How To Prepare Geography For Upsc Mains

Analysis Of Books For Geography Prelims And Mains

Also view analysis by mrunal.org

• For climatic regions only:Certificate Physical and Human Geography .

• For Indian Geography: If you buy Spectrum, you can look at Indian Geography topics and decide whether to buy INDIA A COMPREHENSIVE GEOGRAPHY by KHULLAR or not.

• For Economic Geography: org Notes by Mrunal and my own notes which I will be posting in few days

In simple words

• Buy Spectrums Geography only, complete relevant topics first and then decide whether to buy other books

Geographical Features And Their Location

• Explain the formation of thousands of islands in Indonesian and Philippines archipelagos.
• Why are the worlds fold mountain systems located along the margins of continents? Bring out the association between the global distribution of Fold Mountains and the earthquakes and volcanoes.
• Major hot deserts in northern hemisphere are located between 20-30 degree north and on the western side of the continents. Why?

Factors Responsible For The Location Of Primary Secondary And Tertiary Sector Industries In Various Parts Of The World

• Why did the Green Revolution in India virtually by-pass the eastern region despite fertile soil and good availability of water?
• Do you agree that there is a growing trend of opening new sugar mills in the Southern states of India? Discuss with justification
• Analyze the factors for highly decentralized cotton textile industry in India

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Reference Books For Ias Prelims Geography

The following list of books is for all type of candidates from beginners to advanced candidates. No matter what stage you are, we will help you to prepare in a better way:

NCERT Books for Beginners:

• Class IX NCERT: Contemporary India Part-I
• Class X NCERT: Contemporary India Part-II
• Class XI NCERT: Fundamentals of Physical Geography
• Class XI NCERT: Indian Physical Environment
• Class XII NCERT: Fundamentals of Human Geography
• Class XII NCERT: India, People and Economy

Advanced Books:

• Certificate Physical and Human Geography – Goh Cheng Leong
• Geography of India – Majid Husain
• Geography of Population: Concepts, Determinants and Patterns – RC Chandna
• World Geography – Majid Hussain

How To Prepare Geography Syllabus For Upsc

Geography is one of the basic and most important subjects in UPSC CSE. Questionson Geography are asked in all the three stages of the examination and hence, it is essential to study it in detail. Since a lot of topics overlap in Prelims and Main, it is important to study it holistically. Heres a time-tested strategy to kickstart your geography preparation for UPSC:

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Geography Optional Strategy For Upsc Preparation

Geography Optional is one of the most opted for Optional in UPSC Preparation. To get a good score, it is important to prepare a Geography Optional Strategy. And Geography Optional is also opted due to the following reasons:1. Interesting concepts and diagrams.3. Concurrence with UPSC General Studies Mains Paper I, Paper-II and Paper III , etc. Hence this helps cover UPSC Mains Syllabus also.4. Geography is a part of the curriculum in school, hence a basic knowledge.5. Repetition of questions in UPSC Mains Examinations as shown in the Previous Years Question Papers.

When taking Geography as optional, you need to keep in mind that you are not only studying about the countries and cities you are going to do an in-depth Geography optional strategy preparation from every aspect.You need to keep in mind that while building a UPSC Geography optional strategy for preparation, the entire IAS syllabus should be covered. This can be done with the help of notes, reference books, or any other study material. You need to update the notes regularly on contemporary events as well as analyze the news from a geographical point of view. Lastly, answer writing is of significant importance for the examination.

Changes In Critical Geographical Features And In Flora And Fauna And The Effects Of Such Changes

• Most of the unusual climatic happenings are explained as an outcome of the El-Nino effect. Do you agree?
• Bring out the relationship between the shrinking Himalayan glaciers and the symptoms of climate change in the Indian sub-continent.
• Bring out the causes for the formation of heat islands in the urban habitat of the world.

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Strategy For Geography Optional For Upsc

Geography is a highly popular optional subject in the UPSC mains exam. It is especially popular with candidates with a science or engineering background because of the nature of the subject itself. It is a science and this makes it attractive for such candidates. It is also popular because of the overlap with the syllabus for UPSC. We discuss all this and more including a strategy for Geography optional in this article.

In this article, we bring to you the pros and cons of opting for geography optional, along with the success rate in the previous years, best books recommended by toppers, sources for geography optional notes, etc. from the perspective of the upcoming IAS Exam.

