PSIR - Strategy, resources & discussion
Hi peeps. Let’s do this!
1. Previous papers from 2009 (both papers are in the same PDF):here2. Topic-wise PYQs: here
3. Look for PDFs of books here: b-ok.cc, http://libgen.rs/, archive.org
4. Model answers from SR:here
5. OnlyIAS notes, if you need extra matter for a few topics:here
6. SR notes, typed:politicsforindia.com
Megha Arora 1.pdf
Need some help regarding psir preparation. I have read basic material once but facing difficulties in grasping everything properly. going to write exam in 2021. i was thinking of joining any classroom course. so can anyone suggest what to do ? because shubhra mam's course will run for 6 months starting this july so i don't think that's a viable option. should i join some other classroom course ? also i found some audios of mam's 2018 batch on telegram so would those be reliable ? another option i have heard of is chaubey sir and some other free youtube series. so please anyone who has taken any classroom course before please help me out.
Thank You
@Rewl1 I used to look at answer copies of Megha Arora and Trupti Dhodmise. Both had very different styles and got good marks (300+). I used to look at Megha Arora's copies, pick out questions from them to write, and compare with her answers to figure out exactly how to improve. I would suggest sticking to one or two people after looking at a few who have gotten good marks, depending on whose style you like, and then trying to see what you can take from them.
Didn't really listen to any talks. I read articles by Megha Arora, Ananya Das, and Dhananjay Singh.
https://medium.com/firestarter
https://unravellingcse.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/political-science-preparation-by-ananya-das-air-16/
That's a great idea to take questions toppers have answered and comparing our answers with theirs. I had not thought of doing that.
whatonly,How to make crisp notes for psir.. I had made earlier and later ended up writing the whole thing which again has become bulky.. it's like everything seems important to me. Should I segregate things like - quotes of thinkers in one place, keywords in another, critics in one..
Please suggest 🙏
I would suggest mind maps with just the keywords, quotes and critics views etc. This is my mind map on Plato.
I plan on making these even shorter after maybe like two or three revisions. Also, these are missing a few other points like Plato and fascism, Karl Popper's criticism etc. and some quotes on Plato which I haven't updated to these yet (my laziness has nothing to do with this at all :P)
whatonly,ARisingSunwhatonly,whatonly,@dragon_rider The mind maps look very neat.Is there an app /software for this?
This is Mindmup. It's a free online software. I switched to Miro though because you can integrate it into Notion which just makes it easier since all my notes are in Notion.
TambourineMan,whatonlyHow to make crisp notes for psir.. I had made earlier and later ended up writing the whole thing which again has become bulky.. it's like everything seems important to me. Should I segregate things like - quotes of thinkers in one place, keywords in another, critics in one..
Please suggest 🙏
I would suggest mind maps with just the keywords, quotes and critics views etc. This is my mind map on Plato.
I plan on making these even shorter after maybe like two or three revisions. Also, these are missing a few other points like Plato and fascism, Karl Popper's criticism etc. and some quotes on Plato which I haven't updated to these yet (my laziness has nothing to do with this at all :P)
Thanks I ll give it a try.. đź‘Ť
Need some help regarding psir preparation. I have read basic material once but facing difficulties in grasping everything properly. going to write exam in 2021. i was thinking of joining any classroom course. so can anyone suggest what to do ? because shubhra mam's course will run for 6 months starting this july so i don't think that's a viable option. should i join some other classroom course ? also i found some audios of mam's 2018 batch on telegram so would those be reliable ? another option i have heard of is chaubey sir and some other free youtube series. so please anyone who has taken any classroom course before please help me out.
Thank You
Hey. Reading everything just once is not enough to grasp it fully for most of us, especially if you don’t have the background. It’ll take another round or two of revision to understand concepts clearly and be able to see connections between them. I suggest you do this, instead of joining any classes at this point. I have not attended either Shubhra Ranjan ma’am’s or Chaubey sir’s classes, but from what I have heard SR classes go quite slow, and that is bound to be worse this year.
Have faith in yourself :) if you’re feeling confused and lost in the syllabus at this point after having read everything once, it’s natural. But since you’re short on time, you will need to make the most of the next month or two, depending on how much time you’re devoting to optional. I would suggest you go back and read the material again and spend enough time with it to understand it fully. If there are parts you need help for, you can always find videos or other material online, or even here. That seems like the most effective use of your time now.
