1. Structure is Review Officer Exam?
  2. Brief Analysis of 2010’s paper (GA/GK)
  3. History
  4. Geography
    1. What to prepare for Indian Geography
    2. Uttar Pradesh Geography
    3. UP: CENSUS related
    4. Geography World
    5. Geography; Agriculture
    6. Geography: Physical
  5. Environment related
  6. Polity
  7. Government Schemes
  8. Economy
  9. Science
  10. Aptitude
    1. Maths/Quantitative aptitude
    2. Reasoning
  11. Misc.GK / Person in News (PIN)/ Sports/ Award
  12. Hindi Grammar, Vocabulary Paper (60m)
  13. Piecemeal preparation =#Epicfail
  14. Free study material, Download links
    1. UP Review Officer (Samiksha Adhikar) Previous Question Papers
    2. NCERT Downloads
    3. IGNOU Hindi foundation material
    4. Cutoffs for UP review officer

Structure is Review Officer Exam?

  • It is a non-interview exam, selection based on written score only.
  • Exam has two stages: prelim + mains
  • Prelim stage Contains two papers
GA/GK+Maths & Reasoning Hindi language
140 MCQ 60 MCQ
2 hrs 1 hr
  • GA/GK Syllabus coverage runs parallel to SSC CGL but difficulty level is bit easier than SSC CGL’s GA/GK questions.
 Hindi Vocabulary and grammar. Check the attached paper and you’ll get the idea.

Brief Analysis of 2010’s paper (GA/GK)

Chart UP Review officer 2010

Aptitude 17
Geography 39
Environment 11
Science 11
History 21
Polity+ Government  schemes 16
Economy 5
Misc.GK/PIN/Sports etc. 20
Total 140
  • The structure/skeleton is similar to CAPF (Assistant commandant exam). Majority of questions from general studies and a few question from maths+reasoning.
  • Topicwise breakup is somewhat similar to UPSC prelims of early 2000 -in the sense that major emphasis used to be on History and Geography.
  • Question difficulty level bit easier than SSC CGL. But there is a sharp difference: SSC-CGL gives special focus on science, this one doesn’t.
  • Economy is entirely current affairs based.
  • History is GK based.
  • Maths-reasoning is very basic level. (Walk in the park compared to CGL/IBPS).

Anyways, let’s see how to approach individual topics:

History

Can be further classified into:

Ancient Buddhism, Jainism, Harappa, Asoka, Maurya etc
Medieval Delhi sultanate, Mughals etc.
Modern British raj, freedom struggle.
Culture Various religion, caves, paintings, classical music, dance

In the review officer, the History MCQs are Mostly GK type. In terms of cost benefit ratio, priority order=Modern > Ancient > Medieval.

For Modern History (British Raj, Freedom struggle,) don’t waste time on NCERT because they don’t cover the GK related to various congress sessions, contribution of freedom fighters or dates etc. Therefore, directly prepare Modern History with any one of the following depending on your convenience:

  1. Lucent General knowledge book
  2. Spectrum’s Brief History of Modern India OR
  3. General Studies Manual (if you already have it. There is no need to specifically buy it for this exam)

Multiple revision is essential. Here are some demo questions on Modern Indian history/freedom struggle from earlier exam

  1. Which one of the following dates was fixed up by the Muslim League as ‘Direct Action Day’?
    1. 15 August 1946
    2. 16 August 1946
    3. 17 August 1946
    4. 18 August 1946
  2. In which of the following sessions of the Indian National Congress Subhash Chandra Bose had defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya in the election of the Congress President?
    1. Tripura session. 1938
    2. Tripuri session, 1939
    3. Lahore session, 1929
    4. Madras session, 1927
  3. The slogan ‘Long Live Revolution’ is associated with
    1. Chandra Shekhai Azad
    2. Ram Prasad Bismil
    3. Bhagat Singh
    4. Lala Hardayal
  4. 1929 Lahore session of the Indian National Congress was presided over by
    1. Motilal Nehru
    2. C. R. Das
    3. Jawahar Lal Nehru
    4. S. C. Bose
  1. Who among the following has pleaded on the side of the Indian National Army officers in their Red fort trial?
    1. C. R. Das
    2. Motila1 Nehru
    3. M. A. Jinnah
    4. Sir T. B. Sapru
  2. The President of the Surat session of Indian National Congress (1907) was
    1. Dadabhai Naoroji
    2. Bal Gangadhar Tilak
    3. Gopal Krishna Gokhale
    4. R. B. Ghose
  3. Which one of the following is correctly matched?
    1.  Lajpat Rai : Poverty and UnBritish Rule in India
    2.  Dadabhai Naoroji : Unhappy India
    3.  Rafiq Zakaria : The Man who Divided India
    4.  Subhash Chandra Bose : Guilty Men of India’s Partition
  4. Who among the following female revolutionary fired at the English Governor (Chancellor) while receiving her Degree at the convocation?
    1. Shanti Ghosh
    2. Suniti Chaudhary
    3. Bina Das
    4. Kalpana Dun (Joshi)

