Resources for mains

Even though mains and prelims preparation should go hand in hand, there are some specific resources and materials that should referred to for mains oriented preparation. 

SUBJECT WISE 

1. GS 1 

History 

- same resources as for prelims 

- made short keywords notes 

- for Ancient, Art and culture - made short keywords notes based on PYQs

Geography

- Same resources as for prelims 

- made a separate A4 notes for diagrams

Society 

- Dr.Shivin's Write smart notes/ mindmaps  

2. GS 2

Polity 

- Laxmikant 

- Atish Mathur sir mains notes 

- Chatgpt for Keywords 

Governance and social justice 

- made my own notes from syllabus from various online resources 

IR 

- made my own notes from Visionias monthly current affairs magazine 

3. GS 3 

 Economy 

- Nitin Singhania book 

- Short Keywords notes from the book 

- prahar magazine 

Agriculture 

- Nitin Singhania economy book 

Internal Security 

- Visionias material 

- toppers notes of Mr.VIGNEST TA ( UPSC CSE 2023 ) 

Environment 

- Prahar magazine 

- toppers notes of Mr.Madhav Agarwal ( UPSC CSE 2024) 

Science and technology 

- Visionias monthly current affairs magazine 

Disaster management 

- Made my own notes from Visionias monthly magazine 

4. GS 4 

- enrolled in 2024 Mudit Jain sir module and followed his notes 

- Sunyaias book 

- Prahar magazine 

- video lectures of KM Pathi sir on YouTube 

- Ethics simplified on Indian express 

Apart from all these resources, I used Value added material from Onlyias and went through toppers copies. It is highly recommended to make short notes for each subject so that you can revise it easily on the days before exam. Short notes should contain only the keywords for each topic. 

Resources for prelims

Booklist and the resources differ from person to person. An aspirant may use a plethora of resources, books, online materials etc... to develop and work on their content , thus curating their own notes in the process.

Personally, I used the following resources in my preparation. 

Subject wise 

1. Polity 

- laxmikant 

- video lectures of Sarmad Mehraj sir 

- video lectures and crisp notes of Atish Mathur sir

- 11th Std NCERT

2. Economy 

- Nitin Singhania book

- TN state board 11th and 12th economy book 

3. Modern History 

- Referred books - Spectrum, Bipin Chandra's Modern India 

- made my own notes from the above books and revised multiple times.

- created a separate table for personalities, their books , newspapers, journals and associations.

- Themes of history books NCERT

4. Art and culture 

- 11th Std NCERT 

- Nitin Singhania - made notes from it 

5. Ancient and medieval history 

- TN state board books - made notes from it. 

6. Science and technology 

- Current affairs 

7. Environment 

- PMFIAS book 

- current affairs 

8. Geography 

- 11th and 12th NCERT - made notes from it. 

- PMFIAS website materials

9. IR for prelims 

- maps and current affairs 

10. CSAT 

- Mind for math youtube channel 

- AICSSC TN youtube channel 

- ARIHANT CSAT topic wise PYQ compilation.

Apart from all these resources, I used Oswal PYQ compilation topic wise and visionias monthly current affairs material.