1. UPSC vs RAS
2. Analysis of RAS-2012 prelims
3. Rajasthan’s history and culture
4. Indian History n Culture
5. Geography
   1. World Geography
   2. India Geography
   3. Geography of Rajasthan
6. Environment and Biodiversity (EnB)
7. Economy
8. Economy of Rajasthan
9. Polity
   1. Rajasthan state polity/administration
   2. Rajasthan Public Policy
10. Science & Technology
11. Current Affairs and PIN
12. Reasoning & Mental Ability
    1. Mental Ability
    2. Basic Numeracy 
13. Conclusion
14. Appendix: Free study material, Download links
    1. Exam related Technical details:
       1. 2012’s prelim paper
       2. Mains papers of 2008 and 2010
       3. Cutoffs for 2012’s Prelims
       4. Syllabus
       5. Notification for 2013’s Exam
       6. Press Note regarding reforms in RAS exam
    2. RAS Specific Study material
    3. NCERT and NIOS (Essential/Core)
    4. India yearbook
    5. Softwares
    6. NCERT and NIOS (Peripheral)

UPSC vs RAS

first let’s see how RAS is different from UPSC preliminary exam.

Exam	UPSC	Rajasthan
Prelim	Two papers General studies Aptitude Total 4 hours and 200 questions.	Only single paper that contains both General studies + Aptitude questions. 3 hours, 150 questions.
Mains	Separate essay paper	No
	Separate qualifying paper for English Separate qualifying paper regional language	Single paper that’ll contain 120 marks worth Hindi and 80 marks worth English =total 200 marks.
	Four papers of General studies. 4 x 250=1000 marks.	Three papers of general studies. 3 x 200=600 marks.
	One optional subject (two papers)	No optional subjects.
	No	GS(Mains) paper contains maths, reasoning and statistics in its syllabus.

Analysis of RAS-2012 prelims

Entire question paper available in a separate article click me
Unlike the UPSC CSAT-2013 paper, the RAS-2012 prelims paper had following differences:

• Very few Economy questions and all of them based on current affairs, number based.
• Very few Qs on polity and all of them centered on current affairs / Rajasthan.
• Environment biodiversity matter mostly GK and Rajasthan based.
• Science forms a major part, and mostly based on direct theory from conventional books.
• Current affairs form a significant part- including person in news, awards, events etc.

Although, this time RAS has changed syllabus, included aptitude within GS Prelims paper. So, it remains to be seen whether they continue the old ways or not. Anyways, let’s see how to approach individual topics as per the syllabus

Rajasthan’s history and culture

Start with the Social science / history textbooks of Rajasthan State education board. You can freely download them from http://rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in/books/index.htm
If you look at the syllabus of history in Rajasthan University, Jaipur:

1. BA History part 1=> paper 2 is about all History of Rajasthan (from Ancient to 1956).
2. MA History paper 5: Main trends in History and Culture of Rajasthan

And as long as there are BA/MA history courses in Government colleges, there will be readymade guidebooks/digests for the individual papers, right?
So I suggest you visit the bookstores dealing with college books, and inquire for the guidebooks for above papers- that should serve as your ‘base’ material.
Since RAS got hundreds of vacancies this time, the unscrupulous elements will recycle the same content from such BA/MA books and sell it as ‘study-material’ for Rs.2000/5000/7000 rupees depending on your desperation. So apply your head, always stick to standard reference books- they’re cheaper and more reliable for competitive exams.
Additional sources:

• Visit the sitemap of Rajasthan Government’s tourism website. All these topics are covered in detail. (http://www.rajasthantourism.gov.in/Home/SiteMap.aspx)
• You’ll also find scattered information in NIOS’s culture course, NCERTs, plus in Rajasthan state education board’s textbooks.

Here is the list of syllabus topics that you need to prepare:

1. Salient features of Architecture – Forts and Monuments
2. Arts, Paintings and Handicrafts.
3. Fairs, Festivals, Folk Music and Folk Dances.
4. Rajsathani Culture, Traditions and Heritage.
5. Important Tourist Places.
6. Major Landmarks in the History of Rajasthan, Major Dynasties, their Administrative and Revenue System. Socio-cultural Issues.
7. Freedom Movement , Political Awakening and Integration
8. Religious Movements, Saints& Lok devtas of Rajasthan.
9. Leading Personalities of Rajasthan.
10. Important Works of Rajasthani literature. Local Dilects

Indian History n Culture

This topic can be subdivided into

Ancient	Harappa, Vedic age etc.
Medieval	Delhi Sultanate, Mughal dynasty etc.
Modern	British Raj, freedom struggle etc.
Culture	Jainism, buddism, culture, literature, panting, dance, music etc.

