Civil Services Examination Strategy For Zoology

The syllabus of Zoology is vast and thus not repetitive. Students are advised to leave those areas which appeared in last year's paper. The answers should be diagrammatic and be less verbose. Students should also not hesitate in drawing colour diagrams.

Paper I

Section A
Non-chordata and chordata:

• Students should do classification thoroughly as it's given in Barnes' textbook

• Pay attention to general essays rather than type studies

• Always correlate things from evolutionary viewpoint -Draw as many diagrams and flow charts as possible

• Origin of chordates is an expected topic this year. Students should cover all theories.

• In chordate description, compare the phyla phylogenetically and anatomically. Comparative anatomy diagrams must be coloured.

Section B
The most scoring parts are Economic Zoology, Bio Stats and Bio Instrumentation. Students should prepare Ecology and Animal Behavior only for short notes. India-centric data is must wherever it's required. The section on Ethology can be ignored during final stages of preparation. Students need to focus on topics related to developments in India in Economic Zoology.

Paper II

Section A
To prepare Cell Biology and Genetics, students need to follow the same advice as provided for these two topics in Botany. However, you need to correlate cellular processes with human physiology and human disease conditions. In Genetics, student should also mention the possible human welfare applications. For this year's mains paper, the human genome project appears important because of media reports on this topic during the last one year. In Evolution, students should prepare exclusively for short notes and identify important topics from previous years' papers. The section on Systematics can be ignored or students just need to stick to the present course structure. No peripheral questions asked.

Section B
Biochemistry and Physiology
Practical Bio-chemical pathway with structural formula of molecules are important in this year's paper. Prepare from medical bio-chemistry and physiology books. Represent most information through flow charts. Always draw relevant anatomical diagrams.

Development Biology
If physiology and biochemistry are prepared thoroughly, then this part can be prepared only for short notes. Colored drawings are a must. Students need to practice them properly.

For General Studies (GS)

Topics related to ecology and environment can be ignored while preparing for GS paper. Different aspects of biotechnology are routinely asked in GS for which no separate preparation is required.