General Studies Main Exam Papers are the most important part of Civil Services examination preparation. General Studies has four papers introduced from the year 2013. The individual subject contains 250 marks each making a total of 1000. The students need to acquire a sound strategy for General Studies Paper as the difficulty level of questions asked has increased. Keep reading to know about the related strategy for each subject.
Strategy for Paper I
General Studies Paper I in UPSC examination encompasses topics like Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography. Foremost thing for students is to cover the entire syllabus for the examination as the questions are interlinked with each other. The subjects are syllabus heavy and leaving out any topic is not a good decision. Wide coverage of the study material and understanding the concepts, are the key to answering questions in this paper. The Indian Heritage and Culture domain comprises of questions from the old times to modern era and covers topics like art forms, literature, and architecture. In Geography, students must focus on the physical and economic part of the subject. The Modern Indian History includes questions pertaining to events, personalities, freedom struggle and its various stages and contributors. These are the areas that need to be focused while preparing for General Studies Paper I.
Strategy for Paper II
The Paper II cover aspects like Governance, Polity, Social Justice, Constitution and International Relations. Students need to focus on the government involvement in the life of people and various policy matters and the society. While preparing for IAS exam the paper II syllabus would seem theoretical, but it’s a paper that tests application ability of students along with the current issues regularly. Questions can also be asked from the Indian Polity, foreign policies, India’s relation with other countries like US, China, France, and Russia etc. The questions are based on the minute details and therefore, an elaborated study of the topic is essential. G.S paper-2 has not been scoring over the few years and students need to pay more attention to this paper. General Studies Paper II is an important paper and student need to prepare well in order to fetch good marks.
Strategy for Paper III
The areas covered in General Studies Paper III are Economic Development, Technology, Bio-Diversity, Environment and Disaster management. It is essential for the UPSC aspirants to concentrate on the developments in Science and Technology. For instance, the development over the last year in terms of health programmes, energy resources and Indian space programmes etc need to be covered to gain good marks in the paper. The subject of Economics covers aspects such as taxation, social issues, Foreign Direct Investment and other related policies. For both Science & Technology and Economics questions are current based and regular coverage of the newspaper is important.The questions can also be asked from the Human Development Report made by United Nations Development Program or the World Bank Report dealing with the economic aspect. Many questions are normally asked in the recent topics than the traditional issues like environment and disaster management issues. Disaster Management is a new subject that is relevant in the world today. The civil service mains test series of institutes like Vajiram and Ravi focus on the latest trends of the questions to keep the students updated with the related changes.
Strategy for Paper IV
The subjects covered in General Studies Paper IV are Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude. This is a new section which is added from the year 2013. The idea was to introduce good governing abilities along with moral values into an aspirant before he entered the civil services. Such subjects require a good understanding of the other G.S subjects to frame satisfactory answers in case studies. The questions cover aspects like work psychology, philosophies & teachings of great leaders, situations based questions and case studies. This paper tests a student’s approach to an issue and how well he/she is able to give a convincing answer. Thus the candidate’s aptitude for the civil services is tested in this section through the probing questions. General Studies Paper IV require to practice case studies to attempt questions promptly and adequately in the exam hall.
The General Studies Papers require good writing practice and students are advised to take a test series along with their preparation. It is all about the practicing your answer writing skills and writes the best answers to fetch maximum marks in the Main exam.