How do I prepare for PCS (Punjab Civil Service) Exam?

The PCS exam provides equal importance to knowledge and skills. The preparation of the exam expects the candidate to prepare each topic thoroughly followed by practice through solving as many previous years questions. There are many online resources such as Mrunal Notes and Unacademy or candidate can join a test series for effective practice.

Step 1: It is highly important that the candidate should go through the syllabus in detail and some mock papers to understand the pattern of the examination. This would also enable the person to evaluate his present level of preparation for the examination.

Step 2: Ensure that you have access to study material.Whatever means you chose to study(self-study or classroom study) ensure that you have the required reference books. An added advantage is always a library where you can have access to reference books from both International and National Authors. Besides, the aspirant should study the NCERT books from classes VI-XII accompanied by a good test series for PCS exam practice.

Step 3: Also it is a great strategy to prepare alongside for the PCS Mains examination as the time between the declaration of the Preliminary result and the Mains examination is less and with additional subjects to prepare it creates extra pressure.

Step 4: Appear for as many practice tests as possible. Proper answer-writing style is necessary for a candidate to score high in the PCS examination. Also, the candidate needs to answer the questions in a time-constrained manner. Constant, essay writing on various topics provides you with the much-needed practice to come up with a high scoring answer. It is necessary to understand the questions and spend some time to figure out the correct answer to the questions. Get your answers evaluated by mentors and adhere to their feedback in the actual examination. You can refer the feedback given for answers in our Answer Writing Practise sessions.

Step 5: For PCS exam Interview, your bio-data (Detailed Application Form or DAF) is the most important thing. Try to figure out the most-probable questions from the DAF. ClearIAS Team can help you with DAF analysis. Once you register for ClearIAS Interview program, we will send you a list of 30 most probable questions based on your DAF. Also, take mock interviews to polish your communication and presentation skills. All the best!

Some of the Important books from the PCS Exam Prospective are RS Sharma’s ancient history, Medieval History by Satish Chandra, Modern History by Bipin Chandra, Political Science Laxmikanth, Geography- Certificate of physical geography by GC Leong. Besides any book on Punjab’s General Knowledge suffices the requirement of the PCS EXAM.