Preparing for Geography as an optional for UPSC exam
Geography is a popular optional for UPSC exams particularly because of its objective nature – if you know it, you get the marks unlike other subjects like sociology/political science which seem to be extremely subjective. Geography also has some subjectivity particularly the 'human geography' part but still I feel is a good choice for science & technology graduates. If you liked geography during your school days, I think you should have a look at the syllabus and previous question papers (available on www.civilserviceindia.com) and then decide. Since the syllabus is vast, you need to allocate a considerable amount of time for this subject.
I want to put a disclaimer here that although I took Geography as one of my mains optional, I couldn't do full justice to this subject due to lack of time. I could only read the NCERTs and was not able to read any other standard books like Majid Hussain, Rupa's 'Geography Made Simple' and other suggested references. So, I am a sort of novice to this vast subject and so would advice to take everything I write down with a pinch of salt. Inspite of this, I am writing this article because I managed to pass through the exam studying very little since I focused on the basics. I've not been successful to receive my marksheet for this year's exam although they've been up on the website but it seems that it doesn't consider my e-mail id (vikrampg@gmail.com) a valid e-mail id. So, as and when I get my marksheet, I'll post it on the blog. My roll number is 383943 and my birth date is Dec 15,1986. If you know somebody who has the marksheet or can find out my marks, please let me know.
1. Start with NCERTs: Start with NCERTs (recent – freely available for download from ncert's website or you can do a google search for the same) from Class 6. Underline/highlight and/or keep noting the important points. Pay specific attention to the three NCERTs of Class 11 and 12. These three textbooks are extremely informative and cover almost 50% of the course. I would suggest you to go through these three textbooks twice or thrice and learn the facts therein by heart. When you read other reference books/notes, you should try and assimilate the extra information. For example, the NCERT book will contain the locations of iron and steel industry in the country. Learn these locations and the basic information given in the NCERT (e.g. Durgapur steel plant set up with British support, Bhilai steel plant set up with Russian support). Now, when you read a specific reference or some notes from a coaching institute, try and build on the existing knowledge that you had from the ncert (e.g. What are the turnovers of this industry, which is the biggest steel plant, what grade of steel does India manufacture, what are the problems, how does India compare to the international scene etc.). Thus, other things that you read will help you build up on what you already know from the NCERTs. Essentially, what I am suggesting is that build up your basics and get a broad overview from the NCERTs and then try to deepen your knowledge from reading other things. I am stressing the point over and over again primarily because I think the syllabus is huge and one has to manage it somehow. Thus, cover the breadth first and then the depth.
2. Use internet if you can: Don't leave any portion of the syllabus. Atleast, know the basics. Take the syllabus in your hand and do a google search for any entry that you wish to know about e.g. I did this for the different theories (rank-rule hierarchy, central place theory) and atleast got an idea of what the theory is. Internet will help you also for phsyical geography e.g. The mechanism of monsoons, the different winds, El Nino and La Nina effect. Numerous animations are available. Wikipedia is a wonderful resource. Search about different places in the news or places that you've heard of but you are not sure as to where exactly they are (e.g. Casablanca, Timbaktu, Tashkent, Kyoto, Montreal, Miami).
3. Also, learn to make a rough map of India (world is optional) so that you can quickly make it while answering questions for paper 2. e.g. On the question of location of the iron and steel industry, you can quickly make a rough map and mark the different locations. This will fetch you a lot of marks. A picture is worth a thousand words, really...
4. Map entries: Locating given places on the map or identifying marked places on the map has been the standard question (worth 60 marks) in both Paper 1 and Paper 2. Thus, maps comprise 120 marks out of 600 marks i.e. 20% which is huge by any standards. So, how should we maximize our chances of marking the correct entries on the map. The first obvious thing is references – atlases in this case. The Oxford Atlas is very good particularly in regard to Indian entries while the Orient Longman Atlas is a good choice for the international entries. I studied mostly from the Orient Longman but later also got the Oxford Atlas xeroxed. I'll also suggest you to get some unlabeled maps of India and the world (preferably without any state or country boundaries) so that you can practice on it or put important places on it for later revision or as a reference
1. Make/get a list of important rivers/seas/deserts/mountains of India as well as the world – The idea here is to do it one by one. Get a list of important rivers of the world (from wikipedia or any other resource) and label it on one of your unlabeled map. If the list is very big e.g rivers, you can do it continent by continent otherwise e.g. If you are marking seas, then you can do it once and for all. You'll find that doing this will give you a confidence that “atleast, now I know all the seas of the world.” Moving piece by piece will further boost your confidence. You can follow the same strategy for India.
2. Mark all the countries and their capitals & important cities on the map : This will also help you a lot, you'll know a lot of places. Some of these places are directly asked in the exam.
3. One entry is usually of 6 marks – 3 marks for the entry and 3 marks for its description or 2 marks for the entry and 2 marks for its description (if one entry is worth 4 marks). The point here is that how should we prepare for the description part. I think the answer is not simple. One has to know a lot e.g. About the place where a river rises and where it drains finally or why is a city famous or what are the countries in which a given mountain range is located or some nearby areas; I'll suggest you to prepare yourself atleast for writing one sentence on the location of the entry (e.g. This river flows in the continent X and is situated to the north of mountain/river/sea Y and it flows through these countries). Other things that are expected from us are daunting e.g. Where does the river rise, does the river flow eastwards/westwards/southwards/northwards, where does the river drain itself. I myself couldn't do this but I would like to mention that this is the level of details that the examiner expects. If you write all this correctly e.g.one can write this for the river Ganga, then you get full marks. However, step marking is there and let's try to maximize our marks rather than brood over the difficulty of the task.
4. Anticipate: Most of the times, the entries that are asked in the question paper are not random; these places are important if an international summit has happened there (e.g. Kyoto, Copenhagen, Rio De Jenerio, Montreal, Bali, Doha etc.), an earthquake/tsunami/volcano has struck there (e.g. La Aquilla, Haiti, Chile) or some oil/gas/mineral has been found there (e.g. Sakhalin, KG basin, Mangala). So, any place which is in the news, try and ask in which country the place it is, what is it famous for.