71 To 51 My Journey From Failure

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71 TO 51
My Journey from Failure to IAS

&
Your Guide to Success
ILA TRIPATHI
with inputs from BHAVESH MISHRA
Download from:- https://upscpdf.com

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INTRODUCTION
I distinctly remember the day of 31st May 2017. At 7:20 pm, my husband,
then boyfriend, Bhavesh broke the news to me of me securing All India Rank
51 in Civil Services Examination, 2016. I was thrilled. I was happy as I no
longer have to spend days reading The Hindu. But I was also a tad sad as I
wanted my father to be alive to witness the moment.
Fast forward, a year into the service, now when I look in retrospect analysing
my preparation regime, I see how things had evolved. How I started
preparing, how I was dejected after failing badly in first attempt, how
Bhavesh made me realize the importance of self-study, how failing in the
Indian Forest Services Mains exam threw me into a spiral of self-doubt. The
title “71 to 51” is basically my journey from scoring a 71 in Prelims in my
first attempt to improving remarkably to Rank 51.
The period of preparation is a roller coaster ride. You sometimes feel you
should give up as you have wasted your youth reading about longitude,
latitude and ethical dilemmas. You will also be on cloud nine when your
mock tests would fetch you unimaginably high marks. You would feel low
when your relatives would remind you of your age and you still living on
your parent's income. These mixed emotions are common to any aspirant’s
journey. I experienced it throughout.
It is an unpredictable exam and believe me none of my batch mates in
LBSNAA were certain of making it to the service of their choice. I was
certain of making it to the list but not sure of becoming an IAS officer. Even
Bhavesh was not sure of making it in the first attempt. After taking his
interview in June 2015, Bhavesh was determined that, god forbid, if he did
not sail through in 2014 attempt, then he would not even attempt the 2015
exam but instead wait for 2016. So you see, the anxiety and uncertainty you
are going through or have went through, is normal.
This book is a consolidation of study tips for aspirants ranging from purely

academic issues like the chapter on GS papers (I-IV) to some personal

management issues like the one named "When the going gets tough"and
“What if you fail”.
I have mentioned my personal experiences to sometimes motivate you and
sometimes make you believe that all the ups and downs are normal in any
aspirant's life. I have written about my motivation to join the services after a
three year stint in the private sector. I also talk about why I chose a humanity
subject despite being an engineer.
My experiences where I made mistakes will also serve the purpose of
warning you. I do not want you to commit the mistakes I did. In UPSC, it is
more important to know what not to do more than what to do. This is the
difference between an aspirant who has been preparing for 4 years and
someone who got through in first attempt. The former does not know what to
avoid. I hope that this book serves the purpose right in this regard.
Several chapters also carry my mock test answer scripts followed by a
detailed analysis. I was good in some parts, bad in others. But I did realise
that analysing answer writing helps improve your performance remarkably.
Chapter on answer writing is a comprehensive guide in this regards.
Psychology plays a very critical role when we are an aspirant. We are easily
distracted, dejected and disillusioned. Little do we realise that these tests of
character are only momentary. What follows next will last forever. You work
only 1-2 year on studying hard. And for the rest of your life, you are known
to the world as an officer. The book has targeted chapters to deal with the
psyche. You can read, re-read them anytime you get the feeling of "na ho
payega".
Bhavesh also has penned down his experience of how he prepared for
interview while working in a full time job and scoring a 209 in the interview!
We hope it would come handy for professionals who are not yet sure whether
to leave the job for an exam as demanding as the civil services.
Unlike any other UPSC guide, we also talk on things that most coaching
institute or successful candidates usually do not even mention. The book talks
in detail about why and how the cadre choice in an All India Service plays a
pivotal role. You can learn from your mistake by filling up a DAF incorrectly

but why risk it when you can make the right choice.
Finally, we hope to encourage you to work hard, take well-informed
decisions and be successful.
All the best.
P.S. We would love to hear from you at 71to51.book@gmail.com

1: THE “TRIGGER”-
AMBASSADOR!
After enrolling for engineering, I was in doldrums about writing civil services
examination. Papa’s death made me certain- I won’t. But as fate would have
it, the dream that I had cherished since childhood, all the newspaper cuttings
that I had converted into a collage, would not spare me easily. Thoughts have
immense power. The trigger for sudden change of heart was induced by my
neighbour.
Our neighbour in Lucknow is Shri Abhishek Prakash, IAS Uttar Pradesh
cadre. He is our immediate neighbour and consequently their life cannot be
completely unknown. Unlike Delhi or any city of skyscrapers, neighbours
still interact with each other rather frequently in Lucknow. Abhishek Sir had
never mentioned that he is an IAS. But within few weeks of him shifting to
our neighbourhood, his nature of job became obvious. His official vehicle
was an elaborate sedan with the notable beacon light. It was illustrious. Also,
from my childhood memories I had only remembered IAS officers in
ambassador. Ambassador continues to be the symbol of Babudom. So the
sedan was a welcoming change. It was always good to see the respect he
enjoyed. He would also attend to needs of people in the neighbourhood
mainly pertaining to civic amenities.
It was that influence that made me reconsider my decision: itni buri naukri
bhi nahin hain (It ain’t that bad a job after all). I realised if you want to get
heard, if you want your opinions to solve even a trivial problem, you need
authority. And in our country, much like many, legitimate authority lies
mostly with bureaucrats and politicians.
The “new” ambassador was a trigger that led me into thinking. But it was not
the only thing. My job in MicroSave was also disappointing me. MicroSave
was a great opportunity for me- I travelled to unknown territories of Africa.

But as is common in consulting industry, not every project is as exciting as

the previous one. I was going through this ebb in my career trajectory.
This low period had prompted me to consider higher studies as an option to
get out of the job. I saw MBA as the only option. I was giving half-hearted
attempts at CAT, GMAT, talking to alumni of B-schools on LinkedIn. All
this did not have my heart. I was doing it only to escape my current situation.
The “ambassador” waali naukri looked like a ray of hope.
I was also not confident of my MBA prospects. I wanted to study in INSEAD
but given their tuition fee, I knew I wouldn’t be able to earn enough even
after the three-lettered degree to do justice to my parent’s hard earned money.
Also, I had had enough of management consulting. With due respect,
consulting was not what I would have wanted to do when I got married or
had a child. I am fond of traveling but not at the cost of my family life.
INSEAD MBA also meant staying away from India, perhaps forever. This
was not acceptable to my mother. Mummy would get a lump in the throat at
the very thought of letting her blood and flesh be out of sight for so long.
On the fateful night of 13th June 2015, I told Mummy about my intention to
take the civil services examination. She was on cloud nine. Interestingly,
parents take a lot of pride in the very fact itself that their child will write the
mother of all examinations. My mother was particularly thrilled. She always
would say, “I was daughter (my nanaji was a State Civil Services Officer),
wife of a civil servant and want to be mother of a civil servant (of course with
Bhavesh as my husband, I’ve also made her the mother-in-law of a civil
servant)”. We sat for an hour over dinner. Modalities were discussed-
coaching, study material, mentor. And that very night I filled up the form.
Prelims that year was slated for 23rd August.
Initially, I was over-confident. Without even knowing the full-form of
NCERTs, I was certain in my head that Prelims is a mere filter to weed out
the no-brain detected species from the all-knowing one. I considered myself
in the second category- my first mistake. Secondly, I was not disciplined. I
was working in a full-time job back then. Since the nature of the job was
travel intensive, I should have been careful and systematic in planning. I was
neither. Bhavesh still mocks me for studying from Lucent for Prelims. A bad
choice indeed.