Once that is done, prepare ancient and Medieval from Lucent’s GK book or from General Studies Manual,

but don’t waste time on minute details.

Topic Focus areas
Ancient
  • Basic GK related to Buddism, Jainism, kings
  • Various Harappan Sites
Medieval Contribution of kings+ who defeated whom.
Culture NIOS material given but do only if you’ve spare time. This exam usually focuses on major events rather than on culture as far as history is concerned.

Demo Questions from earlier exam

Ancient Medieval
  1. Heliodorus of ‘Besanagar inscription’ was a resident of
    1. Pushkatavati
    2. Taxila
    3. Sakala
    4. Mathura
  2. Who is known as ‘Shaka-conqueror’?
    1. Chandragupta
    2. Samudragupta
    3. Chandragupta
    4. Kumargupta
  1. Which religion was patronized by the Rashtrakutas?
    1. Buddhism
    2. Jainism
    3. Shaivsm
    4. Shaktism
  2. Which Mughal Emperor abolished the Persian Court Custom of ‘Sijda’ which was begun by Balban?
    1. Akbar
    2. Jahangir
    3. Shahjahan
    4. Aurangzeb
  3. Which one of the following medieval kings of India was highly educated?
    1. Balban
    2. Alauddin Khalji
    3. Ibrahim Lodi
    4. Sher Shah
  4. The Mughal Rulers’ of medieval India were in fact
    1. Persians (Iranians)
    2. Afghans
    3. Chagtai Turks
    4. None of the above

Geography

Can be sub-classified into

Priority Geography type: What does it contain (From Review officer exam point of view?)
High
  1. Indian
 Mineral resources, rivers, mountain-passes etc.
  1. Uttar Pradesh’s geography
 Mostly Economic geography including CENSUS 2011.
  1. Agriculture
 Overlaps with Physical +Indian.Types of soil, horticulture, cropping seasons, methods etc.
Low
  1. Physical
 stars-planets, Earth, weather, atmosphere, erosion, ocean-current etc.
  1. World geography
 People-occupation, industrial-mining regions, climate-jungle etc.
  • high priority=Uttar Pradesh’s Geography, India’s geography, Agro related
  • Low priority=physical and world.

What to prepare for Indian Geography

Example questions from earlier exam

  1. The two leading producers of coal in India are
    1. Jharkhand and Orissa
    2. Jharkhand and Chhauisgarh
    3. Chhauisgarh and Madhya Pradesh
    4. Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh
  2. Which one of the following is not correctly matched?
    1. Nathu La — Arunachal Pradesh
    2. Lipulekh — Uttarakhand
    3. Rohtang — Himachal Pradesh
    4. Palghat — Kerala
  1. Which one of the following is the youngest mountain chain?
    1. Vindhyas
    2. Aravalli
    3. Shivaliks
    4. Annaimalai
  2. The correct sequence of energy sources in order of their share in power sector in India is
    1. Thermal > Hydro > Nuclear > Wind
    2. Thermal > Nuclear > Hydro > Wind
    3. Hydro > Nuclear > Thermal > Wind
    4. Nuclear > Hydro > Wind > Thermal

They also asked some assertion reasoning type questions. Therefore first prepare following chapters from NCERTs

Geography Topic NCERT class Chapter
Physical features 6 7
9 1, 2 and 4
11 1 and 2
River system 9 3
10 3
11 3
12 6
Economic Geography 10 1,5,6,7
12 7 to 12
Human geography 9 6
12 1 to 4

