Strategy & Tips for Zoology Optional

Dr. Gaurav Dahiya (AIR-76, CSE 2009) has shared the tips below for zoology on my request.

hi i m dr gaurav dahiya, i m a medical doctor by profession.i was working for the past three years on civil services. i have secured AIR 76 in civil services examination 2010. i wud like to share my experience of civil services preparation especially mains and the interview.my optionals were geography and zoology.

PRELIMINARY this stage is screening examination. it requires extensive study.now next year onwards there ll b CSAT i.e civil services aptitude test. it ll test whether a particular candidate has the aptitude for civil services.the exact details ll be known only with the notification of civil services 2011.

MAINS first of all i ll take up zoology.zoology according to me is a tough optional to take. zoology requires a huge amount of hardwork.paper 1 of it consists of extensive study of kingdom animalia.i ll list the books which can be followed

1.kotpal series for both vertebrates and invertebrates.

2.ethology by reena mathur. few topics needs search from library and internet.

3.shukla and upadhayay economic zoology.

4.p d sharma ecology

5. odums ecology especially for biogeochemical cycles and finer detals of ecology..

6.instrumentation: this part is quite cumbersome and it is difficult to find all topics in a single book.but books like b d singh , upadhyay and updhyay.;wilson and walker etc.

7.biostats by veer bala rastogi , though there are many mistakes in it.

paper 1 is a scoring paper. but one needs to thorough in the preparation.

zoology paper2 ..... this paper has become quite tough over the years.now the questions are mostly 20 or 30 markers.this paper is also quite lengthy to attempt.

1.evolution ... by veer bala rastogi . do not leave this section ,there are few compulsory questions which are to be attempted from this section.

2.cell biology...de robertis ; and also book by cb powar.

3.genetics.... this is scoring area, cover all the topics. genetics by veer bala rastogi

; pk gupta genetics; biotechnology by b d singh and t a brown

4.systematics... from internet

5.physiology... by guyton and ganong

6.biochemistry.... lippincotts review of biochemistry;, lehninger

7.developmental biology by verma and aggarwal, ;berry; many topics needs to be searched from internet and library.

If you have any further query, you can reach him at gauravdr_aiims@yahoo.co.in

Many thanks to him for sparing time to share the inputs......CHEERS!!!

Resource for Essay, Psychology & Geography

Chapterwise - List of Important Topics for Psychology & Geography

I went through previous 15-20 year question papers & selected list of topics from every chapter (for both Geography & Psychology). I used to cover only these topics. Anything not mentioned in the pdf files was left by me. I never left an entire chapter....used to leave topics chapterwise. Now it might seem that using this strategy one has to cover every chapter but with the unpredictable pattern of UPSC which is in vogue, it make sense to cover at least 80 % of the syllabus. For example in psychology Paper I in 2009 mains, 2 questions looked almost out of syllabus (Sperling's technique, Bernoulli Sequence). Similar was the case of geography where in Paper I, question 1 had no internal choice & had relatively tough sub questions (LC King & Second cycle of erosion). Therefore it is suggested that aspirants do an exhaustive study.

Download Insturctions:

1. Click on the link or paste the link in your browser
2. Once you reach rapidshare page, Click on the tab "Free User"
3. On the next page, you click on download & the download begins (you might have to wait for a couple of seconds in some case)

Important Topics in Psychology

http://rapidshare.com/files/398856353/Chapterwise_Important_Topics_in_Psychology.pdf

Important Topics in Geography

http://rapidshare.com/files/398856354/Chapterwise_Important_Topics_in_Geography.pdf

Resource for Essay (Basically quotations & select vocabulary)

Regarding Essay I felt that common topic doesn't fetch much marks (I know I am generalizing here but thats my take). For e.g. Essay on health topic last year was attempted by many but few could cross 100...On the other hand essay on "Good Fences make good neighbour" fetched good score in general. If I was to take the exam once again, I would have selected the most esoteric of the essay topics despite my limitations in terms of knowledge (Again a personal approach....I don't consider myself any authority in this domain....Just managed 104 this year; 115 & 110 in second & first attempt respectively). In my opinion one should write on a topic on which one expects the least number of people to write.

http://rapidshare.com/files/398856355/Strategy___Content_for_Essay_Paper.pdf

Good Luck!!

My Final Marksheet

Sharing my marksheet finally..Got delayed due to a technical glitch.

Roll No. : 3710 Name : GHANSHYAM THORI
Civil Services (Main) Examination 2009
Subject
Essay(Paper III) 104
General Studies (Paper-IV) 174
General Studies(Paper-V) 150
GEOGRAPHY Paper-I 180
GEOGRAPHY Paper-II 152
PSYCHOLOGY Paper-I 116
PSYCHOLOGY Paper II 164
Written Total 1040
Interview Marks 210
Final Total 1250

Remarks : Recommended.

