Hi folks,
first of all my congos to all for clearing the 1st stage. But now comes the most important stage and I hope we all pool our resources and work towards achieving our goal.
Given there are 4 months, how are you going about your study. A broader skeleton can help all.
We can talk about other things like,
1) topics that UPSC has been emphasizing and there can be sure shot 60 markers from there.
2) Latest developments in the world that can be asked.
I am a little blank as of now on the strategy and other stuff. It would be of gr8 help if we people can pool in.
Comments
There might be some people here, who have already covered the Syllabus and even wrote Mains previously.....and there might be other people, specially first timers...for whom All "Political Science" has been is reading the books like "M. Lakxmikanth" twice or thrice in the last few months....
However, As we all know that....Mains examination is a different thing altogether.....and requires a different approach....so a great deal of dedicated effort is required to master the subject in a limited time frame.....
I request all the esteemed fellows here...having knowledge and experience about the "subject" .....to be the guiding lights of this thread......
we can probably start with a brief discussion about the syllabus and key resources to bank upon for each and every topic......I have created an Excel file with the detailed syllabus and probable sources for the different topics......the source fields are empty....the idea is to finalize most exclusive sources for each and every topic of the syllabus and upload the updated excel by 05/08/2013 .......and for this, all the help from the senior members and those who have already covered the syllabus in part or whole is expected......
We can probably add the Sub topics and further resources which need special emphasis in due course of time depending upon the current political events in the same excel sheet.....moreover...the sheet can separately be used by each member to keep a record of his own preparation....list of various sources used by him/her to cover a specific topic......it might be highly beneficial during the revision stage....
Dear......ambitieux , Stardust , Partho, Vibin, oxford95, Thor.........Guys......we expect and request a decent contribution from all u guys in this thread.....Let's begin our march towards the Ultimate Goal....
Here goes the Excel Sheet....
Is there no one with Political Science here who would want to share his strategy, PSIR is still a preferred optional I suppose, I know we all are busy studying. But it would be of great help if people can just share of how they study and what topics they want to emphasize on.
My total political science preparation till now has been of less than 10 days (excluding IR).
Paper 1 Part B and Paper 2 is fine by me.
:-O
- First i made a list of every questions that has come in the last 10 or so years.
- I arranged it by the different sections in the syllabus.
- I collected multiple sources for each topic.
- I made condensed notes by combining the best data from each source.
- I made sure I included the answers to all the previous questions in my notes.
ex: when I was making my IR theory notes I combined Theories of International Relations - Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, wikipedia and Andrew Heywood.
For contemporary IR I just keep reading various foreign policy websites and save important articles or a key piece of information. Asian Strategic Review 2012 and Non-Alignment 2.0 are must read documents. Its more important to research the grand strategies of nations and understand the IR jargon than wasting your time with details of summits or bilateral agreements.
Here's my booklist which I had posted earlier:
Paper II: Part A
IR Theory & Comparative Politics
Theories of International Relations - Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater
Global Politics - Andrew Heywood
Key Concepts in International Relations - Martin Griffiths and Terry O'Callaghan
Globalization, The Key Concepts - Annabelle Mooney and Betsy Evans
Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics - Todd Landman
Contemporary International Politics
Issues in World Politics - Brian White
Asian Strategic Review 2012 - IDSA
Relevant IPCS, Gateway House & IDSA research papers and monographs
Internet sources: The Economist, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign Policy Journal
Paper II: Part B
India & The World
IGNOU notes
Does The Elephant Dance? - David Malone
Non-Alignment 2.0
Relevant IPCS, Gateway House & IDSA research papers and monographs
http://polscience.du.ac.in/Revised Course _B.A[Hons.]_.pdf
contains precisely the resources for various segments of the syllabus as per delhi university bachelors course .
i don't think you'll ask again anyone else for book list .
and follow the internet resources pointed out by @stardust .
are you speaking truth as how could you complete the whole ir in just <10 days .
The last line was a little __ mate. "i don't think you'll ask again anyone else for book list ."
I never asked a booklist, I have my own set and I know what to read.
All I was asking people was ,
1) Areas of Focus (they feel can be important)
2) Any specific strategy or way of reading that helped them which they want to share
Things of that sort, And stardust said he analysed last 10 year papers and read accordingly, i was just looking at the last 4-5 years, I might take a look at even older papers.
the sites he recommended were good, they are not on any list. All the lists are usually prescribed by VR&R or Sriram or some other coaching center. they are mostly redundant books.
I have Heywood, Sanjay baru, Sumit ganguly, Rumki Basu, Johari and Gauba.
Well, at the end, I would state, it is better if people just taper down the way they write, That is it. NOM at all but we need to be courteous.
my bad and thanks for clearing as i would've had underestimated that portion .
dude you completely mistook me ,it was just witty i wasn't acting like a self proclaimed ias guru (and how dare I in presence of senior members like @partho , @fallenleaves ,@stardust .....). I am not here to receive some award for being the best among gurus. I gave the booklist as you mentioned in your comment : and it was for @Dev_123 too .
about the booklist -if you'll search the internet (and forumias -pol sc thread )about books for upsc mains pol sc ,you'll see yourself that most books are the same as mentioned in the pdf.
if you want a booklist & strategy followed by topper then also i'll help you , here it is
http://mrunal.org/2012/05/strategy-political-science-for-upsc.html
http://mrunal.org/2013/05/toppers-interview-tanu-priya-air-18-cse-2012-first-attempt-no-coaching-political-science-sociology.html
http://iastoppersstory.blogspot.in/2012/05/ias-abhishek-kumar-tiwari-air-69-cse.html
hope , you got my point and no hard feelings .
\m/
Foreign Policy site, most articles it is saying need subscription to read as they are premium articles.
Do you have subscription to it, if not how did you manage to get hold of those articles.