Personality\/Profile<\/h3>\n\n- Your Name:\u00a0 <\/span>Pratyush<\/span>\u00a0Pandey<\/span><\/li>\n
- Place of Birth:\u00a0 <\/span>New Delhi<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- How old are you? : <\/span>24<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Schooling done from Name and City and score?:\u00a0 <\/span>Sanskriti<\/span>\u00a0School, New Delhi, 10 CGPA (Class 10), 97.4% (Class 12)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- College from which City and\u00a0<\/span>Gpa: <\/span>\u00a0IIT Kanpur, 8.9\/10<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- PG (if Any): <\/span>\u00a0IIM Ahmedabad<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Your attempt at the exam( 1st, 2nd, 3rd): <\/span>1<\/span>st<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Who else is there in your family?: <\/span>\u00a01 Brother, Parents<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Work-experience (if any):<\/span>\u00a09 Months<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Optional: Sociology<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
Hello everyone, I am Partyush Pandey. I graduated from IIMA in March 2019 and had decided to appear for the exam this year itself. I didn\u2019t have a mentor so I had to spend a lot of time reading about the process through online blogs by previous year toppers. When I left college, I had a slightly better understanding of how to proceed, and that greatly simplified my preparation. I believe UPSC is more about understanding<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the path you will take \u2013 walking along the path is the easier part.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Pratyush-Testimonial.png?resize=750%2C421&ssl=1\" "\\"Testimonial")
<\/p>\n
\u00a0Preliminary examination<\/h3>\nPlease mention your strategy and books\/notes did you\u00a0<\/span>referred<\/span>\u00a0to for General Studies and CSAT?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\nGS \u2013 same strategy I use in life. Look at the cost and look at the benefit \u2013 spend as much time as you can in high benefit low cost area, then move to high benefit high cost, then move to low benefit low cost, and only then if you feel you need to study more then go to low benefit high cost. You must see past year papers to know \u2013 subjects like environment, Science and Tech, modern history, and topics like Buddhism, Jainism are very high benefit. <\/span><\/p>\nSimilarly world map and monetary policy (conceptual question), and even national parks\/wildlife sanctuaries \u2013 at least 1 come almost every year. These must not be neglected. <\/span><\/p>\nThings like dykes, sills in geography, or random ocean currents I hadn\u2019t seen in papers in last 5-10 years, and personally always found boring \u2013 low benefit high cost for me, so I skipped. I never studied for 200 marks for prelims, only to qualify \u2013 prelims won\u2019t give you a rank. <\/span><\/p>\nNothing for CSAT, didn\u2019t feel any need, but I\u2019d advise giving a mock test if you\u2019re unsure, and if you score <100 then you might want to spend a little time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGS (strategy and books)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBOOKLIST:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n\n\nTopic<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Resource<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nHistory Ancient<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Old NCERT (brief<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nHistory Medieval<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>Old NCERT<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nHistory Modern (Freedom Struggle)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Spectrum<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCulture<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Nitin\u00a0<\/span>Sangwan<\/span>\u00a0notes<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPolity (<\/span>static<\/span>\u00a0+\u00a0<\/span>current affairs<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>Lakshmikant<\/span>, News<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nEconomy (<\/span>static<\/span>\u00a0+\u00a0<\/span>current affairs<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Only News (Eco was my\u00a0<\/span>favourite<\/span>\u00a0subject in college)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nScience (<\/span>static<\/span>\u00a0+\u00a0<\/span>current affairs<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>Only news (Science background)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nEnvironment (<\/span>static<\/span>\u00a0+\u00a0<\/span>current affairs<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>Prelims \u2013 IAS4sure compilation & Nitin\u00a0<\/span>Sangwan<\/span>\u00a0notes<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMains- News compilations + NCERT Disaster Management + Previous Year Papers + Googling important laws, acts<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nG<\/span>eography<\/span>(Physical +<\/span>Indian+World<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>NCERT \u2013 for very limited topics like Disaster Management,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWorld Map, India Map for prelims, Mrunal.org for resources around the world, PMFIAS for slightly complex topics like earthquake, volcano\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\u00a0<\/span>In addition,\u00a0<\/span>ForumIAS<\/strong><\/span> created a document with handwritten notes ( Current Affairs Classes ) on important topics some weeks before Mains \u2013 I found it relevant, it covered many topics in a short space.