I had not only over-estimated my potential but also underestimated the exam.
There are success stories where people read only NCERTs only for a month
and sail through. But these are only a handful. Majority “veterans” have pain
to share. If you don’t work hard, your luck might not always save you.
Nevertheless, I do not regret writing the exam twice and failing at the prelims
stage itself for two reasons: a) Chances of me securing a rank to get IAS were
remote, my optional preparation was nil. So in most probability I would have
landed up in a different service and then taken an EOL to appear in the
subsequent year. This, I believe, is more dangerous a situation to be in. I
personally would have become complacent thinking I already have a job. b)
Had it not been for my 2016 CSE attempt, I don’t think my love story with
Bhavesh would have met the same fate as now. He would have been fresh in
the field, while I would be on cloud nine for becoming an IAS. He would
have had little time from Bhagalpur( his first posting) and I would have been
equally busy in LBSNAA. I consider my failure in CSE 2015 as a blessing in
disguise. Also, I’m a firm believer in the philosophy of- whatever happens,
happens for good.
As is evident by now, I scored poorly in 2015 CSE Prelims. Scores were out
next year June when I had already left my job and was in full-swing for
Prelims 2016. I scored a 71 in GS. My head-hung in shame. To make things
worse for me, Bhavesh was the first person to see my score card. I was
writing a test when my phone beeps with his text- “Prelims score card out.
How much did you score?” Bhavesh’s texts always made me smile, except
this one. I was fuming in my head that despite knowing that I did not make
past the cut off, this already-IAS is adding insult to injury. I told him I have
no internet, which was actually the case (I had no internet in my phone that I
carried when I moved out of home. Internet distracts me.) So he asked for my
login, birth-date and password. Back then there was no element of romance
between us. But somehow I had the faith to tell him everything about me and
he had all the concern for me to check on my score card.
But as they say, all’s well that ends well. I scored nearly the double in
Prelims 2016- 134. Not only did I sail past the civil services cut off but also
the Indian Forest Services cut-off that is generally +20 than the former’s cut
off. I was elated. IFoS was unimaginable. And at the same time very close to
my heart owing to Papa.

I’m glad I took the plunge. The fateful night of 13th June 2015 when I sat with
my mother to discuss where I’m headed to, changed my life. Believe in
yourself, spend alone time to think what you want. It just might happen that
you will find your true calling. Civil Services is not the end of the world. But
if your inner self, your best wishers tell you, then don’t self-doubt. It’s a good
world waiting for you.

2: THE “CIVIL”
CHILDHOOD
My dream of becoming an IAS was a result of mainly two things: my father,
as a forest services officer, always said that the only job better than that of a
DFO (Divisional Forest Officer) is that of a DM. Secondly, I wanted a job
that involved field work, interaction with people. IAS as a service not only
gives you the opportunity to meet unsung heroes at grass root levelbut also
the authority to undo what’s not working. IAS, unlike any private sector job,
doesn’t come with a job description. And precisely that’s why it’s not any
other job but a service.
I started my journey early in childhood by asking Papa what should I do to
become a DM, assuming there is no age limit to get power of the post. Papa
would only smile at my innocence (or ignorance may be) and Mummy pat
came with the reply- Homework karna hota hai aur class mein first aana
hota hai. (You’ve got to do homework and top in your class). These words
were an echoing talisman for me. I was very sincere as a student. Always
stood first in class. Studying was religion for me. I would set my bag
according to time table a night before and would sleep with the bag by my
side. I have even written school exams with stitches in my right hand. I
would score less also at times but I kept telling myself that the war (UPSC) is
to be won, not every battle.
Apart from studies, external locus was also strong to motivate me. Papa’s
DFO bungalows would always peep over the shoulder of DM’s grand palatial
premise. While initially I would feel like utopia when playing around
spacious lawn and portico, but no sooner would we be invited to the DM’s
bungalow for a high-tea than I would come face to the fact that Papa was
right. DM is better than DFO, after all I get to see the bigger bungalow. This
DM versus DFO debate was very illogical now to me as I see in hindsight.
But I must credit this “bungalow” reasoning for inkling in me a strong desire

to become a “Collector”. I remember a newspaper edition called “Josh”

published every Wednesday in a Hindi newspaper. Every year it would print
interviews of IAS toppers. I had cut out of all of them starting from Ankur
Garg Sir to Roopa Mishra Ma’am in 2005, so on and so forth. I would feel
happy reading and would actually feel elated thinking I too would feature in
the newspaper one day. I’m glad it happened. Dainik Jagran did not
disappoint me in 2017.
Childhood also comprised of frequent field visits with father dearest. His
postings in hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh- Gonda, Pilibhit, Fatehpur, Hardoi
etc were very educating for me as a child. While Papa would be busy touring
the nursery and mummy chatting away with the ladies, my sister and I would
sneak in with local children who would gather in dozens just to see a jeep.
We the two relatively well-off siblings were initially very rude to the jungle
kids- Kabhi Gaadi Nahin Dekhi Kya (Haven’t you ever seen a car or what?),
Kitne gande kapde hain (What bad clothes!). Our behaviour was no short of

jeering but I do beg pardon on the account that we had never been exposed to
deprivation and hence we thought poverty was a choice.
In one such incident, where Didi and I were mocking the driver’s daughter-
Denu- who lived in our campus, the tables turned and we became the subject
of jeering. As a kid I was fat (which my nani maa said was “khaate peete
ghar ke bacche”). Denu did not entertain any of my mocking and hit me and
ran away. Given the fur ball I was, running was too much a price to pay for a
hurt ego. But then I was also the DFO ki beti (DFO’s daughter). And the
younger and the more stubborn one too (our domestic helps would call me
ilua bhaiya, much akin to some political heavyweight). I saw Denu hitting
me as a symbol of defiance. But I could not complain to my mother either
because in the cause-effect loop, my mother would have chastised me for
talking to Denu roughly in the first place. Left with little choice, I went up to
my father and complained of Denu. Papa was the calmer of the two of my
parents. While Mummy would never listen to my stories or play Ludo with
me, Papa would take out time even from DM meetings to attend my Parent-
Teacher meetings. But this time even Papa reacted differently. Papa asked me
what triggered her to hit me. I told what I did, very unapologetically. Denu
was immediately called for. I was beaming with joy thinking she would be
bulldozed. Little did I see what was in store. Papa told me to say sorry to her
and do “mucchi” (a children friendly term for making peace that is ensued
with kissing of pinky fingers by oneself). I was dumbfounded. I clarified-
Papa she had hit me, not the other way round. Papa looked at me in a stoic
yet stern fashion and repeated- Sorry Bolo Denu Ko (Say Sorry to Denu). To
avoid any further embarrassment in front of the driver and her daughter, I
said sorry and tears started rolling down my eyes. Denu left and I burst into
tears in front of Papa. My eyes were filled with questions, apart from tears. I
wanted to know why was their darling daughter not only devoid of solace for
being hit by a menial staff’s kin but also insulted by asking to apologise- both
experiences were fairly new for me.
Papa wiped my tears but could do little for the sobbing. He also had to arrest
the situation given that a crying child is a time bomb when mother is in the
house. He made me sit in his lap and started the sermon. I do not remember it
verbatim but the talisman he gave me was- How will you become a DM if
you don’t love people? Apart from the usual “ acche bacche aisa nahin
karte” (good kids do not exhibit this kind of behaviour), Papa that day told

me that only being a good student is not sufficient to become a DM. My

world fell apart that day. All this while I was assuming that mummy’s word
of homework and standing first in class is all that’s required. I felt my hard
work was wasted. Of course Papa was high on philosophical quotient but he
did make sense. He told me to shun any bias or arrogance of being the Haves
against the Have Nots. He asked how will I give pension to old people if I
mock their wrinkles? How will I give education to all if I’m more concerned
about the colour of uniform? I was still not convinced. However my
arrogance and ignorance mellowed down.
This was one of the many such incidents that made me close to public life
and equally empathetic to people’s problems. I liked taking up leadership
roles. I liked taking initiatives. All this required background hardwork, event
management but the rewards were motivating. I remember being the Head
Girl, Senior Section, City Montessori School (Aliganj), Lucknow. I would
work in cultural fests even with pre-board exams looming over. I was not
hard working initially but certainly very passionate. I would always think that
whatever I do, every page that I read would make me a DM. I was crazy
about my dream. And such was my childhood that became a stepping stone to
my success.