+ Also prepare ch.30 from India Yearbook, it gives lot of info on various Indian states, their geography, wildlife etc. (You don’t need to specifically buy the latest edition for Review Officer, just use India 2011 PDF-its Free download link given @bottom)

Uttar Pradesh Geography

Another high priority area is Uttar Pradesh’s Geography (+ CENSUS 2011). Prepare following things:
Book-Uttar-Pradesh-Arihant

  • Physical geography of UP e.g. rivers, tributaries, hills, soil types, rainfall in various regions.
  • GK related to districts
    • Total # of many districts?
    • biggest and smallest district in terms of area and population
    • Which district was formed/renamed recently?
  • Economic geography of UP
    • Famous cities/towns for handicraft, manufacturing etc.
    • location of mineral deposits
    • thermal and nuclear power stations
    • major crops and crop producing areas
    • New initiatives regarding solar energy etc.
  • +location of Divisional HQs of Railways, army etc.
  • Important state / central government institutions, famous old colleges, important centers of freedom struggle etc.

but, Where to gather all this information?

  • Uttar Pradesh State education board’ textbooks for social science/geography
  • Arihant Publication has released a book called Uttar Pradesh Digdarshan
  • Official websites of respective departments of UP State government.

Sample questions from earlier exam

  1. Among the Indian states Uttar Pradesh is not the largest producer of
    1. Flowers
    2. Wheat
    3. Potato
    4. Sugarcane
  1. Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Technology for Handicapped is located in
    1. Agra
    2. Allahabad
    3. Kanpur
    4. Lucknow

UP: CENSUS related

Use internet to dig information related Census 2011, with specific reference to Uttar Pradesh. here is what I got from UP government’s official site

Population (As per census 2011 Provisional data) 19,95,81,477
(a)Males (As per census 2011 ) 10,45,96, 415
b)Females (As per census 2011 ) 94, 985,062
Decennial Growth rate (2001-2011) (As per census 2011 ) 20.09 percent
Sex Ratio (As per census 2011 ) 908 per thousand
Density (persons per sq. km.) (As per census 2011 ) 828 per thousand
Child Population (0-6 years) (As per census 2011 ) 29,728,235
Child sex ratio (0-6 years) (As per census 2011 )) 899 per thousand
Total Literacy rate-
Persons 69.72 percent
a)Male Literacy 79.24 percent
b)Female Literacy 59.26 percent
Districts 75
Cities & Towns 689
Development blocks 820
Nagar Nigams 12
Members of Lok Sabha from U.P. 80
Members of Rajya Sabha from U.P. 30
Members of U.P. Legislative Assembly 404
Members of U.P. Legislative Council 100

Here are some demo questions from earlier exam:

  1. According to the census 2001, Female : Male Ratio in Uttar Pradesh was
    1. 878 females per thousand males
    2. 898-females per thousand males
    3. 918 females per thousand males
    4. 928 females per thousand males
  2. Based on 2001 census which one of the following statements about Uttar Pradesh is not correct?
    1. Rural population is 79-21 per cent of the total population of the state
    2. Male literacy rate is 68-8 per cent
    3. It ranks twelfth (12th) in India in terms of density of population
    4. The district with lowest population is Mahoba

Geography World

sample questions

  1. In South Asia, the country with largest percentage of aged population is
    1. Bhutan
    2. India
    3. Nepal
    4. Sri Lanka
  2. The largest producer of wine in the world is
    1. France
    2. Italy
    3. Spain
    4. United States of America
  1. Among the iron-producing countries of Europe, France stands
    1. First
    2. Second
    3. Third
    4. Fourth

Source for World Geography preparation

NCERT class Chapter #
7 7-10
8 1, 3, 5 and 6
12 (fundamentals of Human geography) 1 to 4, 6 to 10

After that Lucent’s GK book depending on time left

Geography; Agriculture

NCERT Sub. Class Chap.
Geo. 8 4
10 4
11 6
12 (Fundamentals of Human Geography) 5
12 (India) 5
Sci. 7 3,9
8 1
9 15

Geography: Physical

Official syllabus mentions

“World Geography, and Geography and Natural Resources of India.”

