WHY TO CHOOSE HISTORY OPTIONAL IN UPSC...

INTRODUCTION

History Optional is the second most popular subject amongst aspirants. Those with good ready skills generally tend to go for history optional. History in another term known as past. As we know that the past of anything places an important role to improve it’s present.

HISTORY OPTIONAL IN UPSC

History Optional develops a complete understanding about the country as it adds chapters from the Indian history. Having a clear base in history also helps an aspirant in the working of the country as they can learn from Indian history about the actions they should take in running an administration i.e dos and don'ts are clear.

So that there is no chance for repetition of mistakes done by the people of India which lead India in so much trouble in it’s past.

WHY TO CHOOSE HISTORY OPTIONAL?

History Optional also has it’s base in both mains and prelims. It is one of the most important subjects for the UPSC exam. It has a 90 percent static subject because it will never change it’s base in future.

The content learned in this subject will be never wasted and will always help in scoring better as the content is fixed. Even if anyone plans to give more than one attempt then History will add to their score and reduce their learning time because one will rarely find articles on history in newspapers. This subject is literature based which means unlike geography or other subjects it does not have much facts and figures making it easier to remember.

History can be read like a story of India’s journey from decades till today. Since questions are asked from history in both prelims and mains the burden on the aspirants reduces to some extent because a huge portion from History optional has been already covered in PRELIMS and GS PAPER

History also helps to develop an understanding of subjects such as Indian Polity, Indian economics, Governance, etc. History also helps to develop content for essay writing as well. One can always cite examples for the past to develop better clarity for the present. Leaving a good impression of the examiner about the information or knowledge an aspirant contains.

PROS AND CONS OF HISTORY OPTIONAL

Pros of history optional

• History is more about memorising the events and barely have concepts for understanding i.e there no difficult concepts, diagrams, etc. Which requires a deep understanding of an aspirant rather chapters in history are based on previous events which took place and can be memorized easily.

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• An aspirant with good reading skills generally enjoys history because it is more like a story from events that took place years back. Due to which it develops some kind of interest and curiosity in an aspirant to know more. There are even movies formed on the events occured in the past which help an aspirant to learn faster with visual story displays and can also help to distress their minds during the process of the journey.

• History has its base in all the levels of UPSC exam i.e from prelims till interview questions from history have been asked in frequent years. Since history is part of the compulsory subjects for the UPSC exam, the maximum portion of the history optional syllabus is covered in prelims and general studies paper. Reducing the burden of an aspirant and helping in improving results by increasing time efficiency.

  
  

• History also helps to develop an understanding in other aspects of lives and also in other subjects covered in UPSC exam such as economics, Indian-polity, socio-economy, etc. An aspirant can understand the roots of the formation of society, its working, its ideologies, traditions, etc. It also helped to understand international relations of the country that existed much before british rule as well.

• History also helps to develop base in essay writing and answer writing for many other subjects as well. As one can quote examples from history while explaining any topic in essay writing, polity, international relations, etc. Situations or examples from history helps to add volume to the essay and also helps to develop an impression on the examiner by showing ones in depth knowledge on various aspects of life.

  
  

• History has mainly a static part to learn an aspirant is not required to keep a regular track of current events like they have to in other subjects. History is helpful if someone is planning to appear again for the exam because history’s syllabus never changes or increases. History once covered will only require revision which does not demand for much time. History never changes nor will it change in any upcoming time as well.

Cons of history optional

• If an aspirant doesn't possess a reading habit or have weak mugging/grasping power then they may find history as boring or difficult to learn. Because history is more about learning events or happenings in the past and it lacks practical concepts.

  
  

• Scoring marks in history is a bit competitive. To score marks in history an aspirant must have good writing skills and speed both . Because history is about continuous events that occured in the past so one is expected to write extra or big answers to develop a link in the answer or to show their knowledge in a particular question to seek marks.

• History is like a litterature leading to varying marks score for an answer depending on the viewpoint of the examiner and an aspirant. If their views do not match then the examiner can deduct marks for the difference in ideology. More than subjective writing an aspirant is suggested to write objective answers including two or more aspects that can be implemented in the answer.

  
  

• The syllabus is quite vast with so many dates, names, etc of each event of importance that took place in the past. Though an aspirant is suggested to develop mind maps to remember all the happening and names of the ideals involved in those important happenings. Yet history lacks diagrammatic or numeric presentations in the answer to make it more attractive and scoring. Due to which an aspirant is suggested to have a good control on words or language used in answers.

EXPERT STRATEGIES FOR HISTORY OPTIONAL

Expert strategy can be easily referred to by various web content or web videos available by various institutes offering history optional coaching. But the most important thing is to develop one's own strategies which reference to the strategies given by experts. So who are experts? Experts here refer to an aspirant who have successfully cleared this exam with flying colours and reasonable ranks. Some of the common strategies followed by each of them are:-

• In history there is believed the older the book the better information is carried. So an aspirant is generally suggested to refer to old ncert books for class 9th, 11th and 12th to be more precise. Rest they can refer to new ncert books for 6th-8th class ncert and 10th class ncert books for developing a strong base in history optional.

