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
I'm UPSC 2021 aspirant and I thought of preparing optional by self study and thought if I feel need coaching I would take it after mains 2021 for 2022, if I couldn't crack without coaching. Mains 2021 was scheduled in September, so I thought I would join oct batch.
But now mains would be in January mid, means if I go without coaching for UPSC 2021, I won't be able to go for coaching as batch after mains will start in Feb 2022 ending in July 2022.
So I'm really confused. I'm thinking to join batch starting from July 2021 ending in Jan 2022.
I know it's late, but this seems the best choice as of now.
Am I thinking on right lines?
If you join regular coaching right now for a 2021 attempt you’ll find it very difficult to manage whether you join in July or later. The speed at her regular classes is very different compared to the speed required to finish the syllabus while writing mains. You will need at least 3 revisions with notes made to get a decent grip of PSIR for writing mains. Whereas with the coaching classes you will not even be able to cover the entire syllabus once. Besides, you will also need to write tests given that this is your first attempt. The general gap between each test for most TS is 2 weeks. Which means in 2 weeks you will be expected to complete one section of one paper at least. The classroom course (bear in mind I did it in 2017) took 2 and a half months to cover just Plato alone, which is merely a subtopic of one section of one paper. Look at the cost benefit ratio and it’s not enough time to do the coaching. Your safest bet would be to purchase her notes ASAP and go through them by yourself. I’ve heard there are TG lectures of SR which you can listen to while reading the notes (I think someone on this thread itself suggested it) and work in this time to create a deep conceptual understanding with your own value addition. The rest is your call entirely.
@Hercules_15 I think if you can read and understand PSIR 1-A by yourself, you should not join any coaching. I was part of her course this year, and after PSIR 1-A, she just gave us printed notes and read through them most of the times. Even PSIR 1-A is just 80% dictation. And she'll spend way too much time on 1-A and you'll start praying to god that this thing gets over. It doesn't leave much time to do other things as you do classes and revise stuff. Also this is your first attempt, so may not be too sure about GS too. Notes are 95% of the value that SR adds. Try to get the latest notes. Do them well. If you don't understand anything, there is yt channel which has uploaded her audio lectures, listen to them. But only selectively.
And you don't know if the course gets finished on time. I joined in June and the course was supposed to end in December and it ended in April. We complained that PSIR isn't the only thing we have to do & she replied, "Jinhe prelims nikalna hota hai woh nikaal lete hai." Everyone in my batch is so angry with her.
@DeekshitaP Lecture 28 & Plato wasn't done.
I can see that you are a gamer!
I'm UPSC 2021 aspirant and I thought of preparing optional by self study and thought if I feel need coaching I would take it after mains 2021 for 2022, if I couldn't crack without coaching. Mains 2021 was scheduled in September, so I thought I would join oct batch.
But now mains would be in January mid, means if I go without coaching for UPSC 2021, I won't be able to go for coaching as batch after mains will start in Feb 2022 ending in July 2022.
So I'm really confused. I'm thinking to join batch starting from July 2021 ending in Jan 2022.
I know it's late, but this seems the best choice as of now.
Am I thinking on right lines?
If you join regular coaching right now for a 2021 attempt you’ll find it very difficult to manage whether you join in July or later. The speed at her regular classes is very different compared to the speed required to finish the syllabus while writing mains. You will need at least 3 revisions with notes made to get a decent grip of PSIR for writing mains. Whereas with the coaching classes you will not even be able to cover the entire syllabus once. Besides, you will also need to write tests given that this is your first attempt. The general gap between each test for most TS is 2 weeks. Which means in 2 weeks you will be expected to complete one section of one paper at least. The classroom course (bear in mind I did it in 2017) took 2 and a half months to cover just Plato alone, which is merely a subtopic of one section of one paper. Look at the cost benefit ratio and it’s not enough time to do the coaching. Your safest bet would be to purchase her notes ASAP and go through them by yourself. I’ve heard there are TG lectures of SR which you can listen to while reading the notes (I think someone on this thread itself suggested it) and work in this time to create a deep conceptual understanding with your own value addition. The rest is your call entirely.