  • Official syllabus doesn’t talk about physical geography. Even in earlier exam, barely 1-2 questions from topics associated with physical geography. So, There is not much point in preparing this topic in detail.
  • Still if you have time and want to prepare, then go through the NCERTs. (download folder @bottom, already contains separate zip file for physical geography).

Environment related

Some questions from earlier exam:

  1. The ‘Green House’ effect is mostly caused by
    1. Carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere
    2. Infra-red Radiation
    3. Moisture in the atmosphere
    4. Ozone layer
  2. The orderly sequence of change in the vegetation of an area over time is described as
    1. Biomes
    2. Succession
    3. Trophic level
    4. Climax
  1. Acid rain is caused due to air-pollution by
    1. Carbon dioxide
    2. Carbon monoxide
    3. Methane
    4. Nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide

For the foundation /base material is NIOS (free download links @bottom).

also do following NCERT chapters

NCERT Sub. Class Chap.
Geo. 6 8
7 1 to 6
8 2
9 5
10 2
11 (india) 4 and 5
11 (Physical) 15 and 16
Sci. 7 7, 16-18
8 7 and 18
9 14
10 14 to 16

+ GK related to wildlife parks, national sanctuaries of India and the animals found in it via Lucent GK/ Internet (with specific emphasis on Uttar Pradesh).

Polity

Let’s check some questions from previous paper

Which one of the following is nor a Directive Principle of State Policy?

  1. Prohibition
  2. Cow-Protection
  3. Environment-Protection
  4. Free Education to children up to the age of fourteen (14)
 The idea of Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution has been borrowed from the

  1. British Constitution
  2. Irish Constitution
  3. Canadian Constitution.
  4. American Constitution
Which of the following are covered by the 73rd (seventy-third) Amendment?

  1. Zila Panchayat
  2. Kshetra Panchayan
  3. Gram Panchayat
  4. Nagar Panchayat

Select the correct answer from the code given below :

  1. 1 and 2
  2. 1, 2 and 3
  3. 1, 3 and 4
  4. All the four
 The Vice-President of India :

  1. Is the second highest dignitary of India.
  2. Has no formal function attached to his office.
  3. Discharges the functions of the President during his absence.
  4. Acts as the President if the President resigns, or is removed or dies.

Select the correct answer from the code given below

  1. 1 and 2
  2. 1, 2 and 3
  3. 1, 3 and 4
  4. All the four

For preparation:

book-Laxmikanth-4th

  1. Read Indian polity by M.Laxmikanth. For Hindi medium, the same book is available under the title “Bharat ki Rajyavyavstha, M.Laxmikanth”.
  2. India Yearbook chapter number 3 and 20. (You don’t need to specifically buy the latest edition for Review Officer, just use India 2011 PDF-its Free download link given @bottom)

Here are some tips on how to Laxmikanth’s book efficiently and get a good grip over the polity within a short period of time?

Don’t study the book in a linear fashion (that is chapter 1,2,3,4…sequence)

Instead I suggest you read the book in following direction:

  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=>Nat.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 Laxmikanth

UP related Polity

also memorize the number of seats of UP’s Vidhan sabha, Vidhan Parishad,
and seats in Rajya-Sabha, Lok Sabha.

Government Schemes

Sample questions from earlier exams:

  1. To promote tourism in India the ministry of Tourism has adopted to popularize India as
    1. Land of God
    2. Pearl of the East
    3. Beautiful India
    4. Incredible India
  2. Village Tembhli was in the news in September 2010 for
    1. Mass suicides of farmers
    2. Project Jugnu
    3. Project ‘Aadhar’
    4. None of the above
  1. `Swadhar’ is the scheme for
    1. Unique Identification
    2. Self-employment for males
    3. Women in Difficult circumstances
    4. Common home for senior citizens

Most of the Government schemes are covered in my following articles (click on the following links)

