Wednesday, June 15, 2011

IS IT JUST FOR ONE EXTRA BEDROOM???

Hi friends, it is interesting to see that we has a human being have changed a lot and some time the reason for that change within us is not because of our one self but due to changes taking place in society. We are forced to get adapted to the changes in order to be in the race and to see our own development and growth. But, most of us are forgetting the real and practical part of life; we are becoming more and more mechanical and getting attracted to things which satisfy our wants only for limited period of time. Mean while we are losing lot of precious and valuable part of life and relationship which bond human values.

 

When I was in school, I still remember when there is some weeding or some functions in our family, I used to plan in advance, see to it that I complete my duty as a student that is completing my study, writing all my home works, planning my leaves etc and would be eagerly waiting for my father plans to attend the wedding. Mean while I would be thinking only about my relative friends whom I  could meet and spend time happily with my aunt, uncle, grand mother, grand father and other relatives. It was the happiest moment of life where we used to weave our relationship be part of happiness and sorrow and support each other and treat ourselves as one family. But, now I am grown up, married and now I see that my kid is loosing access to such time of relationship and bondage. He is more involved in study, computers, video games etc, not getting mingled with relatives and to my surprise I see most of the relatives are now becoming friends. We meet them only when there is a function or some emergency and that too for couple of hours then occasionally we talk over phone and exchange few things but, I am afraid what will the generation after me be? Are we loosing the values and cultural bond which our fore father carried for such a long time? Dont we think that we are spoiling the lives of our own children by not developing interest of bonding relationships? No doubt, each one of us as a father or as a student is working towards survival, but that should not be at the cost of sacrificing of our values and ethos.

 

 We have a strong culture and relationship bonding which are carried from olden days and our forefathers has laid a strong platform and since we are from the same DNA we need to see that we continue building our family on the same platform and not shifting to a new platform just for achieving some materialistic life.

 

I would like to share the sour experience of life of a friend, who was a Software engineer and who shared his experience as to what he thought of life when he was young and what he found at last. It is very interesting and pain to hear but it is very good lesson for each one of us. After reading the below bitter experience of our fellow friend, let us at least wake up now and try to learn ourselves and also teach our kids as to what life and relationship means..

 

A Bitter Reality

 

 As the dream of most parents I had acquired a degree in Software Engineering and joined a company based in USA , the land of braves and opportunity. When I arrived in the USA , it was as if a dream had come true.

 

 Here at last I was in the place where I want to be. I decided I would be staying in this country for about Five years in which time I would have earned enough money to settle down in India .

 

My father was a government employee and after his retirement, the only asset he could acquire was a decent one bedroom flat.

 

 I wanted to do some thing more than him. I started feeling homesick and lonely as the time passed. I used to call home and speak to my parents every week using cheap international phone cards. Two years passed, two years of Burgers at McDonald's and pizzas and discos and 2 years watching the foreign exchange rate getting happy whenever the Rupee value went down. Finally I decided to get married. Told my parents that I have only 10 days of holidays and everything must be done within these 10 days. I got my ticket booked in the cheapest flight.

 

Was jubilant and was actually enjoying hopping for gifts for all my friends back home. If I miss anyone then there will be talks. After reaching home I spent home one week going through all the photographs of girls and as the time was getting shorter I was forced to select one candidate.

 

 In-laws told me, to my surprise, that I would have to get married in 2-3 days, as I will not get anymore holidays. After the marriage, it was time to return to USA , after giving some money to my parents and telling the neighbors to look after them, we returned to USA .

 

 My wife enjoyed this country for about two months and then she started feeling lonely. The frequency of calling India increased to twice in a week sometimes 3 times a week. Our savings started diminishing.

 

 After two more years we started to have kids. Two lovely kids, a boy and a girl, were gifted to us by the almighty. Every time I spoke to my parents, they asked me to come to India so that they can see their grand-children.

 

 Every year I decide to go to India But part work part monetary conditions prevented it. Years went by and visiting India was a distant dream. Then suddenly one day I got a message that my parents were seriously sick. I tried but I couldn't get any holidays and thus could not go to India ... The next message I got was my parents had passed away and as there was no one to do the last rights the society members had done whatever they could. I was depressed. My parents had passed away without seeing their grand children.