  
  

• Mainly class 11th and 12th ncerts should be remembered word to word i.e ancient, medieval and modern history. Rest ncert books from other classes can be read for extra knowledge though mugging up each and every topic covered in those books are not relevant for the exam very few topics are taken for history optional. So an aspirant is suggested to make notes of relevant topics from that book. To avoid reading irrelevant content during revision.

• After covering ncert books an aspirant can also refer to the online content available on each topic on internet for in depth knowledge on important and relevant topics. They can refer to articles, debates, theories etc given by various writers on history to develop their vocabulary, knowledge, intellect and understanding in each topic. It also helps to understand different points of view of various historians.

• After referring to online content an aspirant must try to develop their own opinion as well on each topic read on the internet, in books, etc. And make notes of various case studies involved in history which can be beneficial while writing essays. Along with that an aspirant can always practice essay writing and try to incorporate studies from history to give value to their easy writing with real evidence and statics.

• Along with doing all these things an aspirant is suggested to make a glossary bank for history where they can add various glossaries to improve the quality of answer writing. They can also develop mind maps for various events, personalities, etc because the major difficult part in history is remembering dates of the events and names of various leaders involved in them but mind maps help to retain the content with pictorial representation. Mind maps also helps to reduce time involved in answer writing, increase clarity of concept, make an answer presentable, etc.

• After covering all the topics given above an aspirant most connect links between current happening and history i.e they must develop a link which will indicate how and what rule history played in development of country, trying to understand current events taking place with relevance in past, policies and programs made by government keeping in mind the success history of those policies in history etc. So an aspirant must always know the background of each event relevant for today which can be only possible by developing links between history and current events.

• History also plays an important role in social issues taking place in the country. Hence an aspirant must also develop a link between current social issues and history. For example, a major issue that generally takes place is reservation policies for various social groups. In this case an aspirant is suggested to have enough content from history to cite the real requirements and relevance of reservations kept in mind by the policy maker of the country. It will help an aspirant to fetch extra marks in exam.

BOOKS TO BE REFERRED

⮚ Ncert books

- Ancient India – RS Sharma

- Medieval India – Satish Chandra

- Modern India – Bipin Chandra

- 6th-10th new/old history books

⮚ Reference books

- Notes provided by institute (it can be any institute from where an aspirant is planning to take couching example CKVINDIA IAS institute)

- Ensemble- History Through Maps

- The study of civilization by Irfan Habib

- From Plassey to Partition and After A History of Modern India by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay

- Mastering Modern World History - Norman Lowe

- A History of the Modern World: An Outline by Ranjan Chakrabarti

ANSWER WRITING SKILL UPSC

Scoring marks in history optional is majorly dependent on answer writing skills of an aspirant. History contains enough content for an answer writing but an aspirant has a limited time with limited marks to be obtained for each answer. It is a complete responsibility of an aspirant to divide a contact on the basis of its importance and relevance for the question being asked. Example:- if a question asks to mention important freedom struggle movements that took place between 1858-1947. In this case an aspirant has to differentiate the most important struggles that took place by keeping in mind the weightage of the answer. So to deal with such issues of what to write? How much to write? Etc. Here are some points discussed below which an aspitrant can always keep in mind while attempting history optional paper. To come out with flying results. They are :-

• Keep the answer short and crisp. It simply means read the questions carefully and try to write exactly what they are asking. Some times in history aspirants generally tend to write extra content which may be irrelevant to that asked in question. Because in history there is huge content available on each topic. So out of that ocean of content one needs to find the relevant part for themselve. For example if a question briefly quotes struggle that turned to be a changing point for India's independence. Then it is very important to know which independence struggle turned out to be a changing point because there were many struggles taking place during the british rule but only a few were a huge success. So instead of quoting each struggle that one might remember during example will not fetch marks because it mentioned only struggle that turned to be a changing point in India's Independence like simon go back movement was one of the biggest independence movement or jallianwala bagh movement.

• Avoid paragraphs rather use pointers. Many times aspirants tend to write big big paragraphs for an answer which can be a big reason for scoring less marks in the exam. Because an examiner has thousands of answer sheets to check, hence having very less time to donate on each answer sheet. But paragraph reading requires enough time due to which an examiner might lose interest in reading one's answer and can give less marks for the same. So it is suggested to write an answer in a brief pointer with specified headings for each pointer which will help in the presentation of the answer sheet. Writing main headings for each pointer will help to score more and more questions because times if an aspirant lacks an explanation of the pointer but their heading is to the point. An examiner can avoid reading explanations and provide marks on the basis of heading itself assuming that the aspirant might be well aware about the content.

