How i prepared political science

[swamy_me]

Abhiram has already given a good outline of his strategy for Political science and im afraid i have nothing more to add there,but i am still posting on how i went about preparing my optional for mains.
A Backgrounder-i finished my graduation and sat at home,preparing full time.i joined IGNOU (MA pol sci) and University of Pune (MA history) to keep me sane (studying at home drives me insane,used as i am to being a hostelite).so had plenty of time in my hand,and access to a great library,a personal collection of my own relative whos a professor of some renown in the subjects i chose as optionals.


I had chosen political science as my prelimn option and began preparing with that.I had a friend who did Raus classes in delhi in 2006-7 and cleared ,and i began by buying his stack of notes he had scribbled while attending class.
before i made much headway there my IGNOU MA books came,and took my fancy and so i gave them a detailed reading.(by this time i had finished off that guys notes once,they covered the portion,but left me feeling not satisfied)
I found them a little too advanced (despite my BA in Pol sci) and so went to the BA books of IGNOU.
both BA and MA books done after a painful ordeal,i really could not make my mind up whether there was enough bang for buck in them.
then (around december) i started borrowing and reading original books like-
The Prince,Politics among nations,Political theory,Das Kapital explained and a long list of original books.Western Political Thought in particular was something i spent a lot of time understanding.The story of philosophy is a good book for that.
Burke,Ebenstein,Rosseau,Bentha m,Mill,Locke,Hobbes,Easton,Alm ond,Coleman,Powell,Deustch,hey wood,rawls,amartya sen are some authors that readily come to mind.Indian Political thought i read in Sanskrit in original then English and made extensive notes (as my other optional was history,this overlaps).I scanned what parts i liked and thought important (and these scanned pages,when collated became my notes).OP Gauba was a book i frequently turned to for flow.
I paid special attention to Marxist thought and its development,dependency theorists,and newish developments thanks to Globalization.
Writing practice i carried on along with each topics initial study (which i did as they are listed in the syllabus).In writing passages,id consciously try including something from all my sources in each para,so that my answers were more rounded and had multiple points of view.
i made no distinction in study for prelimns and mains till april 2010,and later only started paying more attention to factual details.
Indian Polity i did from Laxmikant and DD Basu,and again noted the dry bones(facts expected from every aspirant like article no for emergency,important court cases in SC) down in my notes.
once my notes were done (around 800 pages in all) i kept revising and re-revising it i had some confidence that anything asked from it,id put in a fair answer.
i was lucky everything was asked from that only,and so i could answer,though not to my expectations or satisfaction.
for remaining topics like Feminism, i used net extensively and kept a view on current trends (like formation of UNW).

as far as paper 2 was concerned, my preparation was current affairs(newspapers and magazines) and internet based.I did not read any special book for it and this might have cost me heavy as my score is not up to scratch in this paper,as is the case in GS2 where a heavy dose of International Relations is seen.But based on the same,i could ace my interview which was based solely on IR.so i do not know the efficacy of my preparation,or maybe my writing style or handwriting itself cost me heavy.
EPW is a great magazine,frontline is indispensible,and i used to surf websites of BBC,CNN,Al-Jazeera for important events.

writing practice was done extensively,and simultaneously with other things.

This is all i have done for Political Science-made notes and read them,and i was lucky to get the marks i did for it.

[niharika]

Abhiram has already given a good outline of his strategy for Political science and im afraid i have nothing more to add there,but i am still posting on how i went about preparing my optional for mains.
A Backgrounder-i finished my graduation and sat at home,preparing full time.i joined IGNOU (MA pol sci) and University of Pune (MA history) to keep me sane (studying at home drives me insane,used as i am to being a hostelite).so had plenty of time in my hand,and access to a great library,a personal collection of my own relative whos a professor of some renown in the subjects i chose as optionals.