@Hercules_15 I think if you can read and understand PSIR 1-A by yourself, you should not join any coaching. I was part of her course this year, and after PSIR 1-A, she just gave us printed notes and read through them most of the times. Even PSIR 1-A is just 80% dictation. And she'll spend way too much time on 1-A and you'll start praying to god that this thing gets over. It doesn't leave much time to do other things as you do classes and revise stuff. Also this is your first attempt, so may not be too sure about GS too. Notes are 95% of the value that SR adds. Try to get the latest notes. Do them well. If you don't understand anything, there is yt channel which has uploaded her audio lectures, listen to them. But only selectively.
And you don't know if the course gets finished on time. I joined in June and the course was supposed to end in December and it ended in April. We complained that PSIR isn't the only thing we have to do & she replied, "Jinhe prelims nikalna hota hai woh nikaal lete hai." Everyone in my batch is so angry with her.
@DeekshitaP Lecture 28 & Plato wasn't done.
I can see that you are a gamer!
A, D are intact. Occasional gamer.
I'm UPSC 2021 aspirant and I thought of preparing optional by self study and thought if I feel need coaching I would take it after mains 2021 for 2022, if I couldn't crack without coaching. Mains 2021 was scheduled in September, so I thought I would join oct batch.
But now mains would be in January mid, means if I go without coaching for UPSC 2021, I won't be able to go for coaching as batch after mains will start in Feb 2022 ending in July 2022.
So I'm really confused. I'm thinking to join batch starting from July 2021 ending in Jan 2022.
I know it's late, but this seems the best choice as of now.
Am I thinking on right lines?
If you join regular coaching right now for a 2021 attempt you’ll find it very difficult to manage whether you join in July or later. The speed at her regular classes is very different compared to the speed required to finish the syllabus while writing mains. You will need at least 3 revisions with notes made to get a decent grip of PSIR for writing mains. Whereas with the coaching classes you will not even be able to cover the entire syllabus once. Besides, you will also need to write tests given that this is your first attempt. The general gap between each test for most TS is 2 weeks. Which means in 2 weeks you will be expected to complete one section of one paper at least. The classroom course (bear in mind I did it in 2017) took 2 and a half months to cover just Plato alone, which is merely a subtopic of one section of one paper. Look at the cost benefit ratio and it’s not enough time to do the coaching. Your safest bet would be to purchase her notes ASAP and go through them by yourself. I’ve heard there are TG lectures of SR which you can listen to while reading the notes (I think someone on this thread itself suggested it) and work in this time to create a deep conceptual understanding with your own value addition. The rest is your call entirely.
@Hercules_15 I think if you can read and understand PSIR 1-A by yourself, you should not join any coaching. I was part of her course this year, and after PSIR 1-A, she just gave us printed notes and read through them most of the times. Even PSIR 1-A is just 80% dictation. And she'll spend way too much time on 1-A and you'll start praying to god that this thing gets over. It doesn't leave much time to do other things as you do classes and revise stuff. Also this is your first attempt, so may not be too sure about GS too. Notes are 95% of the value that SR adds. Try to get the latest notes. Do them well. If you don't understand anything, there is yt channel which has uploaded her audio lectures, listen to them. But only selectively.
And you don't know if the course gets finished on time. I joined in June and the course was supposed to end in December and it ended in April. We complained that PSIR isn't the only thing we have to do & she replied, "Jinhe prelims nikalna hota hai woh nikaal lete hai." Everyone in my batch is so angry with her.
@DeekshitaP Lecture 28 & Plato wasn't done.
I can see that you are a gamer!
A, D are intact. Occasional gamer.
What if he is like one of the weirdos like me who swap them for arrow buttons???
whatonly,Ok, its time for@nerdfighter to give us a tour of his/her 'productive' desk/room
EiChan,
Has anyone read Huntington's Waves of Democracy idea apart from what is in SR notes? Did he talk about a 3rd Reverse Wave?-- it's not mentioned in the notes
EDIT: He might not have, considering his book is called Third Wave, and was written in 1990. Have any other scholars referred to a "crashing" of the Third Wave? I'm interested because in the notes we're considering Arab Spring as the beginning of the 4th wave.
