START HERE — Your Navigation Path

New to this repo? Read this page, then follow the path below in order. Everything else is reference material you pull in when the path tells you to.

⚠️ FIRST — Read this one file

COVERAGE-AND-GAPS.md — 5 minutes. It tells you honestly what this repo covers, what it does not (current affairs, your optional, first readings), and what you must get elsewhere. Skipping it risks false confidence, which is the most dangerous thing in this exam.

DAY 1 — Set up (3 hours)

#	Do this	File
1	Read the honest gap analysis	`COVERAGE-AND-GAPS.md`
2	Read the full 15-month plan; fix your exam dates and work backwards	`STUDY-PLAN.md`
3	Print both syllabi. This is your only boundary — nothing outside it matters	`SYLLABUS/`
4	Order/borrow your books	`RESOURCES/Standard-Booklist.md`
5	Start the newspaper habit today — set up the tracking system	`CURRENT-AFFAIRS/`
6	Shortlist 2–3 optionals; download their past papers	`OPTIONAL/`
7	Start a personal error notebook — log every wrong answer and revisit weekly	keep your own notebook

WEEK 1 — Orientation

Read RESOURCES/Toppers-Strategies.md — the principles behind everything here.
Read FOUNDATION/Basic-Concepts-Notes.md — the cross-subject concepts that make every subject easier.
Read PRELIMS/PYQ-Analysis.md — understand how UPSC actually asks questions before you study a single topic.
Decide your optional and commit. Switching later is one of the costliest mistakes in this exam.

PHASE 1 — FOUNDATION (Months 1–5)

Goal: NCERTs + one standard book per subject + your own notes + newspaper habit locked in.

 For each subject, in this order:
   1. Read the NCERT / standard book  ← the BOOK does the teaching
   2. Skim FOUNDATION/NCERT-Key-Summaries.md for the high-yield points
   3. Read the matching NOTES/ file as your REVISION layer
   4. Tick the micro-topics in SYLLABUS/01-Prelims-Syllabus.md
   5. Add current-affairs items against that topic (CURRENT-AFFAIRS/)

Month 3: start answer writing — 1 answer/day using MAINS/01-GS1-to-GS4-Frameworks.md
Month 5: first sectional quizzes — PRACTICE/ Sessions 1–3
Optional subject: first reading runs in parallel from Month 1 (~30% of your time)

PHASE 2 — PRELIMS SPRINT (Months 6–10)

Goal: PYQs done twice · 8 full mocks · 3 revision cycles · CSAT secured.

 Month 6   PYQ decode + revision cycle 1
 Month 7   Mocks 1–2  (PRELIMS/8-Full-Prelims-Mocks/)
 Month 8   Mocks 3–4 + CSAT full simulation
 Month 9   Mocks 5–6 + revision cycle 3
 Month 10  Mocks 7–8 (grand test) → final 15-day rapid revision → EXAM

CSAT: work through NOTES/08-CSAT-Maths-Notes.md and NOTES/09-CSAT-Reasoning-and-DI-Notes.md.
After every mock: 3-hour analysis, tag every question, update the error notebook. The analysis matters more than the mock.
Last 15 days: only your error notebook + NOTES/. No new material.

PHASE 3 — MAINS (Months 10–13, starting the day after Prelims)

 Fortnight 1–2   GS-I pass  + Essays 1–2
 Fortnight 3–4   GS-II pass + Essays 3–4
 Fortnight 5–6   GS-III pass + Essays 5–6
 Fortnight 7–8   GS-IV + all 15 ethics case studies written
 Fortnight 9–12  5 full papers (MAINS/04-) + optional revision 2

Need	File
How to structure any answer	`MAINS/01-GS1-to-GS4-Frameworks.md`
Essay technique + model essays	`MAINS/02-Essay-Topics-and-Model-Answers.md`
Ethics theory + 15 case studies	`MAINS/03-Ethics-Case-Studies.md`
Full timed papers	`MAINS/04-Full-Mains-Practice-Papers.md`
Answer-writing sessions 9–15	`PRACTICE/`
Language papers A & B	`NOTES/10-English-Language-Notes.md` · `NOTES/11-Hindi-Language-Notes.md`

PHASE 4 — INTERVIEW (Months 13–15)

 Week 1–2  Build your DAF question bank (INTERVIEW/DAF-Based-Mock-Interview-Guide.md)
 Week 3–6  Daily current affairs + 3 written mock transcripts/week
 Week 7+   4–6 formal mock interviews, recorded and reviewed

🗺️ WHERE DO I FIND…?

I need…	Go to
The plan and timeline	`STUDY-PLAN.md`
What UPSC actually asks	`PRELIMS/PYQ-Analysis.md`
Subject revision notes	`NOTES/` (11 subjects)
Practice tests	`PRELIMS/` (mocks) · `PRACTICE/` (sessions)
Mains technique	`MAINS/`
My optional subject	`OPTIONAL/` — all 48 + 7 deep-note sets
Interview prep	`INTERVIEW/`
Which books to buy	`RESOURCES/Standard-Booklist.md`
Current affairs method	`CURRENT-AFFAIRS/`
A topic → its exact file	`INDEX.md`

THE THREE RULES

Books teach; these notes revise. Never use NOTES/ as a first reading.
Current affairs is daily and cannot be compressed later. Start today.
Verify anything that surprises you. When this repo and your book disagree, the book wins.

Now open STUDY-PLAN.md and fix your dates. The rank is decided by what you do this week, not by what you read about doing.

🚦 START HERE — Your Navigation Path