PFRDA Grade A 2025 | Mains / Phase 2 – Descriptive English Analysis

Here’s a comprehensive analysis of the PFRDA Grade A 2025 – Mains Phase 2 (Paper 1: English Descriptive Test), with section-wise elaboration and examples.

PFRDA Grade A 2025 – Descriptive English Analysis (100 Marks)

The Descriptive English paper is one of the most decisive parts of the PFRDA Grade A Mains. It carried a total of 100 marks, split into:

  • Essay Writing – 30 marks
  • Precis Writing – 30 marks
  • Reading Comprehension – 40 marks

The paper this year was reported as doable to moderate, but required strong analytical and writing skills, especially for candidates aiming to score high.

1. Essay Writing (30 Marks)

Word Limit: 250–300 words
Nature of Topics: Predictable, aligned with current affairs, technology, and management.

Topics Given

  1. The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in modern development
  2. How unhappy customers can help in business growth
  3. Educational institutes mandating internships or the benefits of degrees

Analysis

  • These topics tested candidates’ ability to connect theory with real-world applications.
  • The essay required structured writing: introduction, body (arguments with examples), and conclusion.
  • For instance:
    • In the AI essay, a good candidate would balance opportunities (automation, healthcare, finance, governance) with concerns (job loss, ethics, bias).
    • In the unhappy customers essay, examples from companies like Amazon, Zomato, or Paytm could strengthen the argument that customer complaints drive innovation and service improvement.
    • The internship essay could use data points (e.g., employability skills gap in India, NEP 2020 focus on experiential learning) to argue why structured internships are critical.

Scoring Approach: Essays were marked for clarity, coherence, argument depth, grammar, and examples. Well-prepared candidates who practiced 250-word essays regularly found this section manageable.

2. Precis Writing (30 Marks)

Theme: Demographic challenges in Japan
Content to Summarize:

  • Japan’s declining birth rate and shrinking population
  • Government incentives (financial subsidies, childcare benefits) to encourage youth
  • AI and robotics as a partial solution to labor shortages

Analysis

  • This task tested ability to condense a dense passage into a precise ~1/3rd length summary, while preserving the core meaning.
  • Candidates had to highlight:
    • The problem: Falling birth rate and ageing population
    • The solutions: Financial incentives and policies
    • The role of technology: AI and robotics addressing workforce gaps
  • A well-crafted precis would:
    • Avoid opinions and personal commentary
    • Use clear, concise sentences without repeating phrases from the passage
    • Provide a suitable title such as “Japan’s Demographic Challenge and Technological Response”

Common Pitfall: Candidates who merely paraphrased without compressing, or skipped one of the three pillars (problem, incentives, AI role), risked lower marks.

3. Reading Comprehension (40 Marks)

Theme: Mismatch between modern lifestyle and human physiology

  • The passage highlighted how rapid technological advancements (sedentary jobs, screen time, processed food) are misaligned with the biological design of the human body (active movement, natural diet).
  • The number of questions increased this year to 5 (from 4 last year).

Nature of Questions

  • Inference-based (e.g., “What does the author imply by physiological limitations?”)
  • Analytical (e.g., “Suggest remedies to reduce the gap between lifestyle and health needs”)
  • Vocabulary/meaning-in-context (tested precise understanding of key terms)

Analysis

  • Candidates who read carefully and related the passage to real-life health issues (obesity, diabetes, stress) could answer well.
  • Since comprehension carried 40% weightage of the paper, accuracy was critical.
  • Example high-scoring approach: Linking author’s arguments with Ayushman Bharat wellness focus or WHO reports on lifestyle diseases.

Overall Difficulty Level

  • Essays: Moderate – predictable, but required clarity and examples.
  • Precis: Moderate – tricky for those weak in compression and expression.
  • Comprehension: Moderate – inference-based, tested deep reading, but doable with practice.

Well-prepared candidates (with regular writing practice, familiarity with current affairs, and mock typing drills) would find the paper balanced but scoring.

Key Takeaways for Aspirants

  1. Essay Writing: Focus on structure (Intro → Body → Conclusion) with 2–3 strong examples.
  2. Precis: Practice reducing long passages to one-third, ensuring no key point is missed.
  3. RC: Train for inference and analytical reading, not just direct Q&A.
  4. Typing Speed & Accuracy: Since the paper is online, those who practiced typing 250–300 word essays under time constraints had an advantage.

✅ Verdict: The Descriptive English Paper (100 marks) was moderate in difficulty. Candidates with consistent preparation in current affairs, structured writing, and summarization skills could comfortably score 60–70+ marks, which is a strong edge in overall merit. Whereas potential to score till 80 marks is also not extremely tough.