Hello,

You can start off from the first year in gradual and consistent manner such as getting acquainted with the exam pattern and the syllabus, you can download it from the official website of UPSC, start reading newspaper on a daily basis such as The Hindu/The Indian Express, start off with NCERTs and then move towards the standard books, go through previous year paper to know about exam pattern, marking scheme, important topics etc, practice answer writing in advance you can refer toppers answer sheets available in the Internet regarding this, I've elaborated all the details below which you can go through

To give you a brief about the exam, UPSC Civil Service Exam consists of three stages-Preliminary/Mains/Interview

Preliminary consists of 200 Marks for each paper. It mainly consists of GS Paper-I 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.

And then we have qualifying CSAT(you need to score 33%) which includes topics such as basic numeracy, comprehension, logical reasoning and analytical ability, general mental ability, decision making and problem solving, interpersonal skills including communication skills. Both consists of 200 marks, MCQs based. Prelims is mcq based, but still it requires knowledge coupled with speed in order to ace it, it's numbers are not added in the final list,

Coming to Mains it's more of a subjective type, one needs to write answer 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, there are total nine papers here. 250 marks for each paper, total is 1750 marks followed by Personality Test of 275 marks.

The first and most important step towards preparation is to be well acquainted with UPSC Syllabus, learn it by heart, that's the most crucial step to crack this exam, to know what to read and what to skip . In addition to this, never ever make a differentiation between prelims and mains, because nowadays what's happening is even in prelims, UPSC frame questions based on Mains syllabus, So, the first towards preparation shall be an integrated approach for both.

Make a timetable, set targets on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, that's the only way to complete this extensive syllabus.

Another equally important part is to read 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 issues of national and international importance, editorial part, economics, 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.

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, 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;

• NCERT XII Political Science with current affairs

Polity;

• 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.

Always keep resources minimal, read one book many a times instead of many a book one time, revision is the key here.

Start practicing answer writing in advance, even in a little way, writing mains is a huge task for nine paper, it requires immense practice along with knowledge. There are many sites which provide questions on daily basis you can find that very useful.

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 extensively dedicated to UPSC, , it's highly important to evaluate your performance while doing so.