How to prepare Geography for CSAT-2015?

In CSAT-2014, majority of the geography questions could be solved through NCERTs and School Atlas. Therefore,
preparation must begin from there:

NCERT: Topicwise zip files available at Mrunal.org/Download

School Atlas: Oxford OR Orient Blackswan

Physical Geography

Topic

NCERT Subject and Chapter

Universe

Science Class 8 Ch.17Geography Class 6 Ch.1Geography Class 11 Ch 2.

Earth Basics

Geography Class 6 Ch.2 to 6Geography Class 11 Ch.1, 3 & 4

Geology

Geography Class 11 Ch.5 to 7

climate

Geography Class 11 Ch.8 to 12

Ocean

Geography Class 11 Ch.13 & 14

Disaster

Misc.

After NCERTis done

Geography Class 11 (Indian Geography) Ch.7

Science Class7 ch8

Science Class 8 ch15

Geography Class 11 Ch.1 & glossary

1.

Selective study from Spectrums Geography book (Hindi | English) OR

2.

Goh Che Leongs Certificate Physical & Human Geography book OR

3.

General Studies Manual

World Geography

NCERT Class

Chapter

7 to 10

1,3,5,6

12 (Human Geography)

1 to 10

Lucents GK: if time permits, for famous cities, rivers, mount ranges and other GK

Indian Geography

TOPIC

Indiabasic

CLASS

CHAPTERS

1, 2, 4

11

1&2

10

11

12

rivers

10

1,5, 6, 7

12

7 to 12

12

1 to 4

Economicgeography

HumanGeography

1.
AfterNCERT

(MUST) India Yearbook Chapter 1 Land and People (Hindi | English). Important: those new to game, do
now, Wait for India yearbook 2015 to be published next year.

2.

Selective study from Spectrums Geography book (Hindi | English) OR

3.

DR Khullars India: A comprehensive Geography

Related: how to prepare Geography for Mains GS paper1. Click me

How to prepare Culture for CSAT-2015?

First we have to objectively check which sources were useful?

Source

NCERT

NIOS

SpectrumCulture

0.5

0.5

0.5

IYB

TMH

Lucent

ccrtindia

fellfro

Buddh & Avanti

Bijak

6 Philosophy schools

Ibadat Khana

Panchayatan

0.5

no

no

no

no

no

Buddhist monasteries

Sculpture vs site

Sattariya

Mangniyar

Garba & other dances

Kalaripayattu

no

no

Satyameva Mudak

no

Shaka Calendar

no

Classical lang.

Pattakila

Total utility

1.5

3.5

0.5

1.5

Disclaimers:

0.5 means =half of the answer available. (i.e. two statement true/false type question).
Last column: fell from sky- Ans. No means the given question was available in atleast ONE standard reference book /
source. Total 9 out of 15 =60% culture questions came from standard sources.

9/15

It could be higher than 60%, e.g. lucent /TMH/Spectrum may have Sattariya or Mangniyar somewhere but because of time
constrain I have not been able to wade through all pages.

So, how to approach Culture?

1.

(MUST) Tamilnadu Class11 (Ancient-Medieval) + New NCERT History (Class7 to 12) + New NCERT Sociology (Class 11, 12)
a.

all of them available at Mrunal.org/download

b.

Although not much came from TN/NCERT this time.

c.

But one exam insufficient to through them away. Theyve proved their worthiness in CDS and CAPF 2014.

d.
2.

those who have old ncert well, and good but those who dont have- there is no need to lose sleep, Tamilnadu works
just fine.
(MUST) Base material = NIOS Culture material + CCRTindia

a.

You dont have to manually wade through all webpages of CCRTindia, because in earlier [Write2win] competition,
Sandeep Yadav had compiled the note from that site, including photos. Click me. (although his note is bit old, some new
pages have been added by that website, so you might have to manually make visit add few new topics accordingly).

3.

(MUST) India yearbook Ch1, 2 and 3. [for geography, culture, polity respectively].

4.

(MUST) TheHindu. Classical language, dance- all routinely appeared in 2014s newspapers.

5.

(if time permits) General Studies manual.

a.

