Strategy to Cover Science and Technology for UPSC Prelims Exam

The number of questions in Science and Technology has increased fairly since past few years in UPSC CSE Prelims. UPSC is perhaps the only exam where candidate is expected to learn almost everything under the sun. The reason being the bureaucrats are the architects of various plans and policies and hold responsibility to make them execute so that the entire society could be benefitted. The emergence of various technologies and innovations are for the sake of benevolence of human society. The science and technology portion is considered as the trickiest portion in syllabus. Most of the syllabus of Science & Technology remains dynamic and based on current affairs and discoveries.  However only a tiny part deals with the basic knowledge of science that can be easily covered with NCERT Books. This article deals with the important methods and strategy need to be followed while covering Science and Technology for UPSC Prelims.

Science and technology has two parts .The first part i.e. General Science is mostly static in nature. This portion talks about basic terms and terminologies related to basic science. While preparing this portion aspirants should devote more time to biology rather than physics and chemistry. Recent trends reveal that in biology too one should be more focused towards human anatomy. The advanced portion such as Microbiology and biotechnology should never be skipped as these areas remain often in news.  This portion should also be linked with the dynamic portion i.e. Current Affairs. There are many advancement and discoveries in biotechnology field, various new policies have been framed by the government in this field too. All these new initiatives and policies should be dealt in detail.

The second portion is about technology section. This section is quite vast in nature and remains more unpredictable too. There are numerous discoveries and innovation that keep on happening on daily basis. It’s not possible to consolidate them all. So what to study and how to study becomes more important. By looking at the Previous Year Papers we can analyze the trends of questions easily and form the strategy accordingly. Questions asked by UPSC Prelims Exam are usually based on the latest Government missions, discoveries, scientific developments, etc. Due to this technology section should be aligned with the preparation of current affairs. There are some areas that should be focused while preparing this section

• Government policies and announcements related to Technology field should be memorized and important points should be noted down.
• One should know all about Technical terms and its practical implications. Technologies such as  RFID, GPRS, 4G, Internet of Things, Bluetooth, etc. must be familiarized and thoroughly studied
• Recent discoveries and inventions that bagged Nobel Prize.  One should get complete details of such inventions and innovations such as why it was important and how the humanity is going to reap benefits from this discovery etc.
• Other areas related to biotechnology, genetic engineering and issues related to this field.

The resources that should be followed to cover this section include Science and Technology section of the Hindu, Science Magazine such as Science Reporter and website of science and technology department. The aspirants should maintain a table  to keep a tab on such activities. Biotechnology section of NCERT Book should be read in detail and understand the basic and fundamental concept and terminologies. The questions on human diseases are often form a significant portion in UPSC Prelims Questions Paper. Diseases, cause, virus and bacteria that are responsible for these diseases, various issues pertaining to malnutrition and contagious diseases should be thoroughly studied and make notes accordingly. GS SCORE PRELIMS SAMPOORNA Yearly Current Affairs Compilation on Science and Technology can be very helpful in this regard. This compilation provides you with all the recent development at one place in lucid  language that can be easily recalled during examination.