ANALYSIS & APPROCH: IAS GEOGRAPHY MAINS PAPER

Over the last few years , specially since 2007, we see that UPSC has brought in unexpected elements in the Geography mains papers, so as to reduce the “easily predictable pattern” of the earlier papers. It also tried to set the paper at a level  requiring  in-depth  and broader  understanding, while ensuring at the same time that question patterns were not too different from the previous year s’ papers  and were strictly from within the syllabus.
 All this has given the Geography optional subject’s preparation a twist and a new style needs to be taken up so as to fulfill the exam’s new requirements.

 Few things that clearly needs to be understood here are 
1.   Geography paper is still strictly coming from the syllabus mentioned by UPSC. Every question,without any exception, is still directly related to the topics explicitly mentioned in the syllabus. All the questions are direct and mostly unrelated , unlike other optional like Pub Ad., Sociology, History etc. where almost all questions relate to more than 1 topic of the syllabus and require  lot of cross linkages in the answers. 
2.  Despite of world map question having been removed from the paper I , Geography still is a highly
scoring optional, as it was before 2000, when there was only one map question in paper I ( where students had  to choose between  attempting EITHER the world map question OR the India map question , which was the question no. 1 of paper 1) and paper II having no map question. Even then Geography was amongst the highest preferred optional among UPSC Civil services aspirants.
3.  Despite of a larger syllabus coverage required from the present aspirants, yet the questions are direct and unrelated from other topics of syllabus. Hence the students are not required to do much linkages between various parts of the syllabus. This makes the job easier for aspirants when compared to other optional subjects.
4.  With a focused, smartly planned approach and proper coverage of the syllabus, it is still possible to score 325+ in Geography optional by putting in 2 months of preparation time putting in 3-4 hours a
day for the optional.
5.  It helps a lot in GS paper I and Paper II , in GS  Geography , Social and environmental  issues and
some economic and international relations aspects related questions of the papers. This fact is well evident  from the last few question papers where much more than 30 marks of conventional GS Geography questions were asked. Specially recent trends take GS Geography related questions for more than 100 marks as in GS paper 2010.
6.  The essay paper invariably has more  than 1 essay topic option which is directly related to Geography syllabus, besides the partially and indirectly related topics. So just by modifying one’s perspective in attempting the essay paper, with Geography option well covered, one can easily attempt and score close to 120 marks in essay paper, without any special preparation for various topics of essay.
7.  So one can see that Geography optional takes care of more the 900 marks out of 2000 marks of  Mains (written) exam, surely giving aspirants with geography optional an upper hand in term of utilizing their precious time for preparing for their other optional subject and remaining part of the GS syllabus.  
Having said this, now let us make an in-depth analysis of the modifications introduced in the paper pattern by UPSC, specially over the last few years. 
    The UPSC having noticed the ‘comfort level’ that Civil services aspirants had achieved with the Geography optional till 2006 (in the following years it was the optional subject of the highest no. of aspirants taking up the Mains written exam, ranking 1st , as per UPSC’s annual reports) they introduced some changes in mains 2007 and in the syllabus and question patterns from 2008 onwards. These changes were as following
Changes in the structure and pattern of the papers
  2007 paper had the compulsory world map question in paper one asking all the locations from Africa only. Though the locations were moderate in nature but it reduced the options for the students. So in case some one had not covered Africa properly or not revised it at the last go, he was bound to fare badly in this compulsory question. 
  2007 December, the syllabus for 2008 mains had some modifications, that eliminated some topics and introduced/expanded some other topics. It also removed the compulsory world map question from the paper I.
  Mains 2008  continued with the  compulsory map question  in paper I ( probably for providing some comfort to aspirant preparing for long and for not bringing in abrupt changes). Here the change was that for correctly locating only 1 marks was given and students were asked to write 40 words unlike the 10 words asked in previous papers. So though the map question was there but attempting this question was made tougher.
  Mains 2009 made the world mapping question as an optional question( question no. 2). The question too was not in the ‘normally asked format’ and required some special interpretation. In paper II India map contained locating 15 in place of 10 locations asked in earlier papers. So here also the students were expected to know more. 
  2009 - The compulsory question no. 1 was asked as  3 sub-questions of 20 marks each with no choices , so one had to write on all the three sub-questions. This  reduced the options with students for selective syllabus coverage and required them to have a comprehensive coverage of the syllabus as the sub-questions were taken from different main topics of the syllabus. Here to attempt this one question one required to have covered both geomorphology and environmental geography.
  In 2009 , Question no. 3 was broken into 3 sub–questions of 20 marks and question 4, 6 and 8 into 2 sub-questions, of 30 marks each  covering a larger part of the syllabus but at the same time requiring less explanation and hence practice for writing shorter, smarter answers as smaller questions were asked. It also mixed questions from different main topics into single 60 marks question, requiring a more extensive coverage and eliminating chances for selectiveness.
     So in 2009, unlike previous years where each paper had total 10 questions in 60 and 20 mark question , in 2009 paper I had total 17 questions in 20,30 and 60 marks format and covered from various parts of the syllabus, and also a mixing of questions ensured that just covering 6-7 main topics  of each paper was now a thing of history. One was required to have done 8-9 main topics to attempt the paper fully. Somewhat similar was the case with paper II.
  In 2010, the world map question was not there, so it was systematically phased out from 2007 to 2010. 
  2010  -  The compulsory question in paper one was broken into 4 sub questions, all compulsory and all from 4 different main topic of the syllabus( geomorpho., climato.,oceano. and environmental  geog.), question no 5. The other compulsory question  was broken into 5 sub-questions and asked from 4 main topics( perspective, population & settle., regional planning and models and theories).
  2010 – question 2,3,4, 6,7,8 were each broken into 2 sub-questions each of 30 marks. Also mostly the sub-questions under one main question were from different main topics of the syllabus. So in order to complete the paper one was required to have covered 9-10 topics of , or we can say almost whole of, the syllabus. There were in all 21 questions more than the already increased no. of 17 of 2009 paper.  
  2010 – paper II – the mapping compulsory Q. asked 15 out of 15 locations , so there were no choices and all locations were compulsory, unlike 2009 where there were 15/20 locations do be done. So the mapping Q. became tougher. Even the second compulsory Q. asked 4 sub-questions of 15 marks each , all compulsory. The remaining  questions were broken into 30 markers. So a wider area of the syllabus was covered here also requiring an extensive syllabus coverage.
  So in 2010  we  saw that  Q.s for 12,15,20,30 and 60 marks were asked expecting the students to switch quickly between there answer writing style and also having done an extensive coverage of the syllabus.
       
Qualitative changes in the paper
  The kind of questions asked were still directly related to the syllabus as one can see by glancing through it. Though the questions did go on to ask some smaller aspects related to the topics yet there was nothing very tough. Some questions were still , somewhat, copy of things asked in previous years’ papers, only requiring a much crisper and leaner approach in content coverage and presentation, due to the question size.
  Some newer topics are also added in the syllabus normally not available in the mostly available books.  These newer topics are  highly likely in the coming years’ papers.  Also  content in a presentable format is required at preparation level only so as to easily convert in a desirable answer.
  India Map questions require a more comprehensive coverage as option of choosing between locations does not exist any more.
*courtesy - HARSH V. Singh (Expert of Geography)