Zoology OR Botany for IFoS?? [Non life science background aspirant]

arma3349

I am going with FORESTRY as one of the optionals. Did B.Tech in Electronics and had Anthropology as CSE optional.(Read topics like genetics-found them interesting).
I am not at all comfortable with Mathematics and Geology seems uninteresting as well.
Is ZOOLOGY or BOTANY as second optional manageable? Which one has a shorter syllabus and better scoring chances?

P.S I won't be applying for CSE this year(Only IFoS), so will have around 5 months exclusively for IFoS mains prep.
PLEASE HELP.

UDAYSHETTY

Advantages with Botany:
1. Shorter syllabus than Zoology
2. Botany will help in preparing few topics of forestry.
3. Paper 2 is easy. If you are comfortable with genetics then you will find second paper easy and interesting.
4. 2 questions in paper 2 come from ecology and environment which you can write without much preparation. Further one question comes from statistics which being an engineer you can manage easily.

Limitation:
1. Paper 1 of botany is lengthy and you may face problems if you did not study it in 11th-12th.
2. 2 units in paper 1 are pure ratta with difficult botanical terminologies.

On balance botany is better than zoology especially if you are not from life science background and other optional if forestry.

arma3349

@UDAYSHETTY Thanks for the suggestions, really helpful. Do you happen to know the booklist for botany? From where to start?

UDAYSHETTY

You can start with NCERT(11th -12th ).
Take the correspondence material from evolution IAS. There are many video lectures available on YouTube. Watch Video lectures which are for preparation of medical entrance(botany). They will help in building basics especially for topics like taxonomy and anatomy.

UDAYSHETTY

Book list:
1. Fundamental of genetics by BD Singh.
2. Plant Breeding by BD Singh.
3. Plant Physiology by VK Jain.
4. Angiosperm by BP Pandey.
5. Shankar IAS/ Erach Barucha for ecology.

Be very selective while reading these books. Stick to the syllabus. Don't read topics which are not mentioned in syllabus.

stonecold_srivastav

I will go with zoology..uske bare me short me batao koi, kya PMT k books se basic topics kar k Q&A dekh lun? ..11-12 bio padha hai..topics dekh k lagta hai k ho sakta hai..300-320 hi sahi attempt ho jaye bas, 4 me se 2 section poora kar sakta hun jisse 240 attempt kr pau + baki section A of paper 1 aur Paper 2 me wo biomolucules was section jese tese karna padega

sylvian_10

http://nehasrivastavaifs.blogspot.in/2016/04/strategy-for-zoology-paper-1.html
http://nehasrivastavaifs.blogspot.in/2016/04/strategy-for-zoology-paper-2-hello-i-am.html

handshake

Guys, I am in a similar spot. I'm thinking of taking a break as it is my last attempt (any advice?). I'm and engineer but only on paper. One optional is Forestry. What are decent other decent options: Animal Husbandry, Zoology, Botany, or Statistics?

sylvian_10

@handshake People have done well with physics/maths along with forestry. Hope this helps

http://discuss.forumias.com/discussion/comment/1100361/#Comment_1100361

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बाबा इलायची

I will go with zoology..uske bare me short me batao koi, kya PMT k books se basic topics kar k Q&A dekh lun? ..11-12 bio padha hai..topics dekh k lagta hai k ho sakta hai..300-320 hi sahi attempt ho jaye bas, 4 me se 2 section poora kar sakta hun jisse 240 attempt kr pau + baki section A of paper 1 aur Paper 2 me wo biomolucules was section jese tese karna padega

Bhai ab 300 attempt s kaam nai chalega.. Remember this time fos is 1 month after mains..the maths/physics guys will run over other optionals as now they can give ample time to forestry. Whatever optional we are choosing we have to do it thoroughly nowonwards.