Surbhi Goyal (AIR-78 CSE-21) GS-2 125 Marks

Surbhi Goyal secured AIR-78 in CSE-21 in her 3rd attempt. She scored 'a grand' 125 marks in GS-2 paper and below is her GS-2 strategy:

My complete GS-2 Strategy

Booklist:

1. Polity - M. Laxmikant (For prelims also), 2nd ARC report number 6
2. Governance - 2nd ARC Reports (4, 9, 10, 11, 12) & Vision IAS value addition material
3. Social Justice - Vision IAS value addition material & NITI Aayog 3 year action agenda (selectively as per syllabus)
4. International Relations - Vision IAS mains 365
5. Shubra Ranjan Booklets for the entire GS-2 - This is an excellent source to develop analytical capacity and critical discussion in answers.
6. Current affairs - Vision IAS monthly magazines & The Hindu editorials

How to write answers in GS-2?

• Always begin your polity answers with Constitutional articles For example, if the question is on DPSPs, mention Article 38-51 in Part IV of the Constitution in introduction.
• Whenever possible, add judgements to enrich your answers. Like in the question for police reforms, mention Prakash Singh judgement. Also, add committees in social justice and polity, like for election reforms, mention Dinesh Goswami committee.
• Add facts and figures for entire GS-2. In polity, mention percentage figures for parliament productivity in graph form (compare productivity of 1990s and today). In IR, mention trade figures with US, China, etc. In Social justice, mention % of poverty, etc. You can show them more accurately using graphs or maps.
• For conclusion, you can use suggestions by 2nd ARC, National Commission to Review the Working of Constitutiton, NITI Aayog 3 year action agenda and Strategy for new India @75. Don't read these reports completely; refer to the suggestions part for relevant topics.
• Try to maintain balanced answers in polity. For example, if the question is about parliament's productivity, mention how more bills are passed (+ve) but lesser standing committees are being referred to (-ve).
• In IR, try to give a historical context in answers. For example, in 2021 paper, there was a question on US-China axis replacing US-Russia threat. Here, I first explained how Russia was a big deal to US in the past, but what's different today.
• Again, in IR, try to cover relations from various dimensions like defence, technology, economic, political, strategic, etc. This is given nicely in Vision Mains 365.
• I also tried to add quotes sometimes. I have shared the pdf already. To give an example, in question on women in judiciary, I wrote the quote by Justice Indu Malhotra -"Justice will be served if gender diversity is found on the bench" in conclusion.
• In Governance, mention case studies and examples for e-governance, SHGs, etc. They are mentioned in ARC report.
• Try to give analytical answers in GS-2, instead of bookish/ theoretical answers. For this, read The Hindu and Shubra Ranjan mam books. This is the key to gain good score in GS-2.
• For Social justice, try to understand the problems plaguing different sections of our society like women and hunger. Learn some facts and try to show the issue in flowchart. Like, there's a vicious cycle between poverty and hunger. Then, mention causes and suggestions from reports, as mentioned above.
• In conclusion, you can also use SDGs.

Some of my important notes and value addition material for your help:

• Evernote 1
• Evernote 2

ATB!