• If you look at the old papers of RAS, the Indian history related MCQs are mostly “General knowledge” type.
• For example who defeated whom and when?
• So, in that regard NCERTs (under new syllabus) won’t be of much help. Because they don’t dwell much into such GK. (Although there is no harm in reading them, but on has to consider the time constrain).
• Besides, you’ve to Rajasthan state education board’s textbooks for social science /history for preparing Rajasthan’s history and culture anyways. And even in those Rajasthan state board textbook, India’s history will be covered. If you need additional reference, consult General studies manual, otherwise just leave it there.
• for Indian culture, use NIOS course material.
• For modern history, go for “A brief History of Modern India” by spectrum publication. It’ll also help for the mains as well. same book available in Hindi medium under title “Adhunik Bharat Ka Etihas, Spectrum”
• Bipin Chandra is also good, if you’ve the time and mood.

Geography

As per upsc syllabus	As per RAS syllabus
Physical Indian World	World Geography Indian Geography Geography of Rajasthan

World Geography

Syllabus	Reference
Broad Physical features	NCERT Class 6: chapter 2 to 6 NCERT Class 11: 3 to 7
Environmental and Ecological Issues.	Separate strategy given under the heading “Environment and Biodiversity”.
International Waterways	NCERT Class 11, Chapter 13 and 14. Class 12 (Fundamentals of Human Geography) Chapter 8.
Major Industrial Regions	Class 12 (Fundamentals of Human Geography) Chapter 6.

India Geography

Syllabus	Reference
Broad physical features and Major physiographic divisions.	NCERT Class 6, Ch.7 NCERT Class 9, Ch.1, 2 and 4 NCERT Class 11, Ch.1, 2
Agriculture and Agro based Activities.	For this, you should refer following chapters from NCERT Geography and Science textbooks. NCERT Geography Class 8 Ch.4 NCERT Geography Class 10 Ch.4 NCERT Geography Class 11 Ch.6 NCERT Geography Class 12 (Funda. in Human geography) ch.5 NCERT Geography Class 12 (India people & Economy) ch.5 NCERT Science Class 7, ch.3 and 9 NCERT Science Class 8, ch.1 NCERT Science Class 9, ch.15
Minerals – Iron, Manganese, Coal, Oil & Gas, Atomic minerals.	NCERT Geography Class 10, ch.5 NCERT Geography Class 12 (India people & Economy) ch.7
Major Industries and Industrial development.	NCERT Class 10 ch. 6 and 8
Transportation– major transport corridors.	NCERT Class 10 Ch.7 NCERT Class 12 (India people & Economy) Ch.10
Natural Resources.	NCERT Class 10 Ch.1
Environmental Problems and Ecological Issues.	Separate strategy given under the heading “Environment and Biodiversity”.

Geography of Rajasthan

• In the NCERTs chapters under “Indian geography”, you’ll find scattered information about Rajasthan. Note it down separately.
• India Yearbook: refer to chapter 30: State and union territories =>Rajasthan. You’ll find overview of Rajasthan’s geography, irrigation etc. But for MCQs, that information alone will not suffice.
• Therefore, Use Rajasthan State education board textbooks (preferably from Class 7 to 12) related to Social science and geography subjects and prepare the following topics.

1. Broad physical features and Major physiographic divisions.
2. Natural Resource of Rajasthan-
3. Climate, Natural Vegetation, Forests, Wildlife and Bio-diversity
4. Major irrigation projects.
5. Mines and Minerals.
6. Population.
7. Major Industries and Potential for Industrial Development.