3: DAMAGE OF DEATH
All through my childhood, Papa was an in-house inspiration. We talked
politics, bureaucracy, cricket, cartoons, all alike. Papa was the biggest
influence on me while I was growing- his style of managing sub-ordinates,
his habit of making a to-do list, his affinity towards gardening as a hobby, his
stamina to undertake long arduous train journeys and still be doing office
work, his discipline to never have phone calls at the dining table. It was
perhaps my efforts to ape him that made me a morning person.
Given my love for my father, which I understand is no different from any
other daughter-father relationship, it became impossible for me to pursue my
civil services dream after his death. I had lost my mentor. Every time I tried
to read about toppers, I was reminded of my discussions with Papa. It was
miserable for me. I would feel stabbed in the heart every time I was reminded
of him. I somehow had also nurtured this notion out of thin air that Papa’s
heart attack was due to work pressure and hence I can never give myself to
the service of a job that took away my father from me. I would stay away
from anything that brought me any closer to the government apparatus. It
reminded me that I was a failure and also realised that this service killed my
father.
Until the fateful morning of 25th July 2011 when my father succumbed to a
cardiac arrest, I was living a relaxed life. Much like anyone in an engineering
college sophomore years, MS in the US was what I wanted since most of my
wing mates were pursuing it. My family-friends and school friends could be
broadly categorised as only two kinds- US waale, Sarkaari Waale. Despite
living in the 21st century, we had some serious dearth of career options. I was
a part of the crowd too. Just that my interest was dwindling. Finally, it was a
case of shifted loyalties as I wanted to go abroad. I had discussed this with
my father too. He was not at all a sport about it. Papa was determined- I will
write civil services examination whether I do an MS or even join NASA.
Nothing is above IAS. Papa and I struck a deal- I would return after an MS

and take the IAS exam. I had the intent of dodging the exam once in the US.
My evil plan never materialised.
Just after completion of 2nd year of college, I was to enroll for a GRE
coaching in Noida. But as fate would have it, Papa passed away that Monday.
My word fell apart. The day when I was supposed to be learning GRE
vocabulary, I was wailing on the Ghats of Ayodhya burning my father’s
funeral pyre. It felt as if my life departed with his.
With his death was also the death of my aspiration to be a civil servant,
whatever little was left of it. I felt guilt. Guilt of not spending enough time
with Papa. Guilt of not choosing the career path he had in mind for me. My
father had carved out a timeline for me- 2008 I enrol in a humanities course
at DU, third year I enrol for IAS coaching, take a year off, turn 21 and
become an IAS of 2011 batch. He was a man of plans. But his daughter
betrayed him. I still believe that had I adhered to his decision, he would be
still alive. 2011 when I was supposed to have gained his and mine shared
dream, I lost him forever.

Apart from emotionally being drained, I also felt a lack of confidence. I no

longer took initiatives. Chalta hai attitude was the mantra I was living
through. I was merely existing. I had no hopes partly because I was sad and
partly because I did not know what to do. Conditions at home were not
conducive to leave mummy in India for a full-fledged course in the US. That
would have been very selfish on my part. My grades were not good enough to
get me placed in tech giants. Until final year, I had no inkling of what I will
do the next day the college ends. And thus a great damage was caused by my
father’s death.

4: BHAVESH AND THE

LOVE STORY
God has been very kind to me. There was an irreplaceable loss I suffered in
the form of Papa’s untimely demise. But the heavens above made up for the
vacuum to much extent by bringing Bhavesh in my life. In 2015, Bhavesh
was already the talk of the town- he was all over Quora. Mrunal would
feature his interview at the top. If you were an aspirant back then, you cannot
afford to ignore him. He was too good to be missed, at least for me.
My first interaction with him was through Quora (the joke in our friend circle
goes like- Jo logon ke liye shaadi.com nahi kar saka who tum dono ke liye
Quora ne kar diya). On 4th July 2015, results of Civil Services Examination
2014 were declared and on 5th July I wrote him a message asking for civil
services book list. My rudimentary question can be discounted given that I
had just started preparing. Within an hour I received a prompt reply. I was
least expecting it since I’d messaged couple of other senior officers too who
had never replied. Our first conversation ended there. No fireworks.
A month later, a colleague and also an aspirant makes me watch the famous
Topper’s Talk by Bhavesh Mishra AIR 58. I did not recognise him and
rightly so, his name I could not recall, his Quora picture was no bigger than a
thumbnail, and moreover why would I even check-out his picture when my
concern is the book list. After half of the video is played, Bhavesh mentions,
“I getthese queries on Quora...” Wait a second, said my mind. Is he the same
person I had asked the booklist? I verified from my Quora inbox. Yes, he is
the one. But the first time I watched the video- that went on to become an
ORN sensation- I was anything but impressed. All I remember was Bhavesh
mentioning that first person you call after seeing results will be your mother
and my friend drawing consequent conclusion that he is single. Both very
tangential to my frame of mind.

Months passed, we never interacted. I believe we even succumbed to oblivion

for each other. It was then in October that I needed a guiding light. I was
unable to manage job and studies. Also, I was not willing to quit my job
given that bonus was due to me and I had worked for it year round. I was in a
dilemma. And for the want of better advice, I messaged Bhavesh again. This
time we became more familiar as he shared his phone number with me. I rang
him up after fixing a time given that he was in LBSNAA, Mussoorie
undergoing his training. October night we speak the first time. I had intended
keeping it short. And I had expected he would keep it brief too given that he
is a topper and I’m an aspirant- a gulf that ought to be filled with pride and
exclusivity. But I was pleasantly surprised to talk to him. Bhavesh was like
no other young officer I had interacted with. He was humble, talkative and
went out of his way to help me. The 10 minute planned talk expanded to 1
hour. And it felt good. He was all through reassuring me that competition is
not tough for those who study at least 10 hours a day. I made this the
cornerstone of my preparation.
After that our phone calls became frequent. Mostly I would drop in a text
asking a doubt to which he would reply on calls. We spoke no more than
once a month. And it was only recently that husband dearest confessed that
he waited for that one day rather eagerly. Over the time our phoney talks
traversed areas that had no relation with UPSC. He would engage me in
animated conversation and I would not mind them at all. Speaking with him
was a great stress buster apart from source of motivation. After my disastrous
attempt in 2015 CSE Prelims, I was almost on the verge of giving up my civil
services dream. But it was Bhavesh who kept the desire burning in me. He
would tell me stories from Bharat Darshan, LBSNAA that made me eager to
be a part of the coveted steel frame of bureaucracy. His story telling skills are
unparalleled and that was the first thing that attracted me to him.
Bhavesh also invested a lot of time in me. I had once asked him about Map
related questions in Geography. All I was expecting was a simple one-liner,
but what I got was a detailed PDF. Mr Geek had compiled questions from
previous two years papers, done thorough analysis of possible sources from
where question can be posed. And not to forget his signature jokes in the end
of the mail were hard to miss. I was stumped. As an officer trainee, you
barely have time to sleep and there is this gentleman who sat through tedious
analysis just for me! He had surely found a place in my list of dear friends

with this. Below is our first movie date:
The more I have known Bhavesh, the more I have loved him. After writing
Mains I was relatively less occupied. We would then chat very often and for
long durations. He was very patient with me given that I would get pissed off
at the drop of a hat due to result related anxiety. But Bhavesh never
reciprocated with the same pessimism. Three years of being with him, even
till now he has never raised his voice pitch with me. He makes up for all that
I lack.
I’m an IAS largely because of his constant motivation. I consider my
marriage to him a greater achievement than becoming an IAS.

5: HOW TO START- THE

MOST DIFFICULT PART
The best way to get ahead of others is to start early. But sadly, starting off
is the most difficult part. For civil services, you need to start with a
positive attitude. And start without thinking of results. In the beginning,
your mind is but a blank slate. If you put in negative thoughts, you begin
on the wrong note. Do not think of rank or service. It will only increase
your baggage. Tell yourself to be prepared for hard work. You should
prepare yourself to sacrifice some pleasure in life like parties, hangouts
with friends, social media presence etc.
At the starting, you might feel that it is too much to be asked for but in
the end when you see your name in the result list on the website of UPSC,
your all efforts and sacrifices become worthwhile. Now you may argue
that your friend X, who is now a civil servant, achieved success without
having to give up on anything. Well, congratulations to X but you may
not be so lucky. I have completed my training already and believe me
majority of the officer trainees I have met here in LBSNAA have worked
tremendously hard for what they have achieved. Some may have got
lucky but their number is dismal. Why leave it to luck and leave it to be
uncertain when you can work and ensure your seat in the coveted civil
service. So don't think of taking a short cut, it might cut your success
short.
Talking of my personal experience, I had pasted a quotation on the wall
of my study room- "Nothing else matters, everything else can wait." And
this statement would echo in mind if I ever tried to get distracted from my
goal. Once you achieve success, every night can be a party and everyone
will want to be your friend. You must delay instant gratification to gain
long lasting happiness. These all are mind hacks. If you win over your

thoughts, you are sure to succeed. After coming to terms with your mind,
make a laundry list of things and resources. Books, test series, study place
is the minimum requirement. Given the surge in online tests and content,
an internet connection also is recommended. Do NOT buy all the books
at the same time. We have this human tendency of getting overwhelmed.
A pile of books on the table can frighten you more than motivating you.
Also, we tend to have a habit of buying new study material after few
months. So to avoid the unavoidable shopping spree, buy books in
phases. You cannot read all the book at the same time so why buy them at
one go?
Below is the booklist which is a must for all aspirants:
NCERTs:
Geography class VI to XII
History (old) for Ancient
Art and culture- Fine Arts Class XI
Economics- Class XI, XII, Economic Survey (for the respective year in
which you're to appear for the exam)
Polity- Laxmikanth
Geography- G C Leong
Modern History- Spectrum
Environment- Shankar IAS Academy
These are sufficient to cover the non-current affairs component of the
syllabus.
Having dealt with the static part, please channelise your focus on reading
newspaper. As a starting point, develop a habit of reading one of these
two newspapers- the Hindu or the Indian Express. Initially editorials will
seem boring and perhaps difficult to understand. Do not let this bother
you. Look out for the term(s) you don't understand and then look them up
on the internet. To give you an example, in 2015-16 a term called “import
cover” would always feature in the Economy section of newspapers.
However, no where did any of the newspapers define import cover. Now
it is up to you to take the effort of searching the meaning of the term. I
did look it up and the term featured in CSE Prelims 2016.
As is evident, your personal curiosity and inquisitiveness will help you
not only in this exam but also in the services. In LBSNAA, the Officer

