Remaining Topics in GS

Geography
Like in other traditional topics Geography also has acquired a distinct Current Affairs flavor. Nowadays more is the emphasis on testing as much knowledge as possible out of every single question. Take for example, in a certain year several parts of the world might have received ‘cyclones’ or ‘typhoons’ or ‘hurricanes’ as cyclonic disturbances are called in various countries. These disturbances are named as per some convention if they exceed a certain intensity. Then a question in geography may look like finding the places on the map of the world and match them with the name of cyclones given in the question. This not only tests your current awareness but also your traditional knowledge when you are asked to locate these places in the map.
For traditional part you will have to rely on NCERT books of 11th and 12th. Besides, a very popular book for learning the basic concepts in Geography is by the author ‘Goh Chi Leong’. Geography portions in India year book and Preliminary guide book by Unique will help you cover most of the traditional portion that can be asked in geography. In any case you must memorize names of all major capitals, rivers, mountain ranges, countries’ old names and new names, epithets, mineral distribution and in the world, and crop distribution in India and the world.

Science and Technology
To master this portion you will have to keep a tab on all the recent happenings in the field of Science and Technology through the Competitive exam oriented magazines and newspaper like Science and Technology portions that come every Thursday or Friday in the Hindu. Besides, there are various guides which come for current affairs before the prelims and mains both. They always contain a comprehensive section on Science and Tech. which means the question on Science and Tech actually form a part of the current affairs preparation.

Quantitative Aptitude
Here I am taking all the questions on Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics together under the heading Quantitative aptitude only. In my first article I had told you how and when to deal with these questions now let us see how to prepare for them. If you had Physics and Math in your twelfth class then it will be easier for you to deal with these questions. But remember you still will have to prepare for these portions because you have to have all concepts on your tips because if you get stuck in these questions you will fail to complete rest of the paper. Same is true for the Mathematics and Life Sciences portion. For Life Sciences portion you can’t do much if you did not have life sciences in your twelfth or graduation. But still you can at least remember some important facts, especially relating to Human anatomy and various diseases and their causes and symptoms. To gain this minimum information, the science portion of the Guide book for Preliminary preparation like the one from Unique publications, should suffice. For mathematics you will have to practice a lot especially the questions on permutation and combination and probability, which seems to have become the favorite area for the paper setters in UPSC to frame questions.

So with this I hope you must have got a fair idea as what to expect in the paper. The composition of the preliminary will remain more or less same only but with varying emphasis on one topic or other from year to year. But let me emphasize once more that throughout your preparation you will have to keep your focus current affairs centric only, that is, whatever subject you study try to link it with the current happenings. This approach will make your studies really powerful and oriented in right direction.