  
  

• Try using more flowcharts or mind maps in the answer writing. Sometimes history answer writing becomes more time consuming because content is too much to write. So it is suggested to an aspirant to use various mind maps or flowcharts for the explanation of answers and to save time in answer writing. A flow chart helps to reduce time involved in building answers or recalling content which have to be written in the answer sheet. Flow charts also help in making answers more presentable and easier for an examiner to check the answer sheet. By having a look at the flowcharts an examiner can easily have an idea about the knowledge one aspirant might carry. Making flow charts in the exam is part of smart work along with hard work.

  
  

• Differentiate header with the explanations by using black and blue pen. It is suggested that the main headers used in answer writing must be differentiated with the explanations for those headers. Becausing while checking an answer sheet examiner might be in a hurry to complete the bundle of answer sheets available with them so they might not go in detail of an answer and they might simply refer to the main header with one or two explanatory lines for the same. So while using black and blue pen in exam the header gets bold and can easily seek the attention of an examiner while checking the answer sheet. Scoring good marks in examiner is a need of an aspirant and it's not the need of the examiner to give good marks to the aspirant hence the aspirants have to fetch marks by keeping this point in mind and serving their answer with both quality and quantity. Leaving no scope for an examiner to deduct marks.

  
  

• Try to highlight important key terms used in the answer. Key words play a very important role in answer writing. It is not important to use high level english or hindi while writing an exam rather it is always suggested to use a basic vocabulary while writing an answer because using extraordinary words in an answer can irritate the examiner while he may be checking the answer sheet. Because it is not necessary that he may be knowing those high level vocabulary which may seem to be changing to them and can bother them if they fail to understand those vocabulary. But not using high level vocabulary doesn't mean that one can not use vocabulary that is present in the syllabus itself. So one must use technical key terms given by historians in various case studies, definitions, theories, etc. As these key terms will be well known by the examiner as well. And it will also show an aspirant's knowledge about various terms used in history by historians. And an aspirant can always mark such key terms in their answer sheet by simply underlining those key terms with different colour pen or pencil. So that they can easily bring those key terms in notice of an examiner.

  
  

• Make a note of abbreviations used in answer at the end of the answer. First of all it is suggested to avoid using abbreviations in examination because it leaves an informal impression on the examiner who may be checking the answer sheet and they may assume that the aspirant may not be serious while appearing for the exam. It can cause deduction of marks in their examination. Yet some times while writing answers in examination many people use various standard abbreviations which are known to everyone to avoid extra time used for writing complete words for example govt. (government), v/s (versus), temp. (temperature) and many more. Though such abbreviations are universally acceptable yet it is suggested to make notes of all the abbreviations at the end of the answer so that examiner may be impressed to see one's concern for them as this will indicate that the aspirant was not unaware about the complete speaking or word which must have been used at place of abbreviation rather they used abbreviation to save their time for completing their example properly. And notes also help an examiner to refer and understand abbreviations which he might not have come across earlier and which could lead them to deducting marks for not understanding what's written in the answer.

  
  

• Include more case studies or examples in answers. It is suggested to use examples and case studies in almost every answer as they help in explanation of the concept with applications in the real world. Examples help in developing a strong base for answer writing. It gives volume to the answer with relevant content on the other hand. It also helps to show the real understanding of an aspirant and his ability of applying his study in the real world which is the most important feature of an aspirant for civil services exam. Though examples may or may not carry marks in the answer writing yet they help in scoring better marks by increasing content and giving strong roots to the answer. Sometimes examples are also taken as a separate point and are marked completely in the exam. Questions where the difference in two concepts being asked example can also be included as one of the differences.

  
  

• Try to attempt all the answers in proper sequence and focus on the numbering of the answers. It is generally suggested to attempt all the questions in a given sequence so that at time when an examiner is checking your answer sheet he may not miss any of the answer because of lack of continuity in answer. Which may increase his frustration level and he may not will to check your answer sheet happily and may deduct marks at various points. Or he may miss on some question unknowingly leading to complete loss of marks there.

  
  

• Maintain a continuity of concept in the answers. It suggested developing a flow or continuity in answers by using conjunctions. So that while an examiner checks the answer sheet he must not feel that an aspirant is confused about what to write. Because when continuity in answer breaks it indicates that the apparent maybe unaware of the answer or concept asked in the example. Or he is trying to manipulate the examiner by using any content and by creating various pauses in the answer. It may also affect the scoring of the exam. The better the continuity in an answer the better the marks one can fetch for their answers. as continuity helps a read to maintain interest and understanding in the answer.

  
  

Try to stick to the word limits of the questions depending on the marks allotted for the same. Some time aspirants tend to write extra content in some answers due to which they lack in time management causing the incompleteness of exams or reducing the quality of the upcoming answers. It is suggested to stick to the word limit of each answer because word limits play a very important role in improving the quality of answers and developing proper time management while attempting the exam. leaving some extra time for answer presentation and final revision of the answer sheet before submission which helps to identify mistakes in the answers giving a chance of correction before submitting the answer sheet for final checking.