Strategy for PCS Mains (GS Paper-3): By Ankita Aggarwal, PCS Rank 45

First of all i congratulate Ankita Aggarwal for her success in PCS. Her performance in this exam has been commendable, specially in Mains GS Paper-3 in which she has scored 114 out 250, which is one of the highest scores. I thank her for discussing her strategy for Paper-3 with future aspirants.

Ankita Aggarwal:

Many congratulations to Gursimran for his brilliant performance in PCS, 2013 and his humble effort to guide the future aspirants via his blog. It’s all my pleasure to share my experience of GS paper III on his request.

The things that worked for me:

         ·  Writing in bullets wherever possible-touching multiple aspects in a single question.

         ·  Breaking the question and answering in parts- e.g. both pros and cons for “discuss”. 
With more number of questions to attempt, this habit helped me a lot. 
Also better presentation certainly fetches more marks I believe. It’s just making the things easier for the old and irritated examiner (certainly when you know the answer, otherwise a paragraph with a roundabout near the answer is preferred.:D) 


My mistakes in this paper:

· Attempting statistics portion in the end: Shortage of time towards the end I could not finish the entire paper. Moreover silly mistakes become very probable in this portion towards the end.

As a matter of learning I felt statistics should be attempted in the very beginning with efficient time planning, rather than at the end.

I attended Vajirams Pre-cum-Mains 2013-14 batch along with the updated course offered after syllabus change. 

My topic specific source list:


Section-1: Indian Economy

1.1 Issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment; Sustainable development; Inclusive growth and issues arising from it; Government Budgeting;

         ·  Vajiram + Sriram notes for planning;

         ·  Vajiram notes for employment;

         ·  Didn’t prepare sustainable development in particular;

         ·  Sriram notes for inclusive growth;

         ·  2nd ARC: 14th Report- Chps 4 and 5 for budgeting; 


1.2 Major crops, cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation and irrigation systems;

· Had Geography optional, so didn’t prepare these topics in particular.

Storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce- issues and related constraints;

· Vajiram.


E-technology in the aid of farmers;

· Vision IAS notes.


Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices;

· Mishra and Puri-selected chps.


Technology missions; Economics of animal rearing;

· Didn’t prepare.

1.3 Public Distribution System- objectives, functioning, limitations, revamping; issues of buffer stocks and food security;

· Mishra and Puri-selected chps.

1.4 Food processing and related industries in India- scope and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management;

· Vajiram+ Report on Food Processing Industries by MoFPI;

1.5 Land reforms in India; Effects of liberalization on the economy,changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth;

· Vajiram+Sriram+India Since Independence by Bipin Chandra-selected chps+Yojana Nov 2013.

1.6 Infrastructure- Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc;

· 12th FYP: Chps on Transport and Energy+Yojana May 2014 on Energy Security. 

Investment models

· Didn’t prepare.

1.7 Human Resource Development;


1.7.1 Importance of Human capital in economic development;

· Report on Poverty Assessment and HD: www.ophi.org.uk

1.7.2 Nature, types and problems of unemployment in India, Trends of Employment in India, Skill development and demographic dividend;

         ·  Vajiram for unemployment.

         ·  Planning Commission doc on Skill Dev. 


1.8 Punjab Economy: Planning- various aspects of developmental planning; Industry; Infrastructure. 


         · Internet 


Section-2: 

Statistical analysis, graphs and diagrams

· Prepared the basic statistics after referring last year papers+ Vajiram.   

Section-3: 

Issues related to Security

3.1 Linkages between development and spread of extremism;


3.2 Role of external, State and non-State actors in creating challenges to internal security; Challenges to internal security through communication networks; role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges;


3.3 Basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its prevention;


3.4 Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism.

· Vajiram+Sriram+Crack IAS+selected articles from http://www.idsa.in/ (very helpful)

3.5 Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate;

· Didn’t prepare.

Besides this, as a matter of personal experience I would like to share that effective team work (with the right people in the team) is a big advantage while preparing for this examination of such long duration and dynamism. I was lucky to be in such a team which helped me a lot to sail through!

I hope this proves helpful for the future aspirants! Any clarifications are most welcome.

All the very best guys! This examination is all about your willingness to be there with the true efforts than anything else!