The subject of Indian politics and constitution has dominated all three rounds of the IAS exam: preliminary, mains, and interview. Aside from understanding the Indian Constitution, aspirants aspiring to appear in the civil services test must be well-versed in the fundamentals of our political system.
The most recommended book for studying polity is M Laxmikanth’s “Indian Polity.” It is regarded as a bible for the preparation of the polity part for both the Prelims and Mains GS Paper-II examinations.
For most UPSC aspirants, however, the sheer amount of this book may be daunting. So, we have provided a guide for you to go about the book most effectively and retain all the important topics which will be utterly useful when you sit for the exams.
First Reading Should Be for Basic Understanding.
Don’t try to memorize everything all in one go; it’s usually much easier to read through the chapters and then correlate them later after you’ve gotten a good overview of the entire book’s content.
Co-relate the topics in the second read.
You’d be surprised at how easily you can understand and remember many of the book’s key points after only reading it once, and it would now be easier to correlate the topics with one another
Now it’s time to note things down.
The second reading is where you should grab a pen and paper and start taking notes on various topics, try to make mind maps, and prioritize visual information so you can remember it later when you look over your notes.
Refer to previous year’s papers and mock tests.
To determine the important topics, solve various previous year papers and take mock tests, and then return to the text and your notes to devote more time to those sections that are important.
Repeat the steps at least 2-3 times.
Revision is the key to passing any exam, so make sure you go over all of the crucial sections again and again, as well as reread the book once or twice to keep everything fresh in your mind.