currently I'm studying btech in IIT Bhubaneswar, I want to crack UPSC civil services exam. Can anyone help me in how to start my journey?

Hello,

It's good that you are thinking of appearing in UPSC Civil Service Exam from your college period itself, to give you a brief about the exam, UPSC Civil Service Exam consists of three stages-

Preliminary : First Stage is MCQs based exam, it has two papers and each one consists of 200 marks, its numbers ain't added to final list, you just need to score the required cut offs against your category.

First is GS Paper-I which consists of the following topic such as History of India and Indian national movement, Indian and World geography, Economic and social development- sustainable development, poverty,inclusion demographics, social sector initiatives etc,Indian polity and governance-constitution,political system,Current Events nationally and Internationally, General Science,General Issues on environmental ecology,biodiversity and climate change. you just need to score the required cut offs against your category.

Second Paper is CSAT which is qualifying by nature,you need to score merely 33% which is 66 marks out of 200, it includes following topics such as basic numeracy, comprehension, logical reasoning and analytical ability, general mental ability, decision making and problem solving, interpersonal skills including communication skills.

Mains : This is a second stage which it's more of a subjective type, you are required to write answers for Four General Studies Paper such as

• GS-I includes Indian Heritage and Culture,History and Geography of the World and Society,
• GS-II includes Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations,
• GS-III includes Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management,
• GS-IV includes Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude
• Two Optionals,
• One Essay,
• Two Language Paper

In total there are nine papers in Mains, and each paper is of 250 marks, total adds up to 1750 marks.

Interview: Prelims and Mains are further followed by personality test of 275 marks.

In order to initiate your preparation, the first and most important step is to be well acquainted with UPSC Syllabus , learn it by heart as this will enable you to know what to read and what to skip. As per the recent trends UPSC is framing Prelims questions also based on Mains syllabus, so have an integrated approach in that sense.

To cover such a humongous syllabus you will have to make a timetable, set targets on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, that's the only way to complete this extensive syllabus.

Newspaper reading is equally vital part of preparation, you can start with any newspaper like The Hindu, or Indian Express on a regular basis to be updated as well as gaining knowledge which shall be highly useful to you in future exam preparation part. Put a more emphasis on editorial part, it will not only broaden your perspective but help a lot in answer writing, and make sure whatever opinion you form it should be well balanced. You can also make notes of this, it'll be very useful in answer writing, put emphasis on news of national and international importance, polity, government scheme, economics, science and technology developments etc.

When it comes to reading books ,start with basics, for each subject, you can do with NCERTs for this. This will build your foundation strong, as you progress, move on to other relevant books as mentioned below;

For Prelims, you can refer the following books:

History ;

• NCERT Class XI and XII
• India's Struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra
• For Indian Culture, refer art and culture by Nitin Singhania

Geography ;

• NCERT Class VI to XII
• GC Leong's Physical Geography
• World Atlas

Economics ;

• NCERT Class XI
• Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh

International Relations & Polity ;

• NCERT XII Political Science with current affairs
• Indian Polity by Laxmikanth

CSAT ;

• Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning by RS Agarwal
• M Tyra's Quicker Maths

Coming to Mains Exam, you can refer the following books for four General Studies Paper;

• GS I - For History , Class XI NCERT book with India's struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra,India after Independence by Bipan Chandra,History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra . For Geography refer World Geography and Geography of India by Majid Hussain, GC Leong's Physical and Human Geography with NCERT Class XI book.
• For GS II - Polity and International Relations , refer Indian Polity by Lamikanth,India's Foreign Policy by Rajiv Sikri
• For GS III - For Economics refer Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh, read ARC report along with Economic Survey and Fiscal Budget.
• For GS IV - For Ethics refer a book named Lexicon by Niraj Kumar, also you can go through study material of IGNOU.

Remember to keep your resources minimal, read one book many a times instead of many a book one time, as you have to retain so much of information so rely on only limited yet trustworthy resources and revision is the only key for remembrance.

Writing mains is a huge task, for nine paper it requires immense practice along with knowledge. So, you have to start practicing answer writing in advance, even in a little way, There are many sites which provide questions on daily basis you can avail that. Try to give a holistic viewpoint while answer writing by providing political, economical and social aspect. You can get topper's answer sheet from various sites, try to analyze and study them minutely, you'll get an ideas about what to write, how to express and present viewpoint in organized manner.

Practice previous year question paper which you can get from the site of UPSC ,in addition mock papers, and test series which you can get it from any of the sites exclusively dedicated to UPSC, it's highly important to evaluate your performance while doing so.

As you're still in your college, initiate your preparation by reading newspaper on a daily basis, and NCERTs book and go through the syllabus on a regular basis, and then later on move towards other stuffs as discussed above.

Hello,

Yes you can give UPSC dear. You didn't mention which year you are continuing your BTech. So you just start your journey from today actually. Just go for current affairs. I'm suggest you that you 1st starting preparation for main examination. Because you can check out all UPSC cracked candidates that Mains are tough than prelims. So firstly take a printout Mains amd prelims syllabus. And go for preparation of Mains syllabus wise. And when prelims are coming you know when you start the preparation. You are an IITian soni assume that mostly 5 to 6 months is enough for you prelims preparation. So just go for your study dear.

All the best.

Hi Aspirant,

The first rule to crack UPSC is to stay motivated.Know your course well and try to prepare the foundations well.Allot time for self study and also dont breakdown in misdt.However UPSC is one of the toughest exam to crack.So it would be better if you get used to the previous year's paper and go through them throughly.

Hope it helps!!