Mastering English Literature for Civil Service Examination (Optional strategy)

This is what Upsc Air rank holder have to share...

ideas from these suggestions, despite how pushy some parts of this article might seem for now :)

#Disclaimer2 : So much of this is borrowed from my mentors Prof. KG Radhakrishnan Sir, Mahesh Sir and previous toppers and close friends like Hamna and Shafeeq, that I hardly claim any ownership on these ideas. What I am trying to do here, is to bring all those million pieces that has made the whole portrait under a single post. Kindly treat them as an individual reply to all those who have been contacting me regarding the optional.

#Disclaimer3: I am engineer from NIT-Calicut, working at Deloitte, who has absolutely no academic background of English Literature who chose it out of a passion for the subject. Hence, these methods may seem unconventional for mastering the subject. I also had to prepare along with my career for the longest part, hence the help I took for mastering the content from Prof. K.G. Radhakrishnan Sir at Trivandrum, was for three months after my prelims. Hence, #1 again :)

#Disclaimer4: The examples used here are just samples from my current recollection. Kindly discover your own and use them.

#Disclaimer4: I scored 289 marks for English Lit optional. This is a decent score for this year, but strategies have to be re-framed and must adapt to how the questions evolve across the years as well, even though so many questions are repeated over the years.

Why English Literature?

I was inspired by a senior of mine, Shafeeq Sir, who was an NIT-C graduate himself, who was working and cleared with English Literature as an optional through self-study alone with really good marks. This was in 2015. I was awed at the feat and went home to eventually exchange hundreds of mails with him to develop a good understanding of it.

Finally, the confused-me took the leap of faith and followed my heart, Pursuing English literature, and all of a sudden all those years of voracious reading seemed to make sense despite how unconventional an optional it is. And, I do not regret one bit for that choice I made :)

And I did try.

The following reasons were certainly add-ons to making the choice:

Your aptitude is the most important thing in choosing an optional, since we spend hundreds of hours on it, trying to develop close to a Master’s level of knowledge about the prescribed works. You have to love the process, to create a great product.

I spent some time going through the syllabus (Many of which I had already read when I was younger) and the question papers of almost a decade. I genuinely felt comfortable with the idea that, provided I can recollect what I had read, the questions were really do-able.

Limited nature of the syllabus- It boils down to 14 novels, 5 plays, around 60 poems(many are very small) and some understanding of the history of English literature. For me it took around 3–5 hours of reading a day, across 3-4 months to finish my first hand reading.

My love for the language and the written word. There was never any substitute for this and Reading the books in the syllabus was really the best part of my day for so many months :)

In 2015, once I was certain about the optional, I started reading for the pleasure of it in the beginning and slowly developed a strategy around it, thanks to my mentors :)

Breaking down the preparation into Eight phases

I believe in the simplification of things when it seems most complicated and Hence, fragmented my preparation into the following phases.

2015 August- December: (After my first failure in prelims, I invested time in internalizing the optional and read many works for the first time)

Phase 1/8. It is extremely important to understand the demand of the examination. Please go through 7–10 years of Mains question paper of English literature optional.

I sorted questions from 7–10 years and wrote it down under each title. For eg: On a single sheet, I had all the questions asked in the last decade on Huckleberry Finn, chronologically to understand the pattern of questions. Similarly, for each author(10 poets+14 novelists + 5 plays) and each movement in the History (16 movements).

Every time I began with a literary work, I went through this 20 odd previous questions from that work and tried to look for answers in the work I was reading. It also throws light into what UPSC thinks is important from a particular work.

Phase 2/8. Placing each literary work in the time period it belongs, assimilating the works as zeitgeists of a particular time period. It would also benefit to have some basic reading on the 16 literary movements mentioned in the syllabus Eg: Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens and George Eliot in the syllabus has a perspective of the Victorian world, that is narrated through the characters whose value systems were set in that time.

Phase 3/8. Try to read as many works in the syllabus first hand. I believe that there is no substitute for your own original interpretations of the novels, plays and poetry and most of them are literary pieces worth awe.

Enjoy what you read, internalize it as much as you can and embrace the signature that the author leaves, letting you feel what you feel and allowing you to frame your own interpretations of different events and characters. This individual absorption is I believe, what reflects as originality in answer writing too.