<\/span><\/p>\nWhich test series did you join? How helpful do you things such test series\u00a0<\/span>are?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\nForumIAS<\/span>\u00a0MGP and\u00a0<\/span>Lukmaan<\/span>\u00a0IAS for mains,\u00a0<\/span>TriumphIAS<\/span>\u00a0for sociology. Test series are as useful as you make them \u2013 what you get out of them depends on what you put into them, how you\u00a0<\/span>think about and\u00a0<\/span>act on the feedback<\/span>. I think I spent as much time writing test\u00a0<\/span>series <\/span>as<\/span> I did on revision \u2013 it\u2019s a generalist exam and frankly, you don\u2019t need as much content as it seems you do.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHow Many qu<\/span>es<\/span>tions did you attempt in GS? How<\/span>\u00a0many did you get right?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\nAttempted 93 or 95 or so, I don\u2019t recall. I made a lot of mistakes that day, more than I ever did, somewhere around 30 wrong (don\u2019t recall exactly, I never live in the past \u2013 give the exam and move on).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhat do you think is the optimal number of questions to attempt in prelims? Do you advise accuracy or maximum attempts?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\nYou need to figure it out for yourself; one size never fits all. Whether you go for the accuracy or maximum attempts, you must practice that strategy in the mock tests you give before prelims. I barely \u201cknew\u201d 20-30 questions for sure, I always went for <\/span>maximum attempts; very rarely did I not attempt 100\/100. It worked for me; I usually got 120ish in mock tests; though a lot of guesses went wrong on the day of the exam, I\u2019d attempted so many that the right ones compensated for it and I probably cleared with a 5-10 mark margin. Which is what I wanted \u2013 prelims doesn\u2019t get you a rank, and I spent as little time as I could on it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIf you had to prepare again would you change your strategy in any\u00a0<\/span>way?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\nNot really. I spent quite a lot of time deciding my strategy before I actually prepared because I didn\u2019t want to have this regret that I could have changed my strategy and succeeded. So I\u2019ll say \u2013 sharpen your axe for 4 hours, then you\u2019ll only need two hours to cut the tree. Otherwise, you\u2019ll find it takes much longer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMains\u00a0 examination<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\nHow did you prepare GS?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\nHave listed the books on my blog. The most useful thing I found was a blog by Gaurav Agarwal (Rank 1, 2013) \u2013 GS is a generalist paper, you DON\u2019T need to know a lot to write great answers. This sounds very simplistic, which is why I\u2019ve written in great detail on my blog about it (it would be too long to repeat here)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHow did you cover Current Affairs for Mains?<\/span><\/h4>\nWould read editorials, newspaper at breakfast on my phone or while cycling in the gym. I referred to\u00a0<\/span>popular<\/span>\u00a0monthly compilations for Mains. If you understand how you need to answer questions in the exam, you can read much faster (again, explained in blog with example of an article on EIA changes).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s your optional subject and why?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\nSociology, partly because I had interest since I\u2019d taken a couple of courses on it in college, and partly because I didn\u2019t have time and could find useful material easily. And I wanted something new, not the same subjects I\u2019d learnt in college.<\/span>\u00a0Though I\u2019ll say sociology didn\u2019t live up to my expectations \u2013 I\u2019d mostly read Marx and Weber before, and no one else came anywhere close.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPlease share your strategy and booklist for SOCIOLOGY optional?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\nOptional 1<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSTRATEGY:<\/span>\u00a0This is a paper mostly about the six thinkers. Interlink each of them \u2013 for example, use Parsons\/Weber\/Husserl to criticize Marx if the question is about Marx. It\u2019ll become much easier, you\u2019ll have lots more to write.<\/span>\u00a0I gave as many names of sociologists as I could, and some examples from news wherever I had any. Rest, I felt the paper very similar to GS.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>BOOKLIST:<\/span>\u00a0Referred IGNOU books,\u00a0<\/span>Tusharanshu<\/span>\u00a0notes, yourarticlelibrary.com<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOptional 2<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSTRATEGY:<\/span>\u00a0Two distinct parts in this. One is the Indian sociologists, you need to know about them. The other is very GS type \u2013 feminism, caste, poverty etc. Point is this is a SOCIOLOGY paper not GS. So I always threw in as many names as I could in all my answers. I would say \u201cAccording to\u00a0<\/span>Veena<\/span>\u00a0Das\/\u00a0<\/span>Dipankar<\/span>\u00a0Gupta\u201d before my point \u2013 otherwise it would just become a GS answer. Also tried to use current affairs examples wherever possible \u2013 so questions on youth\/women would have Greta Thunberg, Nadia Murad, questions on SC would have\u00a0<\/span>Bhim<\/span>\u00a0Army and so on.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBOOKLIST:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Tusharanshu<\/span>\u00a0notes, yourarticlelibrary.com<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDid you join any classes for\u00a0<\/span>your mains preparation<\/span>? <\/span>If yes then h<\/span>ow useful did you find them?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\nDid not join, always preferred studying by myself. Had referred to Current Affairs Class Notes of ForumIAS which they released before Mains 2019.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHow important is answer writing?<\/span>\u00a0What was your style of answer writing?<\/span><\/h4>\n
