Yojana is one of the best monthly magazines that aspirants should read. Yojana is published by the Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
You must avoid the other less worthy magazines, as they can end up to be time consuming and ineffective. Reasons why Yojana is the best magazine for UPSC preparation:
- It’s revealed by the govt. of India. It gives out data, facts etc. which are acceptable by the govt.
- It doesn’t have a biased opinion. You can notice both pros and cons listen to any particular issue.
- Several toppers in the past have mentioned Yojana the magazine of their selection.
- It’s very low in cost. It prices about Rs.22 per magazine and is additionally available for free online.
- It covers a broad range of important topics like inclusive governance, international relations, federalism, budget etc.
Many students have doubts regarding how to read the Yojana?
How much time to spend on reading it? How necessary is it to read Yojana?
Let’s take a glance at the things you ought to keep in mind while reading Yojana:
- Read previous year’s Yojana: If you’re appearing for the mains in 2018, you should read the yojana magazines for 2017. Create a list of topics for the twelve Yojana magazines.
- Understand its relevance for the exam: Yojana is helpful for Mains and interview preparation only. Refer Yojana for GS Paper2, GS Paper3 & Essay Paper.
- Don’t substitute it for basic concepts: although Yojana is one of the most effective magazines for UPSC Preparation, you’ll only benefit from it if you already have your basic ideas clear. Thus browse the Yojana solely once you’ve got finished reading the NCERTs and basic study material.
- Read the Chief Editor’s part in the magazine as it has some important points. Every yojana features a few developmental initiatives by the government which are explained in brief. One should keep his/her attention on that column.
In the contents page, mark the topics that you just have already read and understood their relevance from the exam point of view.
In each article that you read, you must seek for the subheadings. Under every subheading, there’s core plan that you should make a note of, for future reference.
The objective of reading Yojana is to accumulate more and relevant knowledge on the topics we’ve already read in the newspapers/textbooks.
- Refer the GS Mains papers and therefore the Essay papers of previous years’ while reading Yojana to grasp however questions have been asked in the Mains and how the additional information can be useful in making an answer more relevant and application-oriented.
- The maximum time you should devote any issue is not more than eight hours. After reading 2-3 issues you should be able to read and extract important points in an average of 5 hours.
What should you ignore in the Yojana while reading for UPSC Mains General Studies?
The things to ignore in a Yojana Issue are:
- Case Studies
- Opinions of a Minister
- Examples of pilot projects
You may glance through them if the topic is extraordinary, which is rare. Generally, it is pretty safe to ignore the above-mentioned items from a yojana monthly issue.
Remember that Yojana is an information outlet for the government, hence use it mainly to clarify your understanding of the broad issue. If you follow last two years of issues of the Yojana Magazine, you will have twenty odd topics which are spread over the four GS papers as well as flow over to the Essay (Given that your optional is not related Arts based). This much is generally enough to give you a solid command of the GS.
Disclaimer: Yojana is useful after at least two revisions of the core static syllabus of the General Studies. If your basics from NCERTs and standard books are not clear, then Yojana can’t do much to up your chances.
We hope you find this article useful. If you have another way of reading Yojana for IAS exam, then please share it in the comments below.
