000

UPSC
Planner &StrategY
by Mrunal

AA000
MONTH #2
MONTH # 1

Su Ma Tu wa Th a Su Mo Tu We Th Er Sa
Economy (P+M)
Economy (P+M)
1 Polity & Governance (P+M)
p Polity & Governance (P+M) Optional Subject
Optional Subject Ethics (Mains GS4)
Ethics (Mains GS4)

MONTH #4
MONTH#3
Su Mo Tu we Th Er Sa SU Mo Tuwe Ta E
Economy (P+M)
Economy (P+M) 1 Polity & Governance (P+M)
Polity &Governance (P+M) Optional Subject
Optional Subject Ethics (Mains GS4)
Ethics (Mains GS4)

A000
0000 0 MONTH #7
MONTH #5 MONTH #6
Su Mo Tu w Th
Su Mo Tu we Th Fr Saa International Relation Current Affairs
eInternational Relation E Geography & Agriculture History, Art, Culture
Geography & Agriculture
Disaster
Environment & Disaster
Environment&
Management (Pre + Mains)
Science Tech
GSM1-2-3: Remaining TopIco
Management (Pre + Mains)

Opt. Sub (Revision, Supplementary Opt. Sub (Revision, Supplementary History,

Post
such as World
Reading, Ans Writing)
Reading, Ans Writing) Independent India, Land
Mains (GSM1: communal,
Mains (GSM1: communal,
regionalism. GSM2: E-Governance, Reforms, Food Processing
regionalism. GSM2: E-Governance,
GSM3: cyber-security, internal
GSM3: cyber-security, internal
security security
 UPSC
Planner &Strategy
by Mrunal

AAAAAAAAAAAAA
MONTH #8 MONTH ##9 MONTH # 10
Su Mo Tu We Th FSa Su Mo Tu we Th E a Su Mo Tu we Th 5 a
ECurrent Affairs Current Affairs Current Affairs
8History, Art, Culture History, Art, Culture History, Art, Culture
Science Tech Science Tech
GSM1-2-3: Remaining Topics Science Tech
GSM1-2-3: Remaining Topics GSM1-2-3: Remaining Topics
such as World History, Post
such as World History, Post such as World History, Post
Independent India, Land Independent India, Land
Reforms, Food Processing etc. Independent India, Land
Reforms, Food Processing etc. Reforms, Food Processing etc.

MORNING
Newspaper

Upto Lunch Hour

Big GS Subject#1 (Pre+Mains)

Then Till Evening

Big GS Subject#2 (Pre+Mains)

Evening to Dinner
Optional/ Mains' Small
GS Topics

Post-Dinner to Midnight
Mains' Small GS Topics
 UPSC strateg9
Planner & Strategy
by Mrunal

7 a.m. to 8 a.m. read "x" chapter of "y" hoo

ook."
micro-managed plan. for example "Morning
Certain websites provide very
because
have avoided making that type of planners Often we've s o m e personal
work, family responsibilities health
too much, you will get frustrated.
o Ifyou try to micromanage
issue, etc. can finish any
book within 15 days while somo
Some students
o Every student has a different level of grasping power.
require 1.5 months.
class-schedule may be conflicting with whatever timetahl is
online offline coaching classes, so their
Some studentsjoin or

prescribed. in
indicative in nature. Preparation of
Kungfu, everyone can fight his own unique style.
UPSC is like
So above Planner is only
finished with these two subjects, you will be able to
First you should finish economy
and polity. Because, once you are
Mains GS Paper1-2-3, many topics on poverth
understand the newspaper and current
affairs in a much better manner. In
and polity to write better quality
welfare, weaker sections are such that repeatedly, you'll
require the understanding of economy
of Mains answers.
and Polity (for Prelims+ Mains) will take 4 months. Because
In above lAS planner, I've estimated that finishing Economy
and grasping power will be low.
o In the initial stage of candidates' reading comprehension speed
So it will take more time. But afterwards he will get acquainted
and the remaining GS-subjects he will be able to finish at a
o
much faster pace.
While many coaching classes will tell you "Chikni Chupdi Baatein" that Optional subject can be finished within 3-4 months, but
have allotted 4 months for primary reading +3 months for revision, supplementary reading & Answer writing = 7 months for

optional subject because:

o
The vastness of the syllabus of optional subject is somewhere between the B.A. and M.A. of that subject (e-g. Political
science, sociology, public administration, economics, Literatureof Hindi,etc.)
So, given level of competition against senior candidates, increasing difficuity of the questions, level of depth and excellence
expected from your answers = You will have to read and revise books multiple times.
o Assuming that you are doing it daily 3-4 hours to optional, then it may take 7 months. Whereas, if you devote more hours per
day, then maybe you will be able to finish it sooner.
o In the general studies mains papers (GSM1-4), all the serious candidates get marks in similar range. Therefore, ultimately
your scores in the Optional and Essay papers become the deciding factor, whether you will clearthe mains cutoff for not?

