Friday, September 17, 2010

Indian Oil Corporation Announces 450 academic scholarships

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) a reputed Govt. of India enterprise has announced 450 academic scholarships for bright and financially weak students.  This scholarship is for the full time first Year students of 10+ (i.e. Class 11), ITI, Engineering, MBBS and MBA who are currently enrolled in any University/Institution in the academic session 2010-11.
All the other details of the scholarship can be seen in the attachment with this mail. The process of application is both online and offline. For online application the following webpage can be accessed:
*      The last date for the receipt of application is 30th September 2010.
*      The amount of scholarships is as follows:
1.      2000 per month for 4 years in case of Engineering, MBBS and MBA courses.
2.      1000 per month for 2 years in the case of 10+ and ITI courses.
3.      The scholarship will be for the entire duration of the above mentioned courses.
Note: The Scholarship will not be provided during the internship of the MBBS course.
Age Limit: The Minimum age limit is 15 years and maximum is 30 years as on 1st September, 2010.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Happy Ramadan ! Students of Brains Convent School need your support

Wish All The Members & Well-wishers of this Foundation a HAPPY RAMADAN. May Almighty Allah accepts our prayers and fasts and admits us among the righteous - Amen.


This couldnt be a better month than the Holy month of Ramadan that these students of Brains Convent School require your support in meeting their needs of tuition fees and for us to earn multiplied Sawa'ab. Brains Convent School is the only Muslim school recognized by ICSE board in Lucknow and maintains a very high standard of education and discipline. This school caters to the Nakhas, Raja Bazaar, Yahya Ganj, Rakab Ganj, Moulvi Ganj areas of the school. Last year we had 30 students sponsored by this foundation studying in this school, and this year the numbers have doubled to 61 students. All these cases of new students were surveyed by our members and some recommended by the school.

Since the tuition fees of this school is substantially high when compared to the other schools in this area, the school has decided to waive 50% of the tuition fees. I humbly request, the members of our community to lend a helping hand to these children who have made it so far, and now they require your support. You can adopt one, two , three or as many student's fees for the entire year, and payment can be made on a quarterly, six-monthly or yearly basis.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Sponsors Required for Students of St.Mary's Public Inter College

Our commitment to provide education to the under-privileged section of our community remains top-most agenda, and so far we have able to bring changes in the lives of thousands of such families in Lucknow. We are remain resolute towards this cause and Inshallah will continue to work as long as we have community support.

We have over 25 different schools in Lucknow – with whom we have tied up to educate our students; these schools not only offer our foundation fee concession, they also keep a strict track on their performance such as attendance and marks (which they submit to us on a monthly basis).


Our first list of
St. Mary’s Public Inter College, Amberganj, Lucknow has been finalized. We have total of 27 students in this school (21 continuing students, and 6 new students). The total fees for 27 students is Rs. 8775/- per month (after 15% Fee concession given by the school). I request members of our community to come forward and adopt the fees of these young students (one student, 2 students or as many) who will be the torch bearer of our community in years to come. For those who would like to sponsor any number of student in this school, please send us an email at: lucknowliteracyfoundation@gmail.com

Friday, July 16, 2010

India at a Glance (Fact Sheet) - Education

Education in India

Illiteracy: India has 35% of the world’s total illiterates. [2008]

Out of school children: 320 lakh in 2001-02 | 76 lakh in 2007-08.

World Bank Report (2009):

* 48 of every 100 students in India pursuing secondary education never go beyond that level.

* India's gross enrolment rates (GER) in secondary school is 40 percent compared to 70 percent in East Asia and 82 percent in Latin America. Countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh which have lower per capita incomes than India have higher gross enrolment rates (GER) in secondary schools.

* 40 million children were enrolled in secondary school in 2008. The majority of them were boys, children from the urban areas, and those who belonged to the wealthier segments of the population.

* Enrolment varies greatly between states, from 92% in Kerala, 44% in Tamil Nadu, 22% in Bihar, and 4% in Jharkhand. 37% of secondary students fail, and 11% dropout before exam.

* 75% of public funding for secondary schools comes from states. Less than 10% of this is for investment. While recurrent financing, mainly for teacher salaries, has been stable, the financing of new investments has declined.

