lets have a look at what remains in paper 2,and chart out basic pints on it.
the syllabus says
2.Interpersonal skills including communication skills
3.Logical reasoning and analytical ability
4.Decision making and problem solving
What strikes me first up is that not all things are taught and so not all things can be learnt.Some are to be grasped.
Taittriya upsanishad says that a great teacher is he,who when he teaches, "saha vishayam Prakashyante'.
or makes the topic glow(illuminates) and it is this glow that guides a student to greater endeavors academically.
Closer to our times,we hear that 'WE can take a horse to a pond,but can not make it drink'.
i guess many a teacher would agree with the second point,and so do i!
after all,interpersonal skills is all about how you behave in society.how you interact with various people in it,how you speak to me,how you respond when i speak to you and so on.simple thus far as its value free.now add to it simple things-how you speak to me when i am head of your department,how you speak to me when i am your junior who is slacking in work and refuses to follow orders,or how you speak to me when i as a government servant ask you for a bribe.
people vary,and so do their approaches to such things.I am most concerned about such questions as there is no correct answer to this as each is likely to pick what appeals most to him.Anyone who has given a situation reaction test in the SSB interviews knows what i speak of.
so this part you reveal what you have made yourself in response to society over your lifetime.not much to worry about correcting,but still enough material here to cause some anxiety.
3.Logical reasoning and analytical ability : Look at Shane Warne Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting-three very different captains who played alongside for the same team for a long time.They still vary in their leadership and that should give you a hint on this section,and the next ie 4.Decision making and problem solving.
make no mistake,any sort of responsibility,any leadership role brings alongside a lot of decision making.What do you use to make decisions?
Logic,Rationale,Information(which you filter from a mine of relevant data),and finally principles(whats right and whats wrong).this is what these two inter related points will check.
Logic can be practiced with definite results due to the simple fact that tests to check logical thinking are numbered,and practicing them enables good scores.Analysis is how your thought process works-this cant be taught and only a vague direction can be shown to you.rest of course is up to you.
making decisions comes naturally to us-we have been making them throughout our lives,so do not lose sleep over this.its just that the ones we will need to take in CSAT will be in imposed conditions with varying constraints needed to be filtered in.This is easy,only if you process things quickly and 'think on your feet' as they often say.
In short,after the veil of mystique has been removed from paper 2,it comes across a regulation paper that only tests what your thought process is like along with proficiency in english and ability to communicate-the basic trait of our species.
one need not worry-just gear up for it mentally!
all the best!
hi swami, thanks for replying to my query regarding Indian economy. Decision making skills test is popularly called SJT or Situation Judgement Test abroad. This test is used by practically all Civil Service recruitment bodies. There are some websites on the net which give some practice questions, its basically common sense and ure right, no special training is required to solve these questions. However I am a bit confused regarding the difference between Logical reasoning and mental ability as both the terms are synonymously used. Actually Mental Ability is a cover term for all kinds of reasoning tests. However some people, especially those preparing for UPSC exams interpret Mental Ability as Maths and Probability and Permutation and Combination. But Probability and Permutation and Combination are a part of Maths themselves. Thus my inference is that Logical Reasoning might contain questions on Assertion-Reasoning, Statement-Arguement, Statement-Conclusion whereas Mental Ability might contain questions on blood relations, directions, seating arrangements, syllogisms, figures, coding-decoding and perhaps abstract reasoning
ReplyDeletehello varoon.
ReplyDeleteproblem with names is that once you name a certain thing people tend to built up mental walls around it and think of it as an imposition.
see,once they called 2011 prelimns CSAT,there so much hue and cry,though paper 1 remains essentially the same GS prelimns with 50 bonus marks.It is here that the paper will be cleared or not,but few can overcome their fixation with the name and implications of "CSAT".
As for SJT,i am aware of it,but in this blog i am guilty of oversimplifying stuff-to dispel any misconceived prejudice there might be.Some resourceful people like you can maximize the use of net by searching and relevantly utilizing resources,others find it demanding and tend to get lost.
so while you keep up the good detailed work,this blog i meant more for the second category,though any inputs are graciously welcome!
as for the difference you referred to,you are 100 % right (why am i not surprised?because you do seem thorough,and that stands you in good stead for next year!) ill post it later,in a more simplified way,but what you said was the essence of the difference,with minor modifications.
hi swamy
ReplyDeletethere is a new section of biodiversity and ecology added in Paper I, apart from the latest developments in the field of environment, which can be studied from newspapers and magazines, this section may also have a static part which deals with concepts of eco-systems, ecological theories etc. Do you know any specific book which we can refer for this section?
Varoon
yes there are many sources.The magazine Nature is one.better still is the publication by NOPR (google it) called Science Reporter.This will be sufficient especially the latter,as this is the favourite source for questions on science and tech, environment,and other such topics asked thus far by UPSC.
ReplyDeleteThen you have the journal Wildlife where ecosystems and habitats are dealt with in detail,wikipedia should help you and lastly the online repository of university libraries are a mine of information.Read all you want,and jot down the parts you think are important!
as for specific books,i was in crosswords yesterday and noted three or four covering parts of the syllabus.Scope out the market and take your pick.I havent bought any as still on a break after mains.
when i do buy ill post details.