As such maximum no. of questions from it but if you look at the table again- it has lot of overlapping with NIOS.
Compared to NIOS, the GS manual is too bulky, contains lot of unnecessary factoids. So beyond a point, bad cost:benefit.

b.

But practice the mock questions given at the end of each section in GS manual.

c.

Ive used Tata McGraw-Hill (TMH) general studies manual 2014 as reference because they gave me free review copy.

d.

But any manual works just fine- Arihant, Spectrum, Pearson. Even old/second hand used copy works fine. Because
static content remains one and same, irrespective of edition.

6.

Beyond this, Cost:benefit wise, youll gain more from pumping that more hours in learning maths, reasoning and
comprehension for CSAT Paper II. so dont waste remaining jawaani in preparing culture only.

7.

You may skip Spectrum Facets of Indian culture. Because content wise, did not help much in the Mains-2013 or in prelims
(CSAT-2014). It has cumbersome typesetting, no photos. Therefore, hard to memorize. Situation similar to Congress seats under
Modi wave.

8.

Related: How to approach Culture for Mains-2014: Click me

How to prepare History for CSAT-2015

freedom

TN

Bengal partition

Spectrum

TMH

Congress session 1929

Gadar

Victoras proclamation

Redcliff

Total utility

LucentGK

Bipan Chandra

fellfrom
no

no

no

no

no

5/5

Disclaimers same as previous table.

TN= Tamilnadu class 12 History textbook.

(new) NCERTs are good read but Ive not used them in above comparison table because they dont cover enough factoids,
policies of past governor generals, their policies etc. So, youll have to augment It with some other book anyways. therefore TN
class12 is better as the base textbook.

Anyways how to approach History for CSAT-2015?

(MUST) Tamilnadu Class12 [or OLD NCERT] as a starting textbook.

(Good) Spectrums Brief History of Modern India, By Rajiv Ahir. (Available in both English | Hindi medium)
o

Although TMH General studies Manual and Spectrum both have same number of questions but spectrum far thinner
and easier to revise. and has proved worthy even in Mains-2013

Bipan Chandra has its utility in the mains, essay. It should be read depending on the time factor. As far as only prelim
preparation is concerned, youre better off with Spectrum because its far more revision friendly than Bipan etc.

What about Ancient and Medieval?

In the 90s exams, it used to be Vedic age, Ancient kingdoms, Medieval kingdoms and freedom struggle.

And now its just Freedom struggle and Culture. Whatever they ask from ancient-medieval, its mainly focused on culture part.
so for Ancient-medieval, refer to Culture studyplan given above.

Besides, in Tamilandu Class 11 already covers the kingdom angle e.g. kings vs religion patronized, king vs monument, king
vs policies and so on.

Related: How to approach History for Mains-2014: Click me

anyways, enough analysis, lets begin solving the paper:

How to approach Polity in CSAT-2015?

Yes, after all the purpose of doing this answerkey majoori is not cut-off speculation but to fine tune strategy for next year.
1.

NCERT Political science must be read. Even though no questions came from CSAT-2014), but it has its utilities.

2.

Indian Polity by M.Laxmikanth (Tata Macgrawhill Publication) must be used as Base-book for polity theory. All
chapters, appendix must be prepared in thorough detail, all mock questions must be solved. Although recent exams
have been mainly focused President, parliament and DPSP chapters and overall easier nature of question compared
to last year. BUT you cannot take anything for granted in UPSC.

3.

India Yearbooks Chapter 3 (Polity) must be read.

4.

Polity Current affairs must be prepared throughout the year, from TheHINDU.

How to prepare Economy for CSAT 2015?

1.

NCERT Class 11

2.

Selective reading of NCERT Class 12 Micro and Macro-economics.

3.

Budget and economic survey.

4.

India yearbook chapters on commerce finance, industries, etc.

5.

M.Laxmikanth: Parliament: Budget, money bill-finance bill; Centre-State relations, Finance commission, AppendixUnion-state list (for taxes) etc.

6.

Indian express OR Hindu. (Only one, not both. and personally I find Indianexpresss economy coverage better than
Hindus)

7.

Finally, You know whos website.

How to prepare Environment for CSAT-2015?

In CSAT-2014, the number and difficulty level of environment questions increased, but they should be seen as
Back-strengthening moveTM similar to agriculture section.