 

 After couple more years passed away, much to my children's dislike and my wife's joy we returned to India to settle down. I started to look for a suitable property, but to my dismay my savings were short and the property prices had gone up during all these years. I had to return to the USA ...

 

My wife refused to come back with me and my children refused to stay in India ... My 2 children and I returned to USA after promising my wife I would be back for good after two years.

 

Time passed by, my daughter decided to get married to an American and my son was happy living in USA ... I decided that I had enough and wound-up every thing and returned to India ... I had just enough money to buy a decent 2 bedroom flat in a well-developed locality.

 

 Now I am 60 years old and the only time I go out of the flat is for the routine visit to the nearby temple. My faithful wife has also left me and gone to the holy abode.

 

Sometimes I wondered was it worth all this?

 

 My father, even after staying in India, Had a house to his name and I too have the same nothing more. I lost my parents and children for just ONE EXTRA BEDROOM. Looking out from the window I don't see a lot of children. This damned cable TV has spoiled our new generation and these children are losing their values and culture because of it. I get occasional cards from my children asking if I am alright. Well at least they remember me.

 

 Now perhaps after I die it will be the neighbors again who will be performing my last rights, God Bless them.

 

 But the question still remains 'was all this worth it?'

 

I am still searching for an answer.................!!!

 

START THINKING

IS IT JUST FOR ONE EXTRA BEDROOM???

 LIFE IS BEYOND THIS ..DONT JUST LEAVE YOUR LIFE ..

START LIVING IT .

LIVE IT AS YOU WANT IT TO BE

Source : http://www.caclubindia.com/articles/be-professional-not-only-in-profession-but-also-in-life--10028.asp?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=article&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_13_06_2011

Mains strategies by toppers-Mrunal's blog

Public administration and General Studies (anay dwivedi)
Anthropology (Dr.K.Vijayakarthikeyan)
Political Science by Abhiram
Geography by Abhiram
If you've some odd subject and can't find its mains strategy or book list then this ebook has all answers

Mrunal's topicwise Analysis - Aptitude paper II of CSAT 2011


Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Reading Comprehension 3
LR & DI (Logical reasoning and Data Interpretation) 4
Reasoning 4
Data and GRaph interpretation 4
Quantitative aptitude / Mental ability 5
Conventional mental ability 5
English language (No Hindi questions here) 5
Decision Making (no penalty for any question) 5
Conclusion (again not looking for debates) 7
Speed calculation vs Speed reading 7
Engineer-science-MBA friendly? 7
Remove the caps and start from the scratch 8

Introduction

CSAT Aptitude Paper-II had 80 questions worth 200 marks.(Exam on 12 June 2011)
Comprehension
28
Mental Ability
10
Verbal reasoning
17
Data interpretation
8
English
9
Decision Making
8
total
80

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Number of Questions asked from each topic

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% Wise topic breakup for CSAT 2011 Paper II (Aptitude)


Reading Comprehension

Paragraph
Questions
# of 4TFs
Lifted from
Right to Education (lifted from The Hindu editorial)
5
3
The Hindu editorial
Inclusive growth
5
3
Economic Survey 2009-10, Chapter "Micro-foundations of Inclusive growth"
Creative society
4
All 4
Manoranjan Mohanty, "Social Movements in Creative Society: Of Autonomy and Interconnection " in people's Rights
Country under Foreign domination
4 questions
2
Discovery of India by Nehru
Keystone species
4 question
3

Ecosystem
3
All 3

Moral Act
3
2
Total
28
20

  1. As you can see, Comprehension question =28 = more than any two of the remaining topics combined. So Comprehension for Aptitude=Climate Change topic for GS=HOT.
  2. In school exams, the comprehension questions are direct- simple 4 options and answer can be found directly from any single sentence. Here we find most questions are 4TF.
  3. 4TF means (4 statements: true or false) i.e. you're given multiple statements and asked to identify how many correct/incorrect. These types of questions eat more time and energy because you have to read each sentence very carefully to make sure there is no hidden meaning inside it. Mere hasty superficial reading, may lead to wrong conclusions. You may need to re-read many passages again and again for each 4TF. (same was the case with GS paper…lot of 4TF questions)
  4. In UPSC prelim-question papers, paragraph is one first page then questions will be on 3rd page. (page #1=English, Page#2=Hindi translation) So you've to frequently flip the pages. And if it is a 4TF question, then you've to flip pages more number of times. So it requires practice.

