Economics Optional Paper 1 – Strategy Preparing Notes The first reading of all the books took me around 2 months. The focus here was just understanding and not making notes. In the second reading, I started preparing notes. These notes included all the standard definitions, graphs and concepts. This phase took around 1.5 months. I completed this entire process before prelims. After prelims, I revised these notes once and then converted them into short notes. These were mostly in Q-A format, covering PYQs from 1995 onwards. Almost the entire Paper 1 got consolidated into ~150 pages. I revised these short notes twice before the exam. Answer Writing I tried to follow a standard structure in most answers: 1. Introduction – standard definition / economist + their work 2. Assumptions – 3/4 key ones 3. Theory and diagram 4. Examples (wherever relevant), connecting with Paper 2 5. Limitations 6. Conclusion – scope for improvement / improved models Diagrams should be well-labelled and clean. I used to make diagrams with pen only, there is not much time to use pencil. With practice, you get used to making straight lines and neat diagrams. PYQs are extremely important. They help you understand the depth required and repetition of themes. Do not ignore numericals. Attempting them correctly can significantly improve your score. Overall, Paper 1 is all about conceptual clarity and application. If your concepts are clear and you’ve practiced PYQs well, the paper becomes quite manageable. Sanskriti Singh, AIR 165, UPSC CSE 2025.
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