Strategy for PCS Preliminary Exam and Mains (GS Paper-4): By Dr. Himanshu Gupta, PCS Rank 3

My heartiest congratulations to Dr. Himanshu Gupta for achieving landmark success in PCS. His performance in all papers has been phenomenal. I want to thank him for spending his valuable time in sharing his strategy for Preliminary Exam and Mains GS Paper-4.

He has scored 134 + 155 in Preliminary and 129 in GS Mains Paper-4 which are one of the highest scores.

Dr. Himanshu Gupta:

Hi this is Himanshu Gupta, rank 3, PCS EXAM 2013. I have been asked to share my views regarding preparations for prelims and GS MAINS paper 4.

Firstly for the prelims, I would like to stress the importance of reading the standard books .Most importantly, the NCERT books of 9th and 10th standard form the broad framework of the syllabus.The other books that I had followed were  Laxmikant for polity, Bipinchandra for history,  Ramesh singh for economics , GS Leong for geography, Sada Punjab for Punjab  and Science Reporter magazine and India Yearbook  for science and tech. Also any class notes from a reputed institute offer good help. Xeroxed copies of these notes may be bought from the market if u don’t desire to attend these classes. Apart from this, one should always keep his/her eyes and ears open and absorb any kind of knowledge that is available at any other forum eg from Mrunal’s blog, PIB releases etc.

For CSAT, practice in simulated exam conditions is the key. Newspaper reading is the best tool to improve comprehension skills. RS Aggarwal for maths  is apt. For logical reasoning, I had followed the book by Manish Pandey and was quite satisfied.

Most important is how to attempt the paper. I feel one must attempt as many questions as possible. One must attempt atleast  80% of the questions. Intelligent guessing ' should' be there if no. of attempted questions falls short.  Smart choices regarding selection of questions to be attempted in CSAT paper have to be to allow for apt usage of time.

For Mains, the books of prelims have already made a base for your knowledge.  Specifically for paper 4, there are some set number of topics (nanotechnology, robotics ,biotechnology , IPR ,hazards and disaster management) that i made notes for beforehand so that I had material already prepared for revision just before the exam. Otherwise it is a very volatile topic that is difficult to retain till the day of the exam. Notes may be made from Science Reporter magazine (only the relevant technology parts), the science section of The Hindu etc.

Most of the questions asked are current topics based, so one must lay special focus on latest developments. As far as problem solving and decision making questions are concerned, common sense helps more than knowledge.

How to attempt the paper? ...ALWAYS ATTEMPT ALL THE QUESTIONS, even if it means you write only a few lines for some question. But don't leave it blank. I followed a 8+8+9 strategy, i.e. the 8 questions that I knew most in the first hour followed by the next 8 in the second hour and last 9 in the last hour.

In the end, you will be given a million advices but it is you who is the best judge of what strategy works best for you. So listen to all suggestions but make your own style and strategy. Failure is the best teacher. I have learnt things the hard way. Persevere and you will definitely crack it.

ALL THE BEST.