Sociology

Sociology can be an overwhelming subject for beginners. Especially for those from non-humanities background. I faced something similar when I realized in my coaching classes for the first time that Sociology itself can be defined in many different ways. While it can take time to get your head around the terminology and understand basic concepts, once you give it time, you can get comfortable with the subject.

My approach

I had enrolled for coaching at Vajiram for Sociology. It was good to begin with as it made me well acquainted with the basic terms and concepts. But that's about it. Rest of the work was done by myself. I made my own notes from multiple sources, wrote answers for previous years questions, gave several tests before the exam day.

1. Making notes: The most important part of preparation. Even if you not a "notes person", I urge you to consider making notes for Sociology. This will help you in revision and retaining things else you could get lost in the multiple sources that are available. Below were the steps I followed in making my notes:
• Firstly, I made my notes both in Evernote and short notes in hardcopy (for revision). I tried to compile as in when I found some worthy points - be it from test series or newspapers.
• While going through standard books, don't start note making immediately. Make notes in your second or third reading and keep highlighting the main points in your first reading. 
• Try to hold on to thinkers, examples and keep cross checking with old paper questions to make sure that you are reading the right things.
  LINKS TO MY NOTES 
2. Answer Writing: You may finish reading all the standard books, attend classes of all Socio gurus that you possibly can. But only answer writing practice can help you get clarity of what you have read and reproduce it in the form of coherent answers.
• In this respect, I am extremely thankful to my friend IPS Abhinav Dhiman. He and I answered two previous years questions per day and evaluated each other's answers. His discipline motivated me to keep writing even on the days that I felt absolute aversion to studying or writing.
• This answer writing exercise helped us in multiple ways - 1) Questions tend to get repeated in the exam, 2) Helped us memorise important thinkers, 3) Gave us a ready-made example bank.
• Below I'm uploading a compilation of our answers to Previous Years' UPSC questions. Huge disclaimer - these answers are not ideal and we too were aspirants when we wrote them. These are being uploaded only for you to get an idea. (Note: It is a huge file)
  SOCIOLOGY PYP ANSWERS - DHATRI AND DHIMAN 
3. Test Series: Again, at the risk of being repetitive, one cannot ignore test series. Finishing paper within 3 hours is in itself major part of the job. Timed tests (or answer writing) alone can help you in this respect. I had enrolled at two different test series for ample practice. Here you can find links to my answers in mock tests.
            SOCIOLOGY MOCK TESTS DHATRI