HOW TO PREPARE GENERAL STUDIES FOR UPSC/STATE CIVIL SERVICES EXAMS
What is General Studies ???
The Answer to this Question is not easy
If you are preparing for UPSC /State Civil Services , you might have got some idea about what is general studies , but for begginers, its a very hard question ---how to prepare for general studies .
Some guys have confusion in starting phase for preparation between General knowledge and general studies . General knowledge is actually subset of General studies .
General Studies is everything you face in life, everything which affect your life like government policies , governance , Economic policies ,environment concerns , geographical phenomenon our ancient culture , importance of Days ( big days like republic day , independence day , national unity day etc. ) , why we celebrate more than 50 days in a year as some special day ??,
What our ancestors did for us ?
and what should we do for our future generations ??
How reserve bank policy affects us ???
How Annual financial statement ( or BUDGET ) affects us ???
Why should we pay taxes ??
How can one become PM, President , CM , ministers ???
What are our fundamental rights and Duties ???
Every normally educated citizen is expected to know all the above questions , and that is what we call GENERAL STUDIES.
UPSC is not an Detective agency and mind it , you don't need to be exceptionally intelligent to get selected in UPSC , UPSC expect you to be an aware citizen who knows all general things happening in current time and their importance and you should be able to take decision based on Ethical values /your knowledge and according to the situation ( thats why UPSC introduced a general studies paper exclusively for Ethics and moral Values ) .
Now you know what is general Studies , so ,its time to move on and discuss the strategy to crack general studies
First of all , you should go through NCERT social science books (Geography + history + Polity ) from class 6-12 + Economics NCERT books ( from class 6-12 ) + General Science ( from class 6-12 )
IT is very necessary to clear basic concepts from NCERT , before moving further to higher levels for mains .
If you follow NCERT religiously and are able to finish NCERT atleast 1-2 times , it is sufficient for UPSC and other Civil Services Pre examination General Studies Paper ( most of the objective questions are directly asked from some concepts explained in NCERT ) .
Questions on Environment /Science are mostly current affairs based ( the mixture of current affairs topic + its relevant theory from NCERT book is proved very successful , e.g. if suppose some conference on climate change is going on these days , so you must know all about global warming , you can clear these concepts from NCERT books ) .
NCERT books are government recommended and they are written by well known authors who have great knowledge ( Basics must be cleared by NCERT , after that you may follow some good books for each subject i.e. geography , history , Politics , Economics ) .
All NCERT books May be downloaded here ALL NCERT BOOKS
Current News is very important part of general Studies , you should some news paper ( either thehindu or Indian Express - - from understanding point of view indian express is best ) . You should read news papers daily for atleast ( one hour) + you can also visit some News videos ( because it is said that Pictorial memory is long lasting than words memory and thats the reason we remember any movie we seen for a longer time than our course we read at our school/college , so its better if you cover a part of your current News section from some good News Video ( like Rajya sabha Channel is very good channel , and if you watch rajya sabha video from you tube , then your time will not be wasted in advertisements as you can download ADDblocker from google and apply it to your browser ) .
you can watch all the News/ Discussions here RAJYA SABHA NEWS VIDEOS
So, GENERAL STUDIES = ALL NCERT BOOKS( Social Science Books + Economics books + General Science Books ) + THE HINDU/INDIAN EXPRESS + RAJYA SABHA VIDEOS + some of the following mentioned books .
Below Mentioned list of IAS books for general studies will help you in your prepration for the IAS and other services under the UPSC/ State Civil Services Exams . General studies is a vast subject, so it helps to know the best reference books for the ias exam.
Make sure you buy the most recent print of these books as general studies too needs a certain amount of updating every year. We Have added names of some monthly magazines too. Please select the ones that you like the most.
MUST READ BOOKS FOR GENERAL STUDIES :-
- India Struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra ( English Version / Hindi version )
- Modern India history by spectrum ( English Version / Hindi version )
- Geography - Spectrum ( English Version / Hindi Version )
- Indian Geography by Majid hussain ( English Version / Hindi Version )
- Short and Precise Notes for india and world geography for PRE
- Indian Polity - Constitution of India by Bakshi ( English Version / Hindi Version )
- Indian Economy - by Ramesh singh ( English Version / Hindi version )
- General Science ( English Version / Hindi Version )
- Indian Culture ( English Version / Hindi Version )
- Comprehensive Guide For UPSC - Part 1 + Part 2 ( Sufficient to prepare for Pre in less time )
- Geography through Maps ( for Map understanding + World geography )
Now that's what I call a quality guidance. Hats off to you for sharing this information.
ReplyDeleteThis is really a great reference. I strongly recommend this to others.
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