DECODING THE PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION:

 Friends, :-)

I have been a little occupied in some personal stuffs from last few days, so I couldn’t come up with a new post. The prelims exam is so close and optional paper can be dealt later. So, here I am sharing my experience of ‘tryst with prelims’.

(In the following posts, I will try to share gist of ccrt notes, ncert biology ecology portion 12^th and practicing maps)

If something gives me goose-bumps even today it’s the preliminary exam. Just a few thousands are selected among lakhs of aspirants. (Success ratio is approximately 3%).

When it comes to Indian Forest Services, since 2013 after the preliminary exam has been introduced which is common for civil services exam, for obvious reasons it is the toughest stage now. Half of the battle is won once one manages to clear the exceptionally high cut off of prelims exam for IFS.

And it is doable- Trust me it is! One just need to catch the pulse of the exam. Next two weeks are most crucial as no matter from how many days, months or years one has been preparing for the exam, 70% of the memory is clustered with the things we have memorized recently. It is very similar to the race, the athlete who puts his best in last fraction of the second wins the game. And as it is said ‘ Ant bhala toh sab bhala.’- So game is still on!

Previous year trend of cut off (general category):

Year	CSE	IFS
2013 (Total marks 400)	241 (60.25%)	267 (66.75%)
2014 (Total Marks 385)	205 (53.24%)	237 (61.55%)
2015 (Total Marks 200)	107.34(53.67%)	121.34(60.67%)

 So, what’s the trick? How to get the edge?

Now! Since there are just 100 questions and just 200 marks, the exam is dicey. And there is only the General studies paper which is the forte of many students. To survive in this competition, a few things could be tried (which helped me to clear the IFS cut off last year- there is never one size fits all kind of mantra)

1.       Revision is the key. 

Yes! I know we have heard this again and again but when it comes to choose between revising what we have already studied or finishing the syllabus, we tend to get confused.

 First of all there is nothing called ‘I am done with the syllabuses’ because GS is limitless, anything under the sun can be asked. Let me explain why revision is the key- Last year we had a question from polity:

CSP-2015

To uphold and protect the Sovereignty, Unity and Integrity of India” is a provision made in the:

(a)Preamble of the constitution

(b) Directive Principles of state policy

(c) Fundamental rights

(d) Fundamental duties.

This is a very simple question. The line is taken as it is from the article 51 A (c)

There is hardly any serious aspirant who was not aware of it. Still many got it wrong- reason is lack of revision. We tend to get confused between the options. But when we read the same thing again and again, chances of making this error minimize significantly. Because sometimes question is as simple as it looks, there is no need to complicate it. And sometimes question is not as simple as it looks. A proper judgment has to made before attempting every single question.

Here is where revision helps.

2.       Be clear with basics. 

Basics! 

I am emphasizing the word basics. This is not mains exam. Here we are not asked to write eloquent answers or present our view point.  

We don’t need to know the Shortcomings of Jan Dhan Yojna, only knowing when it was started; by whom, concerned authorities and the major aim is more than enough at least at this stage.

Question (CSP-2015) Pradhanmantri Jandhan yojna was launched for?

(a)Providing housing loans to poor people at cheaper interest rates

(b) Promoting women’s SHG in backward areas

(c) Promoting financial inclusion in the country.

(d) Promoting financial help to marginalized community.

3.       Current affairs:

 Make one thing for sure, Mostly questions are not asked out of the blue. If UPSC is asking any question even though it is a very traditional question, there has to be some logic. ( There are few random questions, but then these are random for all, we don't need to attempt 100 questions anyway)

For example;

In 2014 we had a question from science and tech regarding biometrics

In addition to fingerprint scanning, which of the following may be used in the biometric identification of a person?

1.       Iris scanning

2.       Retinal Scanning

3.       Voice recognition

Select the correct answer

(a)1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1,2 and 3

Reason was Aadhar card was introduced and right to privacy related to misuse of biometric information was one of the major concerns.

4.       Mapping:

 Do we need to mug up the whole Map (that’s not a wise thing to do for non-geography students) I tried to decode a trend.

2013: Atlas mountain- Arab Spring North Africa was in the news.

2014: Black Sea- Ukraine crisis.

2015: Zordan- ISIS

So, definitely it is a good idea to have a good command over the map( I am coming up with MAPPING Strategy specially for prelims in the next post) but the focus should be on areas that has been in the news (hot topics actually).