Keep up your spirits. Good luck :)
Need some help regarding psir preparation. I have read basic material once but facing difficulties in grasping everything properly. going to write exam in 2021. i was thinking of joining any classroom course. so can anyone suggest what to do ? because shubhra mam's course will run for 6 months starting this july so i don't think that's a viable option. should i join some other classroom course ? also i found some audios of mam's 2018 batch on telegram so would those be reliable ? another option i have heard of is chaubey sir and some other free youtube series. so please anyone who has taken any classroom course before please help me out.
Thank You
Hey. Reading everything just once is not enough to grasp it fully for most of us, especially if you don’t have the background. It’ll take another round or two of revision to understand concepts clearly and be able to see connections between them. I suggest you do this, instead of joining any classes at this point. I have not attended either Shubhra Ranjan ma’am’s or Chaubey sir’s classes, but from what I have heard SR classes go quite slow, and that is bound to be worse this year.
Have faith in yourself :) if you’re feeling confused and lost in the syllabus at this point after having read everything once, it’s natural. But since you’re short on time, you will need to make the most of the next month or two, depending on how much time you’re devoting to optional. I would suggest you go back and read the material again and spend enough time with it to understand it fully. If there are parts you need help for, you can always find videos or other material online, or even here. That seems like the most effective use of your time now.
Keep up your spirits. Good luck :)
okay sure thanks a lot :) i'll focus on re-reading and understanding. but in mam's postal notes sometimes i find some points are missing and some disconnect is there. so what should be done for that ? any reference book or anything else. which you might've referred to?
good luck to you too :)
How to make crisp notes for psir.. I had made earlier and later ended up writing the whole thing which again has become bulky.. it's like everything seems important to me. Should I segregate things like - quotes of thinkers in one place, keywords in another, critics in one..
Please suggest 🙏
Hey. It really helped me to think of my notes in levels.
Level 1: I made notes from all books except SR notes. Never went back to those books again.
Level 2: Made notes combining level 1 notes and SR notes. Enough detail that I could just revise from these. Arranged according to syllabus list. Revised multiple times.
(Did this is mindmaps for 1A, and handwritten for others for lack of time. If you have time to make mindmaps, please do it! It really helped me remember things. In the exam I could visualise my mindmap for 1A and navigate it inside my head. Mindmaps rule.)
Level 3: A few days before the exam, I scribbled keywords, scholars, book titles etc. Just a random collection of words that wouldn’t make sense to anyone else. This is best done at the point where you just need to see the keyword to recall everything related to it.
In the 5 day gap between GS and mains, I gave 4 days to revising my level 2 notes. On the 5th day and on the exam day, I revised level 3 notes a few times. I think it really helped recall things quickly in the exam.
Samples:
Level 2 Gramsci:
Level 3 Gramsci
Yeah! That happens sometimes. I think SR notes are good mainly because they are organised syllabus wise and have a lot of material, but some links are definitely missing.
Yup, reference books. These are the ones I used:
1A: OP Gauba, Andrew Heywood, Sushila Ramaswamy, VK Mehta, IGNOU material
1B: I read Oxford Handbook, helped in understanding some topics but did not add many points to the material in the end. Skippable.
2A: Bayliss & Smith, Global Politics by Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies by Andrew Heywood
2B: David Malone, Shashi Tharoor (both are old, but help lay a base - but Malone is better and enough), Indian Foreign Policy by Harsh V Pant, Choices by Shivshankar Menon, Oxford Handbook of Indian Foreign Policy
I don’t think these are all necessary. From some of them, I just did a few chapters. You can pick based on what you find necessary. :)
okay sure thanks a lot :) i'll focus on re-reading and understanding. but in mam's postal notes sometimes i find some points are missing and some disconnect is there. so what should be done for that ? any reference book or anything else. which you might've referred to?
good luck to you too :)
Yeah! That happens sometimes. I think SR notes are good mainly because they are organised syllabus wise and have a lot of material, but some links are definitely missing.
Yup, reference books. These are the ones I used:
1A: OP Gauba, Andrew Heywood, Sushila Ramaswamy
1B: I read Oxford Handbook, helped in understanding some topics but did not add many points to the material in the end. Skippable.
2A: Bayliss & Smith
2B: A few chapters from a lot of books. Will collect and write if you’d like to know.
