- Take Maths only with a strong track record and real interest
- Paper I is easier, so cover every topic in detail
- Make a formula sheet for every chapter and revise it often
- Give about half your time to Maths, but do not neglect GS and Essay
Nitish K scored 173 in each Maths paper in 2014. His strategy begins with caution: because of scaling, the gap between high and low scorers widens sharply, so marks in Maths tend to be either high or low, with few in the middle.
Many candidates come from IITs, BITS and NITs, so competition is tough. He says only those with a strong record and genuine aptitude should choose it, and he has seen people waste attempts by choosing it in haste.
For Paper I he suggests reading all solved examples in geometry, revising skew lines, spheres, cones and conicoids, and focusing on calculus of several variables. He recommends practising with pen and paper and the book closed, and preparing overlapping Paper I and II topics together.
Practically, he gave about half his time (around five hours a day) to Maths, aimed to finish at least 80% of the syllabus before Prelims, and joined a test series in the months before Mains. His booklist covers Schaum's outlines, the Krishna series, Malik and Arora, and Raisinghania.
Original source: InsightsIAS (this page is our own summary).
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