Mains - Tackling GS1, GS2, GS3 Strategy by Neha Banerjee ( AIR 20, CSE 2019)

 This post will give you an idea of my journey in the post prelims phase with respect to the 3 GS papers. As told earlier, I had not done answer writing practice before prelims. Though I had seen some websites and youtube videos , that one HAS to do lots of  answer writing practice for mains ! As per several toppers talks, I had planned to write 6 to 7 answers everyday after getting back from office and would continue this rigorously till Mains exam. However, this approach appeared very confusing to me.  The questions that came up were :-

1) What is the point of sitting and mechanically writing answers to random questions daily ..how would i remember what I wrote , say 30 days down the line ?

2) How would i revise the new things that i learnt and things learnt before ..how would I rectify my mistakes ?

3) How would I know what to write in what subject if I randomly write answers to all the GS papers together..how would i make a mental map of things I should and should not do ?

I tried hard  to conform with so many topper's strategies ( I mean if many of them are saying the same things there must have been some logic) ..but ultimately wasted 2 weeks this way !!..I realized that this is not suiting me anyhow and that I needed a strategy of my own. So dear readers, I would reiterate this fact that it is perfectly fine if your strategy is different from the herd as long as you are satisfied and aware of the realities of the exam. So do not be afraid to take your final call !! 

Meanwhile I was also attending to my office work and while commuting, eating etc I started listening to Big Picture  debates and  The Hindu important editorials. Sometimes in my office diary only I used to make short notes from these . By this time I had stopped following the monthly magazines and the daily current affairs of different websites. I realized there is no point in revising my Prelims notes and standard sources again. This is because I would revise them but ultimately would not be able to incorporate them in my answers, if I had not practised how to write answers in a short time. I was also having a look at the previous year question paper ( the most precious and freely available resource which we hardly take note of ) in a blockwise manner from websites like that of Mrunal Sir. This is when gradually things started appearing meaningful to me. I could find some patterns from the previous year questions and the philosophy behind the Mains exam became a bit more comprehendible. So , I gradually mapped the entire GS 1, 2 ,3 papers into some blocks and alloted time in a blockwise manner ( say 15 days for block 2 etc) and did answer writing and revision in a per block manner. 

Getting into the groove of Answer Writing 

1) Block 1 ( Ancient, Medieval, modern history, freedom struggle and world history , post independent India, covers GS1 part1) :- Quickly revised whatever I had studied before prelims and went through previous year papers. Did some answer writing ( rather read some answers)  from TLP Iasbaba ( blockwise ) , Insights secure ( compilations) and Vision Ias questions from previous year toppers copies. All are free initiatives. Did not make any notes here. Sometimes it was not possible for me to write everything . So i did MENTAL answer writing ( very important for working professionals). That means, I visualized my writing in my mind and checked it accordingly. 

2) Block 2 ( Polity, Governance, Society , Adminstration , covers GS1 part 2 and GS 2 full except the International Relations) :- Again  glanced through relevant sources already mentioned in my previous post ( Sources, Notemaking etc) . Did not do any new sources . Relied on previous year questions and again wrote some answers ( most of them mentally)  from Secure ,TlP, Vision etc. These were followed very selectively, as time permitted. By this time I had got a hang of the answer writing world ( i.e. Intro , Body , Conclusion etc).  Also made short notes of important issues from this block in a separate copy for ease of revision before exam. I advise making such notes on your own to have a mental map of issues. 

3) Block 3 ( Economy, Agriculture, Geogaphy, Industrial Locations and Disaster Management, covers GS3 full except Internal Security and GS1 part3) :-Here also the same steps as the previous block. Made relevant notes especially from the Economic Survey which had come out in July 2019.

4) Block 4 ( International Relations and Internal Security ) :- This was a dynamic group . So made notes from the current affairs and did answer writing accordingly ..most of them mental maps.

These blocks were made as per my convenience. Some other person may interlink the syllabus in their own way also. So the main lesson is not to follow others blindly and recalibrate the preparation as per one's constraints. For me the blockwise strategy instead of a daily plan and the art of mental answer writing helped me. I also advise making short notes on important issues from Mains perspective (  linking with current affairs , writing Pros, cons, Way forward etc) .to have a mental map .so that you are able to recall them easily in your exam. Since every person has different ways of retaining , I feel my notes will not be beneficial to others. Most of them would appear as gibberish and scribbles to you ( anyhow many pages are lost due to shifting our residence) . 

