Geography for Civils

It has been quite a long time since I wrote my last blog here... the worst part is that I committed in my previous post that I would be writing about civils preparations in the subsequent posts, but I didn't.. So first of all, I beg apology from everybody- particularly from ppl who asked me regarding Geography optional preparation and I told them every time that I'll be writing soon... For last one month I had been travelling for various reasons, so I coudn't write... I am sorry for that...

           Now the prelims result is out, service allocation is done and everything is set for next mains... So I find it obligatory on part of me to write at least now before I forget the jargon of geography and Pubad and everything...

           This time around after the disclosure of marks of CSE2011, it has been observed that Pub.ad, Geography and Sociology particularly have been at the receiving end of UPSC... people who scored 350s in pubad and geography in their previous attempts have been reduced to 280s-290s... So a drop in average score is quite evident.. Some how or other I managed to score 376(201+175) in geography... So I feel like sharing my preparation strategy for geography here...

           To be frank enough, in this attempt I devoted most of my time towards Pubad preparation as I was not confident in it.. After PT results, all of a sudden I realised that Geography is almost untouched... It was almost a panic situation... I still laugh remembering about that time when I was sweating inside my a/c room.. I settled down in few days and revised the entire Neetu madam's(direction) notes in 12-14 days straight...
That gave me a sigh of relief... but the thing to be noted is that I had Geography as my 1st optional in both my previous PT attempts...So I had already read the standard books several times... so the cummulative effort had worked...

          Now lets approach the papers systematically

Paper1:-

               1. Coverage of syllabus- The structure of the paper has changed over the time.. now UPSC is no more asking 60 markers.. so the demand is that the candidate is required to cover the entire syllabus.. short notes have become compulsory too. So it is always advisable to know sumthing about everything rather than everything about something.... If somebody knows 2/3 points about a topic, it is good enough to write a 12 marker short note... So dont leave any chapter or topic.. atleast have some basic knowhow about all the subtopics written in the syllabus...

               2. Time management-  the major challenge is completion of paper.. this year as many as 16 questions were to be answered in 3 hrs which is a bit challenging... completion of paper shoud be given priority, at the same time standard of answer has to be maintained... I followed the formula of writing 2 full questions in first 1 1/2 hrs and 3 full questions in next... so initial 2 questions were well written which carried a good impression I suppose...

               3. Diagrams- draw as many diagrams as u can but don't draw redundant ones as it kills tym at the same time carries bad impression.. I had drawn around 35-40 diagrams in paper1... I drew diagrams in black gel pen with free hand in most of the cases there by saving time at the same time it was complimenting well to the blue gel written text... eye appeal works... so give emphasis to that...

               4. Length of answer- UPSC prescribes definite word limit for every answer... but its my own experience that its not a crime if u cross it... So it is up to you to manage time and space... try to write more than others... always start an answer from a fresh page...

Paper2:-

              1. Mapping- This the trickiest one to handle in geography optional.. previously it was an asset when UPSC used to ask to locate entries like Hirakud dam and Cauvery river... now they r asking almost anything.. but if one observes carefully, entire mapping question can be divided into 2 parts- static and current entries... they are equally distributed also... for example if 12 entries are asked then 6 has to be from static Indian geography and 6 from contemporary relevance.... candidate with above average geography knowledge can easily answer 4/5 out of 6 static entries.. So knowing 2/3 contemporary entries is good enough... my point is that its not advisable to go after contemporary entries as one cannot actually trace UPSC and time consumed in that process will be too much.. So read the static entries thoroughly from any source and for contemporary entries make your individual compilation from newspaper reading and all that entries that are available in the market of various institutes... I would request candidates not to get emotional with mapping and devote much time on it...

              2. India map and diagrams- minimum one India map has to be drawn for every paper2 answer.. Draw it neatly with 3/4th of page with proper bordering and indexing. Pick up diagrams from Khullar book- particularly unit 3 has very good diagrams...

             3. examples and case studies- these things are always appreciated... Newspapers and magazines like yojna and 'Geography and You' carry good case studies... anticipate the questions and prepare some examples with data for them... for example last year, 'civil aviation industry' and 'pharmaceutical industry' were in news and UPSC asked questions from that.. So be very vigilant while reading newspaper..

Books and references:-

• Physical Geography - Savindra Singh
• Human Geography - Majid Hussain
• Models and Theories - Majid Hussain( this book has good compilation of diagrams)
• Indian Geography - Khullar( unit 1 has to be thoroughly read.. unit 2 can be avoided.. unit3 is good, some chapters like water resourses, multipurpose projects can be read)
• Dictionary by K Sidhartha
• Any institute's notes can be supplemented for timely revision...

Queries are welcome... I'll try to address to the best of my abilities...