Mains 2013 Analysis

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 4 (GS4) Analysis

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 4 (GS4) analysis is based on the UPSC Mains 2013 GS4 question paper, which is already shared in this website. Popularly known as Ethics paper, GS4 paper didn’t trouble candidates much. There were questions which got repeated from the sample paper published by UPSC itself. Case study analysis will play the crucial role here as the paper had case studies worth 125 marks.

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 4 (GS4) Analysis and Break-Up of Marks

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 4 (GS4) Analysis and Inference

• 14 questions divided into two parts – Case studies came in second part.
• Most of the question were framed in such a way to get input from candidates. The intention is clear – know the perspective and attitude of the candidate.
• Questions like “What is meant by ‘crisis of conscience’? Narrate one incident in your life when you were faced with such a crisis and how you resolved the same.” were asked creating an interview like scenario in time crunched exam hall.
• Theories of moral philosophers were avoided this time, but questions came from their quotes.
• Case studies adopted a new pattern where the evaluation was asked to be performed on different possible options for a case.
• What UPSC expects to write as options for a case is clear from the first two questions and the same model can be followed in the next questions.
• 2013 ethics paper was not focussed on any particualar text book. But building a basic foundation of ethics from IGNOU books or any online or offline study material like would have helped to write better answers.
• Ethics, Aptitude and EI, Philosophers, Attitude and foundation values etc were the areas from which questions came.
• Current affairs related questions or ARC report based questions were absent.
• A clear mind and straight thinking is what is essential to answer situation based case studies.

ClearIAS.com welcome feedback from candidates regarding the experience and difficulty level of the mains exam in the comment space below.

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 3 (GS3) Analysis

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 3 (GS3) analysis is based on the UPSC Mains 2013 GS3 question paper, which is already shared in this website. As expected, GS3 Question paper gave maximum weightage for Economy (120 marks out of 250). Science and Tech as well as Internal Security bagged together the second prize for most number of questions from a single area. Most of the questions were of current relevance.

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 3 (GS3) Analysis and Break-Up of Marks

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 3 (GS3) Question Areas and Types

Qn. No	Subject	Question	Marks	Question Type
1	Economy	Companies Bill	10	Current Analytical
2	Economy	FRBM	10	Current Conceptual
3	Economy	Tax Expenditure	10	Static Analytical
4	Economy	Food security bill	10	Current Analytical
5	Economy	Agriculture subsidies	10	Static Analytical
6	Economy	Pink revolution	10	Current Analytical
7	Economy	Impact of liberalization on companies	10	Current Analytical
8	Economy	Land reform	10	Current Analytical
9	Economy	FDI entry into multi-trade retail sector	5	Current Analytical
	Economy	FDI not picking up in  multi-trade retail sector	5	Current Analytical
10	Economy	Good and services tax in India	10	Current Analytical
11	Economy	India’s green energy corridor	10	Current Analytical
12	Economy	PPP model for infrastructure development	10	Current Analytical
13	Economy + Science and Technology	Patent Law, 1970 + Glivec	10	Current Analytical
14	Science and Technology	Fixed dose drug combinations (FDCs)	10	Current Analytical
15	Science and Technology	Umpire decision review in cricket	10	Current Analytical
16	Science and Technology	Digital signature	5	Current Conceptual
	Science and Technology	3D Printing	5	Current Conceptual
17	Science and Technology	FRP composite material	5	Current Conceptual
	Science and Technology	Run of the river hydroelectricity project	5	Current Conceptual
18	Disaster management	Disaster management	10	Current Analytical
19	Environment	Illegal mining + Go and No go zones	10	Current Analytical
20	Environment	National Water Policy of India	10	Current Analytical
21	Internal Security	Money laundering	10	Current Analytical
22	Internal Security	Social networking sites	10	Current Analytical
23	Internal Security	Cyber warfare	10	Current Analytical
24	Internal Security	Article 244 + Left Wing Extremism	10	Current Analytical
25	Internal Security	Border management	10	Current Analytical

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 3 (GS3) Analysis and Inference

• Most of the questions, particularly from Internal security came along expected lines according to UPSC syllabus. As there was no ready made text book in the market covering GS3 as a whole, only wide reading (online and offline) would help candidates.
• Most of the question were current affairs related analytical ones.
• Questions like 3D printing was among the hot news, but questions like Fixed dose drug combinations (FDCs) and FRP composite material troubled many aspirants.
• Time management was again a crucial factor. Not adding the same on all analysis as “lack of time” has became a cliche with the emergence of 25 essay questions in UPSC Civil Services Exam.

ClearIAS.com welcome feedback from candidates regarding the experience and difficulty level of the mains exam in the comment space below.

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 2 (GS2) Analysis

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 2 (GS2) analysis is based on the UPSC Mains 2013 GS2 question paper, which is already shared in this website. GS2 Question paper shows that UPSC has given maximum weightage for Foreign relations and Social Justice. Questions from polity and constitution combined together corresponded to 80 marks out of 250. There were questions from governance and international affairs (IMF/WB question). UPSC has touched almost all topics mentioned in the syllabus and all together this was a paper for a well read candidate and not for any constitutional experts.

