With a huge emphasis being laid on the general studies paper, one must keep in mind the following tips to help ace it better:
Paper I-Indian culture and heritage, History, Geography and the World Society
(i) Be sure to cover the entire syllabus as almost every information is critical. Be sure to study past year papers to be able to judge a pattern and know what the focus points should be.
(ii) Indian Heritage and Culture will cover both ancient and modern times and hence relevant emphasis should be laid on both topics.
(iii)When it comes to World Society, it is important to lay stress on the economic aspect of the world as well as India. Questions could also be based on Human Development and UN reports on the same. Be sure to also go through World Bank Reports.
Paper II-Constitution, Government, Polity and Internation Relations
(i) Cover aspects of government work and policies that affect the day to day life of commoners as well as cover the topic from the aspect of social work.
(ii) One should be thorough with the budgetary and monetary support being provided by the government and what projects they are funding be it projects related to farmers or projects related to atomic energy.
(iii)Be sure to brush up on India's relations with major economies of the world be it USA, China, USSR or Europe. Study how world politics and economy affects India and what kind of treaties and alliances India has formed in the past.
Paper III-Technology, Bio-diversity, Environment, Economic Development, Security and Disaster Management.
(i)It is important to cover medical and scietific breakthroughs in the past one year especially on topics like stem cell research, water preservation and non renewable energy sources and other advancements.
(ii) Economics will heavily cover the tax laws, taxation policies and both the monetary and fiscal policies of the government to bring about economic change.
(iii)With a huge change in the environment and major catastrophes hitting the globe, valuable questions can come from this segment as well which is why it is important to study thoroughly on major disasters in and around India, what government spend has gone into handling the disaster and what other courses of action can be taken.
Paper IV-Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude
(i)It is a generalised paper and a few basic concepts need to be cleared. Focus on topics revolving around black money, corruption, money laundering etc. to cover this segment.
(ii) The aptitude segment will need more hardwork as it revolves around understanding statistics, diagrams and graphs which will require good practice.
(iii)The ethics and integrity section is general but is designed to test you which is why you should be careful when answering questions.