Sharing my mains resources for GS1 and GS2 here.

Hi all,

Sharing my mains resources for GS1 and GS2 here. Will share for GS3 and GS4 separately.

I started my mains preparation upfront (in Oct’23) by enrolling in a 3 month mains answer writing crash course with Target UPSC. This served as the foundation for my mains answer writing program incl. basic notes, diagrams, data etc. All my further preparation was concentrated between prelims and mains as follows:

GS1:

1. Prelims resources are the best value additions for modern history, ancient and medieval history.

2. World History: I didn’t spend much time on world history due to the low RoI. I referred to Shreyans Kumat sir’s world history notes, supplemented by some short YT videos to understand the events better.

3. Geography: I relied heavily on Animesh sir’s (AIR-2 CSE’23) notes on his TG channel to make my own geo notes. I structured my notes in a ques-answer format along with diagrams as I often found it difficult to write 2/3 page answers in geo.

4. Society: while my optional was sociology, I believe it’s critical to prepare society standalone as well. Here as well, I referred to Animesh sir’s society notes to collect committee reports/ case judgements/ data etc. to make my society answers more GS specific.

5. Value addition: I tried to draw diagrams (e.g. maps, architecture etc) as much as possible. Try to add names (learnt during prelims) wherever applicable. Moreover, Satyam sir’s (Understand UPSC) PYQ answer writing crash course was extremely beneficial to generate dimensions/ improve answer writing.

GS2

1. Polity: Lakshmi Kant is insufficient for answer writing. Hence, I supplemented my foundation notes with significant value addition from Animesh sir’s GS2 notes (committee reports, case judgments, data) to enrich my answers and tried to reproduce them in the main exam. Would highly recommend referring to Animesh sir’s notes on his TG channel.

2. IR: While Mains 365 is useful, it’s inadequate. Learning from Animesh sir’s notes and Shivin sir’s YT video on IR, I tried to add multiple dimensions to my answers (esp for bilateral/ multilateral relations) such as scientific/ space collaboration, sports etc.

3. Other value addition sources: Shubham Ajmera sir’s TG channel for conclusions, Benjo sir (AIR-59 CSE’23) channel for committee names.

Mocks:

I attempted 10 FLTs for GS1 and GS2 (5 each). ForumIAS MGP mocks were extremely helpful (high hit rate of questions and I used to particularly compare my copies with topper copies for the same test to learn and improve). It’s critical to not only write tests in a time bound manner but also analyse them to identify weak spots.

Some GS agnostic learnings

1. PYQs are extremely imp through mains as well. Analysing PYQs to identify hotspots, trends etc. is important as domains are often repeated (please refer to any topic wise compilation of PYQs for this)

2. Value addition is a key to scoring more marks va peers; data/ facts/ diagrams/ committee names etc should be added as much as possible. However, recall is possible only with repeated revision of these notes

3. Focus should be on addressing the demand of the question and not just reproducing notes - identify sub-parts and try to identify them individually

4. Presentation matters (e.g. use tables for any comparison questions, make headings and points, adding relevant diagrams). This helps in breaking monotony while saving time

5. A distinct intro/ conclusion (such as CA related/ articles/ quotes etc.) make answers unique.

Sharing my GS1 and 2 test copies for your reference here as well