Trainees (OTs) who excel are mostly the ones who are eager to know
more. If you don't understand something or do not know meaning of a
term, find it out. Do not leave it. I, however, had a slightly different
approach here. I would use the internet only during a fixed time of the
day- either morning or evening. So if I came across a term to be looked
up, I would write it in my phone and when I logged onto internet the next
time, I would find out what it meant. This worked for me because
accessing the internet is not possible everywhere. Also, once we are
online, we may end up looking Facebook or be indulged in other
distractions. For me, Quora was a major deterrent to focus.
A common misconception among aspirants is that one has to read
hundreds and thousands of books to succeed. This is way farther from
truth. The key to success is to read few books many times rather than
many books few times. Your aim through this exam is not to show off
your knowledge but to score. You don't have to earn a PhD but instead
have to only write what is asked. Reading the same content has two
benefits: a) the content is etched in your mind very clearly. Given that the
UPSC syllabus is vast, this technique also serves the purpose of revision.
b) When you read a content multiple times, your clarity about the content
increases. And it increases to such extent that you can form your own
opinions. For example, if you read something on One Road, One Belt, in
the first go you are able to register only the major players in OROB. For
second reading, you start to see what challenges it poses to India and by
final reading you might well be able to answer the big question that
whether India should be a part of OROB. And forming an opinion helps
you when you're writing Mains exam.
Now that your mind and resources are all ready, let us get down to
working hard. Start with the objective that daily you have to study for at
least ten hours. I followed the talisman of "10 for 1". It expands to- study
ten hours for one year. This is the golden rule to begin with. On day 1 of
course you might get distracted, you might not be able to focus, and you
would end up taking frequent breaks and would actually not have the
stamina to study for ten hours. It's alright. It is the story with almost all
the successful candidates as well. When I left my job in January 2016, I
could barely study for two hours at a stretch. I would feel depressed that I
left a job just to take a shot at something very uncertain. But I improved

over time. It's not that I liked studying. I'm sure when you're in your 20s,
reading Laxmikanth is the last thing on one’s mind if we could have our
ways. But then as they say, if you want to do what you love, do what you
should. So I loved the idea that if I browse through the Hindu, GC Leong,
I cement my chances of spending the next winter in LBSNAA Mussoorie.
Also, when I'd be sitting idle, I'd be flooded with pessimism. All variants
of negative thoughts would pop up- how will I be among lacs of
aspirants, it's just my second attempt, and I don't have a background in
sociology (my optional). So to distract myself from such thoughts, I
better kept myself busy and studying looked good. Working out, yoga,
meditation, practicing your hobby are also good ways to utilise the spare
time i.e. post 10 hours.
A non-failing formula to avoid depression is to keep yourself immersed
in studies. An idle mind is a devil's workshop. If you indulge in anything
apart from study, you will have the guilt of wasting time. If you sit idle,
you will kill your chances of success by breeding pessimism. So the only
way forward for you is to work hard. Ten hours of dedicated and focused
study is all that it takes. Over the time you will build focus as well as
stamina.
A very important first step is also to be stealth about your preparation.

By this I mean you should not show off what you've read and in fact not
everyone even needs to know that you're preparing. It serves two fold
objective- first you are saved from unnecessary expectations. If you tell a
lot of people, the day your results will be slated every one of those will be
calling you and building more anxiety. While preparing also you might
think what my uncle or aunty or cousin will think if I don't clear prelims
itself!! These thoughts can be best avoided if your uncle/aunty/cousin
don't even know you're writing the exam. Sometimes it's not us who tell
others but our closed ones. It is impossible to not tell your parents and
siblings or your close friends that you're preparing for civil services
examination. The way out is to also tell them to not sing a song
everywhere they go. Sometimes our parents take pride merely in the fact
that their son/daughter is preparing for the toughest exam of the country.
Tell them to avoid the temptation of flaunting. They can flaunt a zillion
times more if you actually get selected in the civil services. Another

reason, and a personal one with no psychological backing, for not telling
others is your dream might get jinxed. Without saying much, just
remember the evil eye effect. Why bring negativity to your most
cherished goal of life. All it will take is for you to stay quiet. Remember
the whole world will know it when your name would feature on the front
page of the newspaper. You will have a lifelong license to show off then.
Don't take the pain while preparing. Be as low profile as you can.
To give you my example, when I quit my job in January 2016, I'd told my
manager that I'm quitting my job to prepare for GMAT and want to do an
MBA. I was certain that I don't want everyone to know of my
preparation. And it was not to sound secretive. Just that I was not sure of
my selection. And believe me no one is certain of their rank/Services
when they start their journey. I never imagined I would bag All India
Rank 51 and become an IAS! Here I mention that your close people
should know about the journey you're planning to undertake. They will be
your emotional support. This exam requires a lot of patience. We might
get frustrated at some stage and would feel like giving up. It will be these
people who would then pull you back. You don't have to be physically
present to be seeking support from them. It can be over phone or email or
even a small text. For instance I was preparing in Lucknow while except
for my mother, all my support pillars were out of the city. But whenever I
would feel low or lacked the motivation to study, I would ring them up
and get my dose of Vitamin M- M for motivation. So that is your
checklist for starting off:
Books/Study Material
Mental Strength
Close ones to provide emotional support.
Once you have ensured that you have these prerequisites, start off on a
high note. Study religiously, become mad, become passionate and believe
me nothing will stop you from becoming an officer.
All the best!

6: ALL ABOUT TEST

SERIES
As I was relying mainly on self-study, evaluating my performance regularly
was critical. I wanted to be sure of the fact that I was on the right track. Test
series were a big help in this. I wrote some 30 Mains tests, 60 mock for
Prelims and 6 mock interviews. And I can easily say that my 300+ marks in
optional and 130+ in Prelims (Paper I) were owing to mock test.
Here is a stage-wise mention of test series that I subscribed to.
Prelims: I personally feel that Prelims is the most unpredictable and hence
the most difficult stage of the exam. No matter how much you do research on
ASTROSAT or BRICS, the questions will be posed from an area you
wouldn’t have even heard of. I remember in 2016 CSE Prelims, one of the
options had weight of ASTROSAT. I bet no candidate would have read it in
any of the magazines/booklets.
Apart from that, the options are so close that confusion is unavoidable- (1)
and (2) are correct, all are correct, (2) and (3) are correct. The options are so
confusing that after sometime you just want to get done with the exam by
marking any answer choice.
To make thing worse for a candidate, questions are framed in such a way that
if you skip one word , you pay up through negative marks! “Which of the
following is incorrect” is often read as “Which of the following is correct?”
Given the quantum of confusion, even the most studious of the students fail
to do well in multiple choice question format. There have been many toppers
(Rank 1, 2, 3) who have scored just qualifying marks in Prelims and managed
to top the list. It is well understood also. Some of us have better writing skills
than skills requiring memorising facts.

