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IAS Exam: A coveted and competitive examination like Civil Services necessitates a smart strategy, as well as hard work and perseverance, to gain an advantage over the large number of competitors. To prepare for the UPSC Mains examination, one must first understand its structure and syllabus.

The Civil Services (Main) Examination is a written examination consisting of 9 conventional essay papers, two of which are Qualifying Papers and the remaining Papers are counted for merit. There are seven descriptive papers that are counted for merit. A descriptive paper’s overall objective is to comprehend a person’s thought pattern, personal opinion on various social and general issues, attitudes, skills, emotional quotient, social quotient, and application of current events in various social-economic aspects.

The two language papers are simple and qualifying, with the goal of ensuring that the candidate understands general languages such as English, Hindi, and any regional languages listed in the Eighth Schedule. 

You Can Read Also: Complete Strategy to Revise UPSC Civil Services Prelims Exam Syllabus In Two Months

What is known as the Interdisciplinary Approach?

The interdisciplinary approach refers to the method of combining knowledge and information from various subjects under one umbrella and applying it collectively to answer questions in the IAS examination. The nature of the IAS examination, which covers topics from various walks of life, necessitates that aspirant know and understand all of the topics. The questions in civil service examinations are multifaceted and must be answered with all of the associated aspects in mind.

How to apply Interdisciplinary Approach while preparing for UPSC?

When it comes to passing the IAS examination, everyone has some advice for aspirants. It could be senior candidates, coaching class mentors, peers, or even friends who have no idea what the exam entails.  Many experts have suggested developing an interdisciplinary approach to tackling the IAS examination challenge, particularly in answering the questions asked in the main exam papers. We will discuss the interdisciplinary approach to IAS preparation and what it takes to develop such an approach further below.

• Always remember that preparation for CSE MAINS should begin with remembering all of the syllabus topics so that whenever we come across a particular topic, we can clearly understand its importance for examination. 
• Getting familiar with the topics is the most important part, which can be accomplished by writing them down as many times as possible or reading them at least once a day until we remember all of them.
• The holistic nature of the questions asked in the examination is one of the key factors that make the IAS examination such an unrivalled challenge. To answer such questions, IAS aspirants must develop a unified or collaborative approach that allows them to study a topic in a way 
• Four Important things to follow in one’s preparation:

1. As much as possible, practise writing answers to questions from NCERTs.

2. Go over the topics as many times as you can.

3. Take notes in pointers and be precise.

4. Keep up with current events, take notes paper by paper (not date by date), and try to connect your notes to the static part of the syllabus.

What is the significance of interdisciplinary approach in UPSC Examinations?

1. When learning is confined to a single disciplinary perspective ambiguity is often considered either a shortcoming of the analytical framework or evidence that assumptions need to be adopted to provide a clear prediction.
2. Interdisciplinary approach allows aspirants to understand preconceptions of “what is” and the framework by which we arrived at “what is.” 
3. Engaging aspirants and helping them to develop knowledge, insights, problem solving skills, self-confidence, self-efficacy, and a passion for learning are common goals that educators bring to the classroom, and interdisciplinary instruction and exploration promotes realization of these objectives. 
4. It also fits with recent advances in learning science about how to foster learning when students bring powerful pre-existing ideas with them to the learning process.
5. Interdisciplinary approach helps aspirants develop their cognitive abilities – brain-based skills and mental processes that are needed to carry out tasks.
6. It assists aspirants to understand that there are ethical dimensions to most issues of concern. Ethical considerations entail moral concerns which means accounting for perceptions of right vs. wrong, good vs. bad, and the provision of justice. 
7. Many disciplines steer clear of such subjective phenomena and confine their analysis to more objective factors in an effort to be scientific.
8. Interdisciplinary approach helps civil service aspirants to understand why conflicts commonly arise over; the causes and consequences of an issue and, the ideal way for policy to address the issue of concern. 

What are the ways to develop Interdisciplinary Approach?

• To develop an interdisciplinary approach for IAS preparation, candidates must first develop the right perspective, which will allow them to broaden their outlook on the topics being studied for the examination. 
• Aspirants should be able to relate different topics being studied to one another as well as current events that occur in the surrounding area. 
• The research should not be conducted with the sole goal of answering a question.
• The aspirants should focus on goal of gaining a thorough understanding and knowledge of the topic and all of its associated aspects.