How to make Notes for Civil Service Exam ?

“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war”

UPSC Civil Services Exam is the most prestigious examination in India. Those who clear it goes on to hold the reins of the entire country. Each year lakhs of candidates appear in the exam but only a few hundred make it to the final list. Therefore tough competition, vast Syllabus and limited time for preparation demand that studentslearn the art of making great Notes in order to save time, consolidating the Core ideas and eliminating ancillary information. As a result, it saves revision-time and helps in framing crisp and clear answers in UPSC Examination. Notes also help a student to shield himself from excess information burden and focus on only what is important from the exam point of view to ensure his success.

The first and foremost step in Note-making is to have a strong understanding of Official Syllabus and read from the most authoritative texts.

OFFICIAL SYLLABUS AS THE GUIDING LIGHT:

Try to wrap your mind around the keywords in the Official Syllabus and always formulate your notes in accordance with it. This will provide structure and definite patterns to your preparation.

READ FROM THE BEST SOURCES:

In this respect, NCERTs are the holy bible of preparation in UPSC. They are written with brevity and precision, hence there is no need to make notes of NCERTs. Instead, important information should be marked and highlighted in the book itself. Textbooks of the Graduation level courses are lengthy and need to be shortened into Notes.

What to ADD, What to DELETE:

Remember, UPSC is not about Rote Learning but about deeper Analysis of topics. Therefore the student should avoid noting excess information.

Instead, focus on the FIVE Ws: “What and Why and When And Where and Who” to have comprehensive coverage of topics in your notes.

ORGANISING NOTES:

Notes should be maintained in different sets of files and folders to arrange and streamline your preparation. This will reduce overlapping in your task.

While it is beneficial to compartmentalize the Notes but there should be a free flow of thought process across various fields in order to build a bigger picture in mind.

INTEGRATED NOTE MAKING:

There is no need to maintain different notes for Preliminary, Mains and Interview Level. Instead, Notes should be in an integrated format in order to build more holistic notes.

LESS IS MORE:

Full Sentence writing is a waste of time and it adds no extra value to the notes. Notes should be lean and in a bulleted format. Various pictorial representations such as Tables, Flowcharts, and Hierarchies should be used to represent more information in fewer words.

E-Notes v/s Pen-Paper:

Note-making on paper can help in improving writing skills but on the other hand, digital notes can allow easier editing and updating of new information. Therefore, it is suggested that a healthy mix of both is used.

KEEP YOUR CURRENT AFFAIRS ARSENAL READY:

Success in UPSC depends heavily on Current Affairs. Also, the correlation between static topics and current events is important to write well-rounded answers.

DON’T BE A COPY CAT:

Most importantly, just Copy-Pasting content from books is not Note-Making. Students have the bad habit of copying information from books verbatim. Later on, they struggle to recall and reproduce the content in the exam. It is the student’s responsibility to boil down what he has understood into simpler and smaller phrases. This should be done in the student’s own words.

CONSISTENT REVISION:

The other important part of the preparation is revising it over and over again. Without this, the whole purpose of note-making is defeated.

 Consistently updating the notes as and when needed is important and revising it periodically will yield maximum benefits.

DON’T REINVENT THE WHEEL

The downside of Note-making is that it is a tedious task and requires a lot of patience and discipline. Many students fall into the trap of making long notes and most of their year is consumed in this. As a result, their preparation suffers badly.

GS SCORE can help in circumventing this hectic process. A lot of research has been done in GS SCORE to understand the drift of the UPSC Exam. Therefore, a wise student would not waste time in preparing notes. Instead, he can rely on expert knowledge of leading institutes such as GS SCORE.

LEARN FROM THE LEADERS

Students should learn from those who are experts in this field. GS SCORE has put in years of hard work and expertise in developing a whole range of Comprehensive Study Materials and Notes for the entire preparation. We can reduce the burden of Notes-making and simplify UPSC Preparation. Students can go to https://notes.iasscore.in/ to check out more. These Notes are highly condensed and tailor-made to serve the needs of UPSC candidates. Support from GS SCORE will give a massive boost to your preparation and ensure your success.