Geography Strategy for UPSC Prelims 2021

After delving into strategy for preparation of history, art and culture, polity economy and science and technology today we are going to discuss the planning and strategy of the most salient and fundamental pillar of UPSC Civil Services Prelims Exam i.e Geography. Geography is a subject that is considered as ineviatable portion of civil services exam. The relevancy and importance of geography can be assessed from the fact that in the marking scheme of prelims exam a decent score has been given to this subject. Previous Year Paper trend reveals that number of questions keep on varying every year related to this subject. However this trend follows for other subjects also. UPSC keeps on surprising aspirants by increasing or decreasing the weightage of particular subject .Keeping this in mind one need to be careful regarding his preparation strategy and planning. The fundamental pillar subjects  should be more focus oriented and should not be ignored or left behind at any cost.

Before defining the contours of preparation and planning strategy we must define practical and parallel boundary lines within which our preparation lies. The two boundary lines that an individual should keep in mind are the syllabus set by UPSC and previous year prelims questions.

The syllabus of Geography for the UPSC Preliminary Examination consists of  mere nine words -‘Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World’. Though the syllabus seems quite short but actually it is having many dimensions concealed in it . Each and every word is a syllabus in itself . This makes the subjects quite wider and elaborative. If one go unplanned he can exhaust himself refreing to different books for different fields. Most suited approach here will  be a consolidated and to the point approach  that can make your preparation easier and collaborative.

If your motive is to qualify the civil services exam, then your focus should be on integrated study rather than individual study. The consolidated approach for prelims and mains would be fruitful in this regard .

The questions asked in the prelims will be of two types. The first type will include questions to check an aspirant’s basic knowledge of the fundamental issues of geography. In broad sense this is more or less static in nature . In the prelims, there will not be any straight questions on the fundamentals or issues related to the core topics of the subject. The questions are formed in a way to test ones basic understanding of the subject. Hence, mugging the topics will not help. One must understand the concepts and have a practical approach towards it.

The second set of questions will be on contemporary events that forms the dynamic nature of questions. There are two kinds of questions related to current affairs that can be asked in geography. It will either be related to a place or a natural calamity. The questions pertaining to place (location) might be slightly difficult, but there is only a subtle difference between each question. Refering to a good atlas can sail you through the exam easily. Keeping a track of news is quite important to have a thorough knowledge of it. If you have been reading newspapers well and watching news channels, it will be a cake walk for you.

However the entire exercise could become easier by following GS Score compilation on Geography. Prelims Sampoorna Yearly Current Affairs Compilation Of Geography helps you to consolidate static and dynamic portion in one go and you need not to go through multiple books and resources for the same. This compilation will not only save your time but it will help you to assimilate all the relevant content related to geography in single go.