So, the normal only-CSE-no-IFoS type candidates will get diminishing rate of return, if they begin too much Ph.D
on environment.

Besides the mains environment and disaster management segment moves in a different direction, rather than the
flora-fauna-zoology and GK-type international treaties/organizations that were asked here.

Anyways, at least 6 of the questions could be solved directly from NCERT, NIOS and India yearbook chapter on
environment.

So, Preparation must begin with NIOS material on environment. free download available at Mrunal.org/download

following NCERT chapters should be read

CLASS

SUBJECT

CHAPTERS

geo

geo.

1 to 6

science

7, 16 to 18

geo.

sci.

7 & 18

geo

science

14

Geo.

sci.

14 to 16

geo(Physical)

15 & 16

geo (India)

4&5

economy

9 (Sustainable Dvlp)

Biology

13 to 16

chemistry

14

10

11

12

Above NCERTs Topic wise zip file also available in the download section. Additional Zoology/biology/science
NCERT chapters also available there.
India Yearbook (dont buy now, wait for 2015s edition to come, after December 14)

Chapter 1- land and people (geography)

Chapter 11- Energy

Chapter 12- Environment.

Economy Survey topics related to energy and sustainable development.

Notes-making from Hindu, Frontline, PIB etc. news sources in similar fashion.

official site for Environment ministry: envfor.nic.in

Mrunal.org environment section- Mainly for treaty summaries and other static topics.

Erach Bharuchas textbook on environmental studies: good read but there is lot of overlapping with NIOS and
coverage is rather shallow for the given level of questions asked. So, lot double majoori.

You should limit Agriculture preparation to following areas:

NCERT first

class

Subject

chapters

Science

3&9

Geography

Science

Science

15

11

Geography (India)

Geography (Human)

Geography (India Land & People)

Biology=> Biotechnology

11,12

12

12

After that, Geography book of Spectrum or Majid Hussain or DR Khullar.

Agriculture schemes, policies, developments from Hindu, Yojana, PIB

My [Geography location factors] article series for GS (Mains) Paper 1

My [Food processing series] for GS (Mains) paper 3

My [Summary of Economic Survey] Ch8 on Agriculture.

India Yearbook 2014 Agriculture chapter nope that chapter has negligible material for exam.

SAT-2015: How to approach Science?

Step1: NCERTs topicwise
Preparation must begin with NCERTs

Class

PHYSICS

Chemistry

Biology

4, 13, 14 & 15

5&6

1,2,10; 11 & 12

11 to 16

3 to 6

2, 8, 9 & 10

8 to 12

1 to 4

5,6,7 & 13

10

10, 12 & 13

1 to 5

6 to 11

11

1,5,8

1,14

2 to 5

12

15

14,16

4,5 then 7 to 16

Ive uploaded the NCERTs in topicwise manner, zip files available under Mrunal.org/download

@non-science graduates: you may skip yellow colored cells (if you find them too difficult) but must prepare green
colored cells- because those chapters have relevance with environment and agriculture.

@science graduates: must go through all chapters of class-11, 12 IF youre aspiring for Combined Defense
services (CDS) or Railway apprentice (SCRA).

Step2: After NCERT: competitive books

NCERT alone not sufficient for UPSC prelims because:

o

Biology: they dont cover all diseases, nutrient deficiencies etc.

physics and chemistry: they dont cover all real-life examples of various physics principles

Therefore, after NCERT, you should augment preparation with help of following

Mrunals public health compilation

Mrunals Space tech compilation

any competitive book

o

Lucent GK OR

General studies manual

Or similar book on science-tech.

India Yearbook Chapter on science technology- although cost:Benefit seems to be declining.

CSAT-2015: How to approach IR/Defense?

This is UPSCs doubt-bluff-Back-breaking moveTM to deter senior players and coaching classes from gaining
competitive advantage over new players- because for last 3 years, UPSC did not ask IR/Defense GK so, theyd have
stopped focusing in it.
Anyways, if UPSC wants to revive IR/defense then youve to prepare. Standard approach is following:

Notes making from TheHindu

Mrunals defense compilation old article from 2012-13, but basics of weapons and missile development still
relevant.

Augmenting those notes, using competitive magazines like Civil service times, Pratiyogita etc. for factoids.