UPSC Preparation: Physics optional tips by Divyanshu Jha (AIR 9)

Name: Divyanshu Jha 
Rank:  AIR 9
Optional: Physics

The Original Choice

·       Physics has always been my first love, I enjoyed a great comfort level with the subject at the undergraduate level, taking its courses as electives during my time in college. Compared to my other optional, public administration, I was much more comfortable with Physics, its problems and derivations. While I had worked hard in Public Administration, I was always unsure of my depth of clarity and understanding, whereas in Physics, I was more sure footed. And despite the soul killing and colorless manner of  UPSC preparations (Physics as an area of research and inquiry is entirely different from Physics as an UPSC optional), it still helped that I had a subject I loved and helped maintain tempo and motivation during darker times.

·       As far as whether it was more scoring, or whether the subject syllabus was big, I always believed that whether UPSC awards a particular subject in a particular year or not is a matter of fate that is not in our hands and we shouldn’t be trying to second guess it all the time. Rather our choice should be dictated by the passion for that subject, and the comfort level because in the long terms those are the factors that help you keep going during times of adversity. Whether the subject does “good” or not shouldn’t be much of a concern, especially now when traditional subjects  like Geography and Public Administration are not doing so well.

·    The syllabus is certainly quite a bit but I was helped by the fact that I enjoyed studying from multiple sources as well as enjoyed studying the course content. And to be frank, a syllabus is only as big as we make them. If you intend to restrict yourself to coaching notes only, no syllabus is truly vast. Its only when you start referring to good, authentic academic sources that the study material seems intimidating.

The Preparation

·     Phase I – Focus on studying all the original source material, practising its derivations for the first time,  and making your own notes after referring to multiple books for the same topic. By the end of this phase, preferably by July/Aug, all your notes should be impeccably done and there shouldn’t be a need to go back to the source books except in special cases.

·      Phase II – The time for first revision and practising of problems. For one month, the first complete revision including writing full derivations for practice, going for weekly tests and revising all topics one by one should be done. One and a half months, focus should be on clarity in writing, meticulous descriptions as you would write in the exam hall, but not as much attention on time as yet. This phase is for accuracy and innovation in answer writing, not speed.

·    Phase III – Short second revision, where focus should be on writing within the space permitted and the time allowed. Use rough notebooks to the fullest extent, practising and revising long derivations as well as writing through problems from past years CSE and IFoS papers within 3 hour timelines.

·   Phase IV – Final revision, try making a short , concise 20-30 page summary of your entire syllabus that you will revise on the day before the examination. In this phase, also note down intermediate positions of long derivations that can serve as checkpoints, should you get stuck in the middle in some question in the exam.

The Exam

·     Answer writing skills are very important, and is now more crucial than ever given that there is limited space to write answers

·    Choose your questions carefully. Be sure about the 3 optional questions you can attempt from the 6 (besides the 2 compulsory questions). Though you cannot shuffle the questions around now, attempt them in an order that you are comfortable in. This will boost up your confidence.

·   Be very neat in your work. Don’t cross out or write illegibly. Presentation is paramount and a neat handwriting earns you the evaluator’s good wishes automatically.

·    Draw a diagram. Any diagram even if its not essential. It puts your paper in a different league and differentiates you from the rest. I used two pens(blue and black) to bring out the contrast in the diagrams and they looked very distinctive on the answer sheet.

·     Innovation – This is very tricky and a lot of work needs to go in for this to work out. For example, if a particular equations is derived , it would add value to the answer if you added a small insight on what the equation physically signifies. This is especially important in QM, Heat and Thermodynamics and Optics where equations often hide the physical significance of the phenomenon.

The Blogs

·     I followed a few blogs for guidance in physics by previous year’s toppers and I am grateful to them.

o   http://abhijeetagrawal.blogspot.in/

o   http://piedhornbill.blogspot.com/

o   http://kashishmittal.wordpress.com/

The Books

·         QM

o   Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by David J. Griffiths

o   Satyaprakash/ Ghatak and Longanathan

·         Atomic and Molecular Physics

o   Eisberg and resnick

o   Rajkumar

o   Banwell

·         Nuclear and particle physics

o   S B Patel/ D C Tayal

o   Pandya and yadav

o   Resnick and Eisberg

·         Solid state physics

o   Puri and babbar

o   Resnick and Eisberg

o   S O Pillai

·         Mechanics

o   Mechanics by D.S. Mathur

o   An Introduction to Mechanics by Kleppner and  Kolenkow

o   Classical Mechanics by Goldstein

o   Relativity Resnick, Satyaprakash

·         Waves and Optics

o   Ghatak

o   Hecht

·         Electrodynamics

o   D. J. Griffiths

o   Satyaprakash

·         Thermodynamics

o   Zemansky and Dittman

o   Sears and Salinger

o   Satyaprakash

·         Past years question papers of CSE and IFoS

Role of Coaching

·        I took the test series by Vajpayee Sir here in New Delhi. While there are enough resources in the market to prepare for physics optionals on one’s own, a test series is invaluable in understanding how to write answers in very little time. I personally feel that the weekly topic wise test series format helps one to structure their preparation accordingly and incentivizes a quicker, more detailed preparation by the students. Whether one should join the classroom course as well is a personal choice. I gave  up on the classroom course midway because I preferred to complete my preparations on my own first.

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