Additional preparation for Rajasthan geography:

Major irrigation projects.	Chapter 15 Rajasthan State Five year plan.
Mines and Minerals.	Raj. Mineral department’s official website http://www.dmg-raj.org/ On the left hand side, there is a menu title “mineral information”, read the articles posted under it. Also prepare the overview/salient features of Rajasthan’s Mineral Development policy.
Population.	Prepare the Rajasthan related statistics from Census 2011. available here http://www.rajcensus.gov.in/Pe_DATA.html also prepare Rajasthan vs. states (for example literacy, sex ratio) from Census 2011, with the help of internet.
Major Industries and Potential for Industrial Development.	Use google to dig out SEZs and towns of export excellence in Rajasthan.

Environment and Biodiversity (EnB)

• Unlike UPSC, the RAS doesn’t contain separate topic of Environment and Biodiversity, but it is listed as a sub-topic, under World, Indian and Rajasthan’s geography.
• However, it should be separately prepared because
  • Even in RAS-prelims-2012, there were quite a few questions from Rajasthan related environment related topics.
  • it comes again in the mains syllabus and in past mains exams, they’ve asked direct questions such as Explain environmental benefits of organic farming, Explain Eutrophication and so on.
• The foundation material for Environment biodiversity is NIOS (National institute for open schooling.)
• Also refer to following chapters of NCERT textbooks.

NCERT Geography textbooks	NCERT Other subject Textbooks
Geography Class6 Ch8 Geography Class7 Ch1 to 6 Geography Class8 Ch 2 and 5 Geography Class9 Ch5 Geography Class10 Ch2 Geography Class11 Ch4 and 5 Geography Class11 Ch 15 and 16	Science Class7 Ch7, 16,17 and 18 Science Class8 Ch7 and 18 Science Class9 Ch14 Science Class10 Ch. 14 to 16 Biology Class12, Ch. 13 to 16 Chemistry class11, Ch.14 Economy Class11, Ch.9

Additionally prepare the objective/targets/salient features of following policies:

What?	From where?
Rajasthan State Environment Policy 2010 Rajasthan State Forest Policy 2010	http://rajasthan.gov.in
Rajasthan Solar energy policy	http://www.rrecl.com/Solar1.aspx

• Also visit Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation’s website (rrecl.com) and make the list of projects and schemes.
• for wildlife sanctuaries, national parks list, visit Rajasthan forest Department’s page: http://rajforest.nic.in/?q=national-parks-and-sanctuaries-in-rajasthan
• for information on wildlife in individual national parks: http://www.rajasthanwildlife.in/

Economy

For let me list the unconventional topics from the RAS syllabus (free downloads @bottom)

Accounting Concept, Tools and Uses in Administration	NIOS Accountancy, chapter 1 to 3 IGNOU BA Public Administration chapter on Accountancy in government.
e-Commerce	IGNOU MA Public Administration chapter on E-commerce.

Now coming to the conventional topics of economy: For RAS prelims, Economy is subdivided into three parts

1. Basic concepts
2. Indian Economy
3. Rajasthan’s Economy

For topic #1 and #2, the sources are

1. NCERT Class 11, 12 (free download links @bottom).
2. Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh (TMH Publication). Same Book in Hindi under title “Bhartiya Arthvyavastha, Ramesh Singh”
3. Mrunal.org/economy
4. newspaper, magazines.

Prelim topic	Subtopics as per official syllabus	How to prepare?
Basic Concepts of Economics16	Basic Knowledge of Budgeting, Public Finance, Fiscal policy	NCERT Class 12 Macroeconomics, Chapter 5 Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh, Chapter on public finance
	Banking, Monetary Policies	Ramesh Singh, chapter on Banking CRR, SLR, NBFC and related current affairs have been explained in Mrunal.org/economy
	National Income, Growth and Development	NCERT Class 12 Macroeconomics, Chapter 2 Ramesh Singh, Chapter 2
	Stock Exchange and Share Market	Ramesh Singh chapter 2, 12, 13, 14 and 16.
	Subsidies, Public Distribution System	Ramesh Singh Chapter 21 Mrunal’s summary of Economic Survey Ch8, subtopic food Management.
	Inflation- Concept, Impact and Control Mechanism	Ramesh Singh Chapter 7
Indian Economic Development & Planning	5 Year Plans – Objectives, Strategies and Achievements.	Ramesh Singh ch.5 Also chapter 2 of Rajasthan state’s Five year plan.
	Major Sectors of Economy- Agriculture, Industry, Service and Trade- Current Status.	Ramesh Singh ch9 and 10 Mrunal’s summary of Economic survey chapter 8, 9 and 10.
	Major Economic Problems and Government Initiatives.	Contains scattered topics for example inflation, rupee depreciation, Foreign investment, IIP etc. so go through: Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh Mrunal.org/economy keep an eye on newspapers
	Economic Reforms and Liberalization	NCERT Class 11 Indian Economic Development.
Human Resource and Economic Development	Human Development Index	Covered under my summary of Economic Survey ch13. available on  Mrunal.org/economy
	Poverty and unemployment: Concept, Types, Causes, Remedies	Ramesh Singh chapter 22 Mrunal’s summary of Economic survey ch.13.
	(Poverty removal) Flagship Schemes. Social Justice and Empowerment Provisions for Weaker Sections.	Covered under Mrunal’s summary of Economic Survey ch13.