5.       Dynamic topics: Ecology and Culture;

Any guesses on why ‘kalamkari’ was asked last year in 2015? Well! Telangana was formed a year back, ‘kalamkari’ art belongs to Telangana/ Andhra pradesh.

And Then GI status question was asked. Well it was because articles related to GI were featured again and again in the Hindu newspaper last year. And reading only the articles was definitely not enough. We need to be curious enough to do a little research over any such topic that has reoccurred in the newspaper. (And make it fun, my roommate always preferred Assam tea over Darjeeling tea after know the GI status).

 Kalaripayattu Marital art was in news because this little known art form was to be proposed to be featured in the Bollywood movie Baaghi (2015).

But then all questions on culture can’t be guessed. So it is enough to study culture from the standard sources: NCERT (old) Ancient and Medieval- Selected chapters. CCRT (website or photocopied notes) and spectrum (not actually not required, just a quick glance and filtering out factual things and marking in the book itself won’t hurt anyway).

6.       Ecology: 

Since 2013 culture and ecology accounts for almost 1/3^rd of the paper. Where cut off is just a little over 60%, 33-35% matters a lot. There is no one stop solution for ecology. However, selected chapters from 12^th Biology NCERT will cover it mostly. Get the basics correct, that’s all that matter. Environment and Ecology by Majid Hussain is a good book, if one has not read it, she may try to have a glance on the maps and the chapters on legislation and organisation. Even notes on ecology from NIOS is pretty good.  (But there is absolutely no need to panic if one has not referred these sources. )

Quick tips:

1.       Darkening the wrong circles in the answer booklets is the biggest sin one can commit. Practice at least 5 papers (if you haven’t solved any till date)

2.       This is not the time to make notes, depending on the individual strategy one can point down important facts in a copy and whatever new information you come through in the coming days (one copy- not many copies with scattered notes)- like I did for CCRT last year, it helped me for the quick revision.

3.       Condition your biological clock, we need to be fully awake between 9am to 12pm on the examination day, conditioning requires at least 15-20 days. If one is practicing mock, it is good to practice it at the same time.

4.       CSAT is qualifying, but that doesn’t mean that one need to deliberately leave the questions there. Over-confidence is lethal.

5.       Enjoy the process- you never know what’s the paper has in store for you. I remember I had argument with my father in the morning just before entering the exam venue that I am not going to take any risk and will not attempt more than 75 questions, given approximately 60 will be correct, I will manage to get 110 (which I assumed to be a safe score for IFS). But that time I didn’t know that UPSC is going to surprise me, I attempted 90+ questions and proved me wrong too as the Cut off soared high.

I have tried to address the doubts; those came to my mind the fortnight before my exam. If anything else is bothering, please comment in the box given. I will try to address them in my capacity.

And at last this exam is about ‘nishkama Karma’; if it is your day no one is going to stop you. Believe in yourself and your preparation level. Believe in your sacrifices and sleepless nights. 

My father reiterates- ‘labor can’t go unrewarded’

All the best! :)

Upcoming articles- Black horse of zoology syllabus- Biostatistics and economic zoology (Fetch marks like anything):Tame it with the right strategy!

Cell Biology

Model answers, notes and strategy to deal with Cell Biology

How important is this chapter?

Cell biology is very important chapter of the syllabus of paper 2 of zoology. It accounts for nearly half of the section A of paper 2 and overall 25% of the paper.
The best things about this chapter are:
1. There is less to mug up as compared to chapters like biochemistry .
2. familiarity with the topics, because we are introduced to structure of cell in standard 6th itself.
3. Huge scope for diagrammatic representation and thus fetch  good marks.

Cell Biology-

Here I am dividing the syllabus in sub-parts, so that each part can be individually and easily dealt with.

Topics:

1.       Structure of cell

2.       Structure of cell and its organelles

(a)    Nucleus

(b)   Plasma membrane

(c)    Mitochondria

(d)   Golgi bodies

(e)   Endoplasmic reticulum

(f)     Lysosomes

(g)    Ribosomes

3.       Cell division

(a)    Mitosis

(b)   Meiosis

(c)    Mitotic spindle and mitotic apparatus

(d)   Chromosome movements

4.       Watson crick model of DNA

5.       DNA replication

6.       Protein synthesis

7.       Transcription and transcription factors

 What to study?

Syllabus is available online or can be downloaded from number of websites. But we actually need to decode the syllabus. That can be done by analyzing previous years question papers.

