Tomorrow’s PFRDA Grade A 2025 Mains is all about clear, correct, concise drafting. Use these rapid, high-impact grammar fixes to lift your Essay, Precis, and Comprehension scores in the final 24 hours.
Exam snapshot (so you tailor your writing)
- Paper: Descriptive English (Essay, Precis, Comprehension)
- Marks/Time: 100 marks in 60 minutes (online typing)
12 grammar hacks that shift marks fast
- Subject–verb agreement (SVA) = non-negotiable
- Collective nouns: The committee has decided (treat as a unit, singular).
- Plural data: Prefer The data show / indicate (sounds formal and precise).
Fix-now test: Circle every main verb and check it agrees with its subject—especially in long sentences.
- Articles with acronyms & numbers—use the sound rule
- Write “an NPS account” (pronounced en-), “a UPI handle” (sounds you-).
- Use the for unique entities: the RBI, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (first mention in full, then PFRDA).
- Preposition traps
- ❌ discuss about, comprise of, request for to do
- ✅ discuss X, comprise X / consist of X, request to do
- Use between X and Y, from 2019 to 2025, different from (not than in formal Indian English).
- Tense discipline
- General facts: present simple (Inflation hurts the poor).
- Trends since a past time: present perfect (Female LFPR has declined since 2005).
- Completed one-off event: simple past (The scheme was launched in 2023).
Don’t time-travel inside one paragraph.
- Modifier placement
- ❌ Being a pension regulator, customer trust is vital.
- ✅ As the pension regulator, PFRDA must preserve customer trust.
Keep the modifier next to the noun it modifies.
- Parallelism for lists
- ❌ to boost coverage, reduce leakage, and improving service
- ✅ to boost coverage, reduce leakage, and improve service
Make listed items same grammatical form (all verbs, all nouns, etc.).
- Active voice for punch, passive for neutrality
- Active: PFRDA tightened oversight to curb mis-selling.
- Passive: Oversight was tightened to curb mis-selling.
Default to active unless you need an impersonal tone.
- Comma discipline & run-ons
- Don’t join two sentences with just a comma (comma splice). Use ;, ., or a coordinating conjunction (and, but, so, yet, or).
- Use colon to introduce lists or explanations; em-dash for emphasis sparingly.
- Hyphenate compound adjectives
- long-term vision, inflation-induced stress, policy-driven reform.
(Noun use stays open: in the long term.)
- Precise, neutral vocabulary
- Prefer curb/mitigate over control, ensure over make sure, evidence suggests over it is clear that.
Avoid slang and clichés (game-changer, silver bullet).
- Numbers & units
- Keep one style consistent: either “per cent” or “percent”.
- Use ₹ correctly (₹1.5 lakh; ₹12,000 crore).
- Spell out one-word numbers (one to nine) only if it doesn’t clash with data tables; otherwise use numerals for speed and clarity.
- Capitalization
- Government of India, Union Budget, Phase II, Section 7 (proper names/citations).
- Keep generic uses lowercase: the government, the budget, the exam.
Essay: a 12-minute structure that scores
What examiners asked earlier (real paper example): In 2021, options included themes like effects of inflation on the poor, trading vs investing, cultural heritage, health awareness (choose one; ~200 words then).
3-part template (use this tomorrow):
Intro (2–3 lines): Define the theme + stance.
Body (3 bullets/mini-paras): Point → brief evidence/example → micro-conclusion.
Close (2 lines): Recommendation or forward-looking line.
Micro-outline (inflation & the poor):
- Impact: Erodes real wages; essentials become unaffordable.
- Transmission: Food & fuel pass-through; informal workers hit first.
- Policy: Targeted subsidies, inflation-indexed welfare, supply-side fixes.
Sample opening (model 2–3 lines):
Inflation silently taxes the poor by shrinking real incomes while essentials get dearer. Without buffers, vulnerable households cut nutrition and schooling first; the policy task is to stabilise prices and cushion the bottom deciles.
Grammar to watch in essays: SVA with data (prices rise, not rises when plural subject), parallel bulleting, consistent tense when describing trends.
Precis: compress without killing meaning
What appeared earlier: A 2021 paper used a passage on UPI’s success alongside rising online fraud and asked for a ~135-word precis with a title.
5 quick steps
- Read & block: Mark thesis + 3–4 key supports.
- Target length: Aim for ~33.33% of the original (follow the instruction exactly if a word limit is given).
- Rewrite in your words (no quotes; third-person, present tense).
- No new info/opinion; maintain logical order.
- Title = topic + angle (“UPI’s Boom and the Rise of Digital Fraud”).
Grammar rules in precis
- Prefer present simple for general statements (the passage argues …).
- Use linkers sparingly: however, moreover, therefore, consequently.
- Replace wordy phrases: due to the fact that → because; in order to → to.
Tiny demo (style, not full answer):
Original idea: UPI usage surged; complaints on NCRP rose; NPCI launched grievance tools like UPI-Help; growth may fuel more fraud; RBI’s Payment Vision projects fast expansion.
Precis-tone sentence: As UPI adoption accelerates, cyber-fraud complaints rise in tandem, prompting NPCI to introduce redressal tools; unless digital hygiene improves, growth could widen vulnerabilities. (Notice the neutral voice and compression.)
Comprehension: answer like a policy analyst
What appeared earlier: A passage on female employment in India (from The Economist) with specific questions on causes and remedies (e.g., social norms, labour markets, policy levers).
3-step answering
- Locate the exact sentence/idea (underline 5–7 keywords in the question).
- Paraphrase faithfully; keep tense and scope aligned with the passage.
- One-thought-per-sentence: short, direct, error-free.
Grammar to keep tight in RC answers
- Use reported speech (The author states that…).
- Avoid absolutes (only, always) unless the passage uses them.
- Keep pronouns clear: replace it/they with nouns when ambiguous.
10-minute “grammar polish” loop before you submit
- Word-limit check (−0.5/−1 marks risk if off).
- Scan subjects vs verbs (underline both).
- Article/a–an–the sweep (especially acronyms).
- List parallelism (X, Y, and Z = same form).
- Comma splice hunt (split into two sentences if unsure).
- Prepositions (discuss X, different from, between…and).
- Tense consistency (facts vs trends).
- Hyphenate compound adjectives (policy-driven).
- Spelling & caps (Government of India; PFRDA; RBI).
- Read aloud in your head once for flow.
High-frequency finance words (quick replacements)
- make sure → ensure
- cut down → curb / reduce
- because of → due to / because
- very important → critical / pivotal
- a lot of → significant / substantial
Tonight’s 15-minute practice (with model-safe angles)
- Essay (120–150 words): “FinTech can deepen pension coverage, but can it protect consumers?” → Use 3-point body + 2-line close.
- Precis (110–130 words): Take a news editorial on inflation & food prices; compress to one-third with a neutral title.
- RC (3 Qs): Read a short column on financial literacy among senior citizens; answer in one-sentence paraphrases.
Real exam references (for your confidence)
- Phase II Descriptive English includes Essay, Precis, RC; total 100 marks/60 minutes (online).
- 2021 memory-based paper featured:
- Essay options including inflation & the poor, trading vs investing, health awareness, etc.
- Precis passage on UPI growth and online fraud.
- RC on female employment in India (adapted from The Economist).
Bank Whizz mini-checklist to print in your head
- CCC: Clarity–Correctness–Conciseness.
- SVA, Articles, Prepositions first.
- One idea = one sentence in RC answers.
- Title every precis; don’t invent facts.
- Finish 5 minutes early for the grammar loop.
All the best—write clean, think structured, and let grammar become your quiet edge.