Political Science and International Relations — My booklist
I am all set to join the diplomatic service primarily because of my performance in the optional. I have 160 in Paper 1 and 143 in Paper 2 which makes it 303/500. I am grateful to God that all those solitary nights in my study room with my best friends Andrew Heywood and Shubhra Ma’am have finally paid off.
There is some speculation about the optional getting removed from CSE. I don’t have any inside information on this. However, I am not too enthusiastic about this suggestion. CSE General Studies can be quite random and arbitrary as it is and it gets a bit difficult to predict what they will throw at you in the examination hall. Just take a look at the CSE 2017 Mains questions to know what I mean. Example: the problems in the decolonisation process in Malay Peninsula (GS1) or the reasons for the poor acceptance of cost-effective small processing unit (GS2). However, the optional is your reliable and trust-worthy friend unlike General Studies. If you put in the passion, answer-writing practice and revisions, you will be rewarded with good marks in the optional. This will give you the buffer that can potentially compensate for a lacklustre performance in either the GS papers or the interview.
As things stand, I firmly believe that you have to do well in the optional to get a good rank. The optional is the backbone of your Mains preparation. Don’t be afraid of your optional. Become friends with it. Love it and it will love you back on the final result day :)
Why I picked PSIR
Since I did my BA in International Studies from Emory University and MSc in Foreign Affairs from UCL, University of London, I picked PSIR as my optional. I have been a bit of a foreign policy wonk since my college days so PSIR felt like the most natural choice. However, I think that my case is a bit peculiar. I had a great interest in the subject and my formative education in a western curriculum made me familiar with the vocabulary of the discipline. So PSIR it was. But I literally started with nothing and no one.
Since I went abroad to study at the age of 15, I had not read any ncerts in school. I had no optional notes and no friendly network of UPSC aspirants. 60% of the PSIR syllabus was totally new to me. Also, I started reading the newspaper every single day only at the age of 22. Additionally, after years of a western education, it was very difficult for me to wrap my head around the rigour and ruthlessness of competitive examinations in India. So please don’t think the optional was a cakewalk for me or that I had some extra leverage solely because I have a Humanities and Social Sciences background.
The only leverage anyone has in the optional is the interest in the subject and their answer writing practice. Period.
Which optional to choose
Let me warn you — the optional is primarily a labour of love. The optional demands a lot of patience, persistence and hardwork. You will have to spend many, many nights sitting in your room alone with your books to get this absolutely right. Therefore, the key consideration while picking an optional is your interest in the subject. Only your intellectual interest in the themes and questions your optional throws up with help you minimise the monotony of the routine. Therefore, to get 300+ you have to be in love with your optional. There is no other way, in my humble opinion.
If you don’t have an inclination towards any one subject and you’re neutral towards political science, sociology and political administration, for example, then I would recommend you to consider Political Science as a choice. This is because of two reasons. I genuinely felt that PSIR gave me a lot of extra ammunition while walking into my General Studies papers. GS 2 will be covered more or less entirely with your optional. Only the answer writing style will differ. You will derive enormous benefit in your Essay paper; I have 165 in the essay! And you will get some good extra points for GS 1, GS 3 and Ethics. The second reason is Shubhra Ranjan Ma’am. She is excellent and her notes are beautiful, crisp and concise. She is really a one-stop shop and a PSIR powerhouse and that will make your life relatively easier. Multiple revisions of her notes with your own answer writing practise should give you confidence. But just a word of caution: PSIR is a dynamic optional so you must have an eye on the trends in national and international politics. It isn’t like medical sciences where 2+2 = 4 and everything can be found in big tomes. The dynamic component makes PSIR interesting, even if challenging at times. And of course, you’ll be studying the news for GS anyway so I think you should be fine.
Also, keep in mind that the optional is more or less like a marriage (hopefully a love marriage!) so there should be some basic compatability. Figure out whether you have an aptitude for the subject by reading the syllabus and scanning the previous year question papers. In case of a 3rd or 4th attempt, you’ll be stuck with your optional and then changing the optional midway gets disheartening. Choose with care.
Recommended Booklist —
For the students who cannot come to Delhi and take Shubhra ma’am’s classes, just get hold of a good student with decent handwriting and no spelling mistakes and photocopy her/his notes. This will obviously be tough because there aren’t many people who will willingly part with their notes during preparation. People are a bit insular and competitive during CSE prep and maybe for good reason so no judgement from my side. I guess the next best option is to get hold of Shubhra Ma’am’s correspondence notes. But I do feel that the quality of the correspondence notes is not as good as your own notes that you will get in the classroom. Maybe you can try the latest batch notes in the Rajinder Nagar market or specifically request ma’am to make a good student’s registers available to you. Do get her model questions and answers for PSIR though. Those are VERY helpful.
Since I didn’t take classroom coaching, I bought both her notes from the Rajinder Nagar market and her latest correspondence notes. Also, after my second attempt in 2015, I had joined a test series crash course in Rajinder Nagar, Delhi hoping to write the Mains that year. So I had my notes and model answers from my 2015 crash course. I also had some of my own notes from my first attempt that I had made from the above mentioned books. So during my third attempt, I read through all that I had, even re-wrote everything topic wise and consolidated everything in one place. It took me almost 4 months + alongside the Young India Fellowship. It took a lot of time, energy and hard work but there is no short cut.
Also, limit and define your sources. You will be tempted to read this and that and make your life complicated. That used to happen with me a lot. In Mains 2017, I had this big fear of missing out and wanted to read everything Shubhra Ma’am was sharing in her 2017 test series crash course. Eventually, I realised that the wiser option would be to stick to my own notes and revise everything that I have instead of dumping new information into my mind.
Timeline for Preparation —
Like I said, I had all my notes and consolidated registers for the optional ready by December 2016. This is crucial because you will have not have much time after preliminary to sit and compile notes. After the preliminary is done, attack your optional straight away. Focus should be on reading your notes (you’ll be out of touch!) and compiling revision booklets (more on this later!). Do your personal answer writing practice in the evening on the topic you studied in the morning. Attempt 1–2 answers everyday through previous year papers and track the latest IR developments. Align your own study plan and time table with completing the test series with utmost seriousness.
After prelims, I joined Shubhra Ranjan ma’am’s online initiative because I didn’t want to go to Delhi. Mains prep is a very emotionally frustrating time and you need to be around people who love you unconditionally. I finished all my mocks in MGSIPA state library with a timer. I would then scan and send my tests across to ma’am. Ma’am’s mocks are tough so I usually scored 100–125 in the papers. If you are scoring above 100 in her mocks, you are in the game. Don’t be intimidated by the people who are topping and scoring 145+ in her mocks. Many of these people are nowhere in the final merit list. CSE is strange and I don’t have an explanation for this. Maybe they are losing out in the interview or not making it through the preliminary itself. Anyway, my point is : focus on your OWN game and your own hard work instead of neurotically comparing yourself to others. Try to improve yourself with each test. A test series gives you a good schedule to follow and makes your preparation time-bound so don’t be scared to write tests.
In the coming days, I’ll share all my mocks and my answers to give you an idea about my writing style. Also, some important tips on answer writing, especially when you’re in the examination hall on D-day. Also I’ll share my own effective revision strategy for this colossal task.
I hope this helps!
And all the best to everyone writing the preliminary this Sunday :)
