Poltical Science as your optional

Politics has become so intertwined with our day to day life, that it is but natural that candidates it is but natural that candidate feel attracted towards this subject .

• Study materials, books and efficient guidelines are easily available for this subject
• Candidates with a good command over language and powerful presentation may get more than 60% marks.
• Preparation of modern Indian Constitution, national and international events. can be easily prepared from which questions worth 300 marks is asked in the G. S. Paper. So candidates are left concerned with preparing for statistics, science & technology and economics & geography sections of the G .S. paper.
• Some essay topics also overlap with some sections of Political Science thereby making it easier for the candidates.
• Students of science, commerce and engineering stream find political science examination friendly and students of art stream prefer this subject more as second optional.

So, here is a glimpse about the syllabus, books and study strategy for this subject. Some part of the syllabus for preliminary and mains are same but for mains it must be more elaborate. Questions on international relations are asked in the mains only. For both the examinations, a different outlook and strategy is a must.

Now we will discuss the necessary study materials and study strategies.

Preliminary Examination :
Syllabus for this exam is divided into two parts (1) Political theory (2) Government. In the first part, we study different political theories, assumptions, democracy, state origin, theory and functions.

In the part of "government" we study the form of different types of government, national movement, constitutional development, Indian constitution and its comparison with constitution of some other countries.

Study Strategy : In Prelims, questions based on concepts are being asked. So the intensive study of the subject becomes necessary. If candidates concentrate on some points they would understand easily that different parts of the subject are interrelated.

If the books of Vedalankar's or Prabhudatt Sharma's Political Philosophy is read along with the book of Ashiravadam this sense is understood. When you are reading these books, keep question papers of the previous years with yourself, underline the parts where you find important matters, because these help during the final reading. Then you can pick up "Indian Government and Politics" of J. C. Johri and Constitution of India of D.D. Basu. The way your more than 90% syllabus for the prelims would be covered. Nearly 100 cut of 120 questions in prelims could be found in the books of Ashirvadam & Johri. In recent years questions from modern political theory, comparative politics and development have asked. Answer these questions carefully and do go through a standard book of comparative politics. Generally you should score nearly 325 marks in your prelims along with G.S. paper. This means nearly 100 questions of Political Science must be done correctly.

Main Examination
Next step is to start preparing for the mains examination.

Syllabus of this is fairly extensive. In Paper I, questions from political theory and Indian government & politics are asked. In Paper II. Questions related to political theories in respect of international relations, Indian and western political thoughts, comparative political science are asked.

In the topic Indian Government and Politics, main issues are different organs in the modern political setup and political changes in the developing nations, modern Indian political thoughts, freedom movement, Constitution of India and multifaceted changes due to impact of free India's new administrative system.

In paper II, topics related to international political theories, systems foreign, Cold War alignment, world economic order, international law, international organisations, arms race, atomic energy and its impact, strategic problems of Asia, foreign policy of powerful countries, third world countries and India's foreign policy are discussed in detail. First paper is more important from the marks point of view. Political theories are also mark fetching in the second paper, but students generally have some reservations about it.

According to examiners, main problem arises with students not picking the proper and contemporary examples. So your marks in this paper depends upon your grip over international happenings, expressions and citing relevant examples.
If you are efficient on this front, then you can score well. A point to be noted here is that the media reports and analysis of international happenings are generally concerned with current scenario but students have to answer such questions in broader perspective such as impact on different nations and communities, its historical background and relation with international theories and philosophy. Candidates often tend to leave out the portion of Cold war, Nonalignment, Colonialism and international organization assuming that they are not 'hot' enough. But it is a mistake. Also, determinants of foreign policy, New Economic Order, West Asia, South Asia, and Indian foreign policy are very important as more mark fetching questions are asked from these topics.

Some important tips
(1) Compulsory question should be taken up last as these requires more time due to their relation with deferent topics.
(2) Firstly take the question about which you are very confident.
(3) Allocate proper time to each question.
(4) Take care of your writing presentation and understanding of the answer.
(5) According to needs data, and diagrams should be used.
(6) Take care of word limit.

Recommended reading list
(1) Political Thought - Hari Datt Vedalankar or P. D. Sharma or G. H. Savine
(2) Political Theory - O.P. Gupta, Gyan Singh Sandhu, Ashirvadam, Pant-Gupta- Jain, M.P. Jain
(3) Comparative Politics - C. B. Gaina
(4) Modern Political Theory - S. P. Verma.
(5) Indian Govt. & Politics - J.C. Johri, Sushila Kaushik
(6) Indian Political Thought - V. P. Verma
(7) Indian Political System - S.M. Syde or K.R. Bombal or J.C. Johri
(8) Indian Constitution - D.D. Basu
(9) Our Parliament - Subash Kashyap
(10) International Relation - B.L. Fariya.
(11) One magazine of international politics such as Economist and regular watching of international news channel such as BBC, CNN etc.