A word on managing time and also, the wonder of audio books :)

I used Librivox app on my phone to listened to classic novels in the syllabus, since I always din’t get time to sit and read all of them after my work hours. I listened to them while I was traveling, while walking to office, during lunch breaks and before I slept- Just to hint at the fact that you will have to find substitutes like these if conventional reading is not completely possible for you and make the best use of the time available :)

Phase 4/8 While reading a work, I often paused and reflected at the previous questions and pondered over how I would opine on each of them. This offers direction to what otherwise can seem like indefinite reading and forgetting. Based on what you think will benefit for your mains from the previous questions, highlight/ note down/ bookmark these elements that you notice from the book. Eg: The argument between rape versus seduction of Tess by Alec D’urberville in ‘Tess of the D’urbervilles’ of Thomas Hardy during Victorian Era, placed the morality of a woman upon her sexuality. But if you keenly observe the narration of Hardy, it is possible to interpret that he has been a visionary in delineating a woman’s moral compass from her private choices or sexual experience, which is a very Modern outlook to have during the Victorian Era calling Tess a ‘Pure woman’. Such examples and acute observations from every work while you read it, will definitely inspire original thinking and interpretation.

Phase 5/8 After reading each work, I supplemented that by reading many online sources and noted important points down. I used sources like: http://www.sparknotes.com/, https://www.gradesaver.com/ , https://www.litcharts.com/ etc. Pretty much a google search and skimming through multiple links that popup would throw light on the major themes and gist of the work. English Literature as an optional, is this way, well endowed in terms of the online resources that you will find in plenty.

If you think it doesn’t offer you enough quality content for interpretation, a Google search of ‘Scholarly articles on ..the name of the work..’ should also give you great content, especially for the novels and plays.

The following was done after the 2017 Prelims:

Phase 6/8 The creation of the following concise material myself for revision, carrying the crux of the knowledge I accumulated over a course of time-

For almost all the works(novels, poems, plays), I made Single page summaries comprising:

a. A few lines about the author Eg: Yeats being called as Myth maker, Auden as a poet of paradoxes, Thomas Hardy as a man beyond his times born into the Victorian era etc..

b. Lines I intend to quote from the work (Lines that carried the crux of the work) and small incidents that reflect a theme (Nora’s evolution through the three waves of feminism, in ‘A Doll’s House’)

c. A mind map of characters and places, since I was terrible at remembering names

d. One or two literary critics who specialized on the particular author, Eg: Allan Rodway wrote ‘A Preface to Auden’

e. Comparisons I can bring in from other works I have read outside the syllabus, to works that are part of the syllabus

e.1 Similarities- Eg: In the 18th century, how the expectation from women was to marry only for Class and Social status was reflected on books like Wuthering Heights(not part of the syllabus), as in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (Part of the syllabus) OR How innocence fading with adulthood or exposure to social norms are portrayed in not just Huckleberry Finn, but also Tom Sawyer and many other works at the time

e.2 Contrasts- Works in Shakespearean era offers a complex blend of both the medieval values and Renaissance, compared to Dr.Faustus

f. Generic themes represented in the book (All this you will already know at this point from the earlier steps)

Phase 7/8 I googled for many sources for each literary movement in the History of English Literature. It is important to not skip this, since 10marker short questions come from this part and cannot be skipped to ensure a decent score. (A good source for 1800–1900 is ‘A History Of English Literature’ by Robert Huntington Fletcher. You can also rely on the internet for this, that’s all that I had done)

Phase 8/8. ANSWER WRITING

At this point, I went back to step #A and started writing answers to 2–3 questions from each work and sent it to my mentors at that point who had already cleared with English as their optional. I took their feedback and rewrote the answer incorporating it multiple times until I was satisfied.

A word on Deliberate Practice:

My method for quick improvement in a matter of a few months was through a scientific technique called Deliberate Practice, which focuses on the mistakes on every iteration and perfecting those particular elements where I have made mistakes. I have used the same method to correct and quickly improve my GS answers as well.

I used feedback from people who well understood the demands of this examination as critical input and implemented that in each iteration of answer writing. Here, quality of answers acquired over this correction mechanism helps far more than hours and hours of writing answers the incorrect way that aren’t reflected on and re-written. When you practice, Kindly practice right and stay humble enough to take feedback and correct yourself.