Hello everyone, I am Partyush Pandey. I graduated from IIMA in March 2019 and had decided to appear for the exam this year itself. I didn\u2019t have a mentor so I had to spend a lot of time reading about the process through online blogs by previous year toppers. When I left college, I had a slightly better understanding of how to proceed, and that greatly simplified my preparation. I believe UPSC is more about understanding<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the path you will take \u2013 walking along the path is the easier part.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n GS \u2013 same strategy I use in life. Look at the cost and look at the benefit \u2013 spend as much time as you can in high benefit low cost area, then move to high benefit high cost, then move to low benefit low cost, and only then if you feel you need to study more then go to low benefit high cost. You must see past year papers to know \u2013 subjects like environment, Science and Tech, modern history, and topics like Buddhism, Jainism are very high benefit. <\/span><\/p>\n Similarly world map and monetary policy (conceptual question), and even national parks\/wildlife sanctuaries \u2013 at least 1 come almost every year. These must not be neglected. <\/span><\/p>\n Things like dykes, sills in geography, or random ocean currents I hadn\u2019t seen in papers in last 5-10 years, and personally always found boring \u2013 low benefit high cost for me, so I skipped. I never studied for 200 marks for prelims, only to qualify \u2013 prelims won\u2019t give you a rank. <\/span><\/p>\n Nothing for CSAT, didn\u2019t feel any need, but I\u2019d advise giving a mock test if you\u2019re unsure, and if you score <100 then you might want to spend a little time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BOOKLIST:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mains- News compilations + NCERT Disaster Management + Previous Year Papers + Googling important laws, acts<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n World Map, India Map for prelims, Mrunal.org for resources around the world, PMFIAS for slightly complex topics like earthquake, volcano\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \u00a0<\/span>In addition,\u00a0<\/span>ForumIAS<\/strong><\/span> created a document with handwritten notes ( Current Affairs Classes ) on important topics some weeks before Mains \u2013 I found it relevant, it covered many topics in a short space.<\/span><\/p>\n ForumIAS<\/span>\u00a0MGP and\u00a0<\/span>Lukmaan<\/span>\u00a0IAS for mains,\u00a0<\/span>TriumphIAS<\/span>\u00a0for sociology. Test series are as useful as you make them \u2013 what you get out of them depends on what you put into them, how you\u00a0<\/span>think about and\u00a0<\/span>act on the feedback<\/span>. I think I spent as much time writing test\u00a0<\/span>series <\/span>as<\/span> I did on revision \u2013 it\u2019s a generalist exam and frankly, you don\u2019t need as much content as it seems you do.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Attempted 93 or 95 or so, I don\u2019t recall. I made a lot of mistakes that day, more than I ever did, somewhere around 30 wrong (don\u2019t recall exactly, I never live in the past \u2013 give the exam and move on).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You need to figure it out for yourself; one size never fits all. Whether you go for the accuracy or maximum attempts, you must practice that strategy in the mock tests you give before prelims. I barely \u201cknew\u201d 20-30 questions for sure, I always went for <\/span>maximum attempts; very rarely did I not attempt 100\/100. It worked for me; I usually got 120ish in mock tests; though a lot of guesses went wrong on the day of the exam, I\u2019d attempted so many that the right ones compensated for it and I probably cleared with a 5-10 mark margin. Which is what I wanted \u2013 prelims doesn\u2019t get you a rank, and I spent as little time as I could on it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Not really. I spent quite a lot of time deciding my strategy before I actually prepared because I didn\u2019t want to have this regret that I could have changed my strategy and succeeded. So I\u2019ll say \u2013 sharpen your axe for 4 hours, then you\u2019ll only need two hours to cut the tree. Otherwise, you\u2019ll find it takes much longer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Have listed the books on my blog. The most useful thing I found was a blog by Gaurav Agarwal (Rank 1, 2013) \u2013 GS is a generalist paper, you DON\u2019T need to know a lot to write great answers. This sounds very simplistic, which is why I\u2019ve written in great detail on my blog about it (it would be too long to repeat here)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Would read editorials, newspaper at breakfast on my phone or while cycling in the gym. I referred to\u00a0<\/span>popular<\/span>\u00a0monthly compilations for Mains. If you understand how you need to answer questions in the exam, you can read much faster (again, explained in blog with example of an article on EIA changes).