* 60% of the secondary school system is privately managed - through unaided and aided private schools. Private unaided schools provide 30% of total secondary enrolment nationwide (2004-05), up from 15% in 1993-94.

* On average, government school teachers earn 3 times more than their counterparts in private schools.

Source:http://www.worldbank.org.in/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/INDIAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22339000~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:295584,00.html


Primary-school Teacher Absence (World Bank Report 2002-03)

S. No

Country

Absence Rate (%)

1

Uganda

27

2

India

25

3

Indonesia

19

4

Ecuador

14

5

Zambia

17

6

Bangladesh

16

7

Papua New Guinea

15

8

Peru

11

Source:http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/37912_Ecuador.Teacher.Absenteeism.August13.2004.pdf


Missing Teachers (World Bank-Harvard University study-06)

* 25 per cent of teachers were absent from school and only about half were teaching.

* Rates of absenteeism varied from under 15 per cent in Maharashtra to 42 per cent in Jharkhand. The rates were found to be higher in the "poorer States."

* Maharashtra had the lowest rate — 14.6 per cent. In Kerala it was 21.2 per cent, in Tamil Nadu 21.3 per cent, in Karnataka 21.7 per cent and in West Bengal 24.7 per cent. On the higher side, the rate was 34.4 per cent in Punjab, 37.8 per cent in Bihar, and 41.9 per cent in Jharkhand.

* Categories of absence of teachers, the study found that it was 30.2 per cent in the case of head teachers, 22.2 per cent in the case of deputy heads, 23.1 per cent in respect of permanent or regular teachers, and 24 per cent in the case of contract/informal candidates.

* Teacher absence was considerably lower in schools with better infrastructure, a potentially important pointer to the importance of working conditions.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/2006/04/05/stories/2006040506971100.html


Teacher and Pupil Ratio

* The all-India teacher and pupil ratio for primary schools in 2005-06 stood at 1:46. But states like Bihar had a teacher to pupil ratio of 1:104, Jharkhand 1:79 and West Bengal 1:50.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/newdelhi/Who-will-teach-the-teachers/Article1-465882.aspx

Monday, June 28, 2010

LLF's association with Azad Engineering College

Azad Engineering College has agreed to take five students of our foundation in their Engineering College for their Four Year Full Time Engineering Course in any stream(Subject to availaibility of Seats) from this year(session 2010 onwards). Every thing will be free of cost except the local conveyance which has to borne by the candidate as they have outsourced the Local Conveyance.
The session 2010-11 starts on 14th Day of August 2010.
The management of Azad Engineering College will be conducting a Test of all the interested students( for Engineering stream) of our foundation, out which the Top Five students will be selected.
Any student of our foundation who is interested in doing Engineering can contact the foundation on any Saturdays between 11 am - 1pm at our office in Hazratganj, Lucknow.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Performance of Students of St. Marys Public Inter College, Amberganj

LLF is proud to share the results of St. Mary’s Public Inter College, Amberganj, Lucknow with our members without their support this program would not have been possible.

LLF has been providing tuition fees of 27 students in this school from past 5 years. Six students of this school gave 10th (High School) exam and managed to get 51%, 50%, 65%, 65%, 72%, and 65% respectively in their exams conducted by U.P. Board. While 2 students appeared for Class 12 (Intermediate School) exams and managed to get 60.4% and 66.6% respectively in the U.P. Board exams.

The other sponsored students of this school (from Nursery – Class 9) averaged at 75%; these were internal exams conducted by the school.

Please mind, that these students are from the families where this is the first generation that is going to school or in some cases, the mothers (single parent) are somehow managing to send their children to school and in other cases some of these children are orphan (they are either staying with their grandparents or aunts).

We would like to thank everyone for their generous support in making sure that these kids continue going to school year after year.

