Polity Syllabus & Strategy for UPSC Prelims 2021

Polity is one of the subjects which plays an important part in all three stages of the UPSC Examination.

Syllabus: To know about the entire polity syllabus look here, UPSC Prelims Syllabus

Books to study: NCERTs, Indian Polity by Laxmikanth, D.D.Basu.

How to plan:

•  Start with NCERTs of IX and proceed forward.
• The Indian Polity by Laxmikanth will be easy and the most comprehensive book to go through next, as one can score high marks with this itself.
• After done with these two, one can proceed with D.D.Basu for an in-depth knowledge which is good for Mains examination.
• The Hindu Newspaper
• Yearly magazine of choice

Important things to note in Polity:

• Undoubtedly, the Constitution is the most important topic.
• Rather than just memorizing the Articles, it is necessary to get a complete understanding of the Articles
• Highlight the important points
• Make detailed notes with maps, references, Mnemonics where ever needed.
• Make notes with newspaper articles too which may include new changes in the constitution, new bills, etc. Like,

If one reads the above, the topics related to this news, the related topics which should be recalled from Polity are,

1. About Parliamentary form of government
2. Anti Defection Law
3. No-confidence motion
4.  Intraparty politics
5. Youngsters in politics – Dynasty politics
   • Try to relate newspaper topics with conventional topics.
   •  Try to get an answer for the questions Why, How, What, etc while reading
   • The crux is to understand the difference between reading the newspaper as a hobby and ‘read the newspaper for UPSC preparation’. To make it easier, we from SIA are uploading daily news analyses on YouTube. Please have a look at Shankar IAS Academy.
   • Read everything repeatedly. It will give a new perspective and make you understand well.
   •  Always allocate time for revision daily & weekly
   • Solve previous year question papers
   • Take mock tests and evaluate.

Weightage in Prelims:

•  Factual questions
• Straight forward questions
• Tricky questions where all the options seem to be similar
•  Indirect questions where one needs to apply the concept