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sociology, partly because I had interest since I\u2019d taken a couple of courses on it in college, and partly because I didn\u2019t have time and could find useful material easily. And I wanted something new, not the same subjects I\u2019d learnt in college.<\/span>\u00a0Though I\u2019ll say sociology didn\u2019t live up to my expectations \u2013 I\u2019d mostly read Marx and Weber before, and no one else came anywhere close.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Optional 1<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n STRATEGY:<\/span>\u00a0This is a paper mostly about the six thinkers. Interlink each of them \u2013 for example, use Parsons\/Weber\/Husserl to criticize Marx if the question is about Marx. It\u2019ll become much easier, you\u2019ll have lots more to write.<\/span>\u00a0I gave as many names of sociologists as I could, and some examples from news wherever I had any. Rest, I felt the paper very similar to GS.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>BOOKLIST:<\/span>\u00a0Referred IGNOU books,\u00a0<\/span>Tusharanshu<\/span>\u00a0notes, yourarticlelibrary.com<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Optional 2<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n STRATEGY:<\/span>\u00a0Two distinct parts in this. One is the Indian sociologists, you need to know about them. The other is very GS type \u2013 feminism, caste, poverty etc. Point is this is a SOCIOLOGY paper not GS. So I always threw in as many names as I could in all my answers. I would say \u201cAccording to\u00a0<\/span>Veena<\/span>\u00a0Das\/\u00a0<\/span>Dipankar<\/span>\u00a0Gupta\u201d before my point \u2013 otherwise it would just become a GS answer. Also tried to use current affairs examples wherever possible \u2013 so questions on youth\/women would have Greta Thunberg, Nadia Murad, questions on SC would have\u00a0<\/span>Bhim<\/span>\u00a0Army and so on.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BOOKLIST:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Tusharanshu<\/span>\u00a0notes, yourarticlelibrary.com<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Did not join, always preferred studying by myself. Had referred to Current Affairs Class Notes of ForumIAS which they released before Mains 2019.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u00a0Preliminary examination<\/h3>\n
Please mention your strategy and books\/notes did you\u00a0<\/span>referred<\/span>\u00a0to for General Studies and CSAT?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
GS (strategy and books)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n\n
\n Topic<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Resource<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n History Ancient<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Old NCERT (brief<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n History Medieval<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>Old NCERT<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n History Modern (Freedom Struggle)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Spectrum<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Culture<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Nitin\u00a0<\/span>Sangwan<\/span>\u00a0notes<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Polity (<\/span>static<\/span>\u00a0+\u00a0<\/span>current affairs<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>Lakshmikant<\/span>, News<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Economy (<\/span>static<\/span>\u00a0+\u00a0<\/span>current affairs<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n Only News (Eco was my\u00a0<\/span>favourite<\/span>\u00a0subject in college)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Science (<\/span>static<\/span>\u00a0+\u00a0<\/span>current affairs<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>Only news (Science background)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Environment (<\/span>static<\/span>\u00a0+\u00a0<\/span>current affairs<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>Prelims \u2013 IAS4sure compilation & Nitin\u00a0<\/span>Sangwan<\/span>\u00a0notes<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \n G<\/span>eography<\/span>(Physical +<\/span>Indian+World<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n \u00a0<\/span>NCERT \u2013 for very limited topics like Disaster Management,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Which test series did you join? How helpful do you things such test series\u00a0<\/span>are?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
How Many qu<\/span>es<\/span>tions did you attempt in GS? How<\/span>\u00a0many did you get right?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
What do you think is the optimal number of questions to attempt in prelims? Do you advise accuracy or maximum attempts?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
If you had to prepare again would you change your strategy in any\u00a0<\/span>way?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
Mains\u00a0 examination<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
How did you prepare GS?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
How did you cover Current Affairs for Mains?<\/span><\/h4>\n
What\u2019s your optional subject and why?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
Please share your strategy and booklist for SOCIOLOGY optional?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
Did you join any classes for\u00a0<\/span>your mains preparation<\/span>? <\/span>If yes then h<\/span>ow useful did you find them?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
How important is answer writing?<\/span>\u00a0What was your style of answer writing?<\/span><\/h4>\n