Strategy for Paper 4 of General Studies

Disclaimer: While aspirants might have come here reading the tag ‘Tips for Civil Services Examination’, I must candidly declare that there are actually no objective tips for this examination as such. I believe that every successful candidate has his/her own style of studying depending upon his/her background, strengths and weaknesses. However a proper guidance always helps and it is my endeavor in this blog to share my experiences and both what I did and what I think should be or should not be done.

I think Paper 4 of GS has been the most discussed topic amongst civil services aspirants as well as in the coaching industry during last one year. There has been a thick shroud of mystery over what will be asked to test the Ethics of candidates and the query has not been answered very satisfactorily even after the exam has already taken place.

Now as far as I am concerned, I did not spend too much time on this paper. But since surprisingly it fetched me maximum marks in GS, I take it upon myself to share what I did, and what in my humble opinion might have worked for me. As such ethics, integrity and attitude are not new topics of study and are very well theorized in books of Law, Psychology, and Philosophy etc. But since the first day, I did not feel UPSC was expecting us to read all these subjects and theories. It is very clearly mentioned in syllabus that “This paper will include questions to test the candidates’ attitude and approach”. The sample paper put up by UPSC also strengthened this belief.

I often discussed with my friends that while it is not possible to judge whether a candidate is going to become a corrupt or an honest civil servant by evaluating his/her response in few case studies, what can be judged is whether at least the candidate has capability to differentiate between what is right or wrong, or what are various options available in a particular administrative situation and what should then be done.

Case studies carried almost half of the weightage in this paper and I believe I must have done relatively better in this part. Now various theoretical approaches that were being taught in coaching institutes included analysing every situation using certain objective schemes like Deontology, Teleology, etc. or using a particular moral philosopher’s viewpoint to justify a choice. But after reading various approaches, it can be quickly concluded that none of these philosophers could have ever come to a consensus, then how can we be expected to decide which philosopher to apply. So best thing is to use one’s own rational thought to evaluate a situation. Nevertheless, the moral philosophies should still be studied as they can help form the framework to proceed and lend good words to strengthen the argument. Though quoting a particular philosopher may be avoided.

Since we are no law students, and may find it difficult to put forth our arguments succinctly, I suggest to write as much as one can (in the limit of space provided) to lucidly explain one’s viewpoint, as far as case studies are concerned, not leaving anything for the examiner to guess. In various case studies, the question asked to enumerate possible choices and what choice should be opted for. The answer now should not be written objectively, i.e. xyz is the best choice, but subjectively, highlighting why a particular choice is rejected (may be in violation of ethics, conscience or law) and why a particular choice is selected. At the same time, there may be some choices that may appear absurdly obvious, either to be rejected or selected, but they should also be mentioned.

Case Studies that involve real life problems should be backed with various constitutional or legal provisions. For example, in case of sexual harassment at workplace, Vishakha Case guidelines must be quoted. In case of child labour, NCPCR has to be brought into picture etc. One should actually put him/herself in boots of administrator and write what he/she will do.

As far as the other part of paper involving definitions or statements and their interpretation is concerned, again one has to avoid bookish language and rather write what the term means in context of Indian administration, or lifestyle and must be backed with examples.

Booklist

• There was a small book on paper 4 published by Chronicle called Lexicon. It is a very nice book in which whole of the syllabus is covered in brief. This book should be read atleast twice for getting good understanding of various terms. The terms that are not clear should be studied from internet.
• ARC report on Ethics in Governance is also a good read. Some questions are given in end of the report which can be practiced
• I also studied Synergy Class notes for this paper, available in market. I found them quite good.
• Video lectures: Justice by Michael Sandel
• ARC report on Citizen Centric Administration
• Some good speeches and teachings of personalities like Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Abraham Lincoln
• My Experiments with truth by Mahatama Gandhi
• Relevant chapters from NCERT for attitude and Emotional Intelligence
• For case studies, I held discussions with friends. Case studies are available in excess in market.
• Apart from the above, I looked through many other sheets and notes that I came across, but they were not of great use.