Strategy for History

BLOG FOR IAS ASPIRANTS

Prince Dhawan's Blog

Strategy for History by Ms. Surabhi Malik (AIR-51)

In Uncategorized on August 14, 2012 at 14:41Vote of Thanks

Ms. Surabhi is one of the few people who are true at heart and say what is in their minds. She specially called me up to appreciate my effortsin the building up of this blog for the benefits of aspirants. At that time, I requested her to take some time out and write a post onPreparation of History Optional subject for which I had already received many requests from the readers. She readily agreed and respondedpromptly by emailing me the write-up within 24 hours. I was so touched and moved by her enthusiasm to help that I have no words to thankher enough. I feel her tips would be very useful for all the candidates especially because authentic sources for guidance in History arelimited. I thank Ms. Surabhi on behalf of all the candidates once again for her efforts. She would try and reply to some queries that you postbut please bear with the delay in her responses.

Strategy for History Optional

This is a subject where strategising becomes paramount; since the expanse of the syllabus itself appears insurmountable. Since you arepreparing for exam purposes here and your primary objective is not, presumably, the ‘love of learning’ , it becomes important to begin, as Ilike to put it, backwards.It’s best to analyse the question papers spanning at least a decade; questions before that are too simplistic to have a fair chance of appearingin the same form again. So, I would suggest compartmentalising questions based on chronology. That gives us a fairly expansive scale of

About these ads (h-p://en.wordpress.com/about-these-ads/)

Strategy for History by Ms. Surabhi Malik (AIR-51) | Prince Dhawan's Blog http://princedhawan.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/strategy-for-history-by-ms-surabhi-malik-air-51...

1 of 3 30/06/2014 9:19 PM

topics to focus on. Second, when preparing a particular topic from a book or notes, it’s important to cover it in entirety– i.e. think of allpossible aspects of a situation that you can be questioned on. Apart from facts, focus on ‘whys’– why civilisations crumbled, how differentwas their end to another’s end. ‘How’ religious policies contributed to administration, art and architecture. Focus on analytical questions,but be clear about facts. Only when there is clarity of facts relating to different periods can you handle a question that seeks to highlight thedifferences and similarities therein. You must be clear in your head what the basic differences between different civilisations are. Thissuggests a panoramic view of history along with some microscopic treatment. Last year, there were some descriptive questions like Khilji’smarket reforms, etc– and these are very standard questions that serve as bonus for an exam-taker. Don’t be caught off-guard on suchquestions.For books, I began with ‘Modern India’ by Bipin Chandra, supplemented by ‘India’s struggle for Independence’ by Bipin Chandra,Mukherjee, Panikkar. Spectrum’s book on Modern India that people use for the prelims is also a storehouse of facts! For Ancient India, Ireferred to ‘Ancient India’ by R.S. Sharma (a wonderfully concise book where every single word is important) and supplemented sparsely by‘The Wonder that was India’ by A.L. Basham. Romila Thapar’s treatment of ‘Ashoka’ is venerated in Indian historiography. For MedievalIndia, I found Satish Chandra’s two volumes on Medieval India quite sufficient.Apart from this, another famous standard text is ‘An Advanced History of India’ by Majumdar, Raychaudhuri and Du-a.Personally, I got some history notes from Mr. Hemant Jha in Delhi. I found them very useful for filling in important gaps in my knowledge.He covers different aspects of topics and questions remarkably well, with regard to extra information and facts. Be aware though, you shouldbe reading standard texts for improving your answer-writing abilities.As a part of my strategy, I covered the Indian History very exhaustively and was a li-le selective for World History. I do not necessarilyrecommend this, since it is generally thought that the questions on World History are more straightforward than questions on Modern India.I did so because my comfort level with Indian History was greater and I felt confident of being able to tackle tricky questions. In my selectivestudies on World History, i followed Mr. Hemant Jha’s notes as well as ‘Modern World’ by K. Krishna Reddy. There are other be-er books,you should google and look some of those up. I focussed on European History and the Revolutions in particular as I saw a repetition ofquestions in these topics.For Map, there are books available in the market with a large number of map sites and I’m afraid there’s no short cut there. You really haveto learn to mark all of them on the map and learn atleast 3 things about each place.Finally, remember to set targets and achieve daily goals! Anything left over tends to add up dangerously in History. Remember you will bewriting 4-5 page answers, and when you have covered an ‘aspect’ of a question that satisfies that word limit, move on. You’re not here to dospecialised research on one particular area. While answering questions, your introduction and conclusion should be impressive. While Ipersonally used my introduction to explain the se-ing and context of the question, I used my conclusion to summarise my answer and placeinto perspective the direction that my answer took. Make sure it’s insightful; that’s half the ba-le won! All the best to everyone!


2 of 3 30/06/2014 9:19 PM

You May Like

1.

▶ 30 Responses

Blog at WordPress.com. The DePo Masthead Theme.

Follow

Follow “Prince Dhawan's Blog”

Powered by WordPress.com


3 of 3 30/06/2014 9:19 PM

Documents

Strategy for History