Preparing for the Civil Services Exam conducted by the UPSC demands a lot of perseverance, hackwork & character. The syllabus is huge, current affairs keep on evolving and the nature and pattern of exam itself keeps changing which keeps the aspirants on their toes. There are four subjects which are specifically mentioned in both prelims & main exam namely- Polity, Geography, Economics & History. Of the four Polity carries the most weightage as every year 14 -15 questions out of 20 questions are mandatorily asked in the Main exam . Also, in prelims the number of questions from the Polity part can range from 5-25 every year. So this subject becomes very important. Lets try to decode the preparation strategy for Polity from beginner’s perspective.
NCERTs the building blocks
If you didn’t study Humanities in +2 then start with class 10th Political Science book & follow up with the two NCERTs of class 11th. Even if you were Arts student in school, still you need to revisit these texts. Concepts like democracy, rights, justice, equality beautifully evolve in NCERT texts. Read & re read them until you grasp the concepts & are able to remember the examples. Try coming up with your own set of examples while comprehending a concept.
Extra Edge
Next in line is a good standard text that covers the syllabus of exam or at least claims to! The most famous book for Polity is a household name in the aspirant community. Read it, but trying to answer questions in mains based on that book would be overambitious. It can help you till Prelims to an extent. Beyond that your notes should come to the rescue.
Notes making is of utmost importance and that’s where our focus in the classroom is. Being a classroom student at Patanjali you need not make notes separately. But you must update it through current affairs. Any new judgement of Supreme Court, an Amendment to the Constitution or to an existing statute needs to be updated in the notes. Classroom would equip you with the broad understanding and clarity of concepts through which you can filter the relevant part of current affairs for Polity.
Conclusion
Lastly, one needs multiple revisions & practising mocks as the exam date nears. A solid foundation of Polity not only helps you scoring good in GS paper 2 but also gives extra advantage if you wish to take Political Science as the optional subject. In the essay paper also, Polity does help in writing quality stuff on certain topics. Aspirants need to give proper attention to thus subject as its totally worth it.