UPSC Preparation: Psychology optional tips by Prabhav Joshi (AIR 23)

Prabhav Joshi (AIR 23) gives tips on Psychology as an optional in IAS

SUBTOPIC 0: My Brief Profile

Hey! I am a graduate in Chemical Engg. from BITS Pilani. I have consistently scored well in Psycho: 217 in 2012 and 249 in 2013(which propelled me to AIR 23). I fell in love with psychology at the first sight reading and enjoyed preparing the subject to the core!


SUBTOPIC 1

Psychology as an optional

Pros
1) Very very interesting subject to study. Everyone I have come across finds this optional interesting without fail. I think interest in the optional should be the prime criteria for choosing any optional because when you are passionate about something you will enjoy the whole process.
2) Has been fairly scoring over the last 4/5 years. No fear of getting butchered because its no more a mass optional like pub ad and geo
3) Direct application of lot of concepts paper 1 in paper 2 reduces the amount of mugging required.
4) Techniques learnt while reading topics like memory, intelligence, motivation etc can be applied in your UPSC preparation.
5) From stress management to effective parenting, the subject has lots to offer for implementation in everyday life too... Even In case you do not succeed, you would have learnt something valuable in life!

Cons

1) Dearth of material in certain topics, especially in paper 2.
2) The syllabus is a bit lengthy with 28 chapters.
3) Scoring in paper 2 is little subjective and unpredictable.

SUBTOPIC 2

SOURCES




Paper1 : NCERTs (11th and 12th ) Baron, Ciccarelli, Pathak Sir's notes-class notes and printed material, Morgan and King (selected topics), lot of internet research.
For statistics: People read A.K. Singh, Aron Aron Coups( I could not refer to these) Paper2: NCERTs (11th and 12th ) Smarak Swain, Encyclopaedia of Applied Psychology, Pathak Sir's notes-class notes and printed material+ lot of internet research
Some useful websites (for reference in selected topics, if time permits)
1) IGNOU material on Egyankosh 2) http://about.psychology.com/ 3) http://psychcentral.com/
4) http://www.psychologytoday.com/


SUBTOPIC 3

ROLE OF COACHING

1) Coaching is helpful in the initial stages specially to those students like me who do not have a background in psychology
2) The drawback with psychology is that Mr. Pathak has virtual monopoly in psycho coaching. He teaches well but takes a hell lot of time and also leaves many areas untouched-specially in paper 2. PATHAK SIR’s NOTES ARE NOT ENOUGH EVEN FOR THOSE AREAs WHICH HE COVERS WELL!
3) Dont just vomit Mr. Pathak’s notes as every student of psycho writes from those
4) Test Series: Pathak sir’s is best but he conducts only few tests and checking is irregular. Vision IAS’s is Okish. Dont even think of joining others


SUBTOPIC4

Answer writing
1) CITING CASE STUDIES/EXPERIMENTS/EXAMPLES/NEWSPAPER REPORTS/ DRAWING DIAGRAM ADDS A LOT OF VALUE TO THE ANSWER-specially in paper 2. Quote as many as you can. No need to remember the researcher’s name but the crux of the study should be written.
2) Form a group of 3-4 students and get your answers peer reviewed. Especially needed for paper 2.
3) Joining a test series is beneficial

SUBTOPIC 5

Dealing with Paper 1
1) Ensure that you have a good command over paper 1 : the concepts of paper 1 are foundations of paper 2
2) Beware of chapters on statistics. They have become UPSC’s favourite and require extra efforts.
3) Certain topics are being asked repeatedly: working memory, intrinsic motivation etc prepare them well!
4) Important chapters: Issues in modern psychology, statistics part, personality, attitude values and interests

SUBTOPIC 6

Dealing with Paper 2
1) Root your answers in theory. Please do not write what YOU feel instead write the psychological concepts/theories from paper 1 to support what you are saying. Since psychology is the study of human behaviour, everyone is a naive psychologist! so avoid writing things just because you feel they are correct.
2) Pathak sir’s notes are not sufficient for paper 2
3) Try giving Indian examples wherever possible. For ex. In the topic of impact of TV on children talking about research finding of TV show Gali Gali sim Sim instead of Sesame Street will have an added impact
4) Prepare a standard format for answering questions involving attitude and behaviour change. Use principles of operant conditioning, modelling, social psychology , persuasive communication etc in the framework
5) While attempting the paper I advise that one better skips questions from the dicey chapters like community psychology and instead answer ones from the topics which have definite course content. Ex. Instead of attempting questions like ‘what can be done to arouse community consciousness’, I would prefer
answering questions from the therapeutic approaches chapter. But needless to say, cover every nook and corner of the syllabus



SUBTOPIC 7

General Guidelines
1) You can download detailed notes made by me for every subtopic from the link given at
http://itsprabhavspeaking.blogspot.in/2014/06/how-i-did-it-psychology-notes-paper-1.html

2) Based on detailed notes, make skeletal notes (very very brief ones containing keywords only) for all topics for faster and effective revision.
3) Effective revision is must: segregate material into Last Minute Revision(LMR) And Non LMR. For ex. Personality theory by Alfred Addler needs to be revised just before the exam but not the behavioural aspects correlated with Nach
4) Make a list of al technical words you encounter ex. Flynn effect, autokinetic effect etc. and use them in your answers
5) Make a list of casestudy/exp. Topic wise whenever you read any topic. As a thumb rule, try to collect ½ case studies/experiments on each topic
6) Solve all previous questions. Discuss the answers with friends/teachers. Specially helpful in paper 2.
7) Do look up 1 or 2 articles on the net for even seemingly mundane topics like use and misuse of internet. You will get some new inputs like examples/case studies which shall enrich your content
8) One of the very important thing which we must follow while writing answers is our ability to interlink Paper-1 and Paper-2. For this u must remember syllabus completely. Read the syllabus everyday for 5 minutes
9) Every year, UPSC is now asking questions worth 20-30 marks which no one on earth can answer. Ex. The question on language production in 2013 paper 1. Now while preparing, don’t worry about how to answer such questions. Don’t start digging the net to cover such topics or every topic in such detail! In search for value addition, don’t spend too time reading random articles.