For Ethics, Tve devoted 4 months. But, that's under assumption that daily in the evening or night, you're allotting 1-1.S hours to
it.

Above timetable assumes that both the theory and current affairs component is embedded within your study.
For example reading International relations or environment or science means you are also covering the theory, contemporary
issues (of last 2 years and
older) and current affairs (of last 1 year)
in
So, the month 7, 8, 9 and 10: The current affairs =you are
only updating your knowledge
that occurred from Month1 to 6. Example: RBI updates its monetary policy every
and notes for the new
two months. So even if you are finisned develop
economy syllabus on month number 4, yet at month 6 and month 8- New monetary policies would have come. SO ney will
collectively read them up by month 10.
.For Ethics: l've allotted 4 months
o On YouTube there are full
(assuming daily 1-1.5 hours) because
length playlist for ethics -usually around 40-60 hours. Even if vou the
other videos in fast forward, it will take at skip some videos ana we
least 20 hours.
Plus you also need to read books &
revise
them & solve
Ifyou are daily allotting some 1-1.5 hours to it, in the previousoryears' questions. s will go
on for 4
months= 120-180 hours at minimum. evening night then collectively, above two exe

3
 2.1 STRATEGY FOR PRELIMS PAPER-I (GENERAL
STUDIES) FOR 2020
29 29 28-
23
2 2 0 21 21
17 5
14 5 14 15 13
11
11
B

Economy & Govt History & Environment Polity& Sci Tech Agriculture Geography
Schemes/orgs. Culture Constitution
2016 2017 2018
2019 2020
Topic wise Analysis of Eight Prelims
Topic in UPSC Prelim GS Paper 2013 2014 2015
Economy& Govt Schemes/orgs.
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
18 10 21 29 29 25 28 23
Environment 17 28 22 21 14 12 21 15
Agriculture 4 5 5 4 8
Geography 14 10 11 4 5
Sci-Tech 13 9 9 10 13 11 11
History& Culture 15 20 14 17 14 21 15 20
International Relation, Defence, Persons in News (PIN)
Polity &Constitution
7
8 3 3 2 3
18 11 12 22
Total MCQ 13 14 5
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Observe the grey cells. There are wide ups and downs in various subjects each
large maximum number of MCQs came from x' subject so same will year. So, it!ll be a mistake to presume
that in 2019,
UPSC keeps the trend happen in 2021
unpredictable to prevent coaching classes and senior players from
Therefore, you must prepare all subjects diligently. gaining advantage.
Having said that, it's not humanly possible to
prepare every topic exhaustively, therefore, let me
preparation of each of these subjects to kick-start your preparation: give you the tips for

2.2 GEOGRAPHY

Source
Tips
NCERT Textbooks NCERT Class 7 to 10 Social Science and Class
11-12 Geography.
Class 11 Indian Physical
Geography must be prepared by heart because each year minimum one
any UPSC exam whether its CSE, CDS or CAPF. MCQ comes in
NCERT textbooks can be downloaded free of
cost from their official website
School Atlas Whenever you read name of an unfamiliar
atlas
place associated with major current event then check it in
schoo
E-Learning Ms. Rajtanil Solanki (Rank-457)'s entire lecture series freely available at
-
https://youtube.com/user/TheMrunal
As such there many reference
are
Patel/playlists
books for Geography such Goh
all of their gist is covered in this as Cheng Leon, Majid Hussain, DR Khullar- but
lecture series.
India Yearbook 2020 Published by the Ministry of Information and
(IYB20) Read chapter 1 (Land and Broadcasting.
People) and Chapter 30: States and union territories
You need not buy the whole book, its free
summaries/free notes are available on the internet.