LR & DI (Logical reasoning and Data Interpretation)


Reasoning

Set
Questions
Family Tree. Paragraph about A,B,C,D,E is given – relate them to each other.
3
Description of Mr.X,Y and The standing in line, who is in front of whom.
1
2800 people taking part in a voting, some of them male and some of them female. Tabulate the data to answer the questions
3
70% male, 2/7th of them married. How many females are unmarried
1
All animals are carnivores
1
All trains run on diesel
1
All poets are poor
1
2*2 squares. Find the Missing number
1
A,B,C living in North,south etc. (Map direction)
1
Plane mirrors
1
Min Colors required to paint a big wheel with number of sectors
1
2*2 square. A going to B, how many ways
1
Number of triangles in a pyramid
1
Total
17

Data and Graph interpretation

Set
Number of questions
Age pyramids of 4 nations. Identify the nation with declining population
1
Population growth curve of ABCD
1
Pie Charts comparing diseases of two towns
2
Velocity of Train A and B (graph)
1
Disease graph-# of bacteria vs Time
3
Total
8
Compared to BANK PO verbal-reasoning and Data interpretation questions, these are relatively easy. Hence For LR/DI portion, R.S.Agrwal's Verbal and Non-verbal reasoning book is more than sufficient to get a grip on logical-reasoning and data interpretation. No special coaching is required for this.

Quantitative aptitude / Mental ability


Conventional mental ability

Topic
Question
Marks
Word problem
Coin of Rs. 1 and 2, total amount 50 Rs.
1
HCM LCM
Three persons walking with different steps
1
Time Speed Distance
  1. Two trains, ratio of distance covered by them.
  2. Graph showing speed and time of three athletes.
2
Venn diagram
% of students not playing Football
1
Geometry
  1. Water of the tank will last for how many days
  2. Square divided into four rectangles.
2
Averages
Student: 3 tests with average N score
1
Counting
6 routes from City A to B
1
Progression
Penalty for Each day
1
Total

10
As you can see, these questions don't require mugging up tons of complex formulas for liquid mixtures allegation, partnership, moving railway and boat speeds etc. You don't need to master the Chinese Remainder theorem or Vedic math formulas for high-speed calculation.

English language (No Hindi questions here)

He walked several miles
3
My toothbrush
3
Polar bear
3
Total
9
These questions required only interpretation of simple English paragraphs and answer the question based on that. In this portion there was nothing complicated like Sentence correction in GMAT or complex synonyms-antonyms in CAT/Bank PO.

Decision Making (no penalty for any question)

  1. Meeting missed because boss did not tell you
  2. Local thug asking you to vacate the plot in Bollywood ishtyle.
  3. Project deadline, you met accident.
  4. Earthquake survivors alleging corruption charges against you.
  5. Boat prices high during flood.
  6. Vaccine for Gram-Pradhan
  7. Night shelters for homeless=increased thefts in area.
  8. Dowry case
These were quite complex than the mock-Situation reaction tests given in RS Agarwaal etc books, where the options are black vs white: good vs evil. Here most options are either in gray area or equally 'white'.
More than one correct answer is possible depending on your approach (humane officer vs rulebook officer vs boy scout vs Jhola-chhaap NGO or Activist of pseudo-civil society vs Columnist of The Hindu/Frontline vs IPS officer of a typical South Indian movie (who is not bound by CrPC, IPC, Police manual or even Newton's three laws).
Mr.Rulebook officer approach is not necessarily the bad option for every question and every situation e.g. in financial matters or subjects handled by different departments: there are rules to be followed, there is office-discipline to be maintained, there is division of work and separation of powers and they all exist for a good-reason.
Same way Mr. Humane-take-no-punitive-action officer approach may not be the 'best' answer for every situation. Officers are given discretionary coercive powers for a reason and they're expected to exercise them according to the situation.
Similarly encroaching upon the jurisdiction of other Departments (even with good intentions) may have long term negative impacts as everyone starts to poke his nose in other's business: it leads to chaos.
So selecting the "Superman(Lokpal!) cum Superjournalist cum superNGO cum judge-jury-executioner cum Mr.Poke-my-nose-in-everything-disregarding authority-&-rules" approach for every question and every situation may not lead to the best answer. Like UPSC said 'response will be evaluated based on level of appropriateness for given situation'
In these Decision Making questions : which is the best answer? Even the real-life officers with impeccable service record will have different answers, if you ask them to solve these…so only UPSC can tell and I don't think they'll release the official-answer-key for this. As JohnRambo said "These decision making Qs are too subjective, one could successfully argue on all four options."

