Importance of Note-Making in UPSC Preparation

What is the one thing which Civil Service aspirants never do? The simple answer is, they never forget to make notes when they prepare for the UPSC exams.

Efficient and effective CSE preparation has many aspects to it, and the most important one is making notes during the preparation. UPSC exam is all about ‘Read, Write and Revise’. The more you practice this formula, the better your preparation gets!

The old saying of ‘Practice makes perfect’ is apt in every exam preparation. When it comes to UPSC exam preparation, this phrase deserves a special mention as a thorough understanding of basic concepts is crucial for Civil Service aspirants to ace the examinations. A candidate can score good marks/rank in the UPSC exams by understanding every topic thoroughly and it can be done through effective note-making.

Why make Notes during Preparation?

As taking breath is important for our survival, so is making notes during CSE preparation. You can not expect to clear the UPSC examination without preparing the notes and revising them regularly. Since the exam contains a vast array of subjects, it is difficult to remember every piece of information and impossible to go through the entire syllabus while revising. This is where note-making helps!

Also read: How to Crack the UPSC Exam in the First Attempt?

Taking notes is an important learning strategy, despite the large amount of information available in various study materials. When you make notes in your own words, it becomes easier for you to understand and retain a topic for a longer period of time. You get better clarity of concepts when you practice writing them.

Let’s try to understand this with an example.

Legislative, Administrative & Financial Relations is a crucial chapter of Union-State Relations in Indian Polity. Topics such as Legislative Relations, Territorial Extent of Central and State Legislation, Limitations of Territorial Jurisdiction of Parliament, Distribution of Legislative Powers (Union, State, and Concurrent List), Parliamentary Legislation in State’s Domain, Residuary Powers, Predominance of Union List, Centre’s Control over State Legislation, Administrative Relations, All India Services, Public Service Commissions, Integrated Judicial Systems, Relations during Emergencies, etc are lengthy yet important.

Although it requires a thorough reading of these topics to properly grasp and understand, yet with the help of self-prepared notes, it becomes equally easy to remember them as you pen down the crux or important pointers rather than writing complete sentences. This eventually saves you precious time.

Hence, if you have proper notes made for each subject, you have already sorted the CSE preparation. Moreover, quick summary notes are convenient, easy, and less time consuming to go through. When revising on the last day before the UPSC exams, if you have an option to go through the entire book/syllabus or to refer to quick summary notes, what would you prefer? Smart UPSC aspirants will consider the latter. The unique part about making notes is that students are able to study the whole syllabus in lesser words jotting down the relevant and important points in short.

Read More: How to Prepare for UPSC Mains 2021?

Benefits of Making Notes

Here are a few benefits of making notes during CSE preparation:

1) Helpful in Revision: 

Your revision becomes more strong and effective when you have self-prepared notes by your side. Having written the important pointers of each chapter, it becomes easier to prioritize the important topics for revision.

2) It Improves Learning:

Effective note-taking improves your learning abilities. By taking effective notes, candidates get actively engaged in the learning procedure by identifying and organizing the main topics/chapters for preparation and revision. 

3) Writing things down helps you remember them: 

Only reading the chapter without making notes will not help you remember the important topics. It is advisable to make notes for better grasping.

We hope this article will help you to understand the importance of note-making in UPSC exam preparation. When preparing for the prestigious Civil Services examination, you need an extraordinary learning resource to ace it and PrepLadder gives you exactly the same!

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All the best for your exams. Stay tuned for more updates.  

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