Anjali Shrotriya (AIR-44, CSE-21) Geography Strategy

Hi All,

Anjali Shrotriya secured AIR-44 in CSE-21 with Geography Optional. She has already shared her detailed Prelims and Mains Strategy and following is her Geography Strategy:

My Journey towards UPSC:

I am Anjali Shrotriya. I come from the city of Indore, MP. This was my 4^th attempt and 2^nd interview at UPSC. I have secured AIR-44 in UPSC CSE-2021. I would be sharing my strategy for the preparation of Geography optional. My scores in Geography were 263 (2020) and 276 (2021).

You can contact Anjali at her instagram profile or Telegram Channel

Before starting the preparation, I read the geography optional syllabus and I also went through many blogs of the toppers for the same. I decided to take geography because of the fact that it is science backed optional with less memorization and more focused on understanding aspect (however, later I realized everything needs to be learnt by heart :P). Also drawing was one of my strengths so I thought by taking geography I would be able to draw maps and diagrams with ease. With this belief I took geography. It might sound naive, but I am grateful I chose the subject because ultimately, I fell in love with geography.

My booklist and sources for geography:

Paper-1:

Geomorphology: Savinder singh
Climatology: DK lal
Oceanography: Savinder Singh
Biogeography and Environment geography: Savinder singh and Rupa made simple books.
Perspectives: RD Dixit and majid hussain. Referred sudipta adhikari for some topics.
Models and theories: Majid hussain and K siddharth
Regional planning: No book.
Population and settlement: No book.
Economic geography: No book

Paper-2:

Referred DR Khullar book and RC Tiwari for Indian geography.

Answer writing in geography:

I used to follow the format of Intro- Diagram/Flowchart/Schema- Body (addressing each subpart)– Conclusion. Remember for 10 marks at least 1 diagram, 15 marks 2 diagram and for 20 marks 3 diagrams are must in geography. Maps and Diagrams are the heart of geography. These will help you to cross that 250 hurdle in geography.

Example:

Factors responsible for Airmass modification – I made the world map depicting the airmass across the globe and 1 diagram of Lake effect.
Similarly in question on Gene pool centre – world map can be drawn
Hazards associated with rise of Sea temperature – I made diagram of world map showing the Sea level rise across the world like in Indonesia, Maldives, Bangladesh and also showed areas facing hurricanes and tropical cyclones etc
Ecosystem services of Himalayas: I made a diagram of Himalayan region in Asia and marked various rivers, glaciers that emanate and also marked the biodiversity essential for providing various services.
Plate tectonics question: I drew world map of plates, also drew diagrams of continental drift and isostacy.
Soil Erosion and degradation: I drew a world map depicting the area most degraded like SAHEL in Africa etc.

2. Make a separate copy for diagrams: 1 for Physical and other for Human geography. This will help you to revise diagrams towards the end.

3. Always remember to include the Human geography in answers wherever possible. For example: Major factors influencing the varied precipitation patterns apart from natural reasons I mentioned anthropogenic and Climate change also as a reason.

4. There is a myth that doing more of human geography will give more marks. I did 2 questions from Section A (Physical geography) and got 142 marks. There is no such thing. Please do the questions where you feel completely confident. Do not go into the exam hall with a pre-decided mindset. Take a call after having looked at the question paper.

5. Syllabus is the guide: Follow the mnemonic: GEBCO- PRAIT CSPR (Pratham Sir). Try to write answers in this frame work by picking each unit of the syllabus. This helps to generate more points and brings diversity

6. Synopsis and short notes are must: Compress each unit of geography in 30 pages maximum. I could not do for all topics. But I guess on Mudit Sir’s blog he has short notes for all units. I referred those short notes. It helps a lot in revision. Attaching a sample of short notes.

Biogeog Download

7. Importance of geographers: I had prepared list of all the important geographers, their books, years and their contribution and wrote in like 5- 6 pages in a tabular form. From every unit there must be some 20 such important geographers and book we can quote. This makes our answer sound academic and geographic.

8. Map pointing questions: I did all the previous year entries and many coaching institutes release list of imp places towards the end. Pls go thru all of them. It will help a lot. Do not leave map pointing. It comprises important 20 marks and is the start of P-2 which is essential to set a good impression on the examiner.