Conclusion (again not looking for debates)

Most people concluded that this was the easiest and cheapest of all aptitude paper they've ever seen. That happened because UPSC was testing the waters for the first time. You can be sure that next paper won't be a total Pappu like 2011's paper. because UPSC takes pride in its tough exams, when things become transparent or too easy or unambiguous- UPSC takes it as a personal insult :D
So How can (and may) UPSC increase the toughness of next aptitude paper In 2012?
  1. Increasing number of 4TF questions in comprehension. It'll put candidates on panic because of the time limit. Even this time people had hard time going through the comprehension.
  2. Increasing the number and complexity of Decision Making questions (as there is no proper book/material available on this, it'll keep coaching classes at bay. So for UPSC it is two birds in one stone.)
  3. Diversifying the English portion: not limiting it to just paragraph reading. May be some easy fill in the blanks etc. but I don't think they'll immediately toughen this up, in order to give the rural candidates a level playing ground.

Speed calculation vs Speed reading

  1. Speed calculation: A Must have skill for Bank PO and CAT. But for CSAT, simple mathematical understanding and accuracy in calculation is sufficient. You're not required to memorize or calculate the cube roots of 16 digit numbers.
  2. Speed reading is going to be the must have traits from now onwards for Prelims. As you saw both GS and Aptitude paper had lot of 4TF question- they eat lot of your time in reading. God forbid, if UPSC decides to increase the number of 4TF questions even further- that'll give very stressful time in exam-hall.

Engineer-science-MBA friendly?

  1. Some people had been saying that now Engineers, MBA and science-graduates are at advantage than Arts/Commerce graduates because of the changed trend. Is it really so? Let us see.
  2. In the GS paper, the science topics did not require subject specialization. Anyone doing proper preparation from NCERT,GS manuals could have solved majority of those questions. If they asked for chemical formulas of compound released in ATP cycle or the amount of light emitted by 50 CFL bulbs of xyz power-rating….then we could say yes it is friendly for them.
  3. So there no need for anyone to feel guilty for not being an engineer/science graduate.
  4. Similarly now there is enough time and idea on how to deal with the secret aptitude paper. So again being a non-MBA, non-CAT, non-Bank PO guy is not going to put you at disadvantage because now you have enough time to practice and master your aptitude skills in right direction, till now you had compiled a mountain of material on your desk, from internet and bookstores dealing with everything from CAT,GMAT,Bank PO, CDS,LIC,SSC everything because you did not know what kind of aptitude paper will be there. But now the 2011 exam is gone and you know what is worth doing and what is worth skipping.

Remove the caps and start from the scratch

What I'm trying to say is, this exam requires you to start from basics and removing whatever cap you're wearing and start from scratch. I used to take pride "I'm a Pharmaceutical guy so I know all about science, biochem and medicines" and still my concepts about Artificial sweeteners/ Sugar-free are not clear and they asked a 4TF question= I'm fumbling for answers.
Similarly, I had mugged down Sprectum's book on Gandhi-Nehru Tagore and other (50+) Personalities of Modern India. So I consider myself 'freedom fighter specialist' And yet a new freedom fighter Usha Mehta comes in GS 2011 and I've no idea about her!
So for 2012: Remove the caps and start from the scratch and basics. (true for any tough competitive exam)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Topicwise Analysis - General Studies 2011 & 2010 CSAT Prelims papers


