UPSC CAPF AC 2012 STUDY PLAN

Study-plan] Central Police Forces Exam (Assistant Commandant) Booklist Strategy

1. Study material for CPF exam
2. What’s the Problem with such books?
3. What is CPF exam?
4. Paper 1 of CPF Exam (GS+Aptitude)
   • What is asked in the paper 1?
   • What is asked in the General Studies?
   • Essential Books
   • Optional Books
   • Priority
   • What is asked in the aptitude?
   • How to prepare for Aptitude?
5. Paper II (Essay and Comprehension)
6. How to prepare the Essay?
7. Hindi Medium Aspirants of CPF Exam

Study material for CPF exam

As such, there is no single “comprehensive” book for the CPF exam. All I see is some Jholachhaappublishers’ copypasting chapters from other books meant for Bank PO + add some GK material + give last 3 years’ question papers = market it as SSC/CPF/GPSC guidebook.

What’s the Problem with such books?

• Such readymade books contain “all-in-one” GS+Aptitude material. So a newcomer thinks he got the jackpot.
• But In such books, the history, science portion, they directly give you 25-30 MCQs without explaining any theory.
• Similarly in aptitude portion, they merely list 3-4 formulas, show you 3-4 solved sums with 20 MCQs.
• Many sincere but naive candidates believe that if they prepare such  books, they’re going to crack the SSC/CPF/IBPS/ State PSC exam. Sorry it doesn’t work like that. Please donot underestimate the level of competition.

What is CPF exam?

It is conducted by UPSC, for recruiting officers (Assistant Commandants) in Central Police forces viz. CRPF, CISF, SSB, BSF and ITBP.
The written exam is taken every year, generally in Novermber.

It contains two papers

Paper 1	Objective	General Ability and Intelligence
Paper 2	Descriptive	Essay, Precis writing Comprehension English Grammar

How to Approach Paper 1 of CPF Exam?

• It contains 125 Multi-choice questions worth 2 marks each= Total 250 marks.
• With provision of negative marking for incorrect answers.

What is asked in the paper 1?

Although UPSC syllabus only mentions “General Ability and Intelligence”,but  After analyzing the previous years’ papers of CPF exam, I’ve to say that “Paper 1” for CPF Assistant Commandant’s exam is almost as wide and tough as General studies paper in IAS exam (CSAT).

I split paper-I of CPF exam, into following parts, see this chart

What is asked in the General Studies?

1. History
   1. Ancient (Harappa)
   2. Medival (Mughals etc)
   3. Modern (Post-1857)
2. Science
   1. General Science (the age old principles of Physics, chemistry, biology)
   2. Science and Technology (that “latest discoveries and happenings)
      1. Emphasis on Defence related items (missles, Jets)
3. Geography
4. Current Affairs
   1. Persons in news (PIN)
   2. International affairs
5. Environment
6. Indian Polity
7. Economy
8. Decision Making question
   1. For exam in 2011, they asked “if naxalites take tribals as human shieds, then what should the officer do?”

Like I said earlier, the CPF Assistant Commandant’s GS paper and the questions are almost identical to IAS exam. So preparation should be on the similar lines.

Essential Books

1. General Studies Manual by Tata Macgrawhill (TMH) Publication 
2. IBPS Manual by Disha Expert 
3. A Book of Essays by Spectrum Publication 
4. GK 2013” by Arihant Publication (Rs.25 only) : For ready revision of some essential facts.

Optional Books

You can use them if you’ve time.

1. Compulsory English for Civil and Judicial Exams by A.P.Bhardwaj (TMH Publication) 
2. Indian Polity by M.Laxmikanth 

Why GS Manual?

• You can purchase either a new one, or a used one. It doesn’t matter, because you need it for History, general science and geography, which remains one and same every year. Instead of TMH, you can also use Unique / Spectrum etc. all of them almost the same.
• But Donot get scarred by the thickness of GS Manual, because it contains lot of unnecessary names, and numbers and hundreds of mock question.  Therefore it appears very thick. Otherwise the content you’ve to put in your brain, is worth may be 300-400 pages. You mainly need the GS Manual to practice the mock questions, given at the end of each chapter. (Blank answersheets for MCQ-tests, can be downloaded by clicking me)

To download NCERTs for Free, use this link
http://www.jobsnresults.com/download-ncert-books-for-class-7-free-cbse-books-class-7th/%20