You’ll have to again face these topics as GS Mains paper 1 under “Economic Concepts and Indian Economy”. Although in mains some new topics will also come for example Issue of NPA, Financial Inclusion, Tax Reforms in India, concept of Money supply. But pretty much all of them covered in the combination of: NCERT, Ramesh singh, Mrunal.org/economy

Economy of Rajasthan

For this, primary reference sources are

1. Budget speech of CM
2. Rajasthan’s Five year plan documents.
3. Newspaper.

Additionally prepare the salient features of following:

1. Rajasthan Industrial and Investment Policy
2. Policy for the Registration and Protection of Geographical Indications of Goods in Rajasthan
3. Rajasthan’s Mineral Development policy

While you read these topics, do make notes because same content is repeated in the syllabus of GS (Mains) paper 1 and 3.

Prelim topics	How to prepare?
Macro overview of Economy.	Goto Rajasthan Government ‘s finance  department website  and Read  following PDFs from Budget 2013-14: Budget at a glance Budget speech of CM Also Chapter 1 of Rajasthan state five year plan.
Major Agricultural, Industrial and Service Sector Issues.	Chapter 10,11 and 15-18 of Rajasthan’s Five year plan.
Growth, Development and Planning.	Chapter 2,3 and 4 of Rajasthan state five year plan.
Infrastructure & Resources.	10, 16, 17, 18
Major Development Projects.	Chapter 7 and 8 of Rajasthan state five year plan.
Programmes and Schemes-	this topic also re-appears in GS Mains paper 3 under the title “Current sensitive issues”. This includes Government Welfare Schemes for SC/ST/Backward Class/Minorities/Disabled Persons, Destitute, Women, Children, Old Age People, Farmers & Labourers. Refer to chapter 14, 20-28 of Rajasthan state five year plan, and prepare micro-notes or mindmaps containing following details about every scheme: 1)which department/ministry implements it? 2) who is the target beneficiary 3) salient features/benefits offered. State government would publish big colourful ads in the newspapers (usually before any elections), showing their achievements and schemes. do note down the information from there too.

Polity

As per the RAS prelims syllabus, polity can be further classified into

1. Indian Constitution related conventional topics  e.g. Government of India Acts: 1919 and 1935, Nature of Indian Constitution; Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles of State, Fundamental Duties, Federal Structure, Constitutional Amendments, etc.
2. Indian Political System and Governance e.g. CVC, NHRC etc.
3. Rajasthan state related polity e.g. CM, state assembly, HC etc.

For topic #1 and 2 listed above, read Indian polity by M.Laxmikanth. For Hindi medium, the same book is available under the title “Bharat ki Rajyavyavstha, M.Laxmikanth”.

How to efficiently read M.Laxmikanth?

1. First you read the chapter on President, Vice President and immediately move to the chapter on governor. Then read on Emergency provisions.
2. Read chapter on PM and cabinet, then move to CM and state council of Ministers.
3. Chapter on “Parliamentary system” and then directly to parliament, but after budget topic is done pause this chapter and move to on CAG. Then come back and resume the chapter on parliament.
4. Once parliament is finished, move to State legislative assembly.
5. Supreme Court and then High court, tribunals.
6. Attorney Gen =>Advocate General
7. UPSC  =>State PSC
8. Finance Commission =>Planning Commission=>National Development council
9. Now Centre State relation and Interstate relations.
10. Election Commission=> chapter on election, Anti-defection
11. All the National Commissions on Women, SC, ST,OBC, CVC, Lokpal and so on.