Introduction

CSAT 2011 exam was taken on 12 June 2011. There were 100 questions worth 2 marks each. Majority of them were "4 statements true and false" (4tf) questions, i.e.  4 statements are given for each question and then you're required to identify the correct and incorrect ones. So mere acquaintance with some topic doesn't help, you need to have idea about 'what, why and how' of a topic.
To compare this 2011 paper with 2010 paper, click me

Broad analysis

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History

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Ancient

  1. Indus valley (secular/textile)
  2. Jain philosophy- world is created by
  3. Vedic civilization-meaning of dharma and rita

Medival

  1. Reasons for cultural contacts between southeast asia and bay of bengal

Modern post 1857

  1. Nehru report recommendations
  2. Usha mehta-role indian freedom struggle
  3. Home charges in drain of wealth.
  4. Kheda satyagraha, why
  5. Land settlement system of lord cornwallis
  6. Quit india movment- false statement
  7. Weddernburn and caine committee 1893
  8. Gandhi-book unto this last
Again no point in mugging up those 150 places of harappa where painted gray pottery was found or the 1500 kings, 1500 timelines and 1500 places (stupa here and there, castle-mosque-tomb and temple in every city)  from medieval portion.
Dates, places and kings have lost relevence for CSAT.

Polity


Panchayat

  1.   metropolitan planning committee
  2.   73rd amendment provides for-statements

Financial polity

  1.   vote on account and interim budget-difference between them
  2.   union budget is not pass it by the lok sabha when
  3.   the functions of finance commission of india.
  4.   consolidated fund of india-withdrawing money
  5.   revenue of union government goes into each account

Static

  1.   fundamental duty-which of the following is not
See majority of questions from budget /money related matters of constitution. And not a single question asking to match the article numbers or timelines. Economy is gaining importance and lime-light like never before and in future prelims, its going to the surpass the current Katrina kaif (geography). It is also time to put D.D.Basu on rest from now onwards for prelims.

Geography


Agriculture

  1. Lower Gangetic climate good for which crops
  2. Micro-irrigation
  3. Name of state producing lot cash crops, central part producing cotton.
  4. Salinization in irrigation
  5. State with good climate for orchid cultivation

Physical

  1. La nina is different from a el nino
  2. Westerlies in southern hemisphere are stronger. Why
  3. Jetcraft flies easily in lower stratosphere why?

World geography

  1. Brahmaputra makes u turn because
  2. African and eurasian desert belt, why formed?
  3. Malacca strait-reducing travel time to east asia.
Only 11 questions (because lot has gone in to climate change topic). Agro profiles of states have became important. No mapping-questions. No specific place (city, district) based question. Only one, biodiversity area at Odisha.

Climate change-biodiversity

  1. Animal living in sandy and saline area in india
  2. Algal blooms in seawater
  3. Carbon cycle, which adds co2
  4. Biodiversity forms the basis for human existence by
  5. Oil-zapper
  6. Coal combustion at thermal plants, pollutants emitted
  7. Ozone hole in antarctica why
  8. Microbial fuel cells-statements
  9. Bioasphalt important because
  10. Mangroves in tsunami
  11. Red data book for endangered species
  12. Carbon credits-false statement.
  13. Why western ghats and indo-burma regions are hot spots of biodiversity
  14. Why carbon dioxide does not remain in lower atmosphere
  15. Marine upwelling zones are important for ecosystem productivity because
  16. Why tropical rainforest does not regenerate quickly
  17. Himalayan range is rich in species diversity because
  18. Central acts, having relevance with biodiversity conservation
  19. Two rivers of jharkhant and odisha merging and forming biodiversity area at
  20. Site for in-situ method of conservation of flora
  21. Biodiversity between lower and higher latitudes
Almost 1/5th of the paper is from climate change.
Let me quote a passage from civil service times' december issue dedicated to biodiversity
Pteridophytes: india has about 1200 species under 204 genera. While species of marsilea, azolla and salvinia grow in aquatic habitats, those of acrostichum occur in mangrove ecosystems.
^See how deep and minute details are bombarded in various magazines and books, while here we find the question don't require that much depth. As UPSC itself said in syllabus "general issues on environment that donot require subject specialization" however, most questions are "4TF" type so you need to have your concepts clear.