Last 5 years questions on cell biology:

2015

Q. Transport of small and large molecules across plasma membrane.

Q. Describe the ultra-structure of mitochondrion and explain why it is considered as a symbiotic cell organelle.

Q. What is transcription? Explain the initiation complex and the events leading to the formation of mRNA in eukaryotes.

2014

What is meant by C-Value paradox? Describe the ultrastructure of chromatin with emphasis on nucleosome and solenoid model of chromatin.

2013

Q. Describe the events that occurs in a cell during prophase and metaphase. Draw labelled diagrams-20marks

Q. Explain lysosomal disorders in human.

2012

Q. Distinguish co-transcriptional modifications from post-transcriptional modifications experimentally. Cite one example for each.- 10 marks

Q.what are introns and exons. How are introns different from spacer DNA?

Q. (i) What are initiation and termination codons?

     (ii) Which amino acid is specified by a single codon?

     (iii) Which amino acid is coded for by the termination codon?-4 marks (Note: this topic is overlapping with genetic code)

Q. Describe the mechanism of RNA splicing.

2011

Q. list the structural components of DNA and salient features of Watson and crick model of DNA structure. Explain how the structure ensures its self-replicability. -

Approach to this question-  marks 10 (3+5+2=10)- 100 words

Hence it can be divided as:

(a) 30 words: Structural Components 

(b) 50 words: Watson and Crick model

(c) 20 words- self replicability 

Here I am attaching the pdf of answer- sample answer- click here

Q. Give a diagrammatic representation of the organisation of ETC particles and components of oxidative phosphorylation on mitochondrial membrane. (15 marks)

Q. Discuss with examples how lysosomes are suicide bags of cells.

What can we conclude from it?

Structure of cell: (can be studied using any standard text book)- click here to download handwritten notes

what to study?

What is cell?

The cell theory.

Concepts like totipotency, differentiation, dedifferentiation, determination.

Difference between prokaryotic cell and eukaryotic cell.

Structure of cell organelles-

Click here to download handwritten notes

Cell division:

Click here to download my handwritten notes of chromosome movements

Mitosis and meosis ( Pg. 90-95 Griffith’s)

Central dogma of life:

Watson crick model of DNA (Chapter 7, pg 230 Griffith’s)

DNA replication (chapter 7, pg 241 Griffith’s)

Protein synthesis (chapter 9, pg 274 Griffith’s)

Transcription factors (chapter 8, pg 246 Griffith’s)

Note: we can see that half of the cell biology can be covered from just 3 chapters of Griffith’s. These topics can be completed from any other book also. It’s just that Griffith’s covers almost everything  and there is no need to study beyond that level.

Disclaimer: There is always a room for improvement so my answer or notes format doesn’t need to be strictly adhered to.

The books mentioned here can be downloaded for free from- click here

Please drop any queries regarding any particular question in the comment section.

All the best

Strategy For Zoology Paper 2

Strategy For zoology paper 2

Download e-books for Zoology for UPSC Mains examination

Hello!

I am sharing my strategy for zoology paper 2, I am emphasizing on ‘my’ word because this strategy need not to be foolproof and universal. I should better use the word ‘jugaad’, this jugaad worked for me and so I hope this may help you in creating your own customized jugaad.

Why optional papers are so important? Because they are going to stay for IFS exam irrespective of any change going to be introduced in civil services exams.

Let’s have a look on the detailed syllabus first:

PAPER-II

Section-A

I. Cell Biology :

•  Structure and function of cell and ganelles(nucleus, plasma membrane, mitochondria, Golgibodies, endoplasmic reticulum,ribosomes and Iysosomes),
•  celldivision (mitosis and meiosis),mitotic spindle and mitotic apparatus,chromosome movement.
• Watson-Crick model of DNA,
•  replicationof DNA, 
• protein synthesis,
• transcription and transcription factors.

II. Genetics

•  Gene structure and functions; 
• genetic code.
•  Sex chromosomes and sex determinationin Drosophilla, nematodes and man.
•  Mendel's laws of inheritance
• ,recombination, linkage, linkagemaps,
• multiple alleles, cistronconcept;
•  genetics of blood groups.
•  Mutations and mutagenesis : radiationand chemical.
•  Cloning technology, plasmids andcosmids as vectors, transgenics, transposons,
•  DNA sequencecloning and whole animal cloning (Principles and methodology).
•  Regulation and gene expressionin pro-and eukaryotes.
•  Signal transduction; pedigreeanalysis; congenital diseases inman.
•  Human genome mapping; DNAfinger-printing. 