UPSC aspirants are also advised to refer to the video given below and know more about Geography through the medium of Maps, explained by the subject-expert:

Geography Optional Strategy: By Pratham Kaushik 327 Marks

Hi friends, I am Pratham Kaushik . My score in Geography optional is 327 . Here I am presenting my strategy for Geography. Ill try to be specific as Geography syllabus is vast and questions are getting increasingly unconventional every year. My suggestions, whether books or coaching, are not endorsements. I hope this article can exhaustively cover all the aspects of Geography preparation.

My Marks:

Total 1117

General overview:

• Geomorphology
• Geomorphology by Savinder Singh .
• Prepare only those chapters which are there in the syllabus, focussing on Chapter 2 Fundamental Concepts in Geomorphology and Chapter 3 Theories of Landform Development. This is an extensively written book on Geomorphology which gives a poor cost benefit ratio. Hence, prepare it selectively and make pointers to help you remember the material.

• Physical Geography by Savinder Singh
• Climatology by D S Lal
• Classnotes or 500+ notes of Himanshu Sir

• 500+ notes of Himanshu Sir
• Classnotes and Test Series notes of Shabbir Sir
• Prepare Ecology topics in great detail
• Environmental Geography by Savinder Singh
• Internet

• Perspectives in Human Geography

I would recommend the following path to cover this topic.

• Models and Theories
• Models in Geography by Majid Husain

How to enrich your answers?

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Geography For Upsc: Books

To ease your research for preparations, we have curated a list of important books you must have on your table while preparing for Geography for UPSC.

You can also read our blog on NCERT Books For UPSC Exams.

Books For Geography Optional

Here is the complete paper-wise booklist of Geography optional for UPSC.

Paper-1

• Economic Survey
• Yojana magazine

• Get Complete Notes Of Geography Optional For UPSC IAS for FREE

Current Affairs Preparation of geography optional

• Make a separate Notebook for geography current affairs. I will recommend that make a notebook on OneNote and create 20 pages for every 20 topics of geography optional.
• Newspaper The Hindu/The Indian Express
• Use a google search engine and google maps extensively.

• Yojana magazine
• Kurukshetra magazine

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Then Start With Paper I: Human Geography

· After mapping, we must read with Paper I topics like Geographical Thoughts and Models & Theories because with this base you can write answers in Paper II of Optional.· Also this is one of the most confusing and time-consuming subjects so it takes time to evolve the maturity needed to write UPSC Answers for Geography Optional.

Bring What You Read To Life:

Every day, you will read about geographical phenomena in the news. Relate what you have learned in class to the natural disaster or phenomenon. Prepare for current events as well, as this will help you understand what is going on around you. Current events have a lot of geography in them these days.

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Pros And Cons Of Taking Geography Optional

The success rate of taking geography optional has been observed to be 7.2-5.8 % since 2012. There are four toppers within the top 60 in 2017 who had geography optional, 4 from 2016 and 2014 as well. It can be concluded that geography has helped many aspirants secure an extraordinary rank in the IAS exam and hence, considered one of the most scoring subjects.

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Tricks To Study Geography Well For Upsc Exam

Geography is an essential part of the UPSC syllabus. It is an interesting subject and unavoidable too since it is a vital part of General Studies Paper I and the IAS prelims exam.

Despite being interesting, some people dont enjoy the prospect of studying Geography because there are a lot of facts and concepts here. You have to remember many things. If you are one of those IAS candidates who find Geography difficult, dont despair. We bring you many tips and tricks that would surely help you ace this subject while enjoying it!

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Interlinking Of Static And Dynamic Portion

Over the years UPSC has abandoned the rudimentary approach. Previously the questions of the mains optional used to be based upon the static portion only. But now, most of the questions asked are linked to current affairs. It is very important to maintain a separate file of notes for Geography-related current affairs. The newspapers are the best source for this. Almost on a daily basis, you will find some news or editorials on topics like agriculture, industries, fisheries, monsoons, climate change, conservation, wildlife, energy, etc. So, you must note down important and exam-related points from those news items. For an example the natural calamities and disasters are often seen in the news and they could be linked with both the papers up to a certain extent.