Science and technology

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Computers

  1.     blu-ray disc is different from dvd
  2.     bluetooth and wi-fi device -difference
  3.     virtual private network

  physics

  1.     lake frozen on top but bottom is liquid 
  2.     cfl and led lamps-difference between them
  3.     artificial satellite does not fall down because
  4.     asteroids and comets-difference between them
  5.     geostationary satellite meaning
  6.     ionosphere facilitates radio-communication because

  chemistry

  1.     brent crude oil meaning
  2.     heavy water in nuclear reactor-its function

  biology

    biochemistry

  1.       antioxidants and fruit
  2.       aspartame artificial sweetener
  3.       blood groups
  4.       trans fats advertisement

    genetics

  1.       bt-brinjal advantage
  2.       dna sequencing will help us in

  botany

  1.     tree dies when bark is removed because
Total 18 questions from science. If you count algae bloom and carbon-cycle like questions from climate change into science portion then it is around 25/100= 1/4th of the paper from science only.
No disease question this time. 3 bio-questions directly related to day-to-day life. We see ads of calorie-free sugar and trans-fat free cooking oil and antioxidants everyday. But in almost every question, they gave 4 statements and asked you to identify the true/false out of them. That's why mere acquaintance with a topic won't help, you need to have some idea on how and why of the topic. Botany makes comeback, carnivore plant last time, tree bark this time.
Bt-brijal, DNA sequencing= current affairs from magazine. (Otherwise the 'current S&T portion of Mags dealing with all those Graphene etc. didnot turn out to be very helpful)

Economy

  1. Gdp and per capita income increased during last 5 years or not
  2. Credit to agriculture and allied activities by various institutes
  3. Economic growth is coupled with
  4. Lowering of bank rate leads to
  5. Value added tax. False statement
  6. Closed economy, meaning
  7. Class struggle process in karl marx's theory
  8. Fdi and fii difference between
  9. High food inflation because
  10. Fiscal stimulus.
  11. Current account deficit, how to reduce
  12. Economically-foreign visitors in common wealth games amounts to
  13. Teaser loans by commercial banks
  14. Base effect's role in inflation
  15. Why disinvestment in public sector enterprises
  16. Mega food parks- why
  17. Imf gives loans to which nations.
Like 2010, this new economy is not about numbers but understanding. Prime reason for giving economy such an important, imo is to put coaching classes at disadvantage, because their GS strategy heavily relies upon current affairs and geography.
Some coaching classes used to show off like by merely doing geography one can crack prelims. Economy has been their weakest link.
In 2010 there were 26/150 questions from economy (17%). This time it 17/100= 17%. So economy is given equal importance like last time. If you count financial polity's 5 questions in economy then it is 22/100 marks = even more than climate change.

Social economical development, rights issue, empowerment etc

  1. Human rights given under universal declaration of human rights
  2. Tribal insurrection in 19th-century
  3. National minority-advantages given
  4. Physically disabled people-benefits available under the law
  5. Inclusive growth can be furthered by
  6. Aam admi bima yojana
  7. Micro-finance includes which facilities
  8. Who is eligible for mnrega
  9. Demographic dividend meaning
Again for empowerment and socio-economic topics were covered from theoretical angles by books and mags. (lifted from M.A. Sociology) child-women rights from un declarations, 500+government schemes named after rajiv and indira since the independence: big list of chronology, names-dates. Nothing asked. These questions could be solved by self study of routine books without having any special material.

Current international affairs

  1. Look east policy means
  2. New start
  3. Australia group, and wassenaar arrangement
  4. South-east Asia has got attention of global community  because
Manmohan singh and Patil's visits to southeast asia were making lot news in magazines and recently concluded trade pacts with asian nations, hence I'm putting look east in current-international. You may have prepared lot from current based national and international affairs, and here it is barely 4 marks of international! But don't get disappointed, it'll help in mains.