May God reward and bless us all.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

An Educational Program for the Leader in Environmental Protection on the basis of Laboratory Works and Fields Works

Call for Participants in JENESYS PROGRAM 2010

An Educational Program for the Leader in Environmental Protection on the basis of Laboratory Works and Fields Works

The summary of the programThis program is one of JENESYS (the Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths) programs supported by JASSO (Japan Student Services Organization). The aim of this program is to bring up the leaders having internationality and wide scope visions in the field of environmental protection under the conduction of Graduate School of Environmental Science (GSES) of Hokkaido University. In order to acquire the concepts of environmental protection, the basic and advanced knowledge and technologies for environmental monitoring, environmental evaluation and environmental remediation methods will be learned through this program under the supervision of scientists in the laboratories of GSES, Hokkaido University. In addition, through the seminars and lectures prepared for this program, students will understand global environment problems, an environmental difference between Tropical Zone and Temperate Zone, and the difference of the action to the environmental problems in each country. Students in this program will take part in interchanging with Japanese researchers and students in the nature of the Temperate Zone area (a cool and warm band including snow season).

We hope that this program leads to the entrance into Doctoral Course in Hokkaido University to become an excellent engineer and/or scientist in your country.The detail of the program should be referred in an attached sheet.

The period of the program From October 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011

 

The recruitment number of people Six students from Indonesia, India and the Philippines in total

Qualifications of application (Eligibility)

1. (a) The person who is a student of master's course in University of his/her country during this program.

(b) The person who is within one year after graduation from college, university or after master’s degree completion of University of his/her country at the first of Oct. 2010.

(c) Excellent undergraduate students also can apply to this program, if he/she has a strong motivation to study environmental science and to go to master course.

2. The person who have a great interests in environmental conservation and remediation.

3. The person who hopes to be researcher and engineer in the field of the environmental science in the future.

4. The person who can understand and speak English.

Financial supports Following financial supports will be provided to a student employed in this program

1) A scholarship 130,000 JPY/month

ï¼’) Voyage costs 260,000 JPY

3) The tuition Free (supported by JASSO)

ï¼”) The domestic travel expenses for trainings  100,000 JPY (Maximum)

5) The dormitory The dormitories owned by Hokkaido University during the studying abroad period will be mediated as many as possible. The students will pay the rents (about 8,000 to 14,000 JPY /month.).

Application for the programApplicants are required to submit the documents listed below. The documents should not be written in a language other than English.

1) A curriculum vitae with one your photograph taken within 3 months

ï¼’) Certificate of academic transcripts

3) Graduation certificate of master course in your University (if you are within one year after master’s degree completion ); Graduation certificate of undergraduate in your University (if you are a master course student)

ï¼”) Essay for the reason why you hope to attend to this program within 800 words.

5) TOEFL, TOEIC or IELTS score (if available)

Application period Until June 18, 2010

Submission The documents prepared will be sent to Admission office for Academic/Education, Graduate School of Environmental Science Hokkaido Universitygakujutu@ees.hokudai.ac.jp by e-mail. When you will send them, please write the subject tile as “JENESYS program” in your e-mail.

JENESYS PROGRAM

An Educational Program of Leaders for Environmental Conservation on the basis of Laboratory Trainings and Seminars in Japan

Contents of the program

◇  ◇  ◇  ◇  ◇

This program is to bring up the leaders having internationality and wide scope visions in the field of environmental conservation. The program consists of the environmental research, lectures, laboratory training courses and seminars as shown as follows. During six months of this program, the participants will learn the basic concepts and technologies for environmental monitoring, environmental conservation, and environmental remediation through the lectures and laboratory trainings. The participants will also take part in some seminars to exchange the information on environmental science and to interchange with Japanese researchers and students. In addition, a short term research on environmental conservation, remediation and so on will be performed under the supervision of researchers of Graduate School of Environmental Science (GSES), Hokkaido University. .

l Special research on environmental science

Each student will belong to each laboratory of GSES during this program. Under the supervision of each researcher, the research concerning environmental conservation and remediation will be carried out in each laboratory. In the end of the program, the results obtained by the research will be presented in front of all teachers. The researchers of Division of Environmental Science Development of GSES will mainly supervise these researches.

l Laboratory and fields works

A) Laboratory trainings of environmental analysis consisting of basic and advanced chemical experimentsinstrumental analysesphysiology and cell biology (Indonesian and Japanese teaching assistants will support you during the trainings.)

B) Trainings Course of Environmental Material Chemistry

C) Method for International Communication

D) Training in Experimental Forest or Marine Station

l Seminars

A) Subject Seminar for Environmental Remediation

B) Tour Seminar for Environmental Remediation : The inspection of environmental facilities and plants in Hokkaido for drinking water, sewage and garbage incineration. The problems in each plant will be discussed after the inspection.

