Importance of an optional cannot be over stated in UPSC civil services examination. While interest in the subject should be the primary criterion for selection of an optional, past trends and convergence of syllabus with the general studies paper along with availability of guide/mentor should also be kept in mind while choosing an optional subject. Political Science and IR is one of the optional that has been scoring in nature, but requires a robust conceptual clarity and continuous updation of current issues to achieve a good score in the CSE Mains examination.
The PSIR foundation course at ForumIAS is conducted keeping in mind:
Changing demands of the exam.Importance of interlinking key core concepts with Currents events.Need to develop student's abilities to think from multiple dimensions.Prepare a student for uncertainties of this examComprehensive coverage of the topic mentioned in PSIR Syllabus supplemented with regular handouts.Focus will be on conceptual clarity and building the ability of the candidates to interlink the static portion with current developments.The content of class discussion and handouts will take extensive references from journals and periodicals like Indian Quarterly, Strategic Analysis, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Economic and Political Weekly, Studies in Indian Politics, The Economist, Project Syndicate etc.The course especially emphasizes on Answer writing practice. To ensure this the completion of every topic will be followed by discussion & model answers on PYQs along with topic test and discussion.PSIR Foundation Course will also include crash course to be conducted before Mains examination. This will cover all the current developments important from examination point of view in that particular year.Regular foundation course will include Answer Writing cum Test Series program on mentorship based one to one interaction with faculty.
