Optional Subject Preparation : History

The best way to prepare for any optional subject is to start with the basics. We should start by creating a strong foundation and later build on it.


The following is a step-wise guide. 

1. Familiarisation with our optional subject 
• For history, we can start our preparation by reading NCERT books of standard 7-8th onwards uptill 12th. Books till standard 10th will give us a feel of the subject.
• These books need to be read from cover to cover. It will provide a quick overview to the optional subject.
2. Creating a strong foundation
• 11th and 12th Standard NCERT books will provide the source material. There are two books for standard 11th - Ancient and medieval. And two books for standard 12th - Modern and World.
• These books need to be read atleast 2 or 3 times, underline/make notes etc. of what you think is important. I used to underline for prelims but that is no longer required.
• This will give you a grip on the entire subject. 
3. Raising the level of our preparation to Graduation level
• There are basic books for each section - I am just listing a few. There are many more that one can read.
• Ancient
• Ancient India - D.N Jha
• The Wonder That Was India - A.L.Basham
• Medieval
• 2 Books (One on sultanate and other on Mughals) written by Satish Chandra
• Modern
• India's Struggle For Independence - Bipan Chandra and others
• A New Look At Modern Indian History - B.L.Grover and S.Grover
• World
• History Of The Modern World - Jain and Mathur
• By reading these books one will have control over atleast 90% of the syllabus. For the remaining 10% we will have to refer to various other sources, which can be done at a later time in our preparation.
• One has to read these books from cover to cover. Underline/ make notes etc.
4. Testing our preparation
• This would be a good time to assess ourself. Try to solve Previous Year Question Papers.
• Check the answers with solved questions. All solutions available in the market may not be reliable. One can get the answers evaluated from some teachers or seniors.
• One should self assess one's performance - which questions we could answer easily, which questions we were not very comfortable with, which questions we had no idea etc. Try and find the reasons for the same. The solutions maybe to read the basics again or repeat the standard book reading or to read something new.
5. Improve on shortcomings.
6. Quality Improvement
• To improve the score additional reading is required. Selective reading of various books or certain chapters from various books helps us in getting a different perspective, which is helpful in analytic writing.
• Another method for quality improvement is question-answer discussion with fellow aspirants.
• One can also improve the quality of answers by contemplation. Try to visualise the answers to as many questions as possible. 
• One can just jot down the important points in answers. There is no need to write down all the answers in totality.
7. Full Test Series
• One should try to answer the entire paper both paper 1 and 2. This also helps in time management.
• One should learn the answer writing technique required in Civil Services Examination. It is slightly different from what we are used to in university examinations.
• This will be the stage to concentrate on our target score - i.e the score that we are aiming for in UPSC Main Examination. 

Time-lines
An approximate time for completion of steps 1 to 5 would be 8 months on a half day basis. The other half day can be utilised for either the other optional subject or for General Studies.

Steps No. 6 and 7 are continuous steps and one has to keep repeating both these steps till one clears the examination along with periodic revision of our notes prepared in steps 1 to 5.

Exam requires self analysis and constant improvements

In this post I would like to share my experience about performance improvement steps I took during preparation for civil services examination.


Preliminary Examination


In my first preliminary examination in 2008 my preparation was insufficient. After coming home from the examination center, I began to check my answers on the internet. I did not rely on any readily available answer keys but searched for each answer myself. In the next 2-3 days I had the answers to 95% of the questions in both general Studies as well as History. I calculated my score and it was around 50 in History and 60 in General Studies. This was not good enough and hence I was sure I would not qualify for main examination that year.


The period from June till December 2008 I spent on Main examination preparation for the next year. I knew that I could overcome my shortcomings in the 2008 preliminary examination by necessary improvements from January 2009 till May 2009.


The target for prelims in General Studies was 60 and for History it was 70. (The target is set by asking people who have given the exam earlier. U.P.S.C does not declare the Preliminary Examination Marks).


 I tried to achieve this target in the test series that I gave between January 2009 and March 2009 at C.D.Deshmukh Institute. After each test given, I would analyse my score and find out the areas I was getting less marks in. In every subsequent test I would try and improve on those areas.


By March 2009 I was able to get a score of 60 in general studies but my history score was stuck at 55. After the test series at C.D.Deshmukh Institute was over, I solved lot of history papers. Preparation was continuing side by side in both History and general studies. There is no point in waiting for the completion of our entire preparation, it is better to solve papers along with the preparation. 


Each paper is different from the other. So how does one gauge the difficulty level of a Test Series Paper and the score required in it to qualify for the Main Examination?
Answer: By asking a previously qualified person to solve the same paper and comparing the scores. The idea being that if a person has already cleared prelims once he/she is very likely to clear it again. So our score should be better or close to the score of the previously qualified person.


In my case I had asked my friend Anushree Hardikar, who had qualified prelims in 2008, to solve the history test series papers. By 10th May I was able to improve my score to 66 in History which was quite close to Anushree's score. 