C) Environmental Science Seminar in English

l Lectures

A) Basic Lecture for Environmental Science

B) Advanced Course in Environmental Remediation

C) Advanced Course in Dynamics of Global Warming

D) Advanced Course in International Communication Methods

E) Biochemical Resources

The detail of JENESYS program in the last year can be found in the home page of our

graduate school.

[ http://www.ees.hokudai.ac.jp/en-kizi.html].

Thursday, May 27, 2010

How to Become IAS/IPS Officer

How to become an IAS/IPS officer?

In this article we will talk about the process involved in becoming an IAS or (Indian Administrative Services) officer!

Please Note: Becoming an:

· IAS (Indian Administrative Services) officer

· IPS (Indian Police Services) officer etc…

Is all done though the same "UPSC held Civil Services" examination! This guide is written from the point of view of becoming an IAS officer. However, the procedure to become an IPS etc. officer is also the same!

If you are interested in becoming an IAS officer, you probably know what the IAS is all about and why becoming an IAS officer is a very good career option. However, just incase you do not know, let us give you some quick information on IAS!

If you become an IAS officer, you become part of the Indian Administrative Service. You will be part of the Govt. You can work from "the inside" and change "the system"!!

If you have a dream for India , or if you, like us, believe that India will soon be a "super-power" . If you want to be part of the process of making India a great nation, IAS is for you! Being an IAS officer, there is a lot more power and control you have so that you can be part of Emerging India !

Besides that, IAS is a great career option! You get many "perks of the job" when you are an IAS officer. You will have "job security", "discount on Govt. services", "Govt. provided transportation" and many more things... Even though the monthly salary provided by the IAS career is not too high, the "perks" make up for the less salary!

However, getting into the IAS is not that easy! There is a very competitive "one year long" exam! To get into the IAS, you probably will have to try more than once before you succeed. And even if you clear the exam, then you have to get a very good score to qualify for the IAS! So, basically getting into the IAS is not that easy. However, here on indiahowto.com, we will try to show you "how to.." get in.

To get into the IAS, you will have to give the "UPSC held Civil Services Examination" . It is a common exam for getting into the IAS, IPS etc. To succeed in the "Civil Services Examination" you first need to understand how the examination is conducted or the "examination format"! But, before we understand that, let get some "Frequently Asked Questions" out of the way….

How do I apply for the "Civil Services Exam"?

The Application Procedure for the Civil Services Examination is pretty simple. The "Application Form" and "Information Brochure" can be obtained from the "Head Post Offices or Post Offices" throughout the country.

The filled Application Form should be sent to:
Secretary,
Union Public Service Commission,
Dholpur House,
New Delhi - 110011.

Just to give you an idea, here is a sample application form. Note: This is just a sample form to give you an idea. You cannot use this form for application. You will have to take an actual form from the Post Office/Head Post Office in your town!

Here is the information brochure you will get along with the application form. You should download it and read it properly. It tells you about the filling of the form, the exam and some other details.

Can anyone apply, what is the eligibility criteria?

I. Academic Eligibility
The candidate must possess a degree from an Indian University or an educational institution deemed as a University or possess an equivalent qualification. Those in the final year of a degree course can also appear in the Preliminary Examination.

II. Other Eligibility Conditions

1. For the IAS and the IPS, the candidate must be a citizen of India .

2. For the other services, a candidate must be either:

· a citizen of India , or

· a subject of Nepal , or

· a subject of Bhutan , or

· a Tibetan refugee who came over to India before January 1, 1962, with the intention of permanently settling in India , or

· a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.


iii. The candidate must have attained 21 years of age on August 1st of the year of examination and must not have attained 30 years of age on that date. The upper age limit will be relaxed by 3 years for OBC candidates and 5 years for SC/ST candidates. The upper age limit is also relaxed in favor of certain categories of civil servants working under the Government of India and Defense Services Personnel.

These are the Govt. stated eligibility criteria. If you come under these, you can give the exam.

When is the examination usually conducted?