  1. [Economic Survey Ch13] Human Development (Part 4 of 4): Physically Disabled, Elderly, Nomadic, Denotified Tribes, Drug junkies and Beggars
  2. [Economic Survey Ch13] Human Development (Part 3 of 4): Women and Child Development, Saksham, Priyadarshini, Dhanlaxmi & yes ofcourse SABLA
  3. [Economic Survey Ch13] Human Development (Part 2 of 4): SC, ST, OBC, Minorities: welfare schemes, 12th FYP targets
  4. [Rights issue] Education: Government schemes, organizations, SABLA, NPEGEL, Jalmani, Bal Shree, mock questions
  5. [Public Health] Current Affairs 2012-13: Government schemes, Policies, Yearbook stuff (Part 1 of 3)

Economy

In earlier exam, they asked all Economy questions from current affairs only. For example:

  1. In 2007-08, which one of the following countries accounted for the largest imports to India?
    1. United States of America
    2. Saudi Arabia
    3. China
    4. Switzerland
  1. In the year 2009-which one of the following regions accounted for largest imports of India?
    1. Asia and Asean
    2. Europe
    3. North America and Canada
    4. South America and Africa
  • go through the economic survey articles on Mrunal.org/economy
  • +magazine issues but don’t waste lot of time in mugging up numbers (because economy is not a major portion of this exam)

Science

Some questions from earlier exam:

  1. As the train starts moving, the head of the passenger sitting inside leans backwards because of
    1. Inertia of Rest
    2. Inertia of Motion
    3. Moment of Inertia
    4. Conservation of Mass
  2. Optical fiber works on the principle of
    1. Total internal reflection
    2. Refraction
    3. Scattering
    4. Interference
  1. Photosynthesis using the invisible part of the sunlight is done by some
    1. Trees
    2. Algae
    3. Fungi
    4. Bacteria

As you can see this is very basic level Science. Just use NCERTs class 7 to 10

Sci.Subtopic NCERT Class Ch.No.
Physics 7 4, 13 to 15
8 11 to 16
9 8 to 12
10 10,12 and 13
Chemistry 7 5,6
8 3 to 6
9 1 to 4
10 1 to 5
Biology 7 1 and 2, 10 to 12
8 2, 8, 9 and 10
9 5 to 7 and 13
10 6 to 9 and 11

Aptitude

Maths/Quantitative aptitude

Let’s look at some samples from earlier exam

  1. If Rs. 2000 invested at 10% interest and the interest is compounded half-yearly, what will be the total amount at the end of one year?
    1. Rs. 2200
    2. Rs. 2220
    3. Rs. 2210
    4. Rs. 2205
  2. Two numbers are the ratio 5 : 6 and their LCM is 660 then The smaller number is
    1. 22
    2. 165
    3. 132
    4. 110
  1. The surface area of a cube is 216 sq.m. What is its volume?
    1. 512 cu. m.
    2. 480 cu. m
    3. 216 cu. m.
    4. 100 cu. m.

As you can see very basic level questions are asked. So maths becomes a “no-excuse, must-be-prepared”

understand the theory/concepts from the sources mentioned in following table.

Number theory
  • Divisibility, remainders
  • LCM and HCF
  • Unknown numbers from given conditions
  • Fractions-comparisions.
  • my article explaining the concept of HCF, LCM click me
  • NCERT Class 7 Chap 2, 9 (fraction)
  • NCERT Class 10 Chap 1 (divisibility)
  • Finally practice sums from your Quantitative aptitude book.
Algebra Linear equation
  • “Mother’s age was x and daughters age..”“3 mangos and 5 bananas purchased for…”
  • X+1/2x+3=3/8 then find X.
  • ^This type of stuff. Just practice and you’ll get a hang of it.
  • Basics given in NCERT Class 8 Chap 2 and 9.
  • Then NCERT Class 9 Chap 4
  • Lastly NCERT Class 10 Chap 3.
Avg and Ratios Wine-Water mixture (Alligations) Can be solved without formula. read this article click me
Simple Average Just practice sums from your quantitative aptitude book.
Ratio-Proportion-variations For ratio-proportion NCERT Class 8 Chap 13.
Partnership Can be solved without formula. read this article, click me
STD
  1. Time speed distance
  2. Trains, platforms
  3. Boats-streams
  4. Time and Work
  5. Pipes and Cisterns
 All of them can be solved effortlessly, with just one Universal STD formula.Explained in various articles of  Mrunal.org/aptitude
Mensuration Area, Volume, Perimeter
  • Basics explained in NCERT Class 8 Chap 3, 11.Then NCERT Class 9 Chap 9, 12, 13.
  • Lastly NCERT Class 10 Chap 13
% Profit, loss, market price, discount
  • how to solve without formulas: explained here click me
Simple interest (SI), compound interest (CI), population growth
  • how to solve without formulas, explained here click me

Maths ignore these topics

  1. coordinate geometry
  2. logarithms
  3. trigonometry
  4. Geometry theory except the area, volume, perimeter (AVP).
  5. quadratic equations

Above topics are important for SSC-CGL, CDS and CAT but rarely asked in other exams- particularly in State PCS recruitments.

