Prelims

[Map Work:]

A highly recommended DO IT YOURSELF exercise, specially with Prelims in focus.

If you draw everything yourself, there is a better understanding of places and distribution of resources and biodiversity.

The exercise may take some good amount of time but I did it keeping the potential reward in mind, given the extra emphasis on "Environment" in prelims by UPSC.

Also, it can serve as a tool for quick revision of some topics like Soil, physiography etc in Geography.

I am sharing my Map book and exercises which I had done. Please Do It Yourself (DIY - henceforth) and don't merely copy it. You can use it as a reference. I relied on official government sources to mark all the places properly instead of an Atlas.

Also try to have correlated maps close to each other such as National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and species etc. It helps develop better understanding. This you'll realize after you complete the exercise as retention would be much more (A tip I got from Prudhvi).

The left pages have some basic information to revise or refer to for better reading of Maps on right page.

None of the maps were done in a single go. I took more than 3 4 weeks(specially River basins map). This way I revised what I did earlier and never got bored with mapping exercise.

Note on River basins map:

I only marked things which I could remember. If I felt I can't remember the tributary, I would just stop and move to some other river.

As I have said earlier, be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Don't waste effort in things you can't remember. Optimise everything!

Hi,
This is the link to the folder where I'll be uploading my notes and other relevant material.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ivy07gel26vr2yf/AAArCurla9qsE-_0wqs3GFwLa?dl=0

It will contain my Vajiram classnotes and other Self study notes which I made mainly during Mains preparation.

Self notes were referenced from classnotes, Vision Mains 365, internet and other standard books. They became the primary source for quick revision.

Other material such as organized PYQs, Map work etc will also be made available.

The notes will be added over a period of time. I will send out a message here regarding the new additions. If I have enough time, I will also try to add an index for quick access and a guide to better understand the notes.

PS: I will again urge everyone to make notes on their own and use my notes only for reference. Notes by earlier successful aspirants are also present online. If they make more sense to you, please follow them!

The notes do not have any strict separation for prelims and mains. You need to identify yourself. Organization has been done in form of Mains syllabus for obvious reasons!

Also, please pardon me for sharing mixture of online and offline notes. I couldn't identify the correct way myself and ended up doing both instead of wasting time on choosing one. However, post prelims I made a conscious effort to make written notes. It helped me develop good speed, maintain rhythm and get into AWP groove.

While evaluating various platform, I missed out on one important place where I took interview guidance.

I had a couple of sessions at "Ianugrah" under the guidance of Sudhir Chandra Sir. He provided personalised guidance and some important tips for the Personality Test.

I would recommend the aspirants to give it a try. Sir has very important insights into the interview process which may be helpful to you.

Someone sent me this today. I request everyone to not fall into such traps. I was NOT A CLASSROOM student at Dhyeya IAS. Please exercise caution before believing such misleading Ads.
I've already shared my experiences with various platforms earlier on this channel. Please refer to it in case of any doubt.

Thank You. 🙏

[Sharing my Prelims booklist:]

CAUTION:
* The given booklist is neither exhaustive nor sufficient for qualification in prelims.
* Much of it was constrained by my optional.
* Depending on own level of comfort, students should refer to the books.
* I DID NOT copy any other topper’s booklist.
* I just got a basic understanding and then read what I felt most comfortable with.

* Each topic was also updated through Test series reverse learning - Vajiram and Vision - both available online.
* Internet was also used to improve the collected information.
* All class-notes are from Vajiram classes made by myself and NOT COPIED.
* Vision PT 365s were referred for all the topics, specially Environment and Science and Technology.

Much of my strategy in Environment and Ecologt is similar to Shreyans' (AIR 4).
Sharing it here from his Telegram channel.

Ecology and Environment
-----------------------------------------

1. Very important topic for Prelims - will continously fetch many questions as IFoS exam is clubbed with CSE

2. Sources I had used:
- Shankar IAS Notes
- Vaishali Ma'am Notes (Vajiram)
- Vision Monthly and Daily Hindu for Current Affairs
- Insight IAS Prelims compilation
- Govt. Websites and Wikipidea of Major National Parks

3. Approach:
- Tried covering important topics from Shankar and Vajiram notes and supplemented them with current affairs
- For Reserves, National Park etc. - tried remembering Biosphere Reserves, Ramsar Sites and Few Major National Parks through Maps - Remembered major Flora, Fauna and geographical features in the above. These can be used for option elimination during Prelims.

4. Also, went through websites of UNDP, UNEP, World Bank etc. to cover the initiatives in India.

5. Test Series for Environment:
- Previous Year Qs in Shankar Notes
- Sectional Test of Vision and Vajiram

I'll add a point #6

6. Put extra emphasis on Major Conventions/UN Summits and Climate Change. I'll share a Evernote note on the same in future.

👆 is a low cost, high reward area to prepare - a low hanging fruit.

For those who have specific queries on Mains and Optional Booklist/sources, I'll share them later.

I didn't have any CSAT booklist given my engineering / IIT profile. I only solved a couple of UPSC Question Papers to get some practice and remove the habit of committing silly mistakes.

Those who have CSAT concerns, please find appropriate information from past toppers' blogs.

Those who are confident in doing well, I would still ask you to have atleast 2 simulations using UPSC PYQs. There is very thin line of separation between self-confidence and arrogance. Don't take anything for granted. Don't leave anything on chance. Prepare for everything!

[Alert: Notes Added]

Ancient Indian History, Art and Culture and Modern Indian History Vajiram classnotes have been added to the Dropbox folder.
Follow "Kanishak - UPSC Material -> Class Notes -> History" to access them.

----*****-----*****----
Everytime I add new notes, I will give out this warning. So please bear with me.

CAUTION:
Please refer to these notes only for reference.
MAKE YOUR OWN NOTES.
If you try to read from these notes directly, I can assure than your chances of success are less than 5%.
If you have your own notes, revise them instead of wasting time on my notes.