IAS Prelims 2016:GS Paper I:Tips for Indian and World Geography

In Indian and World Geography Syllabus for IAS Prelims Exam Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World has been mentioned. The share of Geography in previous year’s exams has been consistent from 16-18%. Most of the questions have been asked from Indian Geography followed by Physical Geography.  Below is the trend of previous year’s exams.

•    The importance of economic geography especially agriculture, environment geography and human geography is increasing.
•    The location of various biosphere reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, wetlands and rivers has been asked.
•    The importance of climatology, hydrosphere and atmosphere is increasing. Particularly, questions related to monsoon, ocean currents, cyclones and El Nino have been asked frequently.  
                           The Indian Geography should be prepared thoroughly. Aspects of Physical Geography such as Oceanography and Climatology should also be prepared in relation with the Indian Geography.

•    As the importance of Economic, Human and Environment Geography is increasing, so a dynamic preparation is needed to be done in topics such as agriculture, industry, transport, population changes, biosphere reserves, wetlands, natural hazards etc.
•    The distribution of landforms, soils and vegetation and types of climate in various part of the world should be covered.
•    Physical Geography should be done thoroughly as it helps to understand the fundamentals of geography and helps to apply the logic in other sections of geography.
•    Topics such as energy crisis are also becoming more relevant, so UPSC may ask questions on topic such as bio-fuels, bio-diesel, alternates sources of energy etc.
                   
             Most of these topics could be covered from NCERT books of class 6th to 12th.  The Human and Economic part should be stressed more while preparing from these books. For thorough preparation of Physical Geography, the aspirants should go through Physical and Human Geography by GC Leong. Various topics of Indian, World and Physical geography should be studied in relation with one another and should be interlinked while preparing. The aspirant should not start making notes before completing second reading, so that he is well-versed with the fundamentals before doing this exercise. This would help in quick revision just before the exam.

Click Here for Previous Year Questions of Indian Geography and World Geography
                         
The Candidates can share their preparation related Issues and experiences in IAS/PCS group of Myjosh.