Neha Byadwal (AIR-260, CSE-21) Prelims, Mains and Economics Strategy

Hi All,

Neha Byadwal secured AIR-260 in CSE-21 i.e. her 2nd attempt. Following is her comprehensive strategy covering Prelims, Mains and Economics optional:

I am Neha Byadwal. I belong to Jaipur district of Rajasthan. I have secured AIR 260 in UPSC CSE 2021. This was my 2nd attempt and my optional is Economics. I secured a total of 285 marks in Economics optional this year.

You can contact Neha at her Instagram Profile or Telegram Channel.

Brief Background:

I have done my schooling mostly in Jaipur. Through JEE I took B.S. Economics in IIT Kanpur. Eventually I also did M.S. in Economics from IIT Kanpur itself. I graduated in 2019, and from there on, I started my UPSC journey. In my 1^st attempt, I couldn’t clear prelims due to my own mistakes in deciding on a strategy.

Preparation:

During my college years, I came into contact with some of my seniors who were already preparing for the civil services. I got to know what this exam demands and needs from an aspirant, but I couldn’t start reading as my college had a hectic schedule. It was only in the very last semester of my college, I began reading NCERTs, but couldn’t read more than 2, since I was pursuing masters and working on my thesis.

It was only after my graduation in May 2019, I started focusing entirely on UPSC preparation. I joined Vajiram & Ravi’s classroom programme along with optional coaching from Vajiram itself. I completed my classes in February 2020, just before our nation was put into the 24 days lockdown period. I came back home just before the lockdown. Amidst all the negativities during to the pandemic, my preparation was hit, I couldn’t complete a lot of things for the exam. So, I got anxious before the exam, and I panicked during the exam and as a result, I didn’t clear the exam.

Then I took some time off, and began preparing for CSE 2021, this time, I had clarity in my mind and a fixed number of sources to refer, along with a lot of practice. All of these things helped me clear this exam.

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All My Notes

Sample PDFs of Decode Ethics 4.0 Part-A & Part-B Books, Decode GS-2 Book & Decode History Book:

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Is Coaching Necessary?

I found coaching helpful in understanding the subjects from UPSC point of view. I only studied economics in my college, and had science background in my 11^th and 12^th, so I didn’t know much about polity, history and geography. Coaching also brings you in contact with other people and teachers who can help you in your preparation. But coaching is not sufficient, self-study and self-analysis is the most important component of the UPSC preparation.

Notes Making:

The strategy differs from person to person, I wasn’t into notes making, so I didn’t make notes. It was only after 4-5 reading, I made very short (5-6 pages) notes just for mains on very specific topics. I used to read from books and highlight important things in the books itself, and then I used to revise those highlighted sections again and again.

Notes making can help you in revising this giant UPSC syllabus, but only make notes after your 3^rd or 4^th reading, otherwise we tend to re-write the entire book.

MY GS SOURCES (PRELIMS + MAINS):

Polity	M. Laxmikant
Ancient History	Old NCERT by RS Sharma, Vajiram Yellow Book
Medieval History	Old NCERT by Satish Chandra, Vajiram Yellow Book
Modern History	Spectrum by Rajiv Ahir
Environment	Shankar IAS Book + current affairs (from monthly magazines)
Economy	I didn’t do anything special as my optional was also economics, I did Economic Survey and Union Budget, and some topics from Sriram IAS Notes. You can refer to Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh, NCERTs of 11th and 12th
Art and Culture	Nitin Singhania + 11^th NCERT
Geography	New 11th and 12th NCERTs, PMF IAS Notes (Selectively)
S&T	Monthly Magazines + Newspaper
Current Affairs	Vision Monthly Magazines + Newspaper (The Hindu)
Ethics (GS-4)	Lexicon, Vajiram Yellow Books
World History	Vision Notes
Indian Society	Vision Notes
Post-Independence India	Vision Notes
Social Issues	Monthly Magazines + Newspaper
International Relations	Monthly Magazines + Newspaper
Internal Security	Vision Notes
Disaster Management	Vision Notes

Essay:

There are no extra readings one has to do for essay. By covering the GS syllabus comprehensively, you already have enough content for writing a good essay. I started writing essay before prelims, once every 15 days, and then I used to self-evaluate by comparing them with the past year toppers’ essays.

I joined Forum IAS’s essay test series where I wrote 8 essays before mains to come out with my own way of dealing with all types of essays. The most important part of essay is to choose the topics wisely.

How to choose essay topic?

Read and re-read the topic to understand it, and if you are sure that you understand the topic, then only you should attempt it.
Choose a topic where you can expand your views in more dimensions.
If you can remember some poem, or story or some data, for a particular topic, and you have multi-dimensional views on it, you should definitely attempt it.

