Sociology optional Strategy - Saikiran Nandala

Sociology Strategy:

Resource list:

1. Nitin Sangwan – Essential Sociology -> good concise book covers basics comprehensively

2. Dhatri Reddy Ma’ams Evernote -> quite comprehensive , my 2nd reference.

3. Tusharanshu Sir notes -> just to fill the gaps and referred for any value addition

4. Kasturi Panda Ma’am notes -> referred during 2023 attempt for value addition

5. Sunya IAS Sociology PYQ Book -> very helpful during 2023 for analysing PYQ and value addition.

6. Harlambos and Halborn -> bulky one ( just gave a one or two readings about thinkers- didn’t use much after that)

My experience with Sociology:

• May 2022- Sep 2022: I read Nitin Sangwan along with Dhatri Reddy Ma’am notes by complementing both of them; made my own initial notes during May 2022- Sep 2022. Tried answer writing during this time for PYQ and wrote some sectional tests in IAS Gurukul. I even Completed 2 Full length tests in Oct 2022 with IAS Gurukul. < This is all I have done before 2022 Prelims>

• During Mains 2022: Did some value addition for my existing notes using Tusharanshu Sir notes. Enrolled for Tests with VISION IAS(Smiti Shah Ma’am) -> Ma’am discussions on test papers are quite useful in learning answer writing and how to incorporate thinkers, perspectives in the answers.

• Experience during 2022 Mains: I have attempted full 500 marks and had a feeling that I had done enough for sociology. But marks turned out to be 240 which is not upto my expectation. I’m completely clueless after 2022 marksheet came out on what to do for sociology.

•During Mains 2023:

o Immediately after 2023 Prelims, I joined telegram groups of many who cleared 2022 CSE with good sociology scores, learned about their strategies and tried to find some common links and wanted to implement these. ( Kasturi Panda, Divyanshi Singla, Gunjita Agarwal Mam’s telegram channels helped me)

o Also, I enrolled for Daily answer writing with LearnSociology UPSC Telegram platform.

o Enrolled FLT in Shankar IAS ( I wrote only one FLT for each paper)

•Things worked for me in Mains 2023:

o Brainstorming PYQ: I diligently brainstormed all the PYQ from 2016-2022 papers chapter-wise. Then, I used to look for model answer in Sunya IAS PYQ book. I used to take any value-addition content of new thinker/dimension/perspective in my notes.

o Modifying notes: I modified my notes based on existing notes of 2022 with value-addition from PYQ, Kasturi Panda Ma’am notes, Crisp definitions, ready made introductions, conclusions and examples. < I will share these comprehensive notes>

o Daily answer writing: Did daily answer writing for 2 questions – to implement the learning I get from analysis of PYQ and my strategy to write more sociological.

o Did separate notes for definitions, conclusions, thinkers to revise them multiple times and reproduce them while writing.