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Ethics book referred by CSE 22 Toppers: AIR –76, 91, 176, 189, 249, 288, 297, 299, 326, 356, 476, 541, 611, 616, 700, 737, 739, 746 & others

History book referred by CSE 21 Toppers: AIR – 44, 212, 572, 653 & others

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9. Importance of memorisation: Most imp part of the exam. Everything should be on tips. Here, short notes come to the rescue. Revise every topic atleast 10 times before actual mains.

10. Importance of PYQ: Most important. I had a friend and a group of mine from where I sourced all the PYQ and used to brainstorm with my friends. We had prepared and discussed almost all PYQs of geography. This is a very imp exercise. It helps us know the pattern of questions and prepare accordingly.

Paper 2:

Refer DR Khullar and RC Tiwari. Static portion is covered here. I made my notes since the book is too bulky. I also had notes from my class room coaching and enrichment batches. I appended them too.

For Current affairs: Down to earth and Geography and you are good magazines to enrich one’s answers. Current affairs make our answers more dynamic and also provide good content along with examples. These magazines can be read selectively for exam. Read Mains 365 for Envt ecology and it will help here too. Case studies can be prepared from the same sources.

Schemas: for questions wherever maps are not possible some schemas or diagrams can be innovated:

Toppers answer copies: best source to have good value addition in ones answers. I used to take diagrams and other important content. Ajay Jain sir (Rank 12) copies and Mudit sirs copies I took help from. Also referred to Shubham Bansal sir’s copies. I used to have a repository of such diagrams from different copies.

My teachers and coachings that I took help from:

1. Shabbir sir: Foundation class , Mains support program (2018,2019,2020,2021), Mains enrichment classes (2018 2019 and 2020) , Geography mapping classes. My base was very solid. Thanks to shabbir sir. He is ana amazing teacher. I was fortunate to be a prt of his closed group. He checked all my answers and made me write almost 700 answers in a span of 2 years. I always joined his classes when I couldn’t clear prelims in 2018 and 2019.

2. Sachin Arora sir : Did World geography classes (was an eye opener), Masterstroke test series (one of the best) , attended few classes of topics I found difficult. Followed him for this attempt on unacademy as well. He has amazing diagrams. I literally copied them in my notes.

3. Atyab Ali sir (IASBABA): Got associated with him in 2020 and 2021. He was kind enough to go through my answers and pint the nitty gritties. Also last year subscribed to IASBABA geography foundation class and saw the videos before mains results came out. Atyab sir has a novel way of teaching and I made notes out of his class. Very nicely he has dealt with all topics. Went through all the test papers and solutions of their test series. He is always approachable for all doubts and guidance. He helped me a lot with my interview too.

4. Himanshu sir: 500+ classes and notes

5. Shankar IAS: Took Karthikeyan sir’s test series this year. I couldnot write tests but went thru all the solutions. I found the solutions and questions very good.

6. Special mention:

Mudit Jain sir (Ex-IPS and IRS now): His blog is amazing. From here I read Pratham sir’s strategy, accessed Mudit sir’s notes and test copies and got to read many more toppers strategy for geography.
Satyam Choudhary Sir (IRS 2020 Batch) : He was a constant support . He went through my answers and gave me a perspective on answer writing I was unaware of. His knowledge and interlinking is great in geography. I learnt a lot from him..
Shikha Vatsa madam: She helped a lot with my answer writing and prelims.
Dimple nankani madam: I had all her notes of geography. Very concise and very helpful. I used her notes for all the topics almost. She helped me with PYQs and all my doubts.

It might seem a lot. But this was across for 4 years. I always wanted to improve and get that 1/2 marks more. So I tried to learn from all the teachers around. It worked for me. But its not necessary that one has to join all the classes. People manage to get top scores even without coaching’s. For me I always needed some external push hence I took all the help I wanted.

At the end, there is a perception that geography is not yielding marks. This is not true. I believe with right strategy one can easily score good marks in geography too. The over-reliance on books and typed material needs to be done away with and innovation has to be brought in answers that’s all. I also have a telegram channel (I am sharing the link below). I will be uploading all my answers and notes of geography here. Link to the channel.

You can contact Anjali at her instagram profile or Telegram Channel

Other CSE 21 Topper Strategies:

DecodeCivils by Mudit Jain