Geography Notes

These are the notes which I had prepared for my previous attempt. Use them with caution as I myself did not score great marks plus the data might be outdated. Sharing since some candidates had requested.

Please copy paste this link in your address bar

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f4a97bou10d9644/AAAux8Y1EQgTAhnHZlzy1otNa?dl=0

All the Best

ESSAY PART 2- HOW I DID IT.

Hey Guys!

Essay is definitely the most subjective element of the entire process, far more subjective than the interview. Although I do not consider myself qualified enough to talk on this, I thought I should share whatever I did. I scored 80/200 in my first attempt and 125/250 in my second. Last year I had written on working women.  We had a chapter on Gender psychology in my optional and my mom and every other relative is a working woman, so I had good content on the topic and I thought I wrote well. But even then, I ended up getting mediocre marks. On the other hand, I wrote a pretty ordinary piece according to my own standards and had barely finished within time but ended up getting great marks. I have no clue as to how to explain this.

1)    I do not have great command over English. I can write grammatically correct plain English but with no frills. You need not be a Shakespeare to score good marks in essay!

2)    There is no need to prepare separately for essay as far as the content part is considered. Your preparation for mains will suffice for essay from content point of view

3)    I did not prepare on any topics in advance

4)     I did not use any quotes in the entire essay. You should if you can. Try making a list of quotable quotes from stuff you come across while preparing

5)    Practice at least 5 essays.  Get them peer reviewed. Try finding an English teacher/prof around and take his/her inputs.

6)    Coaching: coaching for essay is not really useful. I joined Ramaswamy and his inputs were useless. The only good thing was unlike other coachings which give a lot of Gyan and conduct only a couple of tests, he conducted 7/8 tests. So luckily what happened was that I was able to utilize introduction of one of the essays as it is in my mains.

7)    Introduction is the MOST IMPORTANT PART. Spend atleast 15-20 minutes thinking about  it.,

8)    Another 15-20 minutes should be devoted to conclusion which should be equally powerful

9)    In the main body, organization of thoughts is the most crucial thing. The essay should flow like a river as they say. Try covering as many aspects as possible – historical, social, economic, scientific or any other dimension that comes to your mind.

10) Length: Keep it moderate. It should be neither too long or nor too short. I do not remember how many pages I wrote but I devoted 2 hours for writing and 1 hour for brainstorming the content, organizing it and thinking of innovative introduction and a befitting conclusion. Roughly 1500-1700 words should be OK.

11) This time there might be two essays so manage time and word limit  accordingly

12) Essay remains a poor cousin of other subjects when it comes to preparation. Please do not commit this mistake! Last time what happened was that I wrote only 1 essay and that too I showed to only 1 person who praised it a lot and hence I did not feel the need to write more and hence could nt improve. Write at least 5 essays.

13) Long term : start blogging

14) You can also make a list of proverbs, idioms and phrases

15) CHOOSING THE TOPIC: please do not have any preconceived notions that a particular type of topic fetch more marks. The only criteria for selection should be availability of content!!!

16) In the end, pray to god! Because even after  doing all this results may/may not be commensurate the efforts made J

STRUCTURE OF THE ESSAY

1)      FIRST PARA: dhamakedaar bomb.  Write something very catchy which invites the reader to read what lies ahead

2)     Second: define the topic. Eg. This year I wrote on “Science  and Technology is the panacea for the growth  and security  of the Nation”. So go about explaining what is science, technology, ‘growth’ etc. I remember mentioning growth is just not GDP rise but includes social dimensions as well.

3)      Third: what follows/ major issues to be covered. Tell the reader what lies ahead

4)       Main body

5)      Pre conclusion summary: try to recapitulate all the points that have been stated earlier.

6)      Dhamakedaar Optimistic conclusion: give suggestions/constructive solutions. Don’t paint a gloomy picture.

ESSAY Part1- TIPS BY SUNDARRAJAN SIR, IRS

Hi!

These are written by my senior who is now a novelist!! I followed them word to word! In Part 2 of the series, I post what I had to say on Essay

Target:

Its realistic to target something around 130. Whatever one gets above this is a bonus.

What is expected:

If one goes through the essay question paper properly, esp. the instructions, it’s easy to realise that

- Content relevance

- Logical presentation

- Concise format

- Effective language

are the key requirements.

Do not use any hi-fi language. Just plain, school student English would be good enough. The essay needs to be interesting. 

How to choose a topic:

• Don’t have any mindsets. At that point of time, inside the exam hall, we have to choose that topic which we really feel like writing. That one we would enjoy thinking and writing about. No other criterion to choose a topic.
• One way of making a quick decision is to firstly eliminate those topics that we are averse to. Of what remains take the one closest to your hearts.
• Also ensure that you choose a topic that you understand well – that you know the meaning of all the words in the topic.

How to go about it:

• Read the topic chosen 4-5 time thoroughly. Underline the key words. Read again. Get the actual meaning of what’s asked for very clearly. If you have doubts about the meaning of even a single word in the topic, just leave the topic. Choose something else. Or one has to be contended with the scores around 60.
• Go to the last page of your answer sheets and just do a random brainstorming of the topic chosen. Random points - issues / events / definitions / narrations / quotes / news items etc. Whatever comes to the mind.
• After doing this for about 30-40 mins, Cluster the similar points together.
• Then sequence the clusters simply in a logical manner. Have around 11-12 clusters.
• An idea/para should just naturally flow out of the preceding one. The essay needs to be smooth.
• Now start writing the essay. It can be done in about 2 hours' time.
• It’s just the expansion of each of the clusters. Make it around one page each. We’ll end up with about 13 pages. That’s it!
• But while expanding, and after ever page of writing go back to the essay topic again. Just to ensure you are writing on what’s asked for. Else it’s quite easy for one to drift away from the topic, landing-up around 60 marks.

Introduction/ Conclusion:

Crucial. The inrtro needs to be appealing. The reader should feel like reading more and more! It can be done in a few ways:

- Use of quotes

- An interesting narration

- Some event invokes attention

• After that initial para, the introduction needs to set the framework for the whole essay. It needs to be of one page, about 100 words. It needs to say what’s in store - areas explored in the essay / issues addressed. It’s like an abstract of a report or a cinema trailer.
• Conclusion is the climax where one presents his/her own view point. It needs to be futuristic/positive and original. Quotes can be used here too, just to make one's point get across.

Don'ts:

• Don’t write the essay too technically. This usually happens when one chooses a topic related to his/her option. Be careful. The essay needs to be a very general one, a XII-class school student reading the essay should understand it, like it.
• Do not use many quotations. 2-3 max will do.
• Do not underline.
• Don't stretch the essay till the last minute. Finish it off  5-10 mins ahead of time and just have a reading. Nor finish it too early.
• Don't make the essay too lengthy. 1300 - 1600 words is ideal.
• Don't scribble. Write legibly.
• Don't make any grammar mistakes. Make short sentences and use common words.

Preparation:

Just take about an hour to think on some famous topics like :

-        Women empowerment, Culture/Religion, Globalisation, Democracy, Vision for India, Environment, Science / Space etc.

Look at the old essay topics. Keep a watch on the newspapers etc with this perspective also. Just jot down some interesting issues / quotes on some of these topics.

Practice:

Just write 2 essays max before the exam. Time it well. Exam conditions