January 16th, 2014

General Studies Strategy
Civil services main examination is fast approaching. It is now only a few weeks away. The candidates have to keep in mind the following points regarding the General Studies paper

• Examination process is going to change every year and the candidates have to be ready to answer the new mode of paper.
• UPSC is going to select those candidates who prepared the syllabus with focus on current affairs. Over 70 questions in CSATthis year are from current affairs. About 14 questions in CSAT are from the events that took place in May 2011. That says all about the UPSC’s preference on current affairs.
  
  
• As scoring in the GS paper is difficult, every candidate should aim for the score of atleast 320.marks in each optional subject.
• Last year, the GS paper contains the questions which are related to the events that took place between October 1 and 15. Most candidates failed to answer such questions. Candidates have to read two main English newspapers daily. ‘The Hindu’ and ‘The Times of India’ are the ones which publish many articles with good content. Editorials of the newspapers are very useful.
• What the candidates have to keep in mind is that the questions based on the less prominent news too may be asked.
• The topics between September 2010 and October 2011 must be thoroughly studied.
• Thorough knowledge on environment, climate change, ecology, biodiversity is needed.
• Candidates should target the topics like Statistics and Indian Economy for high score.
• For Indian Economy, the topics like Planning, Growth, Mobilisation of Resources,Employment, Foreign Trade, Economic and Diplomacy issues relating oil, gas, energy, role of IMF, WTO, World Bank, etc. should be prepared well.
• Those candidates who scored more than 300 marks are the ones who have thorough knowledge on various subjects at secondary and higher secondary level.
• For learning the basic concepts on various subjects of optionals and GS, the IGNOU materials on optional subjects are recommended.
• The books like Yozana, Economic Survey, etc. are very useful at the hour