How to prepare Science & Technology for IAS Prelims

Science and Technology have become a scoring subject under the UPSC CSE Prelims examination as the number of questions has increased fairly in past few years. UPSC is considered the toughest exam and perhaps the only exam where a candidate is expected to learn almost everything under the sun. The reason behind it is that the bureaucrats actively take part in various plans and policies and hold the responsibility to make them execute so that the entire society could be benefitted. The emergence of beneficial technologies and innovations is used for the sake of the benevolence of human society. And the age of the digital world, bureaucrats have to be aware of the basics of these technological innovations for effectiveness and a better administration.

In UPSC CSE Exam, the science and technology portion is considered the trickiest portion in the syllabus. The majority of the syllabus of Science & Technology remains dynamic and based on current affairs and discoveries.  Nonetheless, a significant part also deals with the basic knowledge of science that can be easily covered with NCERT Books. The present article deals with the important methods and strategies which need to be followed while studying Science and Technology for UPSC Prelims.

Science and technology paper has two parts.The first part i.e. General Science is generally static. This section includes the basic concepts and phenomena of science. While preparing, aspirants need to devote a good amount of time to the clarity of concepts as it would make the way for the further sections much easier. Basic physics and biology is asked frequently. In Physics, the most basic questions from topics such as light, electromagnetism, laws of motion, basics of space science,etc are mostly being asked. In biology, a good number of questions from Microbiology, Biotechnology, Cell, and its organelle, Health and diseases, Basic phenomena such as respiration and photosynthesis, have been asked in the previous examination.This portion should also be linked with the dynamic portion i.e. Current Affairs. There are many advancements and discoveries in the biotechnology field, various new policies have been framed by the government in this field too. All these new initiatives and policies should be dealt with in detail.

The second portion is about technology and its applications. This is quite vast and remains more unpredictable as it is more dynamic. Some numerous discoveries and innovations keep on happening on daily basis. It’s not possible to consolidate them all. In this situation, it becomes quite important that what should be studied and how. By looking at the Previous Year Question Papers we can easily deduce out the trends and form the strategy accordingly.

Certain specific areas should be focused on while preparing this section:

• Government policies and announcements that are related to the Technology field should be memorized and important points should be noted down.
• Important Technical terms and their 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. 
• Other areas related to genetic engineering, biotechnology,and issues related to this field.

For preparing the dynamic section comprehensively, aspirants may refer to several good sources such as newspapers, Science magazines, government websites, some science-related websites, etc.

A small detail of the suitable sources is given below:

• Science Daily
• The Hindu
• Indian Express
• Ministry of Science and Technology
• gov.in
• NASA
• Down to earth
• GS Score Prelims SAMPOORNA

The aspirants may follow other sources apart from the above-listed ones. Students should maintain a table to keep a tab on any related activities.

For studying the static part, NCERT Book should be read in detail with the understanding of the basic concept and terminologies. The questions on human diseases are often being asked and form a significant portion in UPSC Prelims Questions Paper. Aspirants should study the basic concepts thoroughly 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 combines all the recent development in a very lucid language that is easy to be recalled during the examination.