Test Series are very instrumental in such cases. They condition your mind to
“guess” in the correct way. They are helpful in letting you know which
choice to eliminate. You might say why use such techniques when you can
instead study. Let me tell you, no one in the exam hall knows answers to
more than 50-60 questions with 100% confidence. But merely attempting 50
questions will not get you through. Also, there are some ambiguous questions
of history or current affairs that have confusing answers. Thus, taking guesses
is a dire necessity. You should attempt 85-90 questions to be certain of
sailing through the very first stage.
For Prelims, I would strongly recommend Vision IAS Full Test Series (not
subject-wise) and daily Insight IAS MCQs on current affairs. Also, Previous
5 years questions are a must. I must mention here that it might happen that
not a single question from these sources will feature in the actual exam. Yes,
not even one. And given the 2017 and 2018 Prelims paper, a lot may agree
that no question that coaching tests ask are asked in the actual exam. But the
purpose of making you solve the mock tests is to learn the “art” of attempting
MCQs. So that you do not miss out on important words in the question, you
minimise confusion in selecting option and lastly develop the confidence to
attempt a minimum number of questions.
However, please remember that these test scores are in no way a reflection of
your marks in the actual Prelims. In no mock test did I score more than 100.
None. But as I mentioned before, I scored a respectable 130+ in the actual
exam. Moral of the story- these tests only teach you how to attempt
questions.
But here I must mention that do not believe tall claims of coaching saying
60/100 questions were from their test series blah blah blah. They claim in the
following way- let us say there was a question in Prelims on PM Khanij
Kalyan Yojana’s mandate in Left Wing Extremism areas and one of the
question in a test series had question on the scheme which asked about
DMF’s chairman. Both are questions of same scheme but completely un-
related.
Mains: Mains is primarily about how well you write. In an answer, following
are the components:
● Content 30%
● Presentation 70%

If you write an answer with proper indentation, underlining the important

words, and drawing flow-chart diagram as and when required, you stand a
good chance to score. Also, attempt all questions in Mains paper. No matter
how good an answer you write, you stand to score no more than 5-6 on 10.
But if you write an average answer knowing little bit, you can score a 4. So
let us analyse two scenarios:
Scenario I:
Attempted Questions: 15
Average attempted questions: 10
Very well attempted questions: 5
Score: 10x4 + 5x5.5 = 67.5
Scenario II:
Attempted Questions: All (20)
Average attempted questions: 17
Very Well attempted questions: 3
Total Score: 17x4 + 3x5.5= 84.5
So you see a difference of 17 marks! This is immense. Even one mark counts
in UPSC civil Services Examination. The time that you spend on writing
brilliant 5 answers can be divided into writing 5 average answers and 3
brilliant answers.
For Mains, I would strongly recommend VISION IAS Test Series. Again Full
test, not subject-wise. They have a set of 8 tests (2 sets). Apart from this, also
write previous year paper. Let us say you are to appear in 2019 then write
2018 papers.
Caution:A test rewards only when it is written in real exam like conditions.
If you write it in coaching, write with sufficient preparation. And in stipulated
time frame. If you’re an online test series student, arrange for A4 papers,
make margins of same space as the actual ones, and write non-stop for three
hours without getting up even once.
I was an online student of vision test series and I had taken a print of answer
copy format and got it photocopy to make a near replica of actual exam
sheets. This is important because sheet filling up gives an estimate of word

limit. For a 10 marks answer, you must fill up 3 sides of papers.

I would also suggest writing two tests on same day with a break of two hours
in between. This is how the actual Mains exam schedule is like. So it builds
your stamina and your brain is also trained to think in “those” hours only.
Mock Interviews: As mentioned before, I moved to Delhi for my interview
preparation. Mocks at the following institites is what I would recommend:
Vajiram – 2 (They also have classes for a week to brush you up. Found it
helpful).
Sriram – 1
Chanakya-1 (They give a DVD recording of your mock, so it is easy to
correct your mistake).
No more than 5 mocks are required. See, you cannot overhaul your
personality. Also, you don’t have to please the board. They are not your in-
laws. It is a very professional setting where no one means any harm.
Mock interviews are helpful in polishing your communication skill, helping
you understand the significance of body language and tactfully avoiding
controversial questions. Mocks also give you a list of questions that can be
asked from your DAF. The more number of mocks you attend, the more
predictable your interview becomes. You are mentally prepared to answer
almost any question from your DAF.
In a sum, test series at every stage are a great yardstick to measure your
performance. These scores are in no way a replica of marks you would score
in the actual exam but certainly guide you in terms of whether your
preparation is on the track or not.

7: HOW TO REVISE
You might have seen many aspirants who have a lot of knowledge, have read
10 times more books than anyone else. But still they have been living in ORN
and not LBSNAA (Mussoorie). The missing quality is that they do not revise.
I remember when I first went to ORN in March 2017 to Vajiram for mock
interview registration. Firstly, I was overwhelmed with the sea of people. I
had not stepped out of Lucknow for more than a year. For a year, I was only
seeing three faces each day- mummy, domestic help, my pet dog. The sudden
crowd made me nervous. What was worse was at the registration desk,
students were discussing topics I had only heard names of. During that time
DRS technique in Indo-Aus cricket tournament was in buzz. I only had
cursory knowledge about it but I over-heard students discussing so much in
depth.
The problem lies here. This exam is not a test of how much you know but
how well you can apply what you know. Let us say you know ------------. But
what you are actually able to recollect and write in the exam is –-. Then what
is the point of knowing so much? The best way to apply what you know is to
revise what you have read. Instead of reading 100 books, read only 10 ten
books but from cover to cover multiple times. You should know everything
word by word. In Polity, one of my fellow aspirants had read DD Basu as
well as Laxmikanth, but I remember her words after Prelims- “I made a silly
mistake in the Lok Sabha waala question”. The silly mistake here was caused
due to lack of revision. What’s the point of reading multiple books when you
are not sure of the content of even one book?
I remember that I would have revised Laxmikanth 12-13 times before
Prelims. Every time I would read, I would find some new information. This
was particularly true for chapter 22 on Parliament. I would recommend
solving Vision IAS Polity test papers. They are easily available at Flavido
(online) or offline shops in ORN but a little later than their online version.
Questions in the actual exam are way easier than them but they are useful in

revising.
Revision of minute details is important for Prelims. Mains, on the other hand,
requires application of knowledge. But both require revision.
Revision Tactics:
(1) Make Notes: It is also mentioned in ancient texts that the more the
number of senses used in memorising a fact, the easier it becomes to
recollect. If you read something and then make notes, your hands, brain and
eyes are all at work. You can also speak while writing, this will further
increase your retention capacity.
However, time is a consideration. Do not copy everything from the textbook
or newspaper. First read it, then understand it and finally write it down in
simpler language without compromising on important details. This way you
ensure that when revising, you do not have to open the big books again or
you do not miss out on important facts. This is a one time exercise that saves
you a lot of time in revision.
(2) Revise before going to bed: This secret was unveiled to me only after I
tried doing it. In early days of preparation, sleep would hardly come by. The
mind is full of thoughts and anxiety about result. “Have I studied enough
today?” “Am I studying in the right way?” “How will I get through?” These
kind of thoughts are common. However, what is uncommon is how you deal
with them. If you let them make a place in your head, they stay forever and
you are always worried. Worries impact your performance. You are never
able to completely focus on studies.
SO the best way to get off these things from your head is to mentally revise
what you have read over the day. Of course you will not be able to revise
with finer details. It is obvious since you are tired and partly drowsy too.
Don’t bother much. The purpose of this exercise is two fold: firstly to keep
negative thoughts and anxiety at bay and secondly to revise the content you
read on day to day basis.
I say it out of personal experience that things I revised before sleeping stayed
longer in the head. Because then those facts are slipped into sub-conscious
mind.

(3) Talk to yourself: This might seem a little stupid at first but it works.
Here’s how: let us say you studied about Kakatiya kingdom someday. Then
ask questions about them to yourself: Yaar why did they focus on irrigation
so much? Then answer yourself from what you have read in simpler words.
You can speak to yourself in any language but it is advisable to say in the
same language in which you are going to write the exam.
This really works and the logic behind is- when you explain something, you
do it in a very simple format and once a thing is simple it is very easy to
understand. A fact that is understood need not be mugged up. Mugged up
things are forgotten, understood facts stay intact longer.
This sums up your revision strategy. Please realise that if you read one thing
over and over again, you will be able to use the information in many forms.
Your application ability increases. In Mains, answers also require your
opinion. You can develop your own opinion only if you can apply
knowledge. For example, if you are well-versed with powers of Home
Ministry in Union territories and NCT Delhi, you can easily answer questions
on stand-offs between state government and LG s- a very common question
in GS II.
But if you do not even know what is the jurisdiction of State Government.
Merely your opinions do not matter.
Therefore, read and revise.

