Suma Mandalapu

It has been a while since my last post here. Many things have happened in between but since the prelims of this year has just ended, maybe the time for this particular topic has come.

For the uninitiated, please read the prelims and the mains posts for more context.

My optional: Political Science and International Relations (PSIR)
Why I chose it: I wanted to join the Foreign Service plus my inherent love for Political Theory and IR Theory.

This is also the reason why I stuck with the same optional in all my 6 attempts. Post my 5th attempt, I briefly debated changing it but I ended up still choosing it. (Why? Someone once told me, if you have been studying it for 5 years or more, you will have more knowledge about the optional compared to a totally new optional, which you might have to study from scratch. This reasoning is valid when you truly like your optional. I did, even when it was a headache.)

In my previous posts, I elaborated on what I did in each attempt, I’ll stick to the same format and then proceed to unearth my learnings. (For my PSIR marks please check my mains post.)

First attempt, first mains

I neglected the overlapping GS syllabus – which meant I performed poorly both in GS2 as well as PSIR paper. I liked the theory part (in both papers) – so I kept reading more of that. (noob me!)

I hadn’t joined any coaching for the optional back then and my notes (or lack thereof) were from standard books (O P Gauba) and some obscure books (Some book on contemporary political theory I can’t recall). I also had the physical version of Baylis and Smith (I took IR as an elective during my college days). I read books by Sumit Ganguly, David Malone and so on for foreign policy.

For Indian politics – I tried the Oxford Book of Indian Politics and another standard book (I just remember the cover was blue and it was called Indian Government and Politics). In total, I read numerous books, did not have proper notes or understanding of topics other than the theory part. It showed in the marks I received.

Second attempt, second mains

Took a test series, was a bit better prepared but still no proper notes (I was really dumb) – my idea of revising was reading entire books (or rather skimming through them). Again, I stuck to theory and did put in the effort that was needed into IGP section and IFP section of the syllabus. But the marks I’ve earned here remained the highest in all of my attempts. (But then again, you can only compare the marks with that year’s genera trend.)

Fourth attempt, third mains

Having learned from my previous (finally!) – I took a crash course during my third attempt. So, now I had better notes. (I finally bought Shubra Ranjan Ma’am’s notes and took her crash course.) The problem was no longer lack of material but lack of micro-notes and revision. (I drowned in all the material and faced decision fatigue of choosing what to read and from where – because stupid me still liked reading books, sigh).

I made the blunder of attempt first 5 question-sets in Paper – 1. (You are supposed to attempt 2 from each section with Q1 and Q5 being the compulsory questions.) There’s no justification for the stupidity. My love for the theory question and my dislike for Part-B section just prompted me to make that choice. (Well, I wasn’t really thinking, those who have written mains, know how stressful the situation is.)

In any case, the bigger blunder was not revising and utilising the 5 day gap during mains. I was overstretched and saturated and couldn’t study. This if anything contributed to the low marks. Also, lack of sleep the night before that particular exam. (We stayed in a hotel and there was loud music that night, my mom called up and tried to make it better but didn’t help, it continued well into the night.)

Six attempt, fourth mains

Like I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, this was best attempt – for I plugged in the loop-holes and recurring mistakes. I did have notes, I did revise, I used the 5-day gap for revising this time – I just wished I could revise one time more because the notes were also quite lengthly! It took me 5 days to revise just once. I felt I could have written a marginally better paper with better revision. Paper-1 was a breeze and Paper-2 was okayish – I struggled for a but I felt I did a decent job.

I recently saw the marks and it was quite a let down. Not sure if PSIR was butchered in CSE 2020. (I’m out of the whole UPSC race now, so I am not aware of the news/analysis regarding this.)

Learnings

Always keep one base material and use other materials only as reference. (This holds true for GS as well) Keep testing your understanding when you attempt mocks. Write answers from your understanding and the extra 5-10% research you do via newspapers, articles, etc. (That’s how you’ll differentiate your answers.)

PSIR is beautiful subject – everything is interconnected and once you have conceptual clarity, you can use limited knowledge in a very fluid way across various topics. For example, once you understand core of Constructivism (in IR), you can use it almost in every theory question in Paper-II Part-A. Because, according to them everything is a construct – war is a construct, order is a construct, gender is a construct – you get the drift. And the famous statement – anarchy is what states make of it. [PSIR has many beautiful punch statements]

So, leverage these interconnections and make the most of them!

It took me quite a while (and attempts) to understand IGP section but I could saved a lot of time and effort had just tried to sit down and repeatedly focussed on what I didn’t understand and why. So, the key learning if anything is –

Revise, revise, revise! And then revise some more!

Also, focus on structuring your answers – if you don’t learn this, you will not be able to decipher dynamic questions properly. Structure is basically, what information should go where such that the answer is coherent, looks complete addressing the demand and sub-parts of the question.

Attempting mocks: I’m agnostic about this. I did write mocks in my 2nd and 3rd mains. I didn’t write any in the last one (4th mains). It was a conscious choice I made due to paucity of time. Writing 3 hour mocks (the strict exam condition format is very important) is no joke but I think writing them with at least 50% preparation is super beneficial. Stressing on the latter because writing without preparation is a waste of precious time and energy.

In all, these are basic learnings, nothing out of the ordinary but consistency in preparation and avoiding getting super saturated is the key.

By now, I’ve been with this subject for over 7 years and my love for the theory part of it is still as strong and has influenced the way I think in a tremendous way. I have a lot of gratitude for that door of enlightenment and reasoning that opened up.

I end the post with two of my favourite quotes:

“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.”

― John Rawls, A Theory of Justice

Sometimes, I get tears when I read this quote – this is what Kant meant by categorical imperative.

“Power is actualized only where word and deed have not parted company, where words are not empty and deeds not brutal, where words are not used to veil intentions but to disclose realities, and deeds are not used to violate and destroy but to establish relations and create new realities.”

― Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition

This is what power is meant to be.

Young ones, all the best with optional prep – you can always find something worth looking forward to in any of the optional you choose. (If not, I would request you to consider this aspect). Maybe it’s a means to an end. But it’s good to find some love for the means. Means are after all, the only thing in our control.

My next post will be on the essay paper – here, at least, I have results to backup my expertise. XD

Happy learning! Adios for now!