My score in 2009 Prelim exam was 84 in General Studies and 64 in History. That was sufficient to qualify for Main examination.


Main Examination


I joined the test series for Main Examination at Delhi in History (7 Tests of Paper 1 and 7 Tests of Paper 2), Public Administration (6 Tests of Paper 1, 6 Tests of Paper 2), General Studies (6 Subject wise papers and 1 comprehensive Test) and Essay (5 Tests). The preparation gave me the confidence that I could achieve scores of 320 History, 300 Public Administration, 280 General Studies and 120 Essay. The confidence is the key. Seldom will the questions be the same in the test series papers and the actual U.P.S.C. Main Examination, but one should go into the exam with the confidence that one will get the necessary marks whatever be the nature of the paper.


My scores in Main Examination 2009 were: History 336 (183 and 153), Public Administration 292 (159 and 133), General Studies 279 (150 and 129) and Essay 109.


My preparation for 2010 Main Examination started by analysing my 2009 performance and identifying areas requiring improvement. History Paper 2 and Public Administration Paper 2 were my areas of focus.


Strategy for Public Administration Improvement


Paper 1 is more concept based. As my foundation was strong I was able to deal with it. Paper 2 requires a lot of factual knowledge regarding committee recommendations, case studies etc. The questions tend to be generic in nature, but specific writing is important to get marks. Public Administration being my 2nd optional was not as strong as History. I took special effort with regard to Paper 2.


First I improved my factual knowledge as required in the Main Examination. Then I had question-answer group discussions with my colleagues in C.D.Deshmukh - Ashwini Adivarekar, Sushil Khodwekar, Shraddha Sangle (all with Public Administration as first optional) and Vijay Jogdande. It helped in bringing quality to my answers. 




Strategy for History Improvement


The main reason for getting low marks in History Paper 2 was my lack of control over World History. I focussed on World History immediately after my 2009 Main Examination. I utilized the internet to get more information on events after World War 2 during my specific preparation for Main Examination 2010.




The overall effort in Public Administration Paper 2 and History Paper 2 paid dividends. Public Administration Paper 2 score improved from 133 in 2009 to 159 in 2010 and History Paper 2 from 153 in 2009 to 186 in 2010.  


While focusing on improvements in certain papers it was also important that I maintained my good score in the other papers. I consciously repeated my entire preparation of the previous year. Thus I was able to improve upon my weak areas while retaining my good performance in other areas.

Selecting Optionals

Very simple advice was given to me by a retired I.A.S officer at the start of my preparation - choose only those optionals that you like. So I selected History and Public Administration.


The idea behind selecting an optional that you like is that you will have to spend more than 2 years studying it. At no point during the preparation can you get tired or bored with the optional. You do not know how long you will have to prepare for Civil Services Examination. If one requires 2-3 attempts then for each attempt one should be ready to keep reading on the optional subjects and trying to improve one's score in the optionals.


It is obvious that if we select the optional subject similar to our subject of graduation, our preparation time will get reduced. Also since we have spent 3-4 years on the subject during our graduation, we will have better command on it. We will have a strong foundation in that subject and as a result will be able to tackle the questions better.


The flip side to selecting the same optionals as our graduation subject is that we may not necessarily like the subjects. Graduation subjects are often selected taking economic factors into consideration - good prospects of job, family business etc. One can still manage graduation in subjects we don't really like. Civil Services Examination will require a much thorough preparation and far more time with the subject. So if you don't enjoy it, the whole exercise will become labourious and that is not a good way to go about the civil services examination.


Another factor to be considered in selecting same graduation and civil services examination optionals is the difficulty level of the subject - Specifically Engineering, Medical Subjects or other science subjects. One should select these subjects only if one is really interested in them. They involve a lot more effort than the other optional subjects. The Engineering examination of each semester is challenging by itself. To study all 8 semesters together will be a Herculean task. If one is very much interested in these subjects, would it not be better to pursue the academic line itself as opposed to the civil services? Well, that is for each person to answer for themselves.


Availability of books and other material also needs to be considered while selecting the optionals. The best way is to ask people who are preparing for the examination with those optionals. 


The most popular optionals are - 

1. Public Administration
2. Geography
3. History
4. Psychology
5. Sociology
6. Political Science
7. Marathi Literature (In Maharashtra)

One should not select optionals just because some successful candidate had the same optionals. Each individual is different with his/her own likes and dislikes. So following someone blindly should be avoided. One should play to his/her own strengths and choose those optionals in which he/she is comfortable.

There also goes around a thought that some optionals are better scoring than the others. There is no justification for that. Yes, some optionals require more study than the others. But if the required amount of effort is put in, there is no reason why a person cannot get 180-200 marks (out of 300) in any optional.

The above mentioned are the main factors to be considered while selecting the optional subjects. Some ancillary factors for selecting optional subjects are - common syllabus between the two optionals, common syllabus with General Studies, availability of a guide/teacher, colleagues with same optionals for group study and easy access to study material etc.