Once ^this is done. Move to

1. Citizenship, Fundamental rights, DPSP, duties.
2. Amendment of Constitution=> preamble
3. Jammu Kashmir => Scheduled and Tribal Areas.
4. UT, Panchayati Raj, municipalities

After ^this is done. Read whatever chapters are remaining. Ultimately

• Appendix for union-state-concurrent list, table of precedence etc.
• the mock MCQ questions given in Laxmikant.

Rajasthan state polity/administration

It includes

Governor Chief Minister State Assembly High Court Rajasthan Public Service Commission State Human Rights Commission State Election Commission State Information Commission

The basic theory regarding power, function, appointment etc. remain one and same for all states, so refer to the relevant chapters in Indian polity by M.Laxmikanth. Also go through the Rajasthan state education board’s social science / civics textbooks and prepare the relevant chapters. Sometimes the state PCS exams ask GK type questions from these topics also. For example who is the current State election Commissioner or How many judges are there in Rajasthan High Court etc. For such GK/current affairs, visit the official websites of those bodies and click on “About us”. but do that exercise, after you’ve finish the basic syllabus for the preliminary exam.

District Administration

Prepare the basic concepts, prepare chapter 15 to 18 from IGNOU BA Public Administration course code: BPAE-102. Because the same concent will also re-appear under GS Mains paper 1, subtopic “Administrative System of Rajasthan”. Also using internet find following: Find the total no. of districts in Rajasthan. recently created/merged/renamed districts 5th Schedule areas in Rajasthan. Cities of Rajasthan under Police Commissioner system.

After independence, many parts were merged in Rajasthan state during 48-56.
RAS-prelims-2012, also contained question about it. So, prepare that list from:
http://rajforest.nic.in/?q=formation-of-rajasthan

Rajasthan Public Policy

• For preliminary exam, public policy is a very vague topic for framing MCQs, unless they enter in GK type question for example: Rajasthan Forest policy was enacted in which year?
• or they might ask you MCQs from salient features of various policy but then there are so many polices, it starts becomes very time consuming to finish the syllabus.
• However, keeping the other topics from prelims and mains in mind, I would suggest you atleast prepare the salient features of policies given below.

Economy related

1. Rajasthan Industrial and Investment Policy
2. Policy for the Registration and Protection of Geographical Indications of Goods in Rajasthan
3. Mineral Development policy

Environment related

1. Rajasthan State Environment Policy 2010
2. Rajasthan State Forest Policy 2010
3. Policy for providing generation of Electricity from Biomass

Agriculture/ rural Development related:

1. State Water Policy
2. State Livestock Development Policy
3. Policy for Promotion of Agro-Processing and Agri-Business, 2010
4. Sector Policy for Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation

Sci-tech related

1. Rajasthan’s Biotech Policy
2. Rajasthan’s IT Policy

• you can download policy documents from www.rajasthan.gov.in/rajgovt/actnpolicies/actnpolicies.html
• You don’t have to read the entire policy documents, just concentrate on the overview/salient-features/objectives of said policy and prepare notes out of it, for quick revision during Mains preparation.

Let’s move to next subtopic under polity:

Rajasthan Citizen charter and Legal rights

For Legal Rights,
Prepare the salient features/overview/objectives of following:

1. Rajasthan Guaranteed Delivery of Public Services Act, 2011
2. The Rajasthan Right to Hearing Act, 2012

For Citizen Charter
basics explained here
https://mrunal.org/2013/03/polity-citizens-charter-bill-2011-salient-features-issues-criticism-explained.html
And for Rajasthan so far 32 departments have already issued such charters. And Divisional Commissioner is empowered to transfer an employee, if he/she is found negligent in implementation of citizen charters. (Although it’d be waste of time to prepare 32 department’s citizen charters for prelims, so better just ignore or may be prepare a few big ones example state department for agriculture, social-justice, tourism etc. keeping the mains syllabus in mind.)

