Merugu Kaushik (CSE-23 AIR-82) Sociology & Comprehensive Strategy

Background and Journey

Hi, everyone this is Merugu Kaushik and I’ve secured AIR 82 in my first attempt in CSE 2023 examination. And I’ve done by Civil Engineering from University College of Engineering Osmania University in 2020 and post that I’ve pursued MBA in International Business from Indian Institute Of Foreign Trade Delhi in the year 2022 and later I worked for one year as a Consultant in the Capgemini’s Financial Services BU.

I started my preparation in 2022 January and gave my first attempt in May 2023. I initially prepared for prelims until August 2022 and my booklist for prelims is very standard as any other topper suggest. Then I realized the importance of preparing for mains according to the syllabus and started preparing for mains and making my own notes and also picked up resources like toppers notes for various topics of mains. I tried to complete 70% GS 1, 2, 3 by January 2023.

You may contact him on Telegram and Instagram

I picked up Sociology as my optional as I developed interest in Indian society of GS 1 and I had given one reading of Sociology paper 1 from Essential Sociology By Nitin Sangwan. I completed paper 1 during the months of December 2022- January 2023.

From February 2023 onwards I exclusively prepared for Prelims revising the static part and reading PT 365 and giving mock tests for prelims.

Post clearing prelims was when I started my answer writing practice, essay, Ethics and Sociology paper 2. I wrote the all the questions from GS and Optional papers from 2013 onwards every day, with a timer to make sure that I took only the required time to complete a particular question. I also enrolled myself in Forum test series for GS and Sleepy classes test series for Sociology and gave all the tests as per the schedule.

This sums up my journey!!!!

The major challenge I felt was post prelims with Ethics and Essay not knowing what exactly needs to be done and what resource to refer to and how to go ahead with it. And here I sought help from a senior and mentor Rohini ma’am at the ForumIAS.

How and When to Start Preparation?

When?

From my understanding and research and personal experience I feel “at least 1-1.5 years prior to the prelims one wants to attend“, should be the start of preparation. This time period will allow one to get a clear understanding of the examination and also be prepared for all the stages of the examination.

How?

I would suggest the following steps to be followed during the starting phase of preparation:

The first and the unavoidable thing one must do is to go through the syllabus of UPSC CSE for both prelims and mains.
Take a printout of the syllabus and try to analyze the trends of questions being asked by UPSC and put in your own efforts to identify the number of questions from each section and important topics or dimension being asked in mains for general studies.
After this I would suggest one to identify and pick up the standard resource or notes that they are confident of and stick to it. This can be done by watching and referring to various resource list shared by previous toppers.
Then one should go ahead and make their own plan as to how they would be approaching this exam and make a timetable comprising of short-term goals, medium-term and long-term goals. For example: This is how I made my short-term weekly goals.

Timetable

This is how my entire timetable and strategy looks like ( click on the year to look at the timetable)

For the year 2022 and 2023

Preparation with Job?

I was also working during May 2022 – May 2023 so major part of my preparation was along with my job and hence I personally felt one needs to give 1.5 years to this exam.

So, for me, preparing along with job helped because I felt my preparation being very intense because of the short time I was getting during the day and also I made sure I carefully utilized the free time I got in between the work covering the news of the day and also reading some small topics or for revision.

But its different for everyone because I was fortunate that I was working in a hybrid mode wherein I only had to go twice to the office in a week I used the other days of the week to study intensely whenever I get time during and post work at home. But it was post-prelims I realized I need to give more focus and time to mains preparation, and I had to take that call to quit the job and that was the best decision because I would not be able to even complete majority of the topics if I was working and giving mains.

Prelims Books, CSAT Strategy, Mains Books, Optional Strategy and Books

Prelims Booklist

• Polity – Laxmikanth
• Economy – Mrunal notes only Pillar 1, 2, 3, 4 and PT 365
• Environment – Shankar IAS and PT 365
• Geography – NCERT only Physical geography India and world
• Science and Technology – PT 365 of last two years
• Art and Culture – La Ex Ready Reckoner
• Ancient history – La Ex Ready Reckoner
• Modern history – Spectrum

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Essay: Read many essays of toppers randomly and made notes of few examples and focused more on writing essays and getting feedback.