I had chosen political science as my prelimn option and began preparing with that.I had a friend who did Raus classes in delhi in 2006-7 and cleared ,and i began by buying his stack of notes he had scribbled while attending class.
before i made much headway there my IGNOU MA books came,and took my fancy and so i gave them a detailed reading.(by this time i had finished off that guys notes once,they covered the portion,but left me feeling not satisfied)
I found them a little too advanced (despite my BA in Pol sci) and so went to the BA books of IGNOU.
both BA and MA books done after a painful ordeal,i really could not make my mind up whether there was enough bang for buck in them.
then (around december) i started borrowing and reading original books like-
The Prince,Politics among nations,Political theory,Das Kapital explained and a long list of original books.Western Political Thought in particular was something i spent a lot of time understanding.The story of philosophy is a good book for that.
Burke,Ebenstein,Rosseau,Bentha m,Mill,Locke,Hobbes,Easton,Alm ond,Coleman,Powell,Deustch,hey wood,rawls,amartya sen are some authors that readily come to mind.Indian Political thought i read in Sanskrit in original then English and made extensive notes (as my other optional was history,this overlaps).I scanned what parts i liked and thought important (and these scanned pages,when collated became my notes).OP Gauba was a book i frequently turned to for flow.
I paid special attention to Marxist thought and its development,dependency theorists,and newish developments thanks to Globalization.
Writing practice i carried on along with each topics initial study (which i did as they are listed in the syllabus).In writing passages,id consciously try including something from all my sources in each para,so that my answers were more rounded and had multiple points of view.
i made no distinction in study for prelimns and mains till april 2010,and later only started paying more attention to factual details.
Indian Polity i did from Laxmikant and DD Basu,and again noted the dry bones(facts expected from every aspirant like article no for emergency,important court cases in SC) down in my notes.
once my notes were done (around 800 pages in all) i kept revising and re-revising it i had some confidence that anything asked from it,id put in a fair answer.
i was lucky everything was asked from that only,and so i could answer,though not to my expectations or satisfaction.
for remaining topics like Feminism, i used net extensively and kept a view on current trends (like formation of UNW).

as far as paper 2 was concerned, my preparation was current affairs(newspapers and magazines) and internet based.I did not read any special book for it and this might have cost me heavy as my score is not up to scratch in this paper,as is the case in GS2 where a heavy dose of International Relations is seen.But based on the same,i could ace my interview which was based solely on IR.so i do not know the efficacy of my preparation,or maybe my writing style or handwriting itself cost me heavy.
EPW is a great magazine,frontline is indispensible,and i used to surf websites of BBC,CNN,Al-Jazeera for important events.

writing practice was done extensively,and simultaneously with other things.

This is all i have done for Political Science-made notes and read them,and i was lucky to get the marks i did for it.

Thanks a ton!

[niharika]

Thanks a ton for the post. Would you suggest ignou books BA or MA for someone like me hoping to give mains in 4 months and whose starting political science from scratch? Or should i jus stick to a few standard books ( gauba, hewood etc) along with newspaper and net.

[swamy_me]

you are in a unusual situation,and face an either-or situation.which option to pick is completely your call,but i will tell you that neither side is exhaustive in itself,in fact no approach is,for there is always something left to do.Its a race against time,so do what you can as quickly as you can,and aim at a revision before the mains,else you will get confused in the thinkers section!

[niharika]

you are in a unusual situation,and face an either-or situation.which option to pick is completely your call,but i will tell you that neither side is exhaustive in itself,in fact no approach is,for there is always something left to do.Its a race against time,so do what you can as quickly as you can,and aim at a revision before the mains,else you will get confused in the thinkers section!

Thanks for guiding!

[swamy_me]

happy to help

[johnrambo]

happy to help

Hi man. I hope you're doing good. Congratulations again on your performance
Can you also share your GS strategy in this other thread: strategy for GS mains 2011

It would definitely help others, including myself. I got beaten in GS. Thanks