(References on Deliberate Practice if you want to know about the above method: https://jamesclear.com/deliberate-practice-theory, https://jamesclear.com/beginners-guide-deliberate-practice , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-sjUoGO250&t=129s)

You are free to choose whichever methods may can suit you to practice well :)

What makes a good answer for English Literature?

Understand the question really well and adhere to the word limit as much as possible. Completing the paper reasonably well is far more helpful than skipping a lot of questions while you were trying to perfect the few answers you write.

The duty of the first paragraph is to display that you have understood the question well and connect it to the author/ time period and directly enter into the crux of the answer. Eg: For a question on Sons and Lovers as a psychological novel, introduction on the reflection of pathbreaking discoveries in the modern era of Freud and its influence on Lawrence’s writing, portraying Oedippus Complex through Paul and Mrs. Morel can be an example of a broad introduction.

Delve into specific examples/incidents/ quotes/ lines/ verse from the work that may illustrate both sides of the argument, if present. Eg: ‘Nothing to be done’ is repeated in the play ‘Waiting for Godot’, reflecting the existential, nihilistic anxiety of the modern man.

Add, if possible, critic’s comments if you can connect it to the context of the question. This is not mandatory for plays/ novels, but can be often useful for poems. Eg: Cleanth Brooks’ admiration for Yeats as a ‘myth-maker’ has been an evidence for how national legends like the 1916 Irish uprising were slowly weaved as myths by Yeats that invite awe.

Most importantly, your original interpretations of the context in which the question was asked, is what carries the soul of the answer. As long as examples/ quotes from the book are used to supplement your argument made in a concise paragraph, any stand you take on a particular question is fine. What is important is how well you justify it and also, your awareness of the other side of the argument too.

Conclude in a few lines, moving from the specificity of the examples and arguments in the paragraphs in the middle and connect the answer back to the question, taking a general scope in the end. Eg: Jimmy Porter in ‘Look Back in Anger’ can be described as the quintessential young man post Industrial revolution, but can also be justified as a unique and rare individual amidst a sea of people who respond alike in the play. Both arguments can be made, provided you offer justifications in the paragraphs in the middle, also nudging at the possibility that the other side of the argument exists.

The answers only demand a decent standard of English language and it isn’t a platform to display your command in a sophisticated vocabulary. Forcing a flowery language at the cost of clarity and brevity is not recommended and a simple, clear, beautiful language is generally more appreciated.

A sample answer I had written three months before mains is here (I don’t now have the latest ones where I had refined my writing a bit more, but will add them when I get my hands on them).

Please don’t use this as a template for language or structure, and Kindly be your most authentic self while you write. Neither is this a great answer and Nor does anything beat originality :)

The last and final bits of my Optional preparation

I kept revising my one page summaries for all the works as it got closer to mains and over time, despite how much I have read through hours and hours, what I intended to directly reproduce from my learning in the six hours was reduced to minimal sources (Around 200 pages of one page summaries and material prepared by me, bringing together important things from all sources I had). This minimization of content is important to not lead to the content overshadowing your original interpretations of the work.

My answer writing, exactly like my phases for GS answer writing, focused on four phases between July 2017- October 2017:

1. Quality and aforementioned structure of answers for the first 1.5 months of practice

2. Brevity and word limit for the next month

3. Reducing time taken to produce such answers in the final month.

4. Writing 2 full tests for paper 1 and 2- last two weeks

5. Continuously revising the summaries I had made for quotes, names, verses from poems, lines from plays etc.

Perfection is not an accident. There is no substitute for your aptitude in this subject and love for literature. It is even more important to know that, what worked for me, may or may not work for you. Carefully choose the parts of the article that will benefit you and do not buy anything that doesn’t convince you as an aspirant. I thank you for your patience and attention.

****************************

This is one out of a series of articles I am to writing on my civil service preparation, strategy and journey.

The Original article is here: https://medium.com/@anjalibonafide/the-sense-of-a-new-beginning-3ff4082086ac

I have tried to make this as detailed as possible to minimize any confusion. It is also very difficult to reply to all the individual mails about the same.

Hence, I humbly request you to use the following comment section to post further questions so that everyone can benefit from the answers. I will try to reply to them here.

If this benefits at least one person out there, I will be most elated :)

Finally, for all the Literature lovers out there, a Gem that has kept me going:

My warm wishes ahead :

Read it here : ( By Anjali )