Mains

GS 1

• Art and Culture – Rushikesh reddy sir notes
• Modern history – Spectrum
• Indian Society made own notes
• Geography selectively read OnlyIAS Prahaar for Mains and rest was NCERT and PYQs

GS 2

• Polity – Mridul Shiv hare Sir notes and Laxmikanth
• Governance and Welfare part made own notes reading Vision Value added material and other topper notes
• IR – Mains 365 for IR

Download Merugu Kaushik’s Test Copy From Here

GS 3

• Indian Economy – PYQs and Test series
• Agriculture made own notes
• Infrastructure and Investment models made own notes referring to Mridul Shivhare sir notes
• Science and Technology – Mains 365 for S&T
• Internal Security – made own notes referring to Mridul Shivhare sir notes

GS 4

• Only IAS Prahaar for basics and examples
• PYQs for case studies and Section A questions tried to solve twice all the PYQs

Join here for free UPSC guidance from Mudit Jain, IPS-15, IPS-16, IRS-18, Author of Decode CSAT, Decode Essay, Decode GS2, Decode Ethics 4.0 & Decode History Books

Ethics book referred by CSE 22 Toppers: AIR –76, 91, 176, 189, 249, 288, 297, 299, 326, 356, 476, 541, 611, 616, 700, 737, 739, 746 & others

History book referred by CSE 21 Toppers: AIR – 44, 212, 572, 653 & others

Find PDFs of All Decode Series Books Here

Optional

• Essential Sociology – Nitin Sangwan
• Solved PYQs of Sociology
• Sleepy classes videos

As I started my sociology preparation very late, I picked up limited resources and tried to revise the single resource multiple times and make value additions from test series.

Note Making or Not?

I made limited notes and stuck to referring to topper notes like Mridul sir notes where I felt they are good and made notes for prelims based on my test series performance and PYQ analysis and I felt it’s a personal choice to make notes or not and for few subjects I felt making some short crisp notes of some logics will help in revision. Ex – Economics. Whereas Laxmikanth and Geography I didn’t make any notes from my basic resource but made notes of new concepts or facts I came across test series in OneNote.

This is how I made one liner notes to all those points I came across.

Will share all the notes on my telegram channel.

Role of PYQs in Prelims-Mains

PYQs play a very crucial role at both prelims and mains stage and its important one analyses PYQs for prelims and go beyond the PYQ to identify the topics and concepts being asked and make short notes out of it.

For Mains PYQs act as the best way to prepare oneself for answer writing and also focus on important areas and to test oneself.

Revision Strategy

I preferred revising as many number of times as possible one resource I read instead of reading new one. And after every revision I gave subject wise or full length mock tests and then Identified weak areas and focused on revising them again and again.

My Timetable links has how I scheduled my revision before prelims I made sure I revise every subjects standard resource and current affairs 5 times and I also revised the notes I made from the mistakes I did on regular basis.

How to Attempt Prelims?

Attempting pre has be a personal strategy as to what is working for oneself. Like I always attempted it in the order like 1-100 questions attempting the paper in 3 rounds. First round I attempted the 100% sure questions in the second round I attempted those questions where I was able to eliminate 2 options and finally the third round was those questions where I could only eliminate 1 option but my gut feeling says one option is correct of the other three options.

And I would make a note of how many questions I answered in each round and then check the accuracy of my 100% , 50 % and guesses and change the strategy accordingly.

And making mistake in my 100% sure questions showed I was not revising well which I corrected before my next mock.

How and Which Tests to Practice?

I would say any standard test series is good but give as many tests as you can or give the tests when you realize that after this there is very less value addition.

Answer Writing Strategy

I personally feel practicing PYQs in a timed manner and then self-evaluating will help. I also referred to topper copies and analyzed how they are approaching answers. For answer writing I feel the skills can be developed with practice and analyzing and understanding how to write answers.

Also, attempting mock tests as per schedule and improving on the suggestions helped me and making efforts to perform better with every mock by increasing the quality of answers and making value addition wherever I can also helped me. I would suggest one to write all the papers from 2013 onwards to improve their skill and also identify important areas and dimensions that UPSC is focusing on.

In attempting a paper, I preferred starting with 15 marker questions and completing 6 Qs in first 1hr i.e. 10 minutes for each question and then finishing the other remaining questions.

Link to Channel and Notes

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5) Prerna Singh AIR-271 Journey + Learnings + Comprehensive

6) Abhinav Jain AIR-35 Journey + Comprehensive

7) KN Chandana Jahnavi AIR-50 3/3 Selections + Socio + Comprehensive

8) Rohit Sattawan AIR-997 Prelims & Mains Booklist + FAQs

9) Dr. Subhadharshini AIR-83 Motivational Journey + FAQs

10) Megha Dinesh AIR-268 Sociology + Comprehensive Strategy