The notification for the examination (giving the rules and syllabus for all the subjects in the examination) is published in the month of December every year in the 'Employment News' / 'Rozgar Samachar' and 'Gazette of India ', as well as, in some leading Newspapers.

You should try to get a copy of this notification. The "Preliminary Examination" is usually held in May / June and the "Main Examination" in October / November of the same calendar year.

If you are wondering what the "Main Examination" and the "Preliminary Examination" is, don't worry! We will be explaining all this in the next page.

People give the exam many times!? How many times are you allowed to give the exam?

· If you belong to the "Open Category" you can give the exam 4 times maximum!

· If you belong to the "OBC" you can give the exam 7 times.

· If you belong to the "SC/ST" you can give the exam as many times as you want. There is no restriction on the number of times!

Where is the exam conducted? Is there a exam center in my city?

The following cities have exam centers:

· Agartala

· Gangtok

· Panaji ( Goa )

· Ahmedabad

· Hyderabad

· Patna

· Aizawl

· Imphal

· Pondicherry

· Aligarh

· Itanagar

· Port Blair

· Allahabad

· Jaipur

· Raipur

· Aurangabad

· Jammu

· Ranchi

· Bangalore

· Jodhpur

· Sambalpur

· Bareilly

· Jorhat

· Shillong

· Bhopal

· Kochi

· Shimla

· Chandigarh

· Kohima

· Srinagar

· Chennai

· Kolkata

· Thiruvananthapuram

· Cuttack

· Lucknow

· Tirupati

· Dehradun

· Madurai

· Udaipur

· Delhi

· Mumbai

· Vishakhapatnam

· Dharwar

· Nagpur

· Dispur

Okay, now let us understand the "format" of the exam...

Pattern or Format of Civil Service Exam!

The Civil Service Examination has a complicated format! The complete exam stretches over a period of one year! So, before you go ahead, let us first try to understand the "format" of the exam.

First of all, in the month of May or June there are the "Preliminary examinations" . Now, in this examination, there are two papers. The papers are on:

1. General Studies (150 marks)
2. Some optional subject (300 marks)

This exam is just to get you to the next round of the "main exam". This is just to short list candidates. The score you get here is NOT added to your final score.

Now, you are probably wondering what "general studies" and "some optional subject" means, so let us clear that up!

General Studies Paper….

General Studies paper consists of questions on:

1. Indian Polity & Economy

2. History of India including Indian National Movement

3. Indian and World Geography

4. Current Affairs of National and International Importance

5. General and day-to-day Science

6. Mental Ability and Basics of Statistics etc.

Questions on planning, budgeting, developmental programs, latest issues of political and constitutional importance, panchayati raj, electoral reforms, natural resources, culture, growth of nationalism, Committees, Commission etc can be expected every year.

Now-a-days, there is a lot of emphasis on "current affairs" in the general studies paper!

Basically, the syllabus is HUGE and vague. But, don't worry we shall try to help you with what you need to do. How to prepare for these papers is given later on in the "How to prepare" section…

"Some optional subject" paper

Here you have to give a paper on a subject of your choice. You can choose from the following subjects:

· Agriculture

· Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science

· Botany

· Chemistry

· Civil Engineering

· Commerce

· Economics

· Electrical Engineering

· Geography

· Geology

· Indian History

· Law

· Mathematics

· Mechanical Engineering

· Medical Science

· Philosophy

· Physics

· Political Science

· Psychology

· Public Administration

· Sociology

· Statistics

· Zoology

As, you know, to give the exam you need to be a "graduate" in some field. People generally choose their optional subject as the same subject that they graduated in. However, there is no such compulsion. You can choose any subject and give your "optional subject paper" for that subject.

To get the syllabus for the optional subject you pick, you can check out this link!

Okay, now after you have given the prelims, you have to wait for the result and see if you got selected for the "Main Examination" ! The results generally come out by July or August!

Once the results are out, you will know whether you are going to be appearing for the "Main Examination" or not!

Now, in the main examination, there are "9" papers that you have to give! These papers include:

· 1 Essay type Indian Language Qualifying Paper (300 marks)

· 1 English Qualifying Paper (300 marks)

· 1 General Essay type paper (200 marks)

· 2 General Studies papers (300 marks each)

· 4 Optional subjects papers (300 marks each)


You can find the syllabus for these papers here. Then finally, if you qualify after the "main examination" stage, you have to go for an interview. In the interview, you are tested on basis of your personality, mental ability etc. It is seen how suitable the job will be for you. And, if the interviewers like you, you are selected.

