Philosophy optional: Preparation strategy for UPSC-CSE Mains

WHY PHILOSOPHY?

• INTEREST is foremost important in deciding the optional. Personally, I had a humanities elective called “Gandhian Thought” at IIIT-H that grew my interest in Gandhian philosophy and philosophy in general. 
• SYLLABUS for philosophy is relatively compact, precise and well defined. 
• SOURCES like standard books and notes are easily accessible.

SOURCES

1. Coaching class notes.
2. Standard books
• Indian Philosophy - C.D. Sharma
• Western Philosophy - Y. Masih
• Contemporary Western philosophy - Donald Palmer (E-book is available online, however it is not mandatory to read this book)
• Socio Political Philosophy - O.P. Gauba
• Philosophy of Religion - Y.Masih 
3. Please note that these books cover much more than the UPSC syllabus, so optimize your time by reading them selectively. 

HOW TO PREPARE

• CONSOLIDATED NOTES - Prepare consolidated notes for each topic based on class notes, standard book and other printed material. Try and finish this job before prelims. So that you can have multiple revisions of the same before Mains. 
• ANSWER WRITING AND TESTS - An examiner evaluates you on the basis of your answer script and not on the basis of how much you have read. So, you should focus equally on quality of answers and time management so that you complete the paper with decent quality. Sectional tests can be of great help for the same. 
• PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS - While 2017 paper was an exception, but usually philosophy papers are quite inspired from previous year UPSC papers. So it is highly imperative that you prepare your notes based on these questions and also practice them thoroughly. 
• DO NOT IGNORE PAPER 2 - Syllabus for paper 2 is quite generic and overlapping with general studies, and hence a lot of candidates do not prepare it separately. I think, it is very scoring and hence should be prepared with utmost sincerity. This is where your current affairs knowledge will come to use in answering socio political philosophy questions. 
• FRAMING the ANSWER- A good answer structure is very crucial for any optional paper especially philosophy. A usual structure for paper -1 can be something like- A. Introduction, B. The theory/doctrine C. Criticism D. Comparison (if applicable) E. Significance and F. Conclusion. For paper-2, it will vary from question to question. 
• LOVE YOUR SUBJECT, when you love and enjoy reading your optional paper, the rigorous preparation and hard work becomes much lighter. 

Philosophy in Indian context means “Darshan”- that is the vision with which we perceive the world, in that sense it is a way of life! I hope studying this subject helps you not only in scoring in mains but also in life!