You are right, Science Reporter is important, I guess, going through last one years issues is imperative. I am also planning to study a class X level biology and chemistry book in order to strengthen my basics in science because I havent been in touch with these subjects after leaving school. One of my optional subjects is history and if I am not wrong you have also opted for the same optional, I am studying history along with GS and there are times when I visualise questions on various topics in history however I have no one to discuss these questions with, therefore if you don't mind can we have some kind of a discussion or perhaps brainstorming on some critical and analytical part of the subject?
ReplyDeletegood idea on the 10th standard text books,but most of the aspirants have read it for prelimns for a long time now.
ReplyDeleteas for history discussions,i am glad to ave someone to discuss it with!will feel great so shoot right away.
a note of caution,
i was expecting to score heavy in the history long questions of GS 1 paper just to cover up what i might lose in science and tech section.
in the hall to my horror,only 1 sub section was from history and no other question came.Worse,i lost quite a few marks in the general science and technology section and even geography short questions(like break of bulk towns).
and worst of the lot,i knew 7 on 8 history 2 markers at the end,but being slow earlier i couldnt complete my GS 1 paper and had to leave 14 solid sure marks of history that actually were asked.
in case you didnt figure out yet,my GS 1 was a disaster,but note the fact that now history can not be integrated with GS study.Honest advice,if same trends hold,it would be useful to study geography only with economics,as far as GS is considered.
have posted history mains question papers here,had a look?interesting to say the least!
I ll read class 10 science books to strengthen my basics and then i ll concentrate on science reporter/newspapers etc. Yes, you are right, the pattern of the GS paper has changed indeed, although I am not sure whether the pattern will remain the same, the next year. I think we have to concentrate more on Geography, according to me, NCERT geography books are not enough for mains, Khullar's Indian Geography would be more helpful in tackling the Mains. However I felt that this years GS mains paper had a lot of stuff from Newspapers and Magazines. The GS Paper II had questions on International Relations and Indian foreign policy which were lifted directly from newspapers and magazines, like the Riyadh Declaration, trials of the members of Khmer Rouge in Cambodia etc. However, Swamy, there is one nuance I have noted in all the mains papers this year- practically all the questions require critical thinking. Currently critical thinking and writing skills are in vogue abroad and it seems that UPSC is testing candidates according to the same pattern. I think from now on, we have to interpret topics critically, therefore we both could analyse topics and have substantial discussions on these topics. Don't worry about the GS paper, everyone found the paper to be tough and couldnt complete the full paper, my best wishes for u, I wish u make it into the IAS. Have you been a social science student or a science student? and are you working or simply preparing for the exam as I am doing (I am unemployed right now he he he)
ReplyDeleteI forgot about the History Mains paper in my last 'post'. Again, it required critical thinking, however except for a few questions (I found the Medieval Indian history part a bit tough), the paper was relatively interesting, not difficult but challenging, the questions required critical and analytical thinking, those days have gone when candidates could practice questions before-hand, memorise them and vomit them in the exam. Subject knowledge, critical thinking and writing and an agile mind which can correlate varied topics will help us in clearing the exam.
ReplyDeletei am in full agreement as far as NCERT not sufficing is concerned,i had read them.but thing about UPSC is this year they stressed geography and for all you know next year geography will be replaced by economics or polity as the stressed subject.
ReplyDeleteas far as international relations goes,that was part 2 of my second optional of political science so i had no problems there.
the saving grace is all the subjects had newspaper based approach,to level the playing field newspapers are getting more and more value,it seems.
the whole of next year i will focus primarily on newspapers and build a strong foundation.
Good observation on the critical thinking.It does not need a new approach one just needs to know both sides of the story and present it well picking one side that seems better.
Problem is that the papers look interesting here,but inside that hall in the spur of the moment (you may call it the 'heat of the battle') hidden demons begin to emerge.I came out with a thousand points i could have,no should have written but couldnt as they dint come to me as i wrote my answers.
as far as others are concerned,i am currently least concerned.I was focusing on satisfying my own expectations vis-a-vis the effort i had put in,and ended up way short.
i do realize that this exam is such that what others perform as is more important than what you do,but an absence of honest feedback makes most information only 'speculation',and that is too fickle to base a judgement on!
I have chalked a strategy of preparing answer formats for history (going to follow the same strategy for my second optional), the answer formats will be based on unconventional questions, if you want we can discuss unconventional questions and the approaches to write answers, remember, in the examination hall, you have limited time therefore you have to form answers which are coherent and to the point, there might be a large number of issues which we have in our mind but even if we skip some of them its not going to make much of a difference, you will understand what I am saying if we start discussing stuff, I feel the strategy I have adopted should be helpful
ReplyDeletetheres no other way but to try!!!start off on any relevant topic,i have my own set of formats from this times mains,so there should be no issues!Unconventional questions are most unpredictable(obviously,thats why they are called unconventional :)) so it would better suit us to have a generalized approach to begin with...
ReplyDeleteOk, lets start off on a topic from Ancient History, I have got a few areas in my mind, shall we start the discussion over here on ure blog or do u have a better place in mind???
ReplyDeleteyou pick and chose.If we start it here chances of some more like minded people pitching in increase,and like they say the more the merrier.
ReplyDeleteon the other hand we can do it over emails,which is infinitely more convenient..your pick completely,considering i get blog updates and details on my email its one and the same for me!
I guess we can do it over emails, do u want my email, or is it visible to u?
ReplyDeleteyou have disabled your profile for public viewing,so i can not see your email.
ReplyDeletemy id is 9swamyme@gmail.com