Question : Conundrum Of Syllabus: How To Deal With It?

Answer :

• Students around the country who decide to prepare for the Civil Services Exam conducted by the UPSC, are often faced with a number of questions. ‘How to Prepare?’, ‘What is the syllabus?,etc. In fact, one of the first things which a Civil Services aspirants must do is to refer to the UPSC website and download the syllabus copy before they begin preparation. Preparing for the Civil Services Examination in a focused manner is extremely important. One must channelize his/her efforts well so that it meets the demands of the examination as well as the expectations of the examiner. Let’s recollect our college days- wasn’t it not important to go through the syllabus copy of our semesters in detail? The Civil Services Examination conducted by the UPSC is no exception.
• Often, aspirants are guided by hearsay and half-truths about what is and what isn’t a part of the syllabus. A common misconception: In General Studies- I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society), many aspirants are initially of the opinion that World History is also a part of the syllabus. While in actual fact, these topics are included in the Mains level of the examination only. Thus, an accurate understanding of the nature, scope and extent of the syllabus is a must.
• The objective clarity that comes by studying the UPSC syllabus enables one to have an understanding of what to read, what not to read, and what are the sources that one needs to refer to. This applies to the optional subjects as well.

What should one do?

• It is extremely useful if aspirants take a printout of the Civil Services Examination syllabus and paste it on their closet. This ensures that they are conscious of the syllabus and at the very least, do a casual reading of it whenever possible.
• It is also helpful if aspirants break up each topic into sub-topics and refer certain specific sources for each topic. Once this broad framework is in place, it becomes easier for aspirants to navigate through the vast extent of the UPSC syllabus for the Civil Services Examination.
• Further, an analysis of question papers from previous years help one to put the syllabus into better perspective, as often, the true breadth and depth of the syllabus can be better ascertained after analysing questions which have been asked around the concerned topics.
• Therefore, we would recommend you to prepare notes from newspaper while studying it, so that it can be revised at the time of examination.