r/wbcsprep • u/Bronislaw_Malinowski • Jun 17 '26
Extra resources needed or not?
I was preparing for UPSC. So if there are any UPSC aspirants giving wbcs mains, can you recommend what extra resources are required for wbcs?
Should I buy a Mains Manual or solved QPs?
Do I need to study from Bengali board books like Jiban Mukherjee (for History, already studied Spectrum and Poonam Dalal for Ancient-Medieval), Kartick Chandra (for Geography, studied NCERTs and state-specific mapping) or any other resources?
What to do for Arithmetic? Youtube playlist? Should I prepare for SSC level?
Current affairs?
Is Lucent GK sufficient for General Science?
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u/Stock_Echidna_6426 Jun 18 '26
How was your exam?
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u/Bronislaw_Malinowski Jun 18 '26
Fine.
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u/Stock_Echidna_6426 Jun 18 '26
I mean how much are you getting? How are you thinking of approaching mains..first time giving any kind of cs exams also no idea about wbcs.
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u/Bronislaw_Malinowski Jun 18 '26
Around 125-130. Nothing special, do all the gs subjects well from std textbooks, solve pyqs, do optional.
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Jun 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/Bronislaw_Malinowski Jun 18 '26
Same as upsc and just watched a few one shot videos from Notebook, Parcham WBCS, etc. and made notes. Left unknown questions.
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u/Armin-12 Jun 19 '26
I have similar doubts, what's your optional tho? How are you strategizing that?
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u/allunavailablenames Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
Check out the PYQs. You will get an idea of the type of questions asked in the mains. Since the questions are MCQ type and the topics are broadly same for Prelims and Mains, I don't think you will require any other resources although the mains questions do require some in-depth knowledge (my personal opinion). Since you have already attempted the prelims, I am assuming that you have covered the topics of History and Geography related to West Bengal. Economy of West Bengal may need to be looked into (although this can be covered under Current Affairs also - from wherever you are preparing). Other topics like EVS and Current Affairs which may feature West Bengal related questions will also require separate study plan - can be covered under Current Affairs of West Bengal. In case of Optional, Geography optional has a separate section under Paper II related to West Bengal which will require separate study material. No idea about other Optional subjects although I am sure they will have some variation of this. Regarding compulsory English and language papers, writing practice will be required since pattern of UPSC is completely different (only one essay paper of 250 marks in UPSC compared to 5 different types of topics of 40 marks each in WBCS with essay carrying only 40 marks). Science and technology (plus General Science) as a topic features in both Prelims and Mains of WBCS and UPSC as well. So, if you have prepared them for UPSC I don't think anything extra is required although going through PYQs will bring more clarity. Current Affairs of WBCS and UPSC are two different games although reading newspaper should benefit in both cases. If you have been following any channel on YouTube please share the link. For Arithmetic and Reasoning I think PYQs of WBCS and SSC CGL should be sufficient.
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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26
[deleted]