8: ON THE DAY OF
PRELIMS
Finally the day is here. You have worked tremendously hard for this day to
come and it is here. This chapter will tell you what to do and what to avoid
on the D-day.
The night before:
The night before, please sleep early. Have proper 7-8 hours of sleep. Keep
your admit card, ID proof, Black ball pen in a pouch or box. Also, please do
ensure that you have visited your exam centre before. Do not depend merely
on Google Maps. In 2018 there was a case of an aspirant committing suicide
because he was not allowed to enter the exam hall as he was late. His only
fault was that he reached at a centre which had the same name as his actual
one. Please do not leave anything to chance. Some weeks before, go for a
leisure drive and just see the centre once. Also, confirm that there is no other
centre of that name.
The morning:
Wake up after a good sleep. Get ready. Eat well. Avoid anything oily as it
can make you drowsy but at the same time do not eat too light that you feel
hungry in the midst of exam. Also, pack something to eat for break. The two
hour break is considerable time and after the stressful paper I, hunger
becomes aggravated. I remember that my head started to ache after paper I
due to heat. Thankfully my mother had packed banana and paratha for the
break that relieved me. DO not depend on shops around the centre. It mostly
happens that centres are located in far off places with little amenities. Please
get snacks with yourself.
If you are living all on your own, prepare a night in advance. Buy banana,
grapes, maggi or bread for the breakfast and keep some fruits and snacks for
the break. One day binging will not make you fat but one day of dieting can

cost you your exam. So no experimenting.

Apart from this, repeat 10 times to yourself:
“I’m confident I will crack Prelims today. I have studied hard. I will do
well”.
Remember your mind can be programmed. If you continuously tell it of your
failures, your weaknesses, you will become more weak. But if you feed
positive thoughts, you will get all that you want. In fact, you can repeat this
exercise every night before going to sleep.
For paper I:
In first round, attempt all the questions you know with cent percent
confidence. This also includes questions for which you eliminate 2 options
and are left with only 2 choices. Do attempt such questions. The probability
of them going wrong is equal to that of being correct- 50% each. But if you
get it right you get 2 marks while a wrong will only deduct 0.67 marks.
While you are marking answer choices in the paper, mark them on the OMR
simultaneously after first round. Some say that you must mark answer in
OMR sheet all in the last but I suggest differently based on my experience. I
marked one answer wrong in the OMR sheet while marking it correct in the
paper. I did it in hurry. Such silly yet costly mistakes can best be avoided by
marking answers in OMR after you have gone through round 1. This also
gives you a fair idea of how many questions you have attempted.
In next round, focus on questions in which you can eliminate at least one
option. There will be some question that will “seem” right to you. If you have
any idea about, go for it. UPSC tests your common sense too. It wants to see
how well you perform in limited time with limited knowledge. Your target
should be to attempt between 80-90 questions.
For questions that seem outright difficult and all the options are confusing,
leave them altogether. Remember you don’t have to top Prelims exam. These
marks don’t determine your rank. SO why take high-risk.
Also, if you think the paper is tough, stay cool. If it’s tough for you as a
candidate who has prepared thoroughly, then it will be the same for all. A
tough paper means less cut-off.

Break time
Do NOT discuss the question paper in this time. With absolutely no one. You
can sit in a calm place, eat your food and close your eyes. Whatever had to
happen, happened. You can do nothing about it. But by worrying, you risk
your paper II. Let us say, you are getting cut-off+1 in Paper I but you think
you will not get through and as a result do not perform well enough in paper
II. As a result, you will not sail through prelims despite getting through Paper
I cut off. Stay relaxed. You can call up someone close to you in this time and
talk for a brief while. I remember I rang up Bhavesh and my mother. They
did ask how was the paper but all I answered was “ho gaya”. Nothing else.
Why discuss right now. 40% of the game still remains.
For Paper II:
As you know, Paper II is qualifying where you just have to score 33% marks.
80 questions of 2 marks each. So 33% means 53 marks which means at least
27 questions done correct. But don’t bother about these calculations while in
the exam. Attempt all the questions you can. English/Reading comprehension
of CSAT are sometime dubious. So don’t bank on them completely. Attempt
as many as you can and leave the rest. 50 questions are a good attempt.
Again remember, no need to ace the exam. You will not top this exam by
attempting 80 questions. It’s merely qualifying.
After exam:
Now that the hurdle is over, collect all your belongings and head back
straight home/room/PG. First thing to do is to sit calmly and match answer
keys. By the time you reach home, coaching institutes would have already
published it. I would suggest visit Neo-Stencil answer key and Vision IAS.
Some questions may have ambiguous answers. Mark them wrong for
yourself. Underestimation of marks is a good exercise. It leaves you
pleasantly surprised.
Match your answers from at least two keys. You will get a near certain score.
In my second attempt, I matched in the range of 130-140.
The night of the Prelims exams, just relax. If you are sailing through, please
reward yourself for all the months (probably years) of hard work. I went to
dinner with my family when I sailed through in my second attempt. You

might consider it a waste of time and money. But believe me it is very

rewarding. You need to unwind in order to avoid burnout. It was the first
time I had stepped out of my home in 8 months since December 2016. My
only trips out of home were to write tests in a coaching institute nearby.
Now coming to scenario II where, god forbid, you did not make through the
cut off. Please relax. You can cry. But a bit. I understand the feeling. It dawns
upon you that you are a failure. I failed to crack the Prelims in my first
attempt. I felt like a loser. I cried a lot. In fact I was all ready to never give
another attempt. I wrote Prelims on 23rd August 2015 and did not study a
word till October. I made all kind of excuses- the exam is not meant for
intelligent people like me, it’s meant for average ones. So on and so forth.
The cribbing did not help me any bit though. In October I did a reality check.
And realised what went wrong. I had not revised sufficiently. Also, I had not
even covered the entire syllabus- all perfect ingredients for a disaster. So for
those who have not cracked it, please analyse what went wrong.
A mistake made twice is a decision. If you keep doing the same mistake and
want different result then you are being foolish. Take a step back, work on
your faults and remember it’s just an exam.

9: WHEN THE GOING GETS

TOUGH!
Although the three stages of the exam are very different from each other,
there is a common factor in all the three- self-doubt. We doubt our abilities to
make it to the coveted list. We doubt our capability to learn and remember
Laxmikanth. We doubt our stamina to attempt all questions of GS.
But please do not. Don’t doubt yourself. You must be seeing that some
successful candidates have put in years of hard work to become an officer.
And still there are officers who got through in their very first attempt. The
difference between them is the former was over-thinking while the latter was
merely minding his business. When you over-think, you give way to negative
thoughts and consequently doubt yourself. Whereas the other breed just does
their work in the best possible way and leaves the rest. They do not bother
about results.
I’m not saying that you be confident even without making efforts. That would
be foolish. But, have faith in yourself, work hard and don’t dwell upon results
too much. Confidence is the key in the examination. Let us take example of
Prelims. If you have not studied Laxmikanth, then you will be unsure about
most, if not all, of the Polity questions. In this uncertainty, you will either
attempt the question wrong or will leave it unattempted. Getting the question
right is also a third probability. But why leave things to luck?
By the same token, you must focus on building up your knowledge and then
delivering. That’s it. Your job ends there. You do not have to think what will
happen next.
This exam is a test of your patience. The year long process from Prelims upto
results is bound to make you anxious. But do not give into anxiety. I
remember on 2nd February 2017, IFoS Mains results were announced. I had
missed the cut-off by 4 marks and scored a dismal 29/200 in Geology Paper I.

These scores of course I got to know later but the very fact that I had not
made it to IFoS mains made me miserable. Civil Services results were yet to
be announced. The first thought that came to my mind was- “Jab isme nahin
hua toh IAS mein kaise hoga? (If I couldn’t even sail through IFoS then how
will I sail through IAS?”)
I believed IFoS was an easier exam than Civils. I might be right or wrong but
I failed to see that I had not prepared well for IFoS but I did for Civils. Thus
doubting my results was irrational. It’s like preparing for marathon and not
being able to run sprint. And thus judging your running capability.
Similarly, too much confidence is bad too. It makes you work less, think
more and again leading to disaster. In my interview preparation, I thought it
to be a mere test of English. Having read rather diligently all my life, I’m
fairly comfortable communicating in English. Hence I thought it would be a
cake walk.
Somehow the mock interviews also appreciated my English skills. But little
did I know that UPSC interview, unlike any other job interview, is least
concerned with your vocabulary. All they look for is an honest, diligent
person with integrity. Of course, I do possess the afore mentioned virtues.
But what is required is also a deep knowledge of your DAF topics.
My interview started with questions on my course at LSE. I could not answer.
Bad start. I scored 179/275 in the interview. It was an average score given
our year’s result. But now when I retrospect, I realise it was my over-
confidence in English Language skill that prevented me from preparing my
DAF thoroughly. I was living in La La land. I was over-confident.
A case of balanced anxiety is my husband dearest. Bhavesh, until 2015, did
not have very advanced English speaking skills. (Now of course he is very
fluent given that we managed our initial months in Telangana in English
only). He was worried that his interview would be a dull affair given his
limited or not so hi-fi skills. It was this doubt that made him work tirelessly
hard for his interview. He did not lose sleep over something on which he has
little control- his English accent. But he worked upon his DAF, job profile,
work experience etc. And he scored a brilliant 209/275 in the interview.
Please don’t ever let your weaknesses becomes a hurdle in the exam. No one

can make you feel inferior without your permission.

