Resources for Preparation

In this page you will find some of the online resrouces that will help you in your preparation for Civils and other competitive examinations.

Resources for Civil Services Examination:

During the last couple of months, I happened to browse the web to help some of you find the online resources available for Civils preparation. I found the following links useful. I have also given my comments on the sites, where I felt appropriate.

Discover It
This is where I keep posting some thoughts and points about topics of current interest in detail. The topics would help you in your preparation for the general essay paper. If you follow this site, you will usually be well prepared for facing some discussions during the interview.

Various courses podcasts from University of California at Berkeley
A very good site giving lot of courses in downloadable MP3 format. Courses from Physics to Astronomy to Psychology to Zoology are available.

The India Portal
An excellent resource from the Government of India about all official information. Though you may not find it as comprehensive as say "The India Year Book", an annual publication of the Government of India, it nevertheless has lot of useful and latest information.

Civil Service India
This is a very good site where you will get lot of info about preparing for Civil Services Exam. A very well maintained and comprehensive site. Has lot of resources and useful links.

CSGS India
This is a site dedicated for preparing for the General Studies Paper of the Civil Service Exam. A very good site.

Hello Champion
This is a site dedicated for enabling people to prepare for various competitive exams. It is very well done. High tech. Has discussion forums and useful resources.

Indian Officer
This is a site by those who have made the grade. This site is also very high tech. Has good discussion forums.

UPSC Portal
This is another site which has some useful info about syllabus for UPSC exams.

GK-India Blog
This is a blog where you have some GK stuff. The kind that you get to see in books like Limca book of records.

Dipan Karmakar's Blog
This is the blog by an IAS aspirant who appeared for mains twice (as of February 2007). He wrote a beautiful piece on budget. Any IAS aspirant should be able to write something on anything. I give my encouragement to him.

Sriram's Blog
Sriram is a long lost acquaintance of mine. I met him sometime in the early 1980's when I was preparing for civils. He was then damn good in Political Science. I came across him (ofcourse only the Net) through my blogs. I understand he is now running his own coaching institute in Delhi. Just take a look at the content in his blog. Those of you appearing with Public Administration will surely find his blog useful.

Discussion Forums:

This is my India
There is a discussion forum dedicated for discussions about preparing for the Civil Services Exam. A very good and active forum.

Resources on Sociology:

Sociology Guide on the web
This site has some material on sociology. Being not a sociology student I don't know how far is it useful for attempting civils. If any one of the civils aspirants can give me a critique of this site, I will mention about it here.

Resources on Psychology:

Professor Dave's psychology classes podcast.
This is a Canadian Professor who is making his classes public through podcasts.

Prof. Michael Britt's lectures
Learn how theories in psychology affect you in everyday life.

University of California course on Psychology
Psychology lecture podcasts from University of California at Berkeley. Available as downloadable MP3 files.

Resources in Geograpy:

Mr. Chandra pointed out to me an excellent web resource on Geography.

NationMaster
This is really an excellent site having lots of useful info about the various countries of the world, almost all their statistics etc. Well worth reading by anybody.

While going through that site I discovered two more sites worth reading:

StateMaster
This is site is for anybody who wants to know greater details about the US.

One more that I found interesting was:

The World Fact Book
This is by the CIA. Yes the Central Intelligence Agency of the USA. They keep a database about all the world.

These three sites that I described are not necessarily about Geography; they also contain lot of other useful info. Each one is almost like an encyclopedia in itself. Take a look. You will not regret, I am sure.

World Climate
Ever wanted to know how is the climate in your city? This is a ready reckoner for knowing the information. It will give you the weather details for a number of cities and places worldwide. I was thrilled to see Hyderabad's details.

Courtesy Anish Upadhyay, the following site on Geography is know to us:

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/contents.html

Reportedly covering the whole of physical geography syllabus, this site has good quizzes and explains concepts with animations.

Geography2day
This is a site that offers Geography notes for various purposes for sale.

Resources for IFS Examination:

Courtesy Mr. N. Saikrishna of IRMA, Anand we have the following links, if you are appearing for IFS examination:

http://www.iucn.org/

http://envfor.nic.in/

http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/india/wildlife.htm

http://www.wii.gov.in/nwdc/nparks.htm

http://edugreen.teri.res.in/EXPLORE/forestry/types.htm

http://www.wti.org.in/

http://www.teriin.org/index.php

http://www.cseindia.org/

I have not checked the above links myself. Let me know if you have any comments on them.

Links to some Coaching Institutes:

Coaching India
This site, they say is an online coaching center for all Indians.


Magazines:

Economic and Political Weekly
Should I say anything about this? India's most highly respected magazine which will give you an in-depth analysis about issues of current interest. Any person who wants to stay well informed, cannot ignore this magazine.


Competition Success Review
http://www.competitionreview.com/index.asp

Competition Master
http://www.competitionmaster.com/

Employment News
http://employmentnews.gov.in/