III. Evolution

•  Origin of life
•  Natural selection, role of mutationin evolution,
•  mimicry, variation, isolation, speciation.
• Fossils and fossilization;
•  evolutionof horse, elephant and man.
•  Hardy-Weinberg Law, causes of change in gene frequency.
• Continental drift and distribution ofanimals.

IV. Systematics

•  Zoological nomenclature;
•  internationalcode;
•  cladistics.

Section-B

I. Biochemistry

•  Structure and role of carbohydrates,fats, lipids, proteins,amino acids, nucleic acids; saturatedand unsaturated fatty acids,cholesterol.
•  Glycolysis and Krebs cycle, oxidationand reduction, oxidative phosphorylation; energy conservationand release, ATP, cyclicAMP-its structure and role.
• Hormone classification (steroidand peptide hormones), biosynthesis and function.
•  Enzymes : types and mechanismsof action;
•  immunoglobulinand immunity; 
• vitamins and coenzymes.
•  Bioenergetics.

II Physiology (with special reference
to mammals)

1. Circulatory system

•  Composition and constituents ofblood;
•  blood groups and Rh factorin man; 
• coagulation, factors and mechanism of coagulation;
•  acidbase  balance, thermo regulation.

2. Respiratory System

• Oxygen and carbon dioxide transport; 
• haemoglobin : constituents nd role in regulation.

3. Nutrition and digestion

• Nutritive Requirements
•  role ofsalivary glands, liver, pancreas and intestinal glands in digestion and absorption.

4.Excretion and osmoregulation

•  Excretory products;
•  nephron andregulation of urine formation;
• osmoregulation.

5. Muscular system

•  Types of muscles,
•  mechanism ofcontraction of skeletal muscles.

6. Control and coordination  (source- Tortora)

•  Neuron, nerve impulse-its conduction
•  synaptic transmission;
• neurotransmitters.
•  Vision, hearing and olfaction in man. (Source-Guyton)
•  Mechanism of hormone action.

7. Reproduction

•  Physiology of reproduction, (Source- Guyton)
•  roleof hormones and phermones.

III. Developmental Biology

•  Differentiation from gamete to neurula stage; (source: Tortora's)
•  dedifferentiation; metaplasia, induction,
•  morphogenesis and morphogen; (source: Gilbert's Dev bio)
• fate maps of gastrulae in frog and chick; (source: kotpal's vertebrates)
• organogenesis of eye and heart, placenation in mammals. (source: kotpal's vertebrate)
•  Role of cytoplasm in and genetic control of development;
•  cell lineage;
• causation of metamorphosis n frog and insects; (Source- kotpal's vertebrates and anthropoda)
• paedogenesia  and neoteny; ( source- kotpal's vertebrates)
•  growth, degrowth and cell death; ageing;  (Source: cell biology book)
• Blastogenesis; regeneration; teratogenesis;neoplasia.
• Invasiveness of placenta;
•  in vitrofertilization; embryo transfer,cloning. ( source: wikipedia)
•  Baer's law; evo-devo concept. (source: wikipedia)

·    

This paper has very diverse topics. And the topics like cell biology, physiology etc are such that we start studying these in school in class 8^th-10^th itself and so we are very familiar with these topics. It is the same golgi bodies or ATP or mitosis and meiosis that we studied in class 9^th is asked in the UPSC mains exam. So, the major problem we face is that we don’t know what should be the level of the answer. How much should our answer differ from answer writing a board exam or college examination when question like structure of DNA is asked?This is where we are trapped.

The solution is answer should be very simple like a that of student writing board exam but it should also cover almost everything (as it is expected in general studies)- This can be done using flow charts and diagrams(colored if one can manage).

For example: in one of the mock test in Evolution institute question was asked write a short note of Genetics of blood group. And this is the image of my answer copy.

TIPS AND TRICKS

FOR CELL BIOLOGY: 

The syllabus is divided into two parts:

1)      cell and its organelles that can be easily covered even from a book meant for PMT (Albert’s is just too vast). I have my handwritten notes of this portion written in less than 20 pages. I will be sharing them in the upcoming articles.

2)      Cell division and chromosome movements, DNA motifs, DNA structure, replication etc can be covered from books of genetics and biochemistry like lehningers, Griffiths etc ( I am sharing the ebooks, scroll down) and will also share my notes in upcoming articles.

