Arpita Thube, AIR-214 CSE-22 Journey & GS Strategy

Hi All,

This is the 20th Topper Journey & Strategy post from the Batch of 2023. Arpita Thube has cleared CSE twice in 4 attempts, first with IPS rank and now, CSE-22 with IAS. Following is her detailed GS Strategy.

Introduction

This is Arpita Thube, AIR 214 in CSE 2022. I am currently an IPS probationer of Batch 2021 undergoing training in National Police Academy, Hyderabad. I am from Thane city of Maharashtra, have done my Electrical Engineering from Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai and my optional is PSIR.

You can connect with Arpita on her Instagram Profile or Telegram: arpita_thube

To give a brief about my UPSC journey, this was my 4th attempt. I began my UPSC journey since my 4th year of engineering days, then travelled to Delhi for coaching in GS and optional as I was clueless about the process. In my 1st attempt did not even clear prelims after a year long preparation so decided to give a full fledged 2nd attempt staying in Delhi . But as fate had it, COVID happened and I had to rush back home to Thane, from where I did all my self study and preparation and gave my 2nd attempt. Luckily I cleared the exam with AIR 383 and got into the prestigious IPS service. Since I had IAS as my first preference, I gave prelims but failed to clear it so ultimately I took leave from IPS and gave CSE 2022 attempt to clear this exam finally with AIR 214.

Detailed Strategy

There are certain common points that need to be kept in mind for this exam:

Always remember to go for a combined study plan for prelims and mains
Refer to the syllabus and pyq always before as well as during preparation
Consistency and daily schedule is a must to survive in this marathon exam

Marks in CSE 2020:

Essay -125
GS 1 – 89
GS 2 – 110
GS 3 – 90
GS 4 – 113
PSIR – 118 + 134
Interview – 157

Marks in CSE 2022:

Essay – 96
GS 1 – 111
GS 2 – 109
GS 3 – 85
GS 4 – 121
PSIR – 132 + 135
Interview – 190

I will be talking in detail about my GS strategy because I have a consistent good score in GS mainly:

Resources used for GS

GS1:

Ancient and medieval Hist – NCERT
Art and culture – Nitin Singhania
World Hist – vision summary book
Modern Hist – Spectrum
Post independence- pradhan mantri series + NCERT
Geo – NCERT + Rishikesh Reddy notes
Rest syllabus – Googled and made notes eg globalisation ,secularism etc

GS2:

Polity – Laxmikant + Mains 365 + SC judgements list + Committee recommendations
Governance – Atish Mathur website
IR – Mains 365

GS3:

Eco – SriramIAS + mains 365
Economic survey – vision summary
Budget – PIB
Agri – mains 365
Env – Mains 365
Internal security – Mains 365 + vision value added
Disaster Management – 2nd ARC + mains 365 + vision value added
Snt – mains 365

GS4:

OrientIAS summary book
Atish mathur case studies

Join here for free guidance from Mudit Jain, IRS CSE-17 (IPS CSE-14 & 15), Author of Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode GS2, Decode Ethics 4.0 & Decode History Books

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

Sample PDFs of Books: Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode Ethics 4th Edition, Decode GS2 & Decode History

Things common for all GS

Toppers copy referred to improve answer writing especially for ethics case studies
Compilation of data sets for each GS separately
Extensive diag and map compilation
Made all notes online on evernote and covered every topic of the syllabus
Create intro and conclusion templates for broad topics of the syllabus eg globalisation

Tips to improve answer writing

Focus on structure especially a proper intro, conc and hitting demand of the question
Introduction should be contextual to current affairs or include defn or dataset
Use the Q keywords as subheadings
Diag should be drawn in a proper labelled box
Use diag as much as possible apart from Geo Q eg in hist, in IR etc
In GS2, use SC judgements, committee recommendations and Articles of the constitution as much as possible
Complete all the questions and try to fill all the pages

Last but not the least coaching attended

For GS – Vajiram classroom classes
PSIR – Shubhra ranjan classes + crash course
For mains writing – Forum MGP year long prg + vision mains answer writing
For prelims – multiple class test series especially open tests
Current affairs magazine – vajiram (1st attempt ) , vision (2nd attempt ) and shunya IAS (3rd attempt )

All the Best !