Public policy or yearbook stuff

Public policy study-material in market, was designed according to college-syllabus and was leading nowhere. Example, public policy topic in magazines and books was going towards all the theoretical and philosophical stuff, minister-bureaucrat relations etc. (lifted from m.a. Socio/pub.ad) while here we see the public policy questions are not philosophical but to the point e.g. Disinvestment in PSE, food parks etc. So I'm putting them in to relevant sections (economy) rather than classifying them strictly according to syllabus.

Person in news, sports and awards

Just like 2010, it is a very sad day for all those Shantiswaroop Bhatnagars, Magsaysay, Nobles and national film awards, CWG and Asian games winners. Not a single question! What a shame. Now they're doomed to be remembered only by their wives, kids, friends and neighbors…not by competitive exam candidates anymore. I call upon all the civil service aspirants to stop paying attention to them. Pratiyogita darpan should totally scrap down their monthly sections dedicated to these (and give us discount for less number of pages)…lol wait a minute! You may get some 2 markers related to bigwig NRI and sportsmen in mains so don't totally neglect, just because they did not ask it in prelims. Think of them as cash-crops, if you get good market price, then nothing better than that.

% wise breakup-Pie Chart of 2010 civil service prelims General studies exam

 

Table

 

History

15

Science

30

Geography

30

Polity

7

Yearbook

4

Economy

26

International Agencies

14

Mental Ability

24

Total

150

 

 

What was not asked?

 

Ancient history

0

Persons in news

0

Awards

0

Sports

0

Total

0  !!

 

 


Conclusion

On the first hand, during the exam most of us found the 2010's prelim GS paper very 'tough', but after doing the breakup and analysis myself, I find that this paper looked 'tough' only because we are following a study-pattern based on previous years' trends (like cramming the Constitution article numbers, history, geography-location, current affairs, sports etc.). This prelim General Studies paper is both a trend breaker and a trend setter (for upcoming CSAT), just like the Mains GS paper of 2009.

Now it's more about understanding than just blind cramming. 

( These are my personal conclusions and I'm not inviting anyone to debate it ;-) )

I'm talking about 'cost benefit ratio': how much energy should you give to a topic or a book to gain each mark.

What is safe to skip

Polity

No meaning of mugging up all those article numbers, this time it was common sense questions.

But you must have a thorough understanding of how Constitution works.

 

India Yearbook

 

Safe to skip entire book (4 marks worth stuff, no meaning of doing  Ph.D on that 1000 page book, like we had to do 4 years back when they used to ask 20+ marks worth questions from it.)

 

Ancient and medival history

Safe to skip ancient and medival (No meaning of mugging up 1 million names,dates and events for 4 marks when you can pump all energy for other easy to understand things.)

Five Year Plans

No meaning of mugging up all data for 2 marks.

International affairs

 

1.                Most stuff was from UN and its agencies since they've direct relevance to poverty,Development and climate change. And wasn't from the 'cramming part' like WHO was established in ***** year and its headquater is  @ xyz place

2.                Bilateral visits, international summits ignored. (magz put lot emphasis on this)

Science

No point in cramming all those chemical formulas, periodical table, and numbers like 1 joule=how much kilowatt etc.

Space

No cramming of all those planets, PSLV date-line etc stuff.

Current affairs

LIKE tonnes of film and social service awards, 500  sports events, national 'summits' and all those things on which the magazines put too much emphasis but who have no practical relevant to human life and problems of this world on macro scale.

Where to concentrate the energy?

UPSC is telling you that general studies have to have relevance with day to day life.

Its more important to understand a topic than a blind cramming

1.                GS becomes more relevant to practical problems of India, economy, and environment.

2.                Agriculture, environment and economy gains prominence like never before

3.                Very dangerous to neglect economy. And this 'New' economy is not about numbers but understanding. Few years back, Economy was only worth 5 marks, this time its 17+ But interestingly, it wasn't really a rocket science or Ph.D stuff, if you put some energy, almost all questions were easy to solve.

4.                Disease (HIV, Swine Flu, hepatitis, malaria) is important

5.                Geography – jungle, environment, and wildlife related. (not all those 'famous places cramming')

 

Source :  Website: www.mrunalpatel.co.nr / http://mrunal-exam.blogspot.com