About 6 months are left for Prelims 2019 and I hope you are preparing well.
In case you are a newbie and worried if 6 months time is enough or not to crack Prelims then let me make it clear that it is very much possible to clear CSE Prelims with 6 months preparation. What one needs to do is some smart work.
For static portions, read only what is needed. Time is less. You can not waste it on 100 books and sources. I had shared my concise book list before. Here it is:
Ancient-Medieval: Lucent book & civil services chronicle 30 pages notes. Click here for document.
Art-Culture: Nitin Singhania notes and TN board book.
Modern India: Bipin Chandra 78 pages notes. Click here for document. Lucent 40 pages. Tables given in Spectrum.
World Geography: NCERT 9-10-11-12, G C Leong & Optional notes uploaded.
India Geography: NCERT 9-10-11-12, Vajiram Yellow Book & Optional notes.
Map work: Prem Patel.
Environment: Shankar.
Economy: Sriram.
Polity: Laxmikant.
Science: Current.
For Current Hindu, Vision monthly and Insights compilations are more than enough if you read these religiously
Big words that are intentionally skipped here include India year book, Yojana, Frontline, Pratiyogita darpan, EPW, Kurukshetra, PIB etc. This is because if you have religiously read Hindu, Vision and Insights then these are mostly covered.
Ideally, one shall cover at least 1 year of current affairs given the recent trend of current based questions in 2016, 2017 and 2018 prelims. If you haven’t covered the same via newspapers, do it from vision or insights.
As prelims is in first week of June, one can leave current affairs of May or post 10th May.
Practice at least 1 test per week i.e. 6*4=24 tests! That should be a good enough number.
Revision is basis of everything when it comes to CSE. One has to revise the static, current and test notes at least 3 times.
Lastly, make a daily-weekly-monthly timetable and set milestones according to your own capacity. Just remember that course has to be done thrice in 6 months.