Topic	Reference
History	NCERT Class 7 to 10 Social Science NCERT Class 11-12 History
Geography	NCERT Class 7-10 Social Science + Science NCERT class 11-12 Geography
General Science	NCERT Class 7 to 10 Science only. Science Revision Notes by Mrunal Patel http://mrunal.org/snt
Indian Polity	Polity NOS startup Material by Mrunal – Free downloadhttp://mrunal.org/2012/05/download-polity-study-material-by-nos.html (Optional) Indian Polity by M.Laxmikanth (if you don’t buy M.Laxmikanth then make sure to thoroughly prepare Polity  from your GS Manual as well as the NOS material given me.)
Environment	NOS Biodiversity Material compiled by Mrunal Patel http://mrunal.org/enb
Current Affairs	Current Affairs Compilation by Mrunal Patel http://mrunal.org/studymaterial/current-affairs-package-2012 Subscribe to Pratiyogita Darpan (or you can read it only for free, using this linkhttp://pdeng.pdgroup.in/Index.aspx
Economy	NCERT class 11, 12. Economy NOS Startup Material by Mrunal (Click me to download for free) Economics Articles by Mrunal Patel http://mrunal.org/economy

Priority

Current-affairs is limitless. If you invest more time or energy in it beyond a level, it won’t do you any good. Therefore, your priority must be the “static” (theory) portion

1. History
2. Geogrpahy
3. General Science
4. Environment
5. Indian Polity
6. Economy

Suggestions

• Use Foxit PDF reader (Free) to read those PDF files. Reason, because Foxit PDF reader has Highlighter  and commenting tool, it comes very handy for subsequent revisions.
• For the arts and Commerce graduates: Donot get scarred by “General Science” you don’t have to mug up any chemical names or structures. Just principles behind the every day phenomeona.
• To master above topics, you have to keep revising multiple times and do the mock tests given at the end of GS Manual. You can get more (free) mock tests on gktoday.in as well as in Pratiyogita Darpan or similar magazines.

What is asked in the aptitude?

1. Quantitative aptitude (Maths)
   1. Venn Diagrams
2. Logical Reasoning (LR) also known as Verbal reasoning

How to prepare for Aptitude?

Looking at the last 3 years’ paper, the aptitude portion takes about 20-30% of the paper 1. They give one Venn-diagram case and ask 5 questions based on that. So aptitude is not the major item here and Hence, you don’t have to prepare it as thoroughly as a Bank PO candidate.
Therefore I Donot recommend R.S. Agarwal’s books, because that’ll be an overkill! Instead, I suggest

1. Clear the basic concepts from Mrunal’s Articles on Aptitude http://mrunal.org/aptitude
2. Buy a brand new (or used) IBPS (Bank PO) exam manual. There are many publications in the market, Disha, Arihant, GK.
3. Contentwise, almost all of them are identical. They cover (Maths  + verbal + non-verbal + some grammar). Solve all the exercise questions.
4. If you can’t decide which one to pick, I would suggest Disha.
5. PS. IF you’re really weak in maths, you can go through the NCERT books for Mathametics from class 7 to 10. (For free).

Also read the article on “The Art of Aptitude” Click ME.

Paper II (Essay and Comprehension)

It is worth 2 hours and 200 marks. The question paper contains

1. Long Essay (four essays are given; you’ve to write only one of them in 800 words.)
2. Short Essay ( two topics are given, you’ve to pick one and write 250 words)
3. Reading comprehension (a paragraph is given and you’ve to read and write answers based on that paragraph)
4. Précis (a long paragraph is given, you’ve to write short version of it.)
5. English grammar. (Fill in the blanks etc)

Just go through the old papers, and solve them (yes you should actually write the answers in blank papers at home, for practice).
No separate preparation is necessary. But still if you’re very uncomfortable with English, you can refeer to AP Bhardwaj’s book.

How to prepare the Essay?

• Paper 2 is worth 200 marks and inside it, the Essay is worth 80 marks (that’s 40%). Therefore, You must prepare for Essay exhaustively, to ensure success in the CPF exam.
• Get this book titled “A Book of Essays by Spectrum Publication by Spectrum Publication”
• It contains hundreds of essays, on almost every topic from human cloning to terrorism. Read them, you get plenty of fodder material that you can use while writing your own essay in the exam.
• But this is not enough. You must also do following
• Read this article on how to write essay (click me)
• See the types of essays asked in previous IAS exams. (click me)
• Think about each and every one of the subject, what would you write if they asked the same essay to you? Note down the 5-6 keypoints or arguments that come in your mind.
• Then keep Reading the columns in newspapers on daily basis, and update your skeletal essay, based on any new fodder material / example points that you come across.
• On the exam day, whatever they ask, it’s going to be related to those topics one way or another so you just have to assemble your thoughts and present a decent essay.

Hindi Medium Aspirants of CPF Exam

• Hindi version of General Studies Manuals use very “Shuddha (Pure) Hindi” for example instead of “Audit” they use the word “Lekha parikshan”. Similarl problems in Economy and Polity portion.
• Thus It becomes very cumbersome to read such book and you’ve to tick only MCQs for the CPF exam.
• So I would suggest you buy English version of GS Manual instead of Hindi version. Same reason, I suggest you download the English version of NCERTs instead of Hindi version.
• In paper 2, you can only write the first essay in Hindi, and rest of  the questions have to be answered in English. So,  If you’re going to write the Essay in Hindi, then buy Hindi version of that Spectrum Essay book.