I don’t think these are all necessary. You can pick based on what you find necessary. :)
thanks a lot. yes you're right i won't be referring to all the above mentioned books considering the time i've at my disposal, but, i'll use them for connecting the missing links. Yes, for 2B whenever you find time do let me know of your sources because mam's notes for this portion are not too good plus i have not been a regular follower of newspapers or daily current updates, though, i have read vision monthlies.
whatonly,@dragon_rider The mind maps look very neat.Is there an app /software for this?
XMind is also very good. The free version has all the features you need. It’s super convenient to use and makes the whole process very enjoyable.
TambourineMan,okay sure thanks a lot :) i'll focus on re-reading and understanding. but in mam's postal notes sometimes i find some points are missing and some disconnect is there. so what should be done for that ? any reference book or anything else. which you might've referred to?
good luck to you too :)
Yeah! That happens sometimes. I think SR notes are good mainly because they are organised syllabus wise and have a lot of material, but some links are definitely missing.
Yup, reference books. These are the ones I used:
1A: OP Gauba, Andrew Heywood, Sushila Ramaswamy
1B: I read Oxford Handbook, helped in understanding some topics but did not add many points to the material in the end. Skippable.
2A: Bayliss & Smith
2B: A few chapters from a lot of books. Will collect and write if you’d like to know.
I don’t think these are all necessary. You can pick based on what you find necessary. :)
thanks a lot. yes you're right i won't be referring to all the above mentioned books considering the time i've at my disposal, but, i'll use them for connecting the missing links. Yes, for 2B whenever you find time do let me know of your sources because mam's notes for this portion are not too good plus i have not been a regular follower of newspapers or daily current updates, though, i have read vision monthlies.
Updated the original comment for 2B. Had also forgotten to mention some others.
dalpha,okay sure thanks a lot :) i'll focus on re-reading and understanding. but in mam's postal notes sometimes i find some points are missing and some disconnect is there. so what should be done for that ? any reference book or anything else. which you might've referred to?
good luck to you too :)
Yeah! That happens sometimes. I think SR notes are good mainly because they are organised syllabus wise and have a lot of material, but some links are definitely missing.
Yup, reference books. These are the ones I used:
1A: OP Gauba, Andrew Heywood, Sushila Ramaswamy
1B: I read Oxford Handbook, helped in understanding some topics but did not add many points to the material in the end. Skippable.
2A: Bayliss & Smith
2B: A few chapters from a lot of books. Will collect and write if you’d like to know.
I don’t think these are all necessary. You can pick based on what you find necessary. :)
thanks a lot. yes you're right i won't be referring to all the above mentioned books considering the time i've at my disposal, but, i'll use them for connecting the missing links. Yes, for 2B whenever you find time do let me know of your sources because mam's notes for this portion are not too good plus i have not been a regular follower of newspapers or daily current updates, though, i have read vision monthlies.
Updated the original comment for 2B. Had also forgotten to mention some others.
thank you :)
Can anyone enlighten me on this question. How many scholars we need to write on a particular answer ? Does writing some answers without any scholars makes my answer very bad . Like in national commission for women type questions do I need to write scholar opinion in this question too or I can just write the facts .@AzadHindFauz @whatonly
As many you can fit without altering the logical flow of arguments.
It comes down to one's writing style really. There are people who would be able to mention 6-7 scholars per answer. There are people who would be able to write 2-3 scholars only.
It doesn't matter which category you fall in. What really matters is whether you are mentioning scholars to substantiate a particular viewpoint. Use of scholars shouldn't be just for the sake of mentioning them.
As long as I can extract logic from your arguments, I don't care about the number of scholars. That being said, you must mention at least 2 scholars as that is bare minimum to establish the difference between a GS answer and an optional answer- latter being more analytical.
However, you point out rightly the problem of mentioning scholars in questions like NCW. You need to be smart here. Here's how I would think about introducing scholars in such questions-
- NCW is about empowering Indian women in general. I will bring feminist perspective of politics in some way.
- Views of any Indian feminist, if possible.
- A remark on NCW by any famous Indian or institutions like SC, HC, NHRC etc.
The idea should be to let the thoughts flow freely across the paper without digressing from the demand. You have complete freedom to talk about Plato who talks about philosopher women and JS Mill who talks about the sorry state of women. It depends on your skill to put them to use.
In a bid to mention all these, you must be careful not to miss out on the flow. Flow is more important than the number of scholars.
Very much enriching thoughts : )
whatonly,
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