you are a normal human being, you cannot digest what all you learn in them.

I personally, never read any newspaper – not even Hindu. But, I followed quite a few things.

1. My Facebook page, serves as daily newspaper for me. I am lucky to have a network of well informed friends and colleagues who keep sharing good articles, important news on the facebook feed. The best part was that it was filtered material. Best articles on different topics were shared by them – so I got to read news from variety of sources – right from Times of India to Guardian to Wall Street Journal 
2.   I never read any newspaper, especially Hindu as I found it wastage of time.  Instead, I used to refer upscportal.com where they have Today’s Important News. They select some 10-12 important news from Hindu daily and publish it. I used to just read these 10-12 news articles, sometimes even 5-6 items as per what I perceive to be useful. 
3.    Read – Monthly Policy Review (a must do – it is a Goldmine) and Bill Summary from Prsindia.org. It will consume 15 hours per month of your time. 
4.    I found Current Affairs booklet of VisionIas published at the end of every month very useful. You can finish it in maximum 15-20 hours per month. 
5.   While you are eating or relaxing, you can watch some episodes of Rajya Sabha TV panel discussion. Avoid watch CNN IBN or Times Now, they create only noise and are of little use in terms of content.
6. You may choose to read some magazine , but I do not see any need, if you have followed above mentioned things quite well.

Newspaper Debate

I never read Hindu, dint like it. But surely, it cannot be avoided. As mentioned in point 2, I did selective newspaper reading. But is it effective? My calculation shows a normal aspirant spending at least 2.5-3 hours daily – which is around 90 hours per month on Hindu itself. Using Point 2, you spend 30 minutes daily, so effectively 15 hours per month. PRS Monthly Policy Review and Vision IAS document you spend another 30 hours. So, things can be done in a better manner covering more number of topics in just 45 hours rather than just wasting your 90 hours reading just Hindu.

Civil Services Exam – Simplified and Demystified - III

Selecting optional subject

There are many factors that play in selecting your optional paper and this can have a huge impact on your performance in the examination.  The pros and cons of the subject vis-a-vis your strengths and weakness must be evaluated, that too in the changing scenario. Given the huge magnitude of the role an optional can play,

 I took Management as my optional paper. Given huge unpopularity of Management, even MBA graduates don’t risk taking this subject. Aspirants tend to refrain from taking it because –

• Vast syllabus – Management syllabus covers HR, OB, Finance, Marketing, IT, Operations, Statistics, Strategy, International Business, Government Business Interface. Finance, Marketing, Operations, HR – all are full fledged subject in themselves
•  No coaching available
•   No specific books
•   Senior guidance not available
•  No overlap with GS syllabus
• Track record in UPSC – rare species in top 100 rank

Why I took Management?

•  A large part of syllabus was already covered during my MBA
•  Most important – Remember if you are an MBA, you have not only studied Management, but have lived it for two years – some consciously, some unconsciously. But all of us have. Reading is not just restricted to books and classrooms, you have discussions with your friends, and you participated in case study competitions, prepared for placements, made assignments, attended various gyaan sessions and so many guest lectures. All these have enriched you knowledge of this subject far beyond, what you can read in 3 months. I guess you are better positioned to answer any outliers or tough questions in exam from this subject than any other subject
• Assuming I have scored fairly decent in my MBA course, I have a decent command and preliminary knowledge of most of topics
•  I consider Management to be a safe optional – it should not face the kind of onslaught PubAd had in 2012 – because,
• of low number of people – yet to become populated, leave aside over populated
• no coaching available – reason UPSC will show some mercy and kindness
• Importance of management and its knowledge as future administrator
• Risk Mitigation - The knowledge and better grasp of subject will help me in future career in corporate sector, if I fail to make into Civil Services. 

·         Analysing past year papers, I realised UPSC is still asking very surface level questions rather than getting much deeper into it. In one line – Testing the breadth of your knowledge rather than depth.

#8:  People are qualifying from all optional papers. Yes, there are uncertainties involved in it. But, I am a firm believer in choosing an optional which you are strong in and feel comfortable with. Rest all things can be tackled in due course of time. 

According to me, you are best placed to choose your graduation / post graduation paper as your optional. Yes, engineers will tend to disagree with me and I fully support their view point.  Whatever optional you take do make sure you are able to take advantage of your background knowledge. Analyze the syllabus and previous question papers; look around for materials and guidance available. Make extensive use of internet. 

#9: I believe in syllabus based preparation rather than book-based preparation. More important to cover all topics mentioned in the syllabus first, rather focussing on finishing recommended books, where you may end of reading many topics which are not of use in UPSC, especially for management optional.

Next post : What to focus and what to leave for Prelims.