Polity for prelims

Stuff written here is not meant to set a standard, but to inspire and help people at large.

So, polity for prelims is often tricky not just during preparation, but also in exam.

First of all, the material is expansive, Laxmikanth seems alright and organized but still it is not easy to finish the first reading. So, people who have not read it once through and through, please do so and then come back to this post. It can take even a month for first reading, but one has to be patient and persevere.

Secondly, there is a sort of disconnect between the effort and output, as the effort is often misdirected or inefficient. Further, there is a cycle of learning which is required for acing prelims. We focus on Reading, but more important is Retention, and Reproduction(in Mains) or merely Recall(in prelims).

This requires Revision, which is not possible if one bites so much that chewing becomes difficult.

Coming to the point, I feel one needs only 3 books on polity for prelims which should be enough to hit 90% questions on the topic in exam and one should not go after remaining 10% which only is waste of energy and time.

NCERT 11th Constitution at Work, Laxmikanth, Constitution(bare act, means only the statement of preamble, articles and schedules. People go for PM Bakshi but it has too many citations and cases and is complicated, better take simplest version of bare act)

Now, questions are of two types, 1. direct language out of constitution--bare act should help hit this spot on, 2. about constitution and polity--NCERT and Laxmikanth are enough

After first reading, I fee a 5 day plan is best to cover polity in its totality.

Day1: Part1 of Lxm | Day2: parts 3,4 of Lxm | Day3: Parts 2,5 of Lxm | Day4: part 7 of Lxm | Day5: parts 6,8,9 of Lxm

No need to do remaining parts, while reading these chapters from Laxmikanth, one should go thru the same articles in bare act to gain confidence.

Now, take on the previous year questions of polity and solve them all, those you dont get, go read on them.

This will set the right direction for preparation, now again go for second round which will be very effective as you know what is asked.

I am sure, one can nail any question set with this approach.

No need to go for any other book for prelims--no SC Kashyap, no DD Basu, no Granville Austin

Cheers!