Download GS Two Markers

Hi Everyone. I had prepared two markers for general studies on my laptop (I used to type notes instead of writing them as I used to find it less time consuming as well as more convenient). Anyways I am sharing them here. The download links are given below

Download Insturctions:

1. Click on the link or paste the link in your browser
2. Once you reach rapidshare page, Click on the tab "Free User"
3. On the next page, you click on download & the download begins (you might have to wait for a couple of seconds in some case)

Two Markers on Computer Terminology

http://rapidshare.com/files/395937235/Computer_Terminology.pdf

Two Markers on Economics

http://rapidshare.com/files/395937236/Economics.pdf

Two Markers on Science & Technology

http://rapidshare.com/files/395937237/Environment_-_Science___Technology.pdf

Two Markers on India & the World (International Affairs)

http://rapidshare.com/files/395937238/India___the_World.pdf

Two Markers on Indian Diaspora

http://rapidshare.com/files/395937239/Indian_Diaspora__Indians_outside_India_.pdf

Two Markers on Geograpy

http://rapidshare.com/files/395937240/Indian_Geography.pdf

Two Markers on Indian History & Culture

http://rapidshare.com/files/395937241/Indian_History___Person_in_News.pdf

Two Markers on Indian Polity

http://rapidshare.com/files/395937242/Indian_Polity.pdf

Two Markers on National & Social Issues

http://rapidshare.com/files/395937243/National___Social_Issues.pdf

If you have trouble downloading the files, please provide your email id here. Will try mailing you the material (though a bit short of time at the moment). Will also post material on essay & important topic list for geography & psychology soon. Your encouragement keeps me going. Cheers!!!!

Strategy for Pub Ad & Law

Siddharth Malik (AIR-71) has shared the tips & approach mentioned below. Since Public Administration is a popular optional & a lot of queries were related to it, I requested Siddharth to share a small write up on this issue. He has shared his broad strategy in the paragraphs below.

For GS prelims it is important to do an extensive study of the entire course especially current affairs part and with changing trend focus should also be on general knowledge. Newspaper reading is a must if possible even two newspapers I read hindu and the Indian express, reading a current affairs magazine For traditional topics like history geography etc. focus on class 9 to 12 level N.C.E.R.T.’s. For the optional my advice will be to read one good book several times rather reading several books one time. Manage time by making a monthly schedule that helps in keeping track of time and syllabus. Write mock exams which improve writing skills. The best time to start preparing is at the graduation level. Minimum of one year before the prelims one should seriously start preparing for the exam.

The toughest part of the CSM is the mains for it you need to do an extensive as well as intensive study. It is very important to finish the paper in time especially the general studies so practice it. Do a study of the syllabus and the previous year’s papers this helps in preparing a strategy. Try to cover as much syllabus as possible.

LIST OF BOOKS

List of Magazines, News papers, Books etc. for 'General Studies’ preparation.

Prelims. Vajiram Notes.

Magzines. P.D., CHRONICLE

Newspapers THE HINDU, THE INDIAN EXPRESS

Books Ncert class 9 to 12 for history geography science economics

Mains…… Vajiram Notes.

Magzines. P.D. CHRONICLE FRONTLINE YOJANA KURUKSHETRA

Newspapers THE HINDU THE INDIAN EXPRESS

Books spectrum for GMA and history, economics Mishra and Purie,

For LAW rahul’s ias is the best coaching institute. To prepare for law especially constitution focus on all the areas as people generally tend to focus only on areas like fundamental rights and also read the complete cases of certain recent judgements for example Ashok kumar thakur case . For international law you can afford to touch only 60 to 70% of the syllabus read the important treaties and case laws. For merchantile law and I.P.C. focus on the section its ingredients and case laws. For torts focus should be on case law and the ingredients of a tort for specific torts. For current legal development search internet and read newspaper for important articles.

OPTIONAL 1 LAW

CONTRACT AVTAR SINGH

CONSTITUTION M.P. JAIN

INTERNATIONAL LAW KAPOOR AND ALSO SHAW

INDIAN PENAL CODE K.D. GAUR AND ALO PILLAI

TORTS RATANLAL AND DHIRAJLAL AND AVTAR SINGH

OPTIONAL II: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

For public administration take notes of both Sunil Gupta’s Inspiration and NIAs because syllabus is such that it will be difficult to locate the topics especially current from the books. Do write mock tests as you need to have very good writing skills if you want to score well in pub ad and try to innovate the answer in accordance with the question.

Paper 1 IGNOU Study Materials

Public administration - Mohit Bhattacharya

Nigro and Nigro

Public Administration Theory and concepts - Rumki Basu

Administrative thinkers - Prasad & Prasad

Managing organizational behavior - Paul Hersey & Kenneth Blanchard

Public Administration and Public Affairs - Nicholas Henry.

Paper 2 Journal of IIPA , IGNOU Study Materials

Avasthi & Maheswari

Indian Constitution - D.D. Basu

Laxmikant

Indian Administration - Ramesh K. Arora & Rajni Goyal.

Indian Administration S.R. Maheswari.

Avasti & Avasti

For essay: It is important to have a strong GS to score well in essay. I used to cut editorial columns from the newspapers and underlined the important parts that helped in GS also. I wrote on “Are we a soft state?” The reason for choosing the topic was that I thought that it was a mix of opinion and factual data.

For Interview: Read the current affairs thoroughly. Prepare question on biodata. Give mock interviews. I got Ms. Shashi Uban Tripathi board. My interview lasted for about half an hour. The question were regarding WTO agriculture issues, TRIPS, Geographical Indicators, Global Warming Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen, Euro IV Norms, child abuse, adultery, corporate social responsibility, Is this world a post America World ?

One suggestion would be keeping in mind the changing trend of UPSC is to formulate your own opinions and should not go just by wrought memory. The secret of success is to always believe in yourself and work hard with dedication and sincerity, proper planning, time management and being motivated throughout the journey one day you will definitely reach you goal. It very important to consider this exam as a journey and one should try to enjoy every moment and one should not give up till the goal is reached.

All thanks to Siddharth Malik for sharing this through this blog. Comments/Queries invited.