10: PREPARATION IN
COLLEGE
It is really welcoming to see so many aspirants wanting to prepare for civil
services right in college years (and some even before). It is never too late to
start preparing for civil services. Rank 1 in 2014 batch, Gaurav Agrawal,
started preparation at the age of 28 (the maximum age for General Candidate
is 32 years). So it's never too late for anything good that you aim to achieve.
However, I do think that if you are serious about preparation then college is
the right time to start. The average age of my 92nd Foundation Course at
LBSNAA batch was 28 years and I had joined the Foundation Course at
27years. So that does mean that while there were many oldies, there also
were many young people who knew what they wanted from the early start.
Also, with the frequent change in pattern, it becomes essential that you get
done away with the exam at the earliest. But the frequent change also means
that if you are too young, let us say a class 10th student, then preparing current
affairs is meaningless. The news then will be of no relevance 7 years down
the line. Also, the pattern might have witnessed an overhaul by the time you
write your exam.
But at the same time you must know the trade off and the extent to which you
should be doing the trading off. The first and the most important thing that
you must realise is that civil service preparation does not mean compromising
your college grades or sacrificing the fun element of your college life. A lot
of aspirants I know have missed out on the prime things in college years just
because they were "sincere" for their preparation. That's not an excuse.
I don't suggest that you spend nights partying. Some effort is required but not
solely focussing on Civil Services Preparation. If you have poor college
grades then it might pose a challenge to you in UPSC interview. Whereas a
good CPI automatically puts you in good books of the interview board. I have

two examples- Bhavesh got a 209 in interview partly because he could

impress upon the board his sincerity. He was department rank 2 with a 9+
CPI in IIT Delhi. Second example is of Anmol Sher Singh Bedi, my batch
mate and more popularly known as Rank 2 (CSE 2016). He was a 9 pointer
in BITS Pilani and resultantly scored a 206 in interview. I do admit that your
grades in college are not the only determining factor for UPSC interview but
it certainly is one essential component.
Let us plan our college studies year by year so that you know if your efforts
are in the right direction:
First year (and second too if your degree is a four year course)-
Please have fun in this year. Understand your college degree. It is a transition
phase. Stay in the present. Focus on your studies in the first year. But at the
same time do read newspaper every day. You should not give up on your
reading habits. And if you do not have any hobby, then you must develop
one. Having an interest in reading proves instrumental in your bid to become
a civil servant. Believe me learning and reading will not stop even when you
become the top most bureaucrat. Here I am one year old in the service
already and I am busy learning Telugu. Therefore, never think of learning as
a one time activity. It is a life long process.
Third year or penultimate year-
Now we are slowly nearing your run up to the year when you will be actually
writing the examination. In your penultimate year of graduation, make sure
that you read your NCERTs by heart. Dedicate at least 6 hours a week to
complete them by the time you move to final year. The subjects of
Geography, History and Art and Culture are only basic ones. You perhaps
might finish it in one weekend if you sit for 16-18 hours straight.
You must also make notes. By the time you will appear for the exam, it will
be two years already from the day you first read NCERTs. The facts
succumbing to oblivion is a likelihood. So why waste all the effort that you
had put in?
Instead, you must study a chapter, mark the important points and then make
notes in such a form that you simplify the content. Remember the objective
of note making is not to make you repeat the content in writing. But you must

read, then understand and finally pen it down in your own words. You should
take down only the important details and not everything that is written.
The target for this year should be to read all NCERTs, make notes of the
same and be able to revise them at least thrice. There are questions given at
the back of each chapter. You must solve the objective ones. For answer
writing questions, you must practice writing each answer in 120-150 words.
That would be roughly one and a half the size of A4 sheets.
And as mentioned before, newspaper reading has to go on. This is imperative.
You might miss on some days like when college exams are on or may be a
college fest etc. That is admissible. But make sure you do not miss out on any
important piece of news. Don’t miss reading newspaper 10-12 days at a
stretch. In that case you risk not reading some important news piece.
However, at this stage you need not make notes of current affairs. Also, no
need to read Vision current affairs magazine etc. Just remain focussed on
your goal.
Additionally, you must have a look at all previous five years question papers
- Prelims as well as mains. Previous question papers will have a
psychological impact on you. If you do not know a question, you will study
more and not feel over confident. And if you know an answer, you will feel
pumped up and motivated that would push you to perform even better.
By this time, you might also discover some like-minded college batch mates
who would be preparing as well. Make a WhatsApp group with them and
discuss what are they upto. You need not study together. (Most of the college
group study plans end up with endless watching of web series). But someone
else might be more updated than you are and can do considerable value
addition. However, do not panic. Don’t think someone has better English
than you so you will fail while the other would succeed. Also, do not show-
off just because you happen to read something and others could not.
Now let us move to the final year.
Final Year-
You have now inched very close to the moment of truth. This year your
college study pressure would be less. So make the most of the idle time. You
must try to finish the books prescribed apart from NCERTs this year. These

include the likes of G C Leong, Laxmikanth, and Shankar Environment etc

(refer to the previous chapters on book list and revision). You should also
start with Vision IAS magazines this year. Also, daily Insights current affairs
quiz. However, as a relaxation, you need not do much of answer-writing this
year. Once you sail through Prelims, you will get enough time for Mains.
In this year you also have to decide your optional and start reading the
material. You should have read your optional content completely once before
you graduate.
Before the placement season starts, ensure that you have checked your level
of preparation. Also, I would suggest that irrespective of the preparation
level, you do sit for placements. A job offer in hand should give you some
peace of mind. However, it should not make you complacent. Remember, it
is just a backup and not your ultimate goal. By the time you will graduate,
you would have already written your Prelims. And if you are sailing through
Prelims then do not join the job. Prepare hard for Mains. As simple as that.
Now I do realise that some of you might be under the age of 21 and hence not
eligible to take the exam in the same year of passing out. In that case, skip
placements and dedicate one year whole-heartedly to civil services
preparation. You can also join a coaching if you are unable to cope up with
the transition of college to sitting at home. But this year is a vanavaas (exile).
You need not know what your friends are upto. You need not get distracted
by your college crush. You should not think of doing an MBA as “back-up”.
Nothing else matters and everything else can wait.
The best way to get ahead of others is to start early. You have already taken a
leap of faith by deciding to prepare for civil services at a young age. You are
miles ahead of many others. However, you have to strike a balance of not
letting your college life suffer. Also, by the time you are nearing graduation,
you should be sorted on time management, optional and content.
You will graduate in May/June and if you have turned 21 already then you
can write Prelims at the start of your final year itself. Let us say you turned
21 on May 2018 and you are supposed to graduate in May 2019. Then you
can write Prelims in June 2019 and Mains in October 2019. UPSC interview
stage requires you to have your graduation degree- expected(provisional)

works too.
Your early start will reap benefits. While your peers would be talking of
MBA and CTC, you would be handling floods, naxals and NITI Aayog!
Think big, start today.

11: DELHI - TO D OR NOT

TO D
After I had resigned, my biggest doubt was not in my capabilities but in my
city from where I was preparing- Lucknow. I was so blinded by success
stories of others that I was led into believing that only Delhi has the ability to
make an IAS. I had little faith in my own abilities. I was of the opinion that
only coaching messiahs in the by lanes of ORN can save my ship from
meeting a Titanic like fate. Interestingly enough, all the selected candidates I
had known have prepared from the country’s capital city. My hometown has
few success stories and as a result, is less inspiring. Now when I look in
hindsight, I realise I cannot be any more wrong.
So now you can ask- if I was so dull about preparing in Lucknow then what
led me into ultimately “settling” for the lesser town over Dilli. Well, in one
word- my own comforts. When I was all ready to walk over my mom’s
emotional appeal- Padhai toh kahin bhi ho sakti hai, dekho apne Papa ko
(One can study anywhere, learn from your father)- I spoke with a friend
preparing in Dilli. It was nothing I wanted to hear. She had been preparing
for over two years now. She narrated her struggle which sounded no less than
a horror tale to me. Doing your own laundry, eating road-side tiffin is
nightmarish to me. The very thought of entertaining a maid’s tantrums was
enough to make me unpack my luggage. I stayed back.
But as they say, mothers will be mothers. Mummy insisted I join a coaching
here in Lucknow. I initially rubbished the suggestion since I thought only the
Dilli- waalas as competent enough to teach me. Talk about over-confidence.
However, I learnt the lesson after wasting a good month. Here I must
emphasize that I was working on a tight schedule. I had resigned in January
2016 and had to resume working in January 2017. The thought of sitting at
home merely to “prepare” for an exam for more than a year was disturbing. I,

as a former consulting professional, viewed it as a disaster to one’s career.

