Revision Techniques

MY OPINION ON PRELIMS

1.Don't make notesof too many things because:-

 -Certain people like me will eventually fall into dilemna that maybe book contains more things than I have written and in the end revise from book(thus wasting the whole purpose of making notes that too after putting so much efforts)

2.Read static 3 times more than the current. Since I have seen that ppl who are well with static no matter what they clear prelims every time.

3. I believedoing ratta is of utmost necessitywhether it is in static or current. It doesnot matter whether it comes fromwriting/reading 10 times/understanding the concept.

4.One already knows which areas are weakso in place of focussing on the entire chapter one should read those chapters which are more beneficial and the one in which there are more confusion. Although it is difficult since we get satisfaction only when we read entire book but thenrepeating the same mistakes leads one to failure.

5.  Makesome small notes of purely factual things aur rat k ghot lo(jubaan pe hona chahiye)such as parks,rivers, wildlife sanctuary, tiger reserves,tribes, reports. 

6. Prelims is tricky and believe it or not there is an element of luck but your time will come. But your hardwork can beat it when you are overprepared for it. Revise ur static book such that u beat ur competitors here in tests itself. Whether the rank in test is good or bad is not at all your concern. But if you consistently score less in the tests here, believe me you will not have confidence in the actual exam and your tukkas wont be right. Practise it here and apply it.

7. No matter what you do herethe day of exam is important. The only way to remain calm and fast in applying your mind is to do meditation and exercise on a daily basis. So practise it and your memory will improve.

8.Discuss with your peers(Pucha-puchi karo)or someone who you know is good enough. It forces your mind to recall. Moreover the person with whom you discuss slowly knows what are your weak or strong areas so they will hammer your weak areas and you will improve.(Best way to do revision)

9.Highlightcurrent affairs/static infirst go with blue pen,2nd with yellow highlighter, 3rd with green highlighter and from 4th have a highlighter which can merge both yellow and green,in my case it is orange--make the imp things very dark(either with highlighter or red pen or putting a/many stars)and then revise the dark waala during last days. 

(There are some exceptions to above strategy-like theystudy 10-12 hours on daily basis in last 3-4 monthsbefore  prelims.They will clear  without meditation/exercise.They actually dont need anyone to tell them a strategy. They aretharki people-madly obsessed and driven. They have to and they will clear this exam. All they need is 30 years question bank, Revise static(with minimum books) for 5-7 times, one current affairs magazine of last(12 months),50-60(with minimun 15 full length) tests.They don't listen to naysayers who says tera nahi hoga es saal ya ye wo falana dhimkaana.These people are ruthless and dangerously dedicated to their goal-they will clear not because of your taana baana but because they have a stronger reason to pursue it, a deep rooted desire which has already taken everything from them and this forces them to perform beyond their limits.)

Note:-These are my personal opinion

Basic and old school technique 

1. Repeated reading of source text. Eg Spectrum, Laxmikant 

2. Mental recitation of topics. Eg Economic chapters, Environmental concepts 

3. Writing/scribbling on piece of paper. Eg National parks, Art & Culture 

As days go by, I rely heavily on point 2 and 3

Prelims - For Static

1. Revise

2. Solve Questions from the subject after 2 days

For Current / Facts etc. 

1. Revise + Question solving regularly + revision of Questions which I didn't get right. 

Revisionis thegreyarea ofmany.I have been tried few methods.

(right now for pre imusingthe standard Read - test - learn ur mistakes - test -repeat method)(for this right now im using sfg papers for static).

1. Iread the portionof sfg syllabus ones(if possible twice).
2. Attemptsfg1testandnotedown themistakes,unattemptedones and guess work questions(grey area)
3. Ireadtheabove areasfrom my source(though at frst i galance the key)
4. After completing above,again attemptthe sfg2testpaper andnotedown themistkes,unattempted and guessones.
5. Again readtheabove areasfrom my source.
6. Next day igalance entiresyllabus onceagain.

Current affairs 

1. Readthemonthlycurrent affairs.
2. Attemptany institutemcq compilations. 
3. Notedownmistakes guessunattempted
4. Willread those topics againfrom current affairs magazine.
5. After 10 or 15 days attemptany institute current affairstestand check my retention andnote down my mistakes, unattempted guessagain read the enitre magzinebutstress on weak areas. 

End of revision jugad,It may look like complicated and non practical but i get used to it.
   

The main reason for using above jugad is,while analyzing ikeep on repeating mistakes /facing struggle to mark crct answer from same areas whereas in my strong areas im comfortable.
So rather than gng for entire syllabus im gng through the grey areas.
It is reaping benefits as of now.

@Naadan_Parinda yes most people face the same problem, only some will identify their weak areas (i.e mistakes area).(😄 im not definitely among them until this attempt)

1st we need to identify the area's of mistkes (subject wise) how?

1. Write a test.
2. Evaluate ur answers 
3. Make performance sheet.
4. Take ur old upsc paper or any full length paper,see if u have made any mistake similar to the test. Eg:past 2yrs upsc asked questions on president rule both times i made mistakes.so i read president n emergency thoroughly this year.

After identifying mistakes, u can follow this.

