"My strategy" by Shweta Chauhan (AIR - 8, CSE 2016), for Geography optional

Name:	Shweta Chauhan
Rank in CSE-2016	8
Roll No.	0559310
Age	25
Total attempts in CSE	3
Optional Subject	Geography
Medium chosen for Mains answers	English
Schooling medium	English
College medium	English
Home town	Ghaziabad
Work-ex	IRTS, CSE-2013
	IRS (C&CE), CSE-2015

The article specially focussed on Geography optional.

I don’t intend to promote any coaching nor any book, it's just about the sources I have referred. I had four years of preparation for geography so I have basically gone through all material available and I would be happy to share what was more relevant. Hope this article be of use to some of you and you don’t have to waste much time in searching for the sources.

General overview of Geography preparation

•   Read the syllabus thoroughly, nothing would be asked beyond the syllabus.
• Try to read topics common to Paper I and Paper II together. Like, if you are reading a topic of population Geography in Paper I, then the Indian population can be read together.
•   After completing a topic, I would try to answer the question paper of last 10 years related to that topic. Eg.  If I have completed Geomorphology, I would write questions on that topic before moving to another topic. This increases the confidence and fills the gap in preparation.
• I had diagrams for almost every topic and practiced them regularly.
• I prepared notes for the topics which were not given directly in the standard books, otherwise, I would underline them in the books itself. And revise from the books number of times possible.
• For map practice, I first tried to mark all the places asked in last 20 years. This helped as a number of places are repeated. Then I tried to practice at least two places daily from the newspaper.
• Indian Geography is more related to GS, thus while preparing current affairs, Geography Paper II should also be kept in mind.
• Revision is most important to get used to with geographical terms. This is possible only if you have limited sources and notes prepared.

Booklist 

Paper I

Physical Geography:

Geomorphology:  Geomorphology by Savinder Singh

Climatology, Oceanography: Physical Geography by Savinder Singh

Biogeography and Environmental Geography: Physical Geography by Savinder Singh, Rupa made simple book on the environment, Current events from Shankar  IAS notes, Down to Earth magazine and newspaper.

Human Geography: 

Thoughts: Majid Husain Geographical thoughts, RD Dikshit, Shabbir Sir notes

Economic Geography: Rupa series on economic geography

Population and Settlement Geography: Human Geography by Majid Husain

Regional Geography: Shabbir sir notes

Paper II (Indian Geography)

The static portion from D R Khullar, rest is mostly related to current issues and can be prepared along with GS.

Along with the sources, I have also subscribed to ExamRace channel on Youtube. Videos are available on almost all the topics of the syllabus and are also very simple to understand. I would suggest visiting the channel.

Another thing is that answer writing practice is a must for Geography. I took test series from Shabbir Sir this year. In 2013, I was able to score 66+121 and in 2015 the score was 106+117, and this year it was 171+155.

Answer writing in Exam:

There are two types of questions asked in the exam:

Direct: These questions require direct knowledge of geography. So they cannot be answered without revision or without using geographical terms. Edge over others can only be taken if the language is more similar to the geographical language and has more number of a relevant diagram.

Open Ended: These questions can be answered mostly based on having more number of dimensions. For example, dimensions can be increased by including a theoretical portion of Paper I in Indian Geography. Then using current examples can increase the dimensions.

It is important to distinguish between geography answer writing and GS answer writing. Geography’s answer cannot be similar though the questions may seem so. Answer’s in geography according to me should have relevant diagrams, maps, examples to support from world and India, use of thoughts of philosophers, and geographical terminology.

This all things can only become part of the answer only by reading, revising and practicing answer writing.

Map Questions: Map questions not only requires pointing out places in the map but also few words on those places. To write those words, few things can be applied like the economic, social, environmental or historical importance of that place. It is not necessary that every place is known to everyone but few words can always be written about that place if one has an even bleak idea about it. I may not know where Kudankulum is but if I have read it in a newspaper I can write few words on it.  So the point is that when you read about a place in newspaper try to remember it from Geography’s perspective too.

These were the few things I wanted to share. If anything is left and I am capable of answering, I would surely like to help. Please post your queries in the comments below.

Thank you,

Shweta Chauhan