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 2 (GS2) Analysis and Break-Up of Marks

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 2 (GS2) Question Areas and Types

Qn. No	Subject	Question	Marks	Question Type
1	Polity	Anti-defection law	10	Static Analytical
2	Polity + Constitution	66A of IT Act	10	Current Analytical
3	Polity + Constitution	Article 371A + Nagas	10	Current Analytical
4	Constitution	Amending the Constitution	10	Static Analytical
5	Governance	Smaller States	10	Current Analytical
6	Constitution	inter-state water disputes	10	Current Analytical
7	Polity + Constitution	13th Finance Commission	10	Current Analytical
8	Governance	SEBI and IRDA	10	Current Analytical
9	Social Justice	Mid-Day Meal (MDM)	10	Current Analytical
10	Social Justice	Pressure groups	10	Current Analytical
11	Social Justice	Self Help Groups (SHGs)	10	Current Analytical
12	Governance + Social Justice	Centrally sponsored schemes	10	Current Analytical
13	Governance	Electronic cash transfer system	10	Current Analytical
14	Governance + Social Justice	PURA	10	Current Analytical
15	Social Justice	Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)	10	Current Analytical
16	Governance	Citizen’s charters	10	Current Analytical
17	Lokpal	Lokpal	10	Current Analytical
18	Foreign Relations	International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)	10	Current Analytical
19	Foreign Relations	The String of Pearls	10	Current Analytical
20	Foreign Relations	India and Japan	10	Current Analytical
21	Foreign Relations	Protests in Shahbag Square	10	Current Analytical
22	Foreign Relations	Maldives	10	Current Analytical
23	Foreign Relations	India — Sri Lanka	10	Current Analytical
24	Foreign Relations	Gujral doctrine	10	Current Analytical
25	International Relations	World Bank and the IMF	10	Static Conceptual

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 2 (GS2) Analysis and Inference

• IAS text books like Laxmikanth or NCERT helped candidates to get a few questions from polity and consitution section, but most of the questions of GS2 came from news papers and online materials provided from the government’s side. (PIB, Government reports, online studymaterials etc. for CSS, PURA etc.)
• 90% of questions were related to current affairs. Good news paper reading habit (exploring the right areas) might have helped students in this paper much more than any bulky text book.
• Most of the question were analytical in nature.
• Foreign affairs totaled 70 marks, and to answer this section, good knowledge about the current foreign relations of India was necessary.

ClearIAS.com welcome feedback from candidates regarding the experience and difficulty level of the mains exam in the comment space below

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 1 (GS1) Analysis

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 1 (GS1) analysis is based on the UPSC Mains 2013 GS1 question paper, which is already shared in this website. GS1 Question paper shows that UPSC has given maximum weightage for Indian History (32%)  and Geography (28%). Questions from culture carried a total marks of 20 (8%).

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 1 (GS1) Analysis and Break-Up of Marks

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 1 (GS1) Question Areas and Types

Qn. No	Subject	Question	Marks	Question Type
1	Culture	Sangam literature	10	Static Analytical
2	Culture	Tandava dance	5	Static Conceptual
	Culture	Chola Architecture	5	Static Analytical
3	Indian History/Freedom Struggle	Indian Women in Freedom Struggle	10	Static Analytical
4	Indian History/Freedom Struggle	Foreigners in Freedom Struggle	10	Static Analytical
5	Indian History/1750-1885	Lord Dalhousie	10	Static Analytical
6	Indian History/Post Independence	Acharya Vinoba Bhave	10	Static Analytical
7	Indian History/Post Independence	Jai Jawana Jai Kisan	10	Static Analytical
8	Indian History/Post Independence	Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad	10	Static Conceptual
9	Indian History/Post Independence	Tashkent Agreement	10	Static Analytical
10	Indian History/Post Independence	Emergence of Bangladesh	10	Static Analytical
11	World History	Industrial revolution in Japan	10	Static Analytical
12	World History	African History	10	Static Analytical
13	World History	American Revolution	10	Static Analytical
14	World History	Great economic depression	10	Static Conceptual
15	Indian Society	Urbanization in India	10	Current Analytical
16	Indian Society	Men and women’s organization	10	Current Analytical
17	Indian Society	Globalization on the aged population	10	Current Analytical
18	Indian Society	Regionalism and state demand	10	Current Analytical
19	Geography/Physical Geography	Continental Drift Theory	5	Static Conceptual
	Geography/Physical Geography	Naming of tropical cyclones	5	Current Conceptual
20	Geography/Physical Geography	Heat Islands in urban habitats	5	Current Conceptual
	Geography/Physical Geography	Temperature Inversion	5	Static Conceptual
21	Geography/World Geography	Hot Deserts Location	10	Static Conceptual
22	Geography/Indian Geography	Landslides in the Himalayas	5	Current Conceptual
	Geography/Indian Geography	No deltas by Western Ghat rivers	5	Static Conceptual
23	Geography/Indian Geography	New sugar mills in the South India	5	Current Analytical
	Geography/Indian Geography	Decentralized cotton textile industry	5	Static Analytical
24	Geography/Indian Geography	Atomic energy in India and world	10	Current Conceptual
25	Geography/Indian Geography	Reserves of shale oil and gas	10	Current Analytical

IAS Mains 2013 General Studies Paper 1 (GS1) Analysis and Inference

• Since GS1 paper is based on traditional subjects like History, Culture, Geography etc. most of the questions were from the conventional IAS text books or NCERT [Static Areas].
• Most of the question were analytical in nature. Questions from geography and Indian society were linked to current affairs.
• All together, the questions can be said to be of medium difficulty level, but being the first exam in the new patten of 25 compulsory essays, this paper raised huge time management challenge for many candidates.

ClearIAS.com welcome feedback from candidates regarding the experience and difficulty level of the mains exam in the comment space below.