Selfstudyhistory.com’s Interview of Aditi Dubey [Rank 180, CSE- 2024, History Optional]

Profile of the Candidate

Questions Related to History Optional

(2) Why did you choose history as your optional subject?

I had history as one of the disciplines during college. I chose it specifically because I developed a keen interest in the subject because of the influence of my elder brother. During college too, I enjoyed reading history.

(3) Kindly mention positive and negative about the History Optional for those who what to take history optional.

Negative- Vast syllabus, low scores to majority of people ( I was fortunate though)

Positives- repetition from pyqs , interesting subject that helps develop critical analytical thinking, helps in essay and GS1 too

(4) Kindly mention booklist and sources which you followed for History Optional.

RS Sharma and Upinder Singh selectively  for ancient, satish chandra both volumes for medieval, plassey to partition by shekhar bandhopadhyay for modern and for self study history pyq slolutions world history

(5) In Paper I and II, you answered 3 questions from Part A or Part B?

In both the papers, I attempted 3 questions from part A and 2 questions from part B

(6) How did you prepare for Map Portion?

From Rashid yaseen’s book mainly. I also took help of selfstudyhistory’s map solutions that are available for free for past 3-4 years.

(7) How much time per day you used to give the history optional during your preparation (both before and after prelims)?

Before mains, I gave around 6 months dedicatedly to optional. After pre, I gave around 15- 20 days to optional completely. On other days I tried to give half a day ( 5 to 5.5 hours) to optional. But there were also days where I studied only GS.

(8) Did you do answer writing regularly? If yes, what amount of time you devoted to it and how did it help you?

I wrote answers seriously only after clearing pre. I tried to write all PYQs of history from 2008 at least. I was able to complete it uptill the Gupta period too. It was very useful indeed. But after that, I could only write pyqs of few major topics as the date of mains approached and I started facing a time crunch. I could hardly write 10 answers of world history.

(9) Did you join any test series? If yes, kindly name it? How did it benefit you?

No. I did not join any test series because I faced a time crunch. However, I wrote vision ias abhyas’s history optional paper. It was the first time they were conducting a simulation for optionals so the questions were not that great, but it helped me gauge my writing speed.

(10) Did you maintain self-notes? If yes, how did it help you?

I have hand written notes for many major themes. Making them was immensely time consuming and difficult for me. But then it helped me greatly too.

(11) Have you solved previous years papers of history optional? Did it help you in the examination?

Yes. Infact PYQs were the base of my preparation. It helped me immensely in the examination too.

(12) In your views, how the nature of questions asked in history optional changed in recent years?

This year, new dimensions were asked from older themes. Like from Harappan civilisation, art perspective was asked and types of megalithic burials was asked. So, I believe that some lesser important themes too need to be focused now to gain an edge.

(13) Were you asked questions related to History in interview? If yes, kindly mention those.

Yes. I was asked about the reasons for world war2 and many follow up questions. I was also asked whether there is a rewriting of history going on and why are historians like RS Sharma amd Romila Thapar not liking it.

(14) How did selfstudyhistory.com benefitted you in your History Optional Preparation?

The quality of answers provided by Selfstudyhistory is unmatched, it is the undisputed best in the market. It helped me a lot in covering those PYQs whose solutions are nowhere to be found in standard books. The PYQ solutions also helped me in enriching my existing notes.