What Is Required To Succeed With Geography

• One must have complete grip on syllabus: the topics which were given in syllabus of Union Public Service Commission preliminary. I suggest at least read once syllabus every day and try to digest each and every sub heading.
• One must look into old question papers in order to understand the nature of questions and to know the pulse of Union Public Service Commission for what exactly they are demanding form student .
• One advantage with geography is it requires both analitical study and factual study There fore this optional eqully easy/difficult for arts and science background people.
• Accuracy can come only with revision for atlast 5-6 times and reading with analysis and reasoning.

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Answer Structure Upsc Answer Writing

Now we will look into the answer structure. We will give some essential points on the same. There are three main parts introduction, main body, and conclusion.

Introduction: It is the first part of the answer, so it should be informative. Further, make sure that you have included 10 15% words of the complete answer. Besides, you can write up to 15 25 words in the introduction.

Main Body: You should start with the most important points and write in the chronology of the facts. One must write fact-based and opinion-based answers. If you want to include both positive and negative answers, you can divide them into two parts and explain each point.

: It is the last part of the answer. So, it should be a balanced product of the whole answer. You can begin with a simple sentence that brings all the main points of the answer. Besides, you can write about 25 30 words out of 200 words.

Recommended Books For Geography Civil Services Books Mains Exam

Physical geography

• Indian Economy

Step 3 : Prepare Important Topics

The preparation for Mains must be over before you start with Preliminary preparation, as the Main exam syllabus covers nearly 75% of the requirements of the Preliminary examination.

If a student has not done graduation with Geography, the suggested strategy would be as follows.

Surveying the syllabus of Geography carefully and identifying the completely unfamiliar areas.

Going through at least 2 basic books with a purpose to acquaint yourself with the unfamiliar areas.

You can consider the following books: The NCERT Text Books for geographyStd. XI and XII

Geography for Degree Students

Doing a careful survey of the past 5 years Main Examination Question Papers and identifying the areas of significance.

Identifying the most fruitful areas:

If we see the Main Examination paper of last few years, then it is obvious that the UPSC can ask even a short note on a topic which is otherwise quite long in coverage.

How to Study Geography for IAS Mains

Study approach for Geography

This optional is meant for Patience and Calmness. We need to make different strategies for both paper.

There may be some questions out of the topics in the syllabus, prepare for these new topics also as these repeat regularly.

For Paper 1

As you maybe aware, the pattern of the question paper is that Three questions from one section and Two from the second has to be answered, with the first and fifth questions being compulsory.

For Paper 2

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Geography Syllabus For Upsc In Detail

Paper-1

Physical Geography:

1. Geomorphology: Factors controlling landform development endogenetic and exogenetic forces Origin and evolution of the earths crust Fundamentals of geomagnetism Physical conditions of the earths interior Geosynclines Continental drift Isostasy Plate tectonics Recent views on mountain building Vulcanicity Earthquakes and Tsunamis Concepts of geomorphic cycles and Landscape development Denudation chronology Channel morphology Erosion surfaces Slope development Applied Geomorphology : Geohydrology, economic geology and environment.

2. Climatology: Temperature and pressure belts of the world Heat budget of the earth Atmospheric circulation atmospheric stability and instability. Planetary and local winds Monsoons and jet streams Air masses and fronto genesis, Temperate and tropical cyclones Types and distribution of precipitation Weather and Climate Koppens, Thornthwaites and Trewarthas classification of world climates Hydrological cycle Global climatic change and role and response of man in climatic changes, Applied climatology and Urban climate.

3. Oceanography: Bottom topography of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans Temperature and salinity of the oceans Heat and salt budgets, Ocean deposits Waves, currents and tides Marine resources: biotic, mineral and energy resources Coral reefs, coral bleaching sea-level changes law of the sea and marine pollution.

Human Geography

Paper-2

Geography Of India

Optional Paper Ii: Geography Of India

Paper-II for Geography for UPSC can be said to be slightly more comprehensive though the difficulty level does not vary. Broad concepts tested are:

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Ias Prelims Highlights For Geography

• There will be 100 questions in UPSC Prelims General Studies Paper I having 2 marks for each question.
• Averagely from this section, 11% of questions come each year from Geography.
• Geography is divided into 2 parts: Indian Geography and World Geography.
• Proper syllabus plays a vital role in Geography Preparation.
• Environment and Ecology is a different part of Geography.
• Geography questions often depend on climate changes and natural calamity also.
• Relate your geography preparation with Environment and Ecology.