This complete process takes about one year. The preparation for this starts 4-5 yeas in advance. And out of the 2 lakh people that apply, only 400 to 500 are selected! To add to all this, if you are selected and only if you have a good enough score, you are free to choose what you want, whether IAS, IPS etc… IAS and IPS get filled out fastest. If you want to become an IAS officer, you will need a great score!

It's hard, but we will try to guide you….Next, let us see how you should prepare for the prelims…...

How to prepare for the Civil Services Preliminary Exam?

Now, as you saw in the previous section, in the preliminary examination there are two papers.

1. General studies

2. Optional Subject

Preparing for General Studies Paper

We discussed the "syllabus" of the General Studies paper in the last section. However, as we saw, the syllabus is quite large and vague. However, to prepare for it, you could do the following:

FIRSTLY: For this paper, it is very important to be updated in "current affairs" in all fields.

For History, Economy, Polity, etc, you should read Class 11 and 12 books published by the NCERT. Here are some NCERT e-book downloads that you can use free!

For general knowledge and objective-type questions, refer to the book "General Knowledge Refresher by O.P. Khanna".

According to IAS topper of 2000, Sorabh Babu Maheshwari, you must read "Competition Success Review" issues from December to May. Just go through them and try to pick as many facts as you can. Also solve the previous years' General Studies Prelims and Model Papers published in Competition Success Review.

Here are some sample General Studies papers to give you an idea:
General Studies 2006 Prelims Paper
General Studies 2005 Prelims Paper

When studying for General Studies, you should try to read up as many business and political magazines, newspapers etc. that you can. This has two advantages. It will give you a good control over the English language. This "good control" helps you in many of the papers like the "essay paper", the "English qualifying paper" etc. It will also keep you updated with the latest facts and current affairs.

However, do not over do this. You should not waste your time reading a lot and picking up very few facts! You must try to read only things that matter and take an extra effort to look out for things that could be asked in the exam papers!

How to prepare for the Optional Subject paper?

Before you prepare for the optional subject paper, you first need to select the optional subject.


What subject should you take?

If you have got your "bachelor's" degree in a particular field, and you are confident about that field then choosing that subject as your optional subject would be a good idea.

It would be wise to look though the syllabus of the subject you are selecting and seeing whether you have covered all of the topics in your degree course and how well you feel you know those topics. You could take a look at the syllabus from here.

Another strategy is to select a subject like "Geography" or "History" if you can mug-up a lot of facts. These subjects help some people to score really well in the prelims and this is what gets them to their "Mains Exam"!

One important thing to remember: After the prelims, you are not going to get much time to prepare for the "Main Exam" if you get selected. It would make a lot of sense to try to study both "General Studies" as well as the "Optional Subject" properly, as if you are studying for the Mains! At least one optional subject of the mains will be almost over! If you do this, your load for the mains will reduce a lot!


How to study for the optional subject?

Well, there are many different subjects and it would not be practical to explain how to study for each individual one. However, we shall help you with the general way to go about it!

Obtain the latest syllabus for the civil service exam you will be giving. Then, gather up all your books, and cover the topics of the syllabus while SIMULTANEOUSLY referring to the question papers and seeing the kind of questions that are asked on each topic!

Now, as you know, the paper will be a multiple choice questions paper. So, people look though the syllabus and make the mistake of assuming something like, "This cannot be asked as a multiple-choice question! What can they possibly ask?" This is a BIG mistake!

They can convert just about anything into a confusing multiple choice question. So a good understanding of all the concepts of the syllabus is a must!

Another thing to remember, when you start to study for the prelims, you might tend to want to focus more on the "optional subject" since you already know it and it is easier! Do not do this! Make sure you concentrate on the "General Studies" paper also. If you do not, you will just not reach the Mains!

Remember also not to over concentrate on the "General Studies" paper. It has fewer marks than the optional subject. So, basically, do not "over" or "under" focus on any one! Do both in the right proportion. (We know that all this is easier to say than do!)