Economics Optional Strategy:

Since I had a background in economics, I was sure to take it as my optional. This optional has a very vast syllabus and requires a lot of understanding, but if you put efforts to read and understand economics, this optional rewards you more than proportionally.

My Optional Sources:

Paper 1 Sources:

Microeconomics: HL Ahuja’s ‘Advanced Economic Theory: Microeconomics’
Macroeconomics: HL Ahuja’s ‘Macroeconomics Theory and Policy’, Froyen’s Macroeconomics
Money-Banking: HL Ahuja’s ‘Macroeconomics Theory and Policy’
Public Finance: Public Finance by HL Bhatia, HL Ahuja’s ‘Macroeconomics Theory and Policy’, Public Finance in Theory and Practice by Musgrave and Musgrave (only to cover topics that are not covered in these two books)
International Economics: International Economics – Trade and Finance by Salvatore
Growth and Development: The Economics of Development and Planning – ML Jhingan, A.P. Thirlwall’s ‘Economics of Development’ (to cover topics not covered in Jhingan’s Book)

Paper 2 Sources:

For Post-Independent India: Uma Kapila’s Indian Economy
For Pre-Independent India: Tirthankar Roy’s ‘The Economic History of India: 1857-1947’ + some topics like land revenue systems from Modern History’s NCERT
Economic Survey and Union Budget
I followed Abhijeet Sinha Sir’s blog and Anurag Thakur Sir’s blog for their notes and strategies
I made notes on some of the topics

Optional Paper 1 strategy:

As I have already mentioned my sources above, I only referred to these sources + some google searches for certain topics.

Paper 1 is divided into 6 sub-subjects: Micro, Macro, Money-Banking, Public Finance, International Economics, and Growth & Development
I divided my preparation along these 6 subjects, for each subject my books were already defined and selected
I started with the basic reading of the books, without making any notes
I finished the 1st reading of all the Books of Paper 1 in 3-4 months
Then I looked for the Past year questions to see how much I can answer with the basic reading, then building up on that, I realised that there were many missing links in my preparation, with all these things in mind, I started the 2nd reading of the subjects
This time, I made notes of very specific topics + I referred to the toppers’ notes
I read and understood the models and theories very keenly until I was sure what they were about
I completed the 2nd reading in 1.5 months, then again, I attempted the past year papers, this time I could answer much more
This way I used to revise, then I used to solve the PYQs as they are the best source to prepare optional subject, nothing else can beat them!!

My Paper 2 strategy:

This paper haunted me more than anything. There is so much to cover and so much to remember which was not really my cup of tea. So, I’ll tell you what I did. I started preparing Paper 2 by looking at the syllabus word by word to understand the number of topics to be covered. Then I took the past year papers to see how many topics are coming from the syllabus directly, how many are going beyond it, and how much beyond. Then I started covering the syllabus topic wise gathering enough material on each topic to write a 250-words answer for the exam. I didn’t go beyond that because I couldn’t remember the data. My sources were limited as I have already mentioned. Additionally, I used to google search each topic and that way enough material was available to me + I used to refer to the toppers’ notes as they have covered the syllabus in an exhaustive manner. After I was done with my 1st and 2nd reading, I started attempting tests, practicing writing answers is very very important to remember the material and to present the answer in limited words. I would advise you all to make very concise notes for this paper and revise them regularly as this paper can be very scoring.

Optional Test Series and Answer Writing:

There is a lack of availability of material, coaching, and test series for economics optional. I joined Blisspoint’s test series, and gave all of my tests from home, since I was preparing from home. This test series helped me cover the syllabus entirely and gave a structure to my preparation by giving fixed timelines.

Answer writing is very important in optional, as reading and understanding is one thing, but applying it on paper is other. Practice the models and the related diagrams very carefully. Label the diagrams well.

How to choose questions in the optional paper?

Choose that question where you are very sure in atleast 2 questions, and partially sure in 1 question
Don’t attempt a question set where you have partial knowledge in all 3 sub-questions
Try to avoid GS-type questions that appear in Paper 2, go for the questions where you can show your specialised knowledge

Importance of Past Year Papers:

They are VERY IMPORTANT both for GS and optional, but more so for the optional as some questions get repeated. For optional, I solved all past year papers starting from the year 2001. Practice them in an exam mode to see what you can write in a limited time, and how well you can put your knowledge in those 250 words.

I hope my strategy helps you in your journey. I wish you all the best in your CSE preparations and hope you achieve your goal. Hope this blog helps!

Neha Byadwal (AIR 260, CSE 2021)

You can contact Neha at her Instagram Profile or Telegram Channel.

Other CSE 21 Topper Strategies:

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