EDIT2: Will you consider investing time in Huntington's theory for 2A (Democracy in Contemporary Global Concerns)? SR just gives a scorecard- kahan democracy aayi, kahan democracy giri -__- but Huntington actually goes into the reasons behind the emergence of the Wave, and the process through which existing authoritarian regimes collapse
whatonly,Has anyone read Huntington's Waves of Democracy idea apart from what is in SR notes? Did he talk about a 3rd Reverse Wave?-- it's not mentioned in the notes
EDIT: He might not have, considering his book is called Third Wave, and was written in 1990. Have any other scholars referred to a "crashing" of the Third Wave? I'm interested because in the notes we're considering Arab Spring as the beginning of the 4th wave.
EDIT2: Will you consider investing time in Huntington's theory for 2A (Democracy in Contemporary Global Concerns)? SR just gives a scorecard- kahan democracy aayi, kahan democracy giri -__- but Huntington actually goes into the reasons behind the emergence of the Wave, and the process through which existing authoritarian regimes collapse
Yes dost, Huntington, in my crash course notes, did give grounds for 3rd reverse wave. He said It would occur when Neo liberal world order (which was about to be at peak when his Book Third Wave came) would collapse.
The year is no doubt, 2008. I just checked out, in case, he has done some work post Global Financial Crisis 2008. But no, he died the same year.
whatonly,
Does anyone know of a good book that covers Eastern Philosophy? I'm looking for something similar to Story of Philosophy by Will Durant (as mentioned by@Villanelle) or A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.
Villanelle,Has anyone read Huntington's Waves of Democracy idea apart from what is in SR notes? Did he talk about a 3rd Reverse Wave?-- it's not mentioned in the notes
EDIT: He might not have, considering his book is called Third Wave, and was written in 1990. Have any other scholars referred to a "crashing" of the Third Wave? I'm interested because in the notes we're considering Arab Spring as the beginning of the 4th wave.
EDIT2: Will you consider investing time in Huntington's theory for 2A (Democracy in Contemporary Global Concerns)? SR just gives a scorecard- kahan democracy aayi, kahan democracy giri -__- but Huntington actually goes into the reasons behind the emergence of the Wave, and the process through which existing authoritarian regimes collapse
This seems to have been published a few months before his book in 1991. Check out the 7th page of the pdf.
https://www.ned.org/docs/Samuel-P-Huntington-Democracy-Third-Wave.pdf
And yup, seems like a worthwhile investment for 2A. Given the surge of protests in different countries, a question on democratisation would not be surprising!
TambourineMan,Jammu
A fun read on Machiavelli
Have we got Machiavelli all wrong? | Books | The Guardian
The author says that on closer reading of Machiavelli, it can be argued that through The Prince, Machiavelli was actually trying to warn people against tyrants and despotic regimes. And even later philosophers like Bacon, Spinoza and Rosseau thought of it this way. Rousseau called The Prince "a book of republicans" under the guise of giving advise to kin.
I like this reading of him :) thanks for sharing. It’ll make a good conclusion to an answer even.
If he were just a cynic that would indeed display a great deal of intelligence, because he understood exactly how the world around him worked. But, having understood it, if he was trying to warn people, it displays something more and better. A phrase Gramsci used: pessimism of the intellect, but optimism of the will.
@whatonly @KropotkinSchmopotkin
This question came in PSIR 2A (2019)
At that time, I had superficial knowledge about 2A. I knew in case ‘Democracy’ is asked, Huntington is to be quoted. I didn’t know then if in case, he has given 3rd Reverse Wave. I do remember this was how I introduced the answer. I feel it turns out very well. The examiner for sure, considered my negligence as extra ordinary assessment :D
Waise, I feel this question was asked in context of Yellow Vest Movement, France and in reference to growth of Social Movement seeking issue based instant justice.
whatonly,
Have we got Machiavelli all wrong? | Books | The Guardian
The author says that on closer reading of Machiavelli, it can be argued that through The Prince, Machiavelli was actually trying to warn people against tyrants and despotic regimes. And even later philosophers like Bacon, Spinoza and Rosseau thought of it this way. Rousseau called The Prince "a book of republicans" under the guise of giving advise to kin.
I like this reading of him :) thanks for sharing. It’ll make a good conclusion to an answer even.
If he were just a cynic that would indeed display a great deal of intelligence, because he understood exactly how the world around him worked. But, having understood it, if he was trying to warn people, it displays something more and better. A phrase Gramsci used: pessimism of the intellect, but optimism of the will.
Yes, 100%.
And that Gramsci quote is *chef’s kiss*
whatonly,
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