1. Make ur own priority area i.e weakest topics to strongest. (I observed that we allocate equal amounts of time to every topic,which is a mistake in my view)
2. Read the pyqs from the topics frst n ur mistakes then proceed to the topic. 
3. Write the topic wise tests like sfg,gs score workbook(no 1st hand experience),insights mcq booketc.
4. Main thing revising the mistakes. 

Ha ha i know the above looks superficial but if you start dng it ,hardly consumes 1hr extra for each topic. 

There's a research paper on what's the most effective way to study

Best methods for learning - Active Recall, Spaced Repetition and Interleaved Study

Least efficient methods for learning - Re-reading, Highlighting and Summarizing

Just google - "what works what doesn't dunlosky" the first link you get is the pdf. Do read it once!

Many folks preparing for UPSC, follow the least efficient methods. Give these 3 a shot - Active Recall, Spaced Repetition and Interleaved Study and you'll notice a huge difference in your recall

What kind of revision techniques you people follow?
Disclaimer: Strictly mine 
Not possible to tell you once fit for all strategy.
2 kinds:- 

1. CA associated things like environment/s&t etc: Reading fixed source again and again may be 4/5 times. I am very poor at ratta so forget easily many things that don't have a concept so........ 

2. Static: notes and question practice as much as i can. Target is approx 500+ questions practice and revise again and again.

see this is a rough idea. The approach for polity and history differs right! so take it this way only.
one golden rule : "ONE WEEK RULE" given by grt@Neyawn sir (available on youtube: channel: forumias) take one test again and again till u score 90% in it. how?  watch the video :)

these are my 2 cents in it. any specific questions do ask plz@Impavid_Girl 

For me i am a really bad at organising my notes so i usually avoid them. But for some topics like ancient or art and culture i do make few notes ....like on Gupta empire( bcoz of many confusing guptas+ chinese travellers+ books written+ court poet etc)

but for others like spectrum or polity what i had done is i have highlighted the imp words/ lines with 2 colors. when time to revise is less i only scan through a particular colour text. that helps for me.

Also some subject really need more revision than other. Topics from economics usually have more retention period....one can remember concepts easily for more than 20-25 days...

but some topics like specifics of morley minto... chronology of cripps,wavell,etc and their specifics i personally tend to forget often so i need more revision of those.

I am a fast reader and a bad organizer. so i focus more on fast and multiple revisions. that's why the highlights with diff colour works for me.some people take lot of time to understand in 1st reading itself. but what i do is i scan fast though the text in 1st reading to make it familiar and then in second reading the concept becomes more clearer.

same thing i follow for pt365. it takes hardly 2 days to finish 1 pt magazine.

1st reading- red pen underline

2nd-yellow highlight

3rd - green highlight

( sometime i club 2nd and 3rd part and just highlight with one colour to avoid mess....)

The revision methods vary person to person... although many may not agree but this is what i am comfortable with.....  it's working or not i don't know...only time will tell.

Hehe......... liked the last few lines. And u r right. : "They are tharki people-madly obsessed and driven."

Bahut sahi :)

I struggle in revision part. Although I've done many revisions of static subjects, revision of current portion is still not upto the mark.

I'm working on 2 things for revision:

1. I solve any Prelims Test paper in 3 iterations. The questions, which I solve in 2nd or 3rd iteration or unattempted, I take screenshots of them and add them in Anki app. Every day, I "try" to review atleast 50 questions. Now I realise that, adding them in Anki app takes a lot of time. So, I'm thinking of keeping them in mobile gallery itself. And gradually I'll delete those which I think were easy or which I have done enough revisions of.

2. For current part, I'm going to revise at every weekend, and for 2 days at the end of the month. For previous months, through test series schedule only.

Thank you for asking. 🙂

Assuming the question is about prelims revision.

Revisions are done basically for two things:

1. To reinforce conceptual understanding

2. To make your memory retrieval better. 

For improving conceptual understanding, the more you read, the better you are at it. 

Memory organization is a scientific phenomenon and is a personal process. It varies from individual to individual. One needs to find out in what way can be best recall what we have read. 

I'll share my process. I cannot remember things mechanically. Things simply don't last in my memory that way. But some people are able to do this. They can memorize so many things mechanically (ratta) and recall it easily. For such people, just reading and highlighting works the best. 

But in my case, I need to structure the data I read so that I provide context to it. And in that way, I can recall things. 

I structure data through notes. Notes can include mind maps, segregation of similar facts and short notes. When I do this, I process the data and this stores in long term memory for me (Atkinson and Shiffrin model). Each word in my notes would have a larger context and that keyword helps me in recalling the story behind it. 

The problem with my technique is that it takes a lot of time initially but the best thing about it is that I can revise a book in about 3 to 4 hours and can do a lot of revisions before exam. 

For those who highlight and remember, they don't have to put so much time initially but they have to put almost the same amount of time for every revision. 

So, depending upon your strengths, you may choose the one that is best for you. 

Personally i think this answer sums up everything posted till now on this thread. 👍✌️

@Yo_Yo_Choti_Singh &@pizzza please provide some enlightenment. :) 

THIS IS THE BIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGEST PROBLEM. but i think ye notes bana ke nahi hoga. One has to practice again and again. :(  Notes to be done as per questions.
i mean if u practice 50 questions throughly on buddha you wont commit a mistake. but this logic again fails for polity. anyone can plunge in polity with any prep i guess. like daily happening in SFG.