Science & Technology

• The science technology (including environment-biodiversity), forms a significant part of Prelims as well as mains.
• In the RAS mains exam syllabus, GS Paper II worth 200 marks revolves around just two topics 1) Aptitude 2) Science-Tech.
• anyways, for the moment let’s just concentrate on the topics to be prepared for prelims:

Sources

1. NCERT Class 7 to 10 science textbooks
2. Mrunal.org/snt
3. relevant chapters in Rajasthan’s five year plan and policies.
4. (optional) Spectrum’s book on Science and Technology.  Also available in Hindi medium under the title Vigyan Evum Prodhyogiki, Spectrum Editorial board

Official syllabus topic	How to prepare?
Basics of Everyday Science.	For this refer to NCERT science textbooks class 7 to 10 For more reference, you may refer to NIOS course material for Science.
Electronics, Computers, Information and Communication Technology (ICT).	Lot of stuff related to e-governance and ICT projects has been covered in my economy survey chapter 10 (part 3 of 5) article. available on mrunal.org/economy. for Rajasthan State government’s e-governance projects e.g. E-SANCHAR, Aarogya Online etc. refer to Chapter 27 of Rajasthan state’s five year plan and simultaneously prepare notes on it because they’ll be extremely useful for the mains. for more reference: chapter 9 and 10 for Spectrum’s book on Science and Technology.
Space Technology including Satellites.	Space-tech related Current affairs compilation from 2012 to March 2013, already given in mrunal.org/snt Copy paste its content in MS word file. Then whatever new thing happens, you update it in your word file.
Defense Technology	Defense related Current affairs compilation from 2012 to March 2013, already given in mrunal.org/snt Copy paste its content in MS word file. Then whatever new thing happens, you update it in your word file.
Nanotechnology	Topic available in General studies manual And or chapter 9 and 10 for Spectrum’s book on Science and Technology. OR just google it. All you need is definition, principle and applications. Lot of Nano-tech applications already given under my Hindu-science tech summary articles, available on mrunal.org/snt
Human body, Food and Nutrition, Health care	This already covered under NCERT science textbooks from class 7 to 10. Union governments’ schemes related to public health, already covered under three part article series in Mrunal.org/snt for Rajasthan governments’ schemes on public health (e.g. Mukhya Mantri Nishulk Dava Yojana, Mukhya Mantri Balika Sambal Yojana etc.) refer to Chapter 21 and 26 of Rajasthan state’s five year plan and simultaneously prepare notes on it because they’ll be extremely useful for the mains.
Environmental and Ecological Changes and its Impacts. Biodiversity	Strategy already given under the topic title “environment and biodiversity”. Foundation from NCERT+NIOS. Koyoto and various summits covered under mrunal.org/enb Chapter 12 of Rajasthan state’s five year plan and simultaneously prepare notes on it because they’ll be extremely useful for the mains.
Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering	NCERT Botany class 12 Chapter 17 of Spectrum’s book on Science and Technology.
Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry Animal Husbandry with special reference to Rajasthan.	Overlaps with Geography chapters that I suggested earlier. Chapter 10, 11 and 12 of Rajasthan state’s five year plan and simultaneously prepare notes on it because they’ll be extremely useful for the mains. For additional reference: Chapter 5 of Spectrum’s book on Science and Technology.
Development of Science and Technology in Rajasthan.	Chapter 19 Rajasthan state’s five year plan Keep an eye on newspapers. Also the Rajsthan Sci-tech department’s website http://dst.rajasthan.gov.in/ Also prepare salient-features/objectives of following policies Rajasthan’s Biotech Policy Rajasthan’s IT Policy

Current Affairs and PIN

Official syllabus mentions following:

1. Major Current Events and  Issues  of State(Rajasthan), National and International
2. Persons and Places in recent news
3. Games and Sports related Activities

In 2012’s RAS prelims paper, we can see lot of current affairs questions were asked.

How to prepare national/international current affairs?

• Goto library, read whatever competitive magazine you get (CST, Pratiyoigta, Chronicle, Wizard) and note down important things in loose pages then file them under separate categories (person in news, books-authors, sports, international summit etc.).
• I’ve already published compilation for important persons in news, books-authors and sport from 2012 upto March 2013.

https://mrunal.org/2013/02/misc-gk-persons-in-news-2012-13-sports-books-awards-for-ssc-cgl-sbi-po-upsc-csat.html
copy paste it in MS Word file and keep editing, updating as new developments take place.

