#Anthropology #mains #optional How to tackle random/difficult | Shubham Kumar: Strategy and Notes for UPSC(CSE)

#Anthropology #mains #optional

How to tackle random/difficult questions in anthropology

1) Prepare holistically first, don’t leave any topics from the syllabus. Have a wider knowledge

2) You cannot do anything to those questions which are totally out of syllabus. Questions are same for everyone so 99.9% people won’t be aware about those questions

3) When random questions are asked in non-compulsory questions then simply don’t choose those questions to write.

4) In compulsory questions (Q1 and Q5)- try to manage the question when you have some idea, write broadly and use your limited knowledge well.

For example- Just knowing the location and time period of Natufian culture, I was able to write 2 pages

But DO NOT BLUFF in optional paper. There is difference between bluffing and writing only broadly.

When you are not sure about answer then just write 1 page broadly so that whatever you are writing is true and there is nothing specific you are writing which can be false. I wrote 1 page on Sapir-whorf hypothesis like this (I only read this in theory - symbolic anthropology)

5) Leave questions when you don’t know at all in compulsory questions.

Two thinkers were asked in Paper 2 last year. I was not aware about RB Foote (Q1a) and K S Singh (Q 1c)
Since this was start of my paper (1a and 1c), I completely left 1a and wrote a paragraph in 1c

I got 150 in paper 2 even after attempting 230 marks !!