VPSC
anner& Strategy
9yMrunal
 AGRICULTURE
ENVIRONMENT AND
2.3 (IFS)'s prelim with civil service
Indian Forest Service
prominent since the merger of
has become
This section
prelims. environmental chemistry.
N C E R T : Class 11 Chemistry's chapter on freely available on their official site:
Environment module
Studies (NIOS)'s
National Institute of Open
nios.ac.in/online-course-material.aspx

Environment book by Shankar IAS.

and 27 (Water).
(energy),12 (Environment)
IYB20Chapter 11
In agriculture: soil types, micronutrients etc.
NCERT Geography textbooks-crop
cycles,
a. Theory focus on in Government's
Kurukshetra magazine
Contemporary issues: cropping technologies given innovations,
b. APMC ordinance/Act, scientific
recent Government schemes,
C. Current Affairs focus on
FAO's international years etc. from schemes and
a trend breaker
where they did not ask anything
2020's paper had been But remember that
However,
advanced theories and
R&D related to cropping patterns.
devoted too many MCQs on
marks. So, dont overinvest your time
not supposed to score 200/200
it's meant to test IFS candidates, you're
more time.
in it. Refer to cutoff table one

2.4 ECONOMY
because in economy, UPSC
MCQs are
D o n t waste time in memorizing
dates, names, numbers, figures issue.
and command over the 'gist'
of any current affairs scheme or
designed to test your conceptual knowledge Sundaram etc.
academic books like Mishra Puri, Uma Kapila, Dutt
And the same trend, dont waste time in content for Mains and
of their chapters have good
on

they're optional subjects. While some

meant for economics
is almost nothing.
Essay exam but their utility for prelims Government Budget and Economic Survey.
and mains, the most important documents are
Both for prelims available at
affairs, you may go through my lecture series
For theory, current and contemporary
https://youtube.com/user/TheMrunalPatel

because they're not asking it each year regularly.

You may skip Microeconomics,
Further strategy is given in the separate chapter this book. of

2.5 POLITY
had come in Prelim
NCERT Textbooks on Civics, Political
Science and Sociology because verbatim questions
2018.
Laxmikanth and IYB-20 Ch. 3, 20,21 and 28.
Indian Polity by M.
F o r current bills and acts, you mayfollow: prsindia.or9 IGNOU MPS-003
related topics are asked. For that refer to
For Mains Examination Paper 1 and 2, again polity
at http://www.egyankosh.ac.in/
module, freely available on their official repository

2.6 HISTORY, ART AND CULTURE

old NCERTs:
Firstyou should be clear about new vs GKtype MCQs are rare"
emphasis on dates, names, wars, treaties. But
such
Old syllabus NCERTs have more
NCERTs have more emphasis on art, culture, secularism, Buddhis
recent UPSC exams. While Newly updated
Jainism and such MCQs are more frequent.
and toppers from old era, who're not updated
with this trend analysis, tns
Therefore, some coaching faculties
recommend you to go for NEW NCERTS.
continue to recommend old NCERTs but I

P SUPSC Strategy
by Mrunal
 Ancient and Medieval Tamilnadu board Class 11 Textbook freely available at
their official site
Art &Culture Previously, Nitin Singhania's book on Art and Culture was
helpful, but in recent exams its
utility declined
significantly
You can just rely on NEW NCERTs and Tamilnadu Board's Class11
History book
Freedom Struggle Tamilnadu Board's Class12 History book
Prelims: Brief History of Modern India by
Rajiv Ahir.
Mains: From Plassey to Partition and After
by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay
Combined with Pratik Nayak's Lecture series at
my YouTube channel
World History This topic is not part of Prelim
syllabus but only relevant for Mains GS Paper1.
Read Tamilnadu Board's Class12
History book, followed by
Pratik Nayak's World History Lecture series at
my YouTube channel.
Post-independence This is relevant only for Mains. Refer to NEW NCERT Class12
Political Science, and then refer to
chapters India since independence by Bipan Chandra. selective
2.7 SCIENCE
For theory refer to NCERTs
combined with Disha General Studies Manuals'
For Current and science portion.
contemporary topics focus on public health, space exploration and ICT.
2.8 CURRENT AFFAIRS

60
51 53
43
36
48 46
24
16 13 9
Theory Current Affairs
from (D-1) Year Contemporary
2017
(D-2)/>
II 2018 2019 H 2020
Figure 1: Current Affairs is
declining, Contemporary Afairs is rising
I classity the UPSC questions in three parts based on the span of current affairs:
Type of Questions
Example(s): 2018 2019 2020
Difference between direct and indirect taxes
Theory Definition of Non Performing Assets
(NPA) 51 43 53
In the 2020
Current Affairs prelims/ Mains examination, if UPSC asked about new income
|(upto D-1 Year) tax slabs under the
budget 2019, Tax Ordinance 2020, 1BC Ordinance 2020
etc. ThenIwould classify it as current affairs 13

|Contemporary Insolvency-bankruptcy
and 2017 respectively.
code and GST were
implemented in the year 2016
issues (D-2 Years or
So if some facts are asked
older) about BC/GST which did not occur
2019 or 2020, then I label it as a in the year 36 48 46
contemporary issue question.
Total MCQs
100 100 100

PSC
Eraegy