Current Affairs Rajasthan

• for this, you should follow a local daily newspaper.
• but in such newspapers, usually they tend to focus on masala and gossip news, cricket,Bollywood,local politics etc. but from exam point of view such things are not very important.
• from the newspaper, keep a habit of noting down following things in a separate file:

Government related	Creation/merger of departments/ministries/government organizations. New policies, schemes for agriculture, weaker section, education etc. Allocation by planning Commission. Any landmark judgments of the high court. any new bill/act in the state legislative assembly
Economy	New government initiatives to bring more investment and boost economy, tourism. Signing of MoUs, New oil/gas plants or pipelines etc. SEZ allocation, building of new national highway/expressway etc.
Environment/science related	News related to wildlife, seasonal migration of birds etc. news related to launching of projects for renewable energy, soil conservation, combating desertification etc.
Persons/places in news	Any athlete from the state, participating in an international level sporting event. Any author/artist/sportsman from the state, getting state, national or international level award. Death of any important person. (Business tycoon, author, dancer, writer etc.) Location of any city where international or national level conference/event is being held. Location of any place where military exercise is taking place.

Reasoning & Mental Ability

For reasoning, the book remains same as usual:
A modern Approach to Verbal and Non-verbal reasoning by Dr. RS Aggarwal (S.Chand Publication).

First finish the topics listed in the official syllabus:

Logical Reasoning (Deductive, Inductive, Abductive)

Topics as per official syllabus.	Approach
Statement  and Assumptions,	RS Aggarwal’s book: Section II (Logical deduction), chapter No. 2 to 8.
Statement and  Argument,
Statements  and Conclusion,
Courses of Action.
Analytical Reasoning.

• If the time permits, also go through the first chapter (logic/syllogism)
• If you’ve already MK Pandey’s Book (analytical reasoning) as part of your SBI PO preparation, then first understand the theory from part I of his book and then use RS Aggarwal as practice work.
• For additional practice, you may also use previous years IBPS/Bank PO papers.

Mental Ability

Topics as per official syllabus.	Approach (RS Aggarwal’s book)
Number series	1, 16
Letter series	10
Odd man out	Chapter 3
Coding-Decoding	Chapter 4
Problems relating to Relations	Chapter 5 and 6
Shapes and their sub sections.	Non-verbal reasoning section: chapter 4,7,14.

• In above topics, there is hardly any theory or formulas. The only way to attain speed and accuracy is through practice. So do all the sums from those chapters of his book.
• Once this is done, also get an overview of other chapters of his book as well.

Reasoning For GS Mains!

• Curiously, RAS even has reasoning topic in its GS (Mains) Paper 2 syllabus.
• It contains all of the topics mentioned above + Venn Diagrams.
• For Venn Diagrams, do following Chapter #9 of RS Agarwal. But it only deals with Logical venn diagram and not maths based venn diagrams (e.g. in a society 30 people drink coffee and 40 drink tea then..) so for that type maths based Venn diagrams, either refer NCERT maths class 11 chapter 1 or go through your quantitative aptitude book.

Basic Numeracy

• The syllabus mentions very basic level topics.
• Use whatever book you’ve for quantitative aptitude (RS Aggarwal, Tyra, Sarvesh Kumar anything is fine) and prepare topic listed in the official syllabus viz.

Official syllabus	What to prepare?
Elementary knowledge of Mathematical analysis.	Practice BODMAS, surds-indices related questions
Statistical Analysis	Averages. + Basic formulas for mean, median and mode and definition based question. For this refer NCERT Class 11 Statistics, Chapter 1 to 4.
Number System	HCF, LCM, remainders.
Order of Magnitude	Comparison of fraction. NCERT Class 7 Chap 2, 9.
Ratio and Proportion	NCERT Class 8 Chap 13. then practice sums from your quantitative aptitude book.
Percentage,  Simple and Compound Interest	All these can be easily solved once your basic concepts of % is clear. go through Mrunal.org/aptitude
Data Analysis (Tables, Bar diagram, Line graph, Pie-chart).	This portion doesn’t have much theory or formulas. (Except for the pie-charts). Hence the only way to improve speed and accuracy is through practice. So, Practice the Data interpretation (DI) cases from previous years’ SSC CGL and BankPO question papers. The DI questions BankPO require very lengthy calculations, but I don’t think that’ll be the case with RAS.

