what to do for GS preliminary2

I will outline the factors vital for your planning-
1.keep your plan confined and rational.To say i plan to do all GS in february to april is no plan at all and likely to backfire.keep small,do-able targets in place so no frustration and under-confidence before the exam results if your plan targets are not met.
2.Realize that no one can master GS paper completely and score 150 on 150.Leave alone that no one easily notches up 75 either!
this year my target was 80 in both GS and Optional,and result was 75 in GS and 70 in optional.I cleared.dont believe figures available online,they are inflated beyond doubt.
for eg.,this year there claim to be Pub-Ad students failing with 260 plus marks,and i know a general category candidate clearing with 218.and no,i dont believe this conspiracy theory of goof-up on part of UPSC.
3.The GS paper has sections like-Indian national movement,Indian Geography,Polity,Current Affairs,Basic science,etc
decide which you can master and which you will want to master.the segments should add up to around a 100 questions,so you are planning only for 100 questions.
Make sure you score at least 90% in the areas you outlined.this is vital and failing this you fail.
4.which sectors to outline can become tricky keeping in mind unpredictability of UPSC,but then one can easily still predict the source of around 120 questions and plan accordingly.There will never be a GS paper without a question on Modern history and Geography for instance.
5.no one including the toppers has an option but to  do current affairs in depth.this is beyond doubt.
Current affairs forms an overwhelming part of GS mains later,and will be asked in interview too.So what you do here is lay a long term foundation when you do your part in current affairs prelimns.
for current affairs-
1.paper like the hindu,times of india is mandatory.make a note month wise under sub headings like-political  developments (elections,coups etc) International organisations (leaders,summits and points in discussion currently) sports (wimbeldon french open and so on)...
2.Magazines are good,but not complete in themselves.what is good in them is the frequent question sets they give which are vital for practice.Each month,when i used to get tired of studying and as a result studies suffered i found getting magazines with their new discussions toppers interviews and mock questions a good change and enthusiasm booster.You need to sift out relevant stuff from these magazines also and add it to your monthly notes derived from the papers.
3.See a good debate show every weekend on TV.Why?because in these debates there are a lot of things discussed not only on the topic but also on a number of other topics relevant to the main theme.This is useful to both mains and prelimns.
4.Use the internet effectively,a number of blogs update current affairs daily,weekly and monthly.
copy paste the relevant information in a different word file for revision later.

For science and technology,use the Hindu archives.The Hindu newspaper has a science and technology issue every week which helps in the science section in GS paper,if followed regularly.

I have never read NCERT books after reading them in school.I really dont think there is a compulsion to,though i readily admit they are the most authentic source of information.Why i dint use them was that when i started around 15 march,it was very difficult to start with NCERT books then and complete the same.
If anyone has two or three months extra in hand,there is nothing better than a detailed reading of these books.