Education

How To Prepare for APPSC Group 1 Mains

The Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) is the recruiting agency for the state Group 1 services. Candidates are recruited for the posts like Deputy Collector, Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), etc through the examination called the APPSC Group 1 Examination. 

Lakhs of aspirants apply for the state-level administrative examinations. As per the data available, for APPSC Group 1 examination 2019; 1.14 lakh candidates filled the application form. Around 59200 aspirants appeared for the APPSC Prelims 2019. As one can evaluate, the competition for this state examination is immense and hence candidates need to prepare themselves for each stage of the examination in an integrated manner. 

The upcoming examination is of Group 1 Mains 2019 that will take place between 14th December and 20th December 2020. Therefore, aspirants preparing for the second stage of APPSC examination can get some preparation tips here in this article. 

A Brief about the APPSC Exam Pattern

Before candidates start preparing for the Andhra Pradesh state examination; they must know the pattern of the Group 1 examination along with the APPSC Syllabus. The exam takes place in three stages which are mentioned below:

  1. Preliminary Stage
  2. Mains Stage, and
  3. Interview Stage

Some important points to remember about the APPSC Prelims Exam Pattern are:

  1. There are two papers under APPSC Prelims Examination. 
  2. Both the papers in APPSC Prelims have 120 questions each and each question is of 1 mark. 
  3. There is a negative marking of 1/3rd in the APPSC Group 1 Prelims against each wrong answer. 
  4. Both the prelims papers are of 2 hours each. 

What are the papers in APPSC Mains?

There are seven essay-type papers in the mains stage of the APPSC examination. The Andhra Pradesh PSC is going to conduct Group 1 Mains from 14th December onward. Hence, it is important for the aspirants to know about the Mains exam pattern, syllabus and preparation tips to clear it without any hassle. 

Exam Pattern of the APPSC Mains:

There are 7 papers in the Mains stage out of which 2 are of qualifying nature. Each paper is allotted 150 marks and an aspirant gets 3 hours to write each. A few important things to note about the APPSC Group 1 Mains are:

  1. Telugu and English language papers are qualifying papers.
  2. The commission has set the minimum marks that candidates have to score in the qualifying papers as per their caste categories, for instance:
  • Candidates belonging to Open Category have to score at least 40 percent marks in both the qualifying papers.
  • Candidates from the backward classes’ category have to score at least 35 percent marks in the both the qualifying papers.
  • The candidates who belong to the SC/ST or PH categories have to score at least 30 percent of marks in the both the qualifying language papers. 
  1. Unlike various other state examinations which have optional subjects in their mains stage; APPSC does not contain any optional paper in the mains examination. 
  2. Apart from the two qualifying papers, the remaining five papers are:
  • Paper 1 which is of Essay.
  • Paper 2 which comprises History, Culture, Geography of the country with emphasis on the state-specific information.
  • Paper 3 is about Indian Polity, Governance, Law and Ethics .
  • Paper 4 contains subjects of Economy and Development in relation to India and the state of Andhra Pradesh.
  • Paper 5 consists of topics like Science, Technology, Environment and Ecology. 

Preparation Tips for APPSC Mains

As mentioned above, the main subjects included in the mains syllabus are:

  1. History
  2. Geography
  3. Indian Polity
  4. Economy
  5. Environment, and
  6. Science and Technology

Aspirants can go through the below-mentioned tips to prepare each subject as per the syllabus:

1. History Preparation: Indian History is divided into ancient, medieval and modern. To learn about Indian history, aspirants are suggested to pick NCERT old textbooks from class 6th to class 12th. This set of books cover entire Indian history in an elaborate manner which can form the basics of the candidates. On a later stage, candidates can refer to books like, ‘Brief History of Modern India by Rajiv Ahir;’ ‘India’s Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra;’ ‘Indian Art and Culture by Nitin Singhania,’ etc. Similarly for state-specific history; it is always advisable to refer to the state textbooks. This way, aspirants are able to cover history in a holistic manner. 

2. Geography Preparation: For a subject like geography; aspirants are always suggested to know the concepts behind geographical terms like physical geography; human geography; political geography, etc. Later, aspirants can read state textbooks or NCERTs for basic understanding of Indian geography and related concepts. Additionally, a candidate can either look upto GC Leong’s Certificate Physical and Human Geography or Majid Hussain’s Geography of India as a reference book. As an additional tip, candidates should refer to the international places, physical features etc. that are in the news on the world map using either Oxford Atlas or Black Swan Atlas. 

3. Indian Polity Preparation – It is a widespread suggestion that one doesn’t have to read multiple study materials to understand Indian Polity. M. Laxmikanth’s Indian Polity suffices the entire Polity preparation. Aspirants are only advised to make smart notes from the book as it is itself designed in a notes-manner. One must not waste too much time making elaborate notes from this book. Consistent revision of the book cover to cover will help prepare this subject. 

4. Economy, Science and Technology Preparation – These subjects need conceptual understanding with awareness of the current affairs related to them. For Indian Economy, candidates must read NCERT textbooks and use the internet wisely to understand the economy-related terms that are often heard in the news. Similarly, Science and Technology-related topics can all be covered from a daily newspaper and a monthly current affairs magazine. 

5. Environment Preparation – The basic terminologies related to environment like biodiversity, ecology, climate change and related topics must be covered by the aspirants as they never go old. Questions are always related to the current events w.r.t these main subtopics. 

Candidates have to give a serious attempt in the state service examination as one gets to work in the state administration based on his/her performance in APPSC Group 1 Exam. The notification for 2020 and 2021 are not yet released and hence, candidates are advised to keep checking the official website of the commission for daily updates.

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