How a Management Student can Prepare for UPSC?
UPSC offers one the opportunity to enter the system by becoming the “steel frame” of India, i.e. IAS, IPS or IFS. The charm of being a bureaucrat and the platform to serve ones nation and impact several lives is irreplaceable. The question is how to be a part of these services? So, lets delve into the details.
Do the essentials!
? Go through the syllabus and learn it.
? Read the NCERTS, cover to cover. Make notes. Revise. Re-revise.
? Read the daily newspaper ( The Hindu / The Indian Express)
? Try to have an analytical approach to whatever you study/read.
? Modern History by Bipan Chandra and Polity by Laxmikant, shouldnt be ignored at any
cost.
? Follow PRS and PIB for updates.
? Interlink dynamic and a static portion.
? Solve previous year question papers.
? Read toppers Interviews.
What if you take “Management” as your optional subject?
Pros of taking Management as your optional subject:
Analytical: You can guess your marks to a certain degree after attempting the paper, Paper is predictable (you can mark the topics that you need to focus on!) Less competition (so far very few people have dared to take this) Contrary to popular beliefs the papers are very easy and straightforward!
Cons of taking Management as your Optional subject:
- Impossible to cover the entire syllabus
- Paper 2 is very lengthy and managing it is a big task
- It will consume a lot of time in the first reading.
But guess what, cons are same for almost every optional subject. So, it becomes a necessary evil. Now lets delve into the details.To choose Management as your Optional subject or not?
There is a simple test to choose whether you should take Management as your optional subject
or not.
Here is how you can decide – just open the last two years’ question papers and read them, if you can at the current moment without any preparation feel that you can attempt 30 – 40% of the paper easily then you must not waste your time looking anywhere else and go for it!
Paper-1
Success Mantra :Paper 1 is all theory based, the syllabus lists 6 major topics in which HR, organizational Behavior, Finance and Marketing are the ones you need to focus on. Introduction and Accounting part you can go through once ( so far they have only asked marginal costing v/s absorption costing; budgeting techniques and inventory management). Master these topics.
Tip – They ask marginal/absorption costing this every alternate year!
Paper-2
Success Mantra: Cover quantitative portion, Operations, Strategic management well; this paper is time-consuming, you will know almost all the answers but you need to manage the time well or you
will ruin the paper.
Paper 2 is the opposite of paper 1! It is all about the application; numerical questions and case studies make it slightly lengthy but at the same time make it very scoring, if one practice well!
All about study material :
? IGNOU study material: The IGNOU study material from the Department of Management Studies is highly recommended because these IGNOU books cover the whole syllabus in a good manner as well as help to develop your personal notes for various conceptual and theoretical part of the Management paper.
? It is also recommended that one should use the Internet as the best companion while searching certain topics regarding the preparation and for making short notes on various topics.
? Note: To get the IGNOU material you need to visit its Regional centers or Delhi Office.
? Each topic:
a. Robbins , judge &sanghi - Organisation Behaviour
b. Kotler - Marketing
c. Brearley Myers - Finance
d. Levin & Ruben- Statistics
e. Porter - Strategy etc.
f. Human resource and personnel management – Ashwathappa
g. For Quant : Complete business statistics: Aczel?Sounderpandian
h. Operations Management: david collier
i. Strategic Management: IGNOU notes.
j. MIS: laudon and laudon
k. International Business: some local author book/ IGNOU
l. Decision making : internet documents/ class PPts
Its important to remember that you don’t need to be a master of every topic. You just need to study the topics broadly. All other things eventually come down to common sense and your presence of mind in the examination hall. So, prepare well, use every single second that you have and soar higher than anyone else.