Now , as I entered into the above plan , I realized that almost every topper takes some Mains test series and even their answers are uploaded in some of the platforms . So I got a bit tensed..here I was struggling to get into hang of answer writing and there people were getting their answers checked by experts and moving ahead with constructive feedback. I checked into some portals but found most of them either too expensive or could not manage time properly for that ( I mean going to a test centre , coming back etc ..too much time !)  in my tight schedule. After a lot of thought process I decided to get past all these and give my best in whatever capacity I could. Meanwhile I managed to get 2 months unpaid leave from office ( 21st July to 20th September) and this was all I had with me during that time. 

Patterns in Answer Writing

Now coming to the actual patterns I followed in my answers. Actually , every question of UPSC requires a nuanced approach while answering. Moreover , since this is General studies, so diverse ways of answering questions are valued. So there are no fixed standards like you have to give points or give diagrams, maps, flowcharts to every answer. These are again some existing myths. Yes , pictorial illustrations increase the clarity of your thought process and helps in filling pages faster and looks good in your copy. But , if you are uncomfortable in that ( which I was) , you can avoid them too. In the actual GS papers , i drew very few diagrams ( 1 or 2 in GS1, GS2 and 2 or 3 in GS3). Most of my answers were a mix of points and paragraphs . 

The subheadings were directly imported from questions ( example if it written Critically analyse, I would use the format of 'Arguments in favour' and 'Arguments Against'). For the introduction part I tried to use either a definition ( like question on secularism,  define it first) or a statistic ( like question on women empowerment versus population control ..so start with thr TFR ( total fertility rates). I used maps and diagrams only to increase value to my answers ( example if there is a question on water stress in India , you can draw a map and show the areas / hotspots facing water scarcity instead of naming them. Then , there was a question on North east insurgency,  i drew the political map of NE and pointed out the conflict areas) . You can prepare them easily as per your comfort while answer writing and can form such templates to write faster. 

Finally the time constraints...This was the most fearful aspect to me for GS Mains. Just 3 weeks before the exam I decided to give 2 full length tests ( 8 tests each of 3 hours, and 2 papers each day ) to get actual exam like feeling. Since I had not joined any paid test series ..I went to Karol bagh market and bought 2 question papers and a upsc like copy ( one which has 2 columns in both sides). I highly recommend giving full lengh mocks at least a month before the exam .  Now , the stressful part was I could not complete a single GS paper in 3 hours in the mock tests at home !! I was writing for 2 to 3 full pages ( depending on 10 , 15 marks ) and ultimately had no time left even to scribble for the last 2 to 3 questions. This was when I realized that I needed to follow some basic rules of the exam..I decided to attempt all the questions irrespective of whether I knew them directly or not. By the time you reach Mains, if you have studied seriously for 1 year you have some knowledge about multiple issues. Example in the question on Cyberdome project ..though I had not encountered the name directly before , I knew basics of cyber security as per syllabus and I wrote that in a tactful way. So on an average out of 20 questions there were 5 to 7 questions which i knew  perfectly ( I mean straight out of what I studied ) , 10 to 12 questions I could manage to write average answers and the rest 4 to 5 questions , I knew nothing to very less ..but still attempted at the end to score at least 0.5 marks if not zero. For the time management part , before going to the exam hall I reminded myself multiple times that I will complete the 15 marks questions in the first 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours. If I would lag behind, then I would take up the pen and move on to the next , even if I would have to leave a question incomplete ! 

This is the link where you can find some sample answers that I wrote while practising. They are very disorganized and lot of scribbles here and there ( I used to self evaluate my answers ).In many cases , only the answer is there and not the question.( who knew I would have to share this ? :P ) 

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zR_jSNqZQv7lXIAX_qtzH2vfwAuX7krf/view?usp=sharing

So this was my complete GS Mains strategy. Just an important disclaimer..this was my strategy based on my preparation till then. So it may not be applicable for all. However the important point is to strategize on your own and have faith in that !