FOR GENETICS:

 It is very broad topic, there is not one single book covering all of it. Find the link to the folder ‘genetics’, it has several chapters individually covering topics like mutagenesis, mendel’s laws etc and this can be supplemented with Griffiths( too good for pedigree analysis, sex determination. This topic needs a separate article as it is very interesting, scoring but tricky.

FOR ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LIFE:

I tried to keep it very simple using side books used for 11-12^th class and Booklet of BN Pandey(This booklet came as a life saver at the time of revision).

FOR BIOCHEMISTRY

Structure of carbohydrates (left entirely as couldn’t mug up that much and was lucky that no question was there from this portion), structure of lipids, proteins and nucleic acid (satyanarayan’s book along with lehninger’s as lehninger’s have more beautiful diagrams). No I didn’t try to remember structure of every amino acids.

Covered rest of the topics from satyanarayan and Lehningers. Could able to cover less than 50% of the entire biochem topics. Cycles are important (no need to remember the structures of the intermediates), no need to study whole kuby for immunology even satyanarayan has one chapter on it. I have made a few notes from selected topics (will share them along with article on biochemistry)

FOR PHYSIOLOGY

I love this topic, because I love making diagrams and I think this topic also fetch marks. Tortora is  really a good book (ebook can be downloaded, scroll down for the link). My notes will be also be uploaded soon.

FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY:

Completely jugaad, mainly relied on internet. Made a very few short notes for few topics. Can be covered using Gilbert’s. And topics like spermatogenesis can be covered using tortora, fate maps and placenta in from kotpal’s vertebrates.

BNPandey booklet was also used for last minute rescue.

POST SCRIPT:

Again the trick was to focus more on one section, I am more comfortable with section A, so my ‘jugaad’ permitted me to skip major portion of developmetal biology which I don’t like.

People having Zoology as the second optional : You may first cover the topics from any side book meant for PMT exams along with NCERT of class 11-12th if you are running short of time.

Source for the ebooks:

Click on the links to download ebooks

Cell biology

Genetics

Biochemistry

Physiology

Developmental Biology

For Strategy for zoology paper 1 Click here

Strategy for Zoology paper 1

Download e-books for Zoology

There are two papers in Zoology optional in IFS Mains exam.
Each paper is of 200 marks.
There are two sections in each paper:
Section A- Question no.1,2,3,4
Section B- Question no. 5,6,7,8

Where question numbers 1 and 5 are compulsory. And then one need to attempt 3 more questions (but not all these 3 questions should be from the same section, this means that one can't attempt question number 2,3,4 together or question number 6,7,8 together)

Syllabus for paper 1

1. Non-chordata and chordata :

(a) Classfication and relationship of varous phyla upto sub-classes;

• Acoelomata and Coelomata;
• Protostomes and Deuterostomes,
• Bilateralia and Radiata; 
• Status of Protista, Parazoa, Onychophora and Hemichordata; 
• Symmetry.

(b) Protozoa : 

• Locomotion,
•  nutrition
• ,reproduction; 
• evolution of sex 
• General features and life history of Paramaecium, Monocystis, Plasmodium, and Leishmania.

(c) Porifera : 

• Skeleton, 
• canal system and 
• reproduction.

(d) Coelenterata : 

• Polymorphism, 
• defensive structures and their mechanism; 
• coral reefs and theirformation;
•  metagenesis; 'general features and life history of Obelia and Aurelia

(e) Platyhelminthes : 

• Parasitic adaptation; 
• general features and lifehistory of Fasciola and Taenia andtheir relation to man.

(f) Nemathelminthes :

•  General features,
• life history and parasitic adaptation of Ascaris; nemathelminthsin relation to man.

(g) Annelida :

•  Coelom and
• metamerism; 
• modes of life in polychaetes;
• general features and lifehistory of nereis (Neanthes),earthworm (Pheretima) and leach(Hirudinaria).

(h) Arthropoda : 

• Larval forms and parasitismin Crustacea; 
• vision and respiration in anthropods (prawn,cockroach and scorpion); 
• modificationof mouth parts in insects(cockroach, mosquito, housefly,honey bee and butterfly); 
• metamorphosisin insects and its hormonalregulation; 
• social organization in nsects (termites and honey bees).