Reasoning

  • in the earlier exam, they’ve asked very basic level rasoning questions, from number-sequence series, coding-decoding, direction based test + non-verbal reasoning.
  • the Recommended Book is as usual: RS Aggarwal’s Modern Approach to verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Then the question is, how to prepare reasoning in systematic manner in the given time? Do it in following manner:

Chart based

  • This includes: Direction sense test, Sitting arrangement (rectangle, circular, building, lecture schedules etc.) and blood relations.
  • I club them together because in all of them you’ve to make rough diagram / chart / table to solve it.
  • Here is the order in which they should be prepared:
Sr.No Topic RS Aggarwal Chapter No.
1. Direction Sense Test. 8
2. Sitting arrangement: circular 6
3. Sitting arrangement: rectangle 6
4. Sitting arrangement: “table” based e.g. lecture schedules, job-car-cloth color, building-car-newspaper etc. 6
5. Blood relations 5,6

coding n series

Sr.No Topic RS Aggarwal Chapter No.
1. Coding-decoding 4
2. Alpha-numeric sequence puzzle 11

Analogy, odd man

Sr.No Topic RS Aggarwal Chapter No.
1. Analogy 2
2. Oddmen out 3 (chapter title is “Classification”)
  • Also do practice the non-verbal (image based) questions given at the end part of his book.
  • Once this is done, get an overview of other chapters of the books, depending on time left.

Misc.GK / Person in News (PIN)/ Sports/ Award

Your primary focus area should be those static topics (History, polity, geography, science) because

  1. cost: benefit ratio of static portion is good
  2. You don’t need to tick 100% questions to clear the prelims
  3. There is no end to Misc.GK/PIN etc.

But that doesn’t mean, you should totally skip Misc.GK because many of such questions in review officer can be solved by following the conventional news coverage. Observe the questions from earlier exam:

Sports

Person in news
  1. Athletes from how many countries/territories competed in the sixteenth (16th) Asian Games?
    1. 43
    2. 44
    3. 45
    4. 46
  2. The ‘Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna’ Award 2010 was given to
    1. Mary Kom
    2. Saina Nehwal
    3. Sushi! Kumar
    4. Vijender Singh
  3. In the Nineteenth (XIX) Commonwealth Games, the Indian athlete who won the highest number of gold medals, was
    1. Gagan Narang
    2. Gurpreet Singh
    3. Omkar Singh
    4. Vijay Kumar
  1. According to the Annual Forbes India Rich List, who is the richest lady in India (November 2010)?
    1. Ms. Mrinalini Sarabhai
    2. Ms. Namrata Bhania
    3. Mrs. Savitri Jindai
    4. Ms. Rajshree Pathy
  2. In November 2010 Nikki Haley, an Indian American, was elected governor of
    1. Illinois
    2. North Carolina
    3. South Carolina
    4. Virginia

Awards

Books
  1. The winner of Dada Saheb Phalke Award for 2009 was
    1. D. Ramanaidu
    2. Manna Dey
    3. Tapan Sinha
    4. V. K. Murthy
  2. Who has won Jnanpith Award for the year 2008?
    1. Akhlaq Khan Shahryar
    2. Kunwar Narain
    3. O.N.V. Kurup
    4. Rahman Rahi
  1. The winner of Booker Prize 2010 was
    1. Howard Jacobson
    2. J. M. Coetzee
    3. Peter Carey
    4. Tom MaCarthy

Places in News

institute-location
  1. The seventeenth (17th) Summit of ASEAN was held in the last week of October 2010 in
    1. Bangkok
    2. Hanoi
    3. Jakarta
    4. Singapore
  1. The Indian Institute of Pulses Research is located at
    1. Lucknow
    2. Jabalpur
    3. Kanpur
    4. New Delhi
  • I’ve published Person in News compilation from 2012 to March 2013 click me
  • Copy paste it in MS Word file.
  • After that, goto library, read whatever competitive magazine you get (CST, Pratiyoigta, Chronicle, Wizard) and note down important names/details.
  • Continue updating the details in the MS Word file and revise it often.