• Do not just stop ^here. Because the RAS Mains GS paper II also has maths topics in its syllabus- Including Time and Work, Time, Speed and  Distance, area-volume-perimeter! So while you’re in the momentum, try to finish them as well.
• Don’t just read the sums, solve them on your own. Otherwise in the exam, you’ll make silly mistakes while plugging the values in the equations and silly mistakes in calculations.
• do maintain a diary: whatever formulas, shortcut techniques, special type of questions you come across, note them here. Even note down whatever mistakes you make while solving sums- to prevent them from happening in future.

Conclusion

1. Good or bad, whatever was your experience with UPSC CSAT 2013, leave it there and start preparation with a fresh mind.
2. Don’t be in overconfidence that just because I’ve cracked xyz exam earlier so this is a pappu exam for me. Competition is merciless, reading-revision is necessary.
3. If you’ve applied for this exam, then focus on your studies only. Don’t waste time in day-dreaming, facebook, orkut, random net surfing, chatting, TV, cricket, weddings of distant relatives etc. Time-pass activities will always be there, but once you cross the age-limit, there is no restart button. (This rule applies to all competitive exams.)
4. When you get bored reading General studies, then solve maths / reasoning questions. when you get bored with maths / reasoning, then resume your General studies preparation.
5. I can’t do maths or I can’t do science, yeh mujse nahi hoga, woh mujse nahi hoga= these are all losers’ excuses. I’m not from a good college/ I’m not from English medium =these are all inferiority complexes. Success in Government recruitment exams only depends on your score in written exam and interview. So, avoid losers’ excuses and inferiority complexes and commit yourself to the hardwork and leave rest in the hands of God.

Free study material, Download links

RAS Exam related Technical details:

courtesy: Mr.csl80 for these details.

2012’s prelim paper	click me
Mains papers of 2008 and 2010	https://files.secureserver.net/0sU4TvbvGiB72C
Cutoffs for 2012’s Prelims	Go to this link and download whatever PDFs you require: https://files.secureserver.net/0fHXKGPK4piZyE
Syllabus
Notification for 2013’s Exam
Press Note regarding reforms in RAS exam

RAS Specific Study material

1.Rajasthan’s Five year plan document 2.Rajasthan’s Budget	https://files.secureserver.net/0sTWYRF8vkNc6J
3.Accountancy and related material 4.District Administration	https://files.secureserver.net/0s15UHzeMgVVFs

NCERT and NIOS (Essential/Core)

Go to following link: https://mrunal.org/download
You’ll find the material organized in various folders. Click on individual folder and download zip files. Here is the description about the contents of individual folder:

Folder	Comment
History	Contains NCERT history chapters from class 7 to 12, in three zip files: ancient, medieval and Modern +NIOS Culture material
Science	Contains class 7 to 10 NCERT Science in three zips: physics, chemistry, biology. +NIOS Science material. (although there will be lot of overlapping) Class 11, 12 Science books given in the peripheral section below.
EnB	Contains selective chapters from class 6 to 12 from science and geography textbooks that are relevant for Environment and biodiversity. +NIOS material for environment and biodiversity EnB.
Economy	Contains NCERT class 11 + NCERT 12 Macro economics +NIOS economy material. Class 12 Micro-economics not included because not worth the time for CDS. Although download link in the peripheral section below.
Geography	Contains NCERT class 6 to 12 in five zip folders: physical, India, World, Agro and glossary. +NIOS material on geography (although lot of overlapping)

India yearbook

• Earlier government used to upload free PDF files for India yearbook (e.g. India 2010, India 2011 etc.)
• But for the RAS prelims, you should prepare a few static topics for it, from MCQ point of view. so, just download the India 2011 edition click me

And read chapter following chapters

• 1.Land and the People
• 2.National Symbols
• 3.The Polity (for polity)
• 20 Justice and Law (for polity segment)
• 30. State and UT (for geography related questions, also give specification attention to Rajasthan topic under it.)

Softwares

1. Majority of these PDF files provides direct copying of text. => That means you can use Mrunal’s autonotemaker to quickly make notes and mindmaps out of it, just use mouse cursor to highlight a particular line /phrase and my software will copy its text in a separate file. for more instructions click me
2. Foxit PDF reader. (necessary prerequisite for using Mrunal’s autonotemaker) click me

NCERT and NIOS (Peripheral)

all of them available in following link: read them as per your time and mood https://mrunal.org/download