(i) Mollusca : 

• Feeding,
•  respiration,
• locomotion, 
• shell diversiy; 
• general eatures and life history ofLamellidens, Pila and Sepia, 
• torsion nd detorsion in gastropods.

(j) Echinodermata : 

• Feeding,
•  respiration,
• locomotion larval forms;
•  general features and life history of Asterias 

(k) Protochordata : 

• Origin of chordates;
• general features and life history of Branchiostoma and Herdamania.

(l) Pisces : 

• Scales, 
• respiration,
•  locomotion,
• migration.

(m) Amphibia : 

• Origin of tetrapods;
• parental care, 
• paedomorphosis.

(n) Reptilia : 

• Origin of reptiles;
•  skull types; 
• status of Sphenodon and crocidiles.

(o) Aves : 

• Origin of birds; 
• flight adaptation,
• migration.

(p) Mammalia : 

• Origin of mammals; 
• dentition; 
• general features of egglaying mammals, pouched-mammals,aquatic mammals and primates;
• endocrine glands and other hormone producing structures (pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, pancreas, gonads) and their interrelationships.

(q) Comparative functional anatomy of various systems of vertebrates

• integument and its derivatives,
• endoskeleton,
•  locomotory organs,
• digestive system, 
• respiratory system,
• circulatory system including heart and aortic arches; 
• urinogenital system, 
• brain and sense organs (eye and ear).

Section- B

1. Ecology :

(a) Biosphere: Biogeochemical cycles, green-houses effect, ozone layer and its impact; ecological
succession, biomes and ecotones.
(b) Population, characteristics, population dynamics, population stabilization. (c) Conservation of natural resources- mineral mining, fisheries, aquaculture; forestry; grassland;wildlife (Project Tiger); sustainable production in agriculture integrated pest management.
(d) Environmental biodegradation; pollution and its impact on biosphere and its prevention.

II. Ethology :

(a) Behaviour : Sensory filtering, responsiveness, sign stimuli, learning, instinct, habituation,conditioning, imprinting.
(b) Role of hormones in drive; role of pheromones in alarm spreading; crypsis, predator detection, predator tactics, social behaviour in insects and primates; courtship(Drosophila, 3-spine stickleback
and birds).
(c) Orientation, navigation, homing;biological rhythms; biological clock, tidal, seasonal and circadian
rhythms.
(d) Methods of studying animal behaviour.

III. Economic Zoology :

(a) Apiculture, sericulture, lac culture, carp culture, pearl culture, prawn culture.
(b) Major infectious and communicable diseases (small pox, plague, malaria, tuberculosis, cholera and AIDS) their vectors, pathogens and prevention.
(c) Cattle and livestock diseases,their pathogens (helminthes) and vectors (ticks, mites,Tabanus,
Stomoxys)
(d) Pests of sugar cane (Pyrilla perpusiella), oil seed (Achaea janata) and rice (Sitophilus oryzae).

IV. Biostatistics :

 Designing of experiments; null hypothesis; correlation, regression, distribution and measure of central tendency, chi square, student t-test, F-test (oneway & two-way F-test).

V. Instrumental methods :

(a) Spectrophotometry, flame photometry, Geiger-Muller counter, scintillation counting.
(b) Electron microscopy (TEM, SEM).



Tips: There are minor differences in syllabus for civil services and forest services. To maintain a proper balance it is good to first cover the topics common for both.
There arefew topics like courtship behaviour in birds, flame photometry that are not in civil services syllabus- However I will be soon sharing my own handwritten concise notes on such topics.)

Trick: Biostatistics, instrumentation methods, ethology are very scoring topics
So if one is not very comfortable with taxonomy there is no need to worry. In that case s/he has an option to attempt more questions from this section.
NOTE: It is the quailty of the answer that matters not the quantity. My attempt in this paper was around 160 and I scored 100+ so there is no need to stress too much even if 60% of the syllabus is completed. Remember it is a science subject, revision is the key.

Source:
The detailed book list is mentioned in this article- Click here


For taxonomy- The small booklets for each phylum is worth reading. they are handy, concisely written and just enough for the exam. One may contact Rastogi publications to get the Kotpal series books.

For ecology Ignou notes are good enough

I will soon share my handwritten notes covering major portion of ethology, economic zoology, instrumentation methods along with model answers.

Meanwhile I am sharing a few ebooks I have. Click on the following to download.

Taxonomy introduction 
Non Chordates
Chordates
Ecology 
Ethology
Comparative anatomy