Hindi Grammar, Vocabulary Paper (60m)

  • So far in this article, we saw how to approach General studies + aptitude=total 140 questions.
  • But apart from that, you’ll have to face a separate Hindi paper for 60 questions. The 2010’s prelim paper given @bottom. Go through its question.
  • You’ll see that MCQs are based on Grammar and vocabulary of Hindi.
  • Also observe that “instruction page” of the question paper doesn’t mention anything about negative marking (=meaning you should tick all answers)
  • Do the class 10 guide/digest/grammar book from UP State education board. If you’ve nothing, use IGNOU’s foundation course. (free download link @bottom)
  • Similarly go through Hindi grammar book/dictionary for list of idioms-phrases, synonyms-antonyms.

Piecemeal preparation =#Epicfail

  • Your reading-revision should be on continuous basis until you get your dream job or permanently retire from giving competitive exams.
  • But, often candidates pause their preparation in between the exams.
  • for example, suppose they gave SSC CGL / SBI PO in May 2013, then for June-2013, they just wait for result, don’t study anything, thinking “result aane do, baad mein dekhenge.”
  • Even if they had real difficulty in English / reasoning portion of such previous exam, still they don’t do anything…“apnaa number lag hi jaayega, why should we bother?”
  • Until result is announced, they remain in the ‘vacation mood’, waste time in loitering around with friends, spending days in marriage functions of distant relatives, watching (fixed) cricket matches, surfing facebook, youtube, etc.etc.etc.
  • If this candidate fails in those above exams, then he’ll not study at all, until some new exam notification comes (for example this UP review officer etc.)  He’ll not even try to analyses what went wrong and why did he fail in the earlier exam……“meri koi galti nahi thi”
  • Even for new exam, he’ll start serious reading only after receiving the hallticket. He already has good collection of books/magazines but he never bothers to touch them.
  • He lives in overconfidence, “I’ve prepared this GK/aptitude already in the last exam, so I know everything, bas exam ke 2-3 week pehle ek baar dekh lungaa.”
  • These type of candidates never succeed in any exam. They get stuck at one stage or another, because India’s population is so high, there is always someone more desperate and hardworking for that job.

So, never underestimate the level of competition, whether it is IAS recruitment or clerk’s recruitment, whether they’ve 30 vacancies or 300 vacancies: Continuous reading, revision and practice is essential.

Free study material, Download links

UP Review Officer Question Papers

Courtsey Mr.csl80 for providing these question papers and inputs.

Paper Download
Uttar Pradesh Review Office 2010 Prelim GS paper Just goto following link and download whatever you need from the online folderhttps://files.secureserver.net/0fXHELf3EHlGfF
Uttar Pradesh Review Office 2010 Prelim Hindi paper
Uttar Pradesh Review Office 2008 Prelim GS paper
Uttarakhand Review Officer Question Papers (for extra practice)
Official Notification contains info on mains syllabus etc.

NCERT Downloads

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 Not much important for UP review Officer because questions are GK type.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)
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.
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)

NCERT Maths Textbooks

Mathematics Class 8 Download
Mathematics Class 9 Download
Mathematics Class 10 Download

IGNOU Hindi foundation material

Click ME to download Hindi material

India yearbook

  • Earlier government used to upload free PDF files for India yearbook (e.g. India 2010, India 2011 etc.)
  • But for the Review Officer 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)

Cutoffs for Review Officer (Prelim 2010)

courtsey again Mr.Csl80 for this information.

  • GENERAL:148
  • SCHEDULE-CASTE:133
  • SCHEDULE-TRIBE:118
  • OTHER BACKWARD CLASS:147

HORIZONTAL CATEGORY

  1. PHYSICALLY HANDICAPED:130
  2. EX-SERVICE-MEN:116
  3. FEMALE:136