Hence in such deadlines, one month is a dear price to lose. In this one month
I followed no time-table. Also, I would fall asleep very often. Studying was
also at a speed lower than what I was pacing when working. In short, a
complete recipe for disaster.
It was only in February did I write a free test by Dhyey coaching in
Lucknow. I stood in the bottom quarters. It was an eye-opener. And another
jolt to my over-confidence. I then enrolled at the classes for GS in the
coaching. I however was not satisfied with the pace of the classes. I did not
have the luxury of time and consequently cannot afford to sit in a Geography
class explaining latitudes and longitudes. Therefore I never attended the
classes after that. I, however, went to the coaching institute every day. I
would sit in the empty classrooms every day and study. The schedule was
from 8:30 to 2:00. At 2:00 I would head back home for lunch and be back in
the same classroom for another 3 hours stint up till 6. In the start, it was too
much to take. I would feel drowsy, hungry, and every other feelings would
creep in that would distract me from studying at a stretch. But within 2 weeks
it became a habit. The non AC rooms also became too hot with start of March
and hence sleep was a remote possibility. Hunger too was subsided with
water.
I will talk about my schedule in later chapter. Here let us focus on why Delhi
or any other city is not a factor in your success if you yourself are not willing
to work tirelessly. Delhi is no guarantee to success. The city does ensure that
you get resources- books, classes- all at one place. But the bitter truth about
this exam is that UPSC is not only about books and resources. There is more
to the game, which I feel Delhi fails to give. Commercialisation of food and
accommodation makes rent, maid, landlord a perpetual headache. Peace of
mind goes missing and so does the ability to concentrate.
Decide for yourself, how you can focus in class when you’re bothered about
a nasty room-mate. Or how will you stay healthy all year long by gorging on
unhygienic road-side tiffins. Still for girls, attending late evening classes is
risky as Delhi poses security threats. Some may argue that it’s a pessimistic
point of view. But I beg to differ, it’s a practical view point. Unless and until
your creature comforts are taken care of, focusing and excelling in a
competitive exam is a tough nut to crack.

Also, Delhi or any city is no longer the “exclusive” study material hub.
Today most of the resources are online. I banked heavily on internet to get
study materials couriered to Lucknow. Online bookstores have most, if not
all, of the popular courses. I bought Ethics booklet by GS Score. I did not
quite read it but was mentally at peace that I am not missing out on anything
in comparison to someone preparing in the capital. Vision IAS current affairs
magazine is readily available on their website. Any other current affairs
magazine is not required.
Another trend that I found disturbing among aspirants is to return to their
hometown after classes are over. This change in surrounding is not what I, as
an aspirant, would have liked. And I understand that students do not do it out
of choice.
Delhi’s ORN is a big debt in terms of money. Accommodation, food,
transportation and miscellaneous expenses sum up to perhaps three years of
your IAS salary! Hence the obvious choice of aspirants to return to home.
But this is catastrophic. Two outcomes are expected when you go home-
either you fail in your immediate attempt and give up the civil services dream
altogether or you return to Delhi thinking more “coaching” is required. Only
a handful are able to cope up with environment change. I moved to Noida
only after my Mains for mock interviews. And believe me I could barely
focus in my new house. We are not to be blamed, human psychology is such.
As a relatively veteran, I would recommend to stay in Delhi if your pockets
and expenses (and parents) allow. Or in other case move to your
hometown/home only after Mains. To talk of Bhavesh’s case, he completed
his coaching from November to July but continued to put up in ORN. It was
only after writing Mains that he moved to Gurgaon since he joined back the
same job he had once left.
28th March 2017 was my UPSC interview and on 30th March I was heading to
Lucknow (29th March was medical exam, as most of you know the day after
interview has your medical test scheduled). I was not sure of my rank
(although I knew I would feature at some rank in the coveted list) so had to
resume studies and The Hindu’s juggernaut. I just partied one night with my
friends in Noida and from 30th, my study table was my world.
To put things in black and white, moving to Delhi is not a solution. It

certainly provides you the right guidance but it is in the case you do not have
a proper one available in your city or over phone or internet. I was fortunate
that Bhavesh was my mentor who would be available at single phone call to
sort me. I understand not everyone might have a mentor. In that case, resort
to online resources. There are many blogs by successful officers which will
answer your query. You can also visit Bhavesh and my blog at:
www.iasjourneyandbeyond.com
Nothing can stop you if you have mentally prepared yourself to achieve
something. See only your goal. Nothing else matters, everything else can
wait. Delhi or not, your success depends on you!

12: PREPARING WHILE

WORKING IN A JOB-
BHAVESH MISHRA
It's already 8 PM and you have just returned home after a tiring day at office
and all you want to do is to have dinner and hit the bed ... However, you also
know that you have not read today's newspaper and have to cover 2 chapters
of modern history as well. Your mind constantly wrestles with these two polar
opposite thoughts...
The above gives you a glimpse of an ordinary day in the life an aspirant who
is preparing alongside a job. Managing preparation with job is no easy task
and it calls for a lot of discipline and hard work. It's not uncommon to find
aspirants preparing for last 2-3 years and failing to clear even the prelim stage
of exam, which further enforces the idea against preparation while in job.
I too did a fair share of my UPSC preparation along with my job and I can
say that it's not an impossible task. It's comparatively easier to prepare if you
are in Government Job as compared to private sector job. However, I was in a
private sector job with an average 10+ hours of working time.
I used to leave for office at 8:30 A.M. and come back at 8 P.M (sometimes
even late). My office was located 2.5 km away from my residence (a 1 room
PG). So the only time in my hands for preparation was from 8 in the night to
8 in the morning. Even then I could manage 5+ hours every day by using
some smart techniques.
I used to have my dinner, breakfast while watching RSTV debates or
listening to AIR Spotlight. I never used to wait for physical newspaper.

The golden mantra is to utilize your time to the maximum extent. I always
used to read PDF files and listen to audio recordings while travelling in cab
or metro. You have to resist the temptation of attending office parties or
hanging out on weekends. Weekends provide the best time for preparation
and the goal should be to maximise the outcomes during these 2 days. One
should try to devote at least 12+ hours on these days.
The following things should be kept in mind while you are preparing
alongside your job.
How much you should study?

If you are able to study 4-5 hours every day and 10+ hours on weekends, then
it should suffice. Thus anything above 40+ hours per week provides you good
time to cover both- optional as well as GS. More than quantity, it's the quality
of hours that matter. It's easy to set an ambitious target of reading 16 hours on
weekends but in all practicality it would be impossible to stick to this regime
for more than one day. Always set realistic goals and be consistent in meeting
these goals.
Have a long term plan

If you have started your preparation in 2018 then you should ideally target
2020 attempt instead of 2019 attempt. Having a two year horizon gives you
sufficient room to study at a gradual pace and develop a holistic
understanding of relevant issues. One year of preparation would probably not
suffice if you are starting from scratch. It's better to devote first year towards
strengthening your basics and thereafter going full throttle with test series and
constant evaluation.
Having a short time frame is akin to be running on a treadmill with no time to

think and analyse. This leaves lot of lacunae in your preparation leading to
unsuccessful attempts in prelim stage itself. Nothing can be more moral
dampener than not being able to clear Prelim exam multiple times.
Time is the premium

Unlike students who are preparing full time for this exam, you don't have the
luxury of wasting even 1 hour every day. A simple calculation would prove
this point. Let's say you are spending 1 hour every day for non-study related
activities (phone call, browsing internet, WhatsApp chat etc.), then in 1 year
it amounts to 365 hours which means 30 days of 12 study hours each. So 1
hour extra equals 1 month of study time! You have to plan your day in a way
that you are able to extract maximum out of every moment. Always carry
PDF files, audio and video files in your phone and go through them whenever
possible. As shown in the calculation above, even 10 minutes of extra time
per day gives you 60 hours in 1 year. You will be surprised to see the
increase in your productivity once you start looking for small gaps in your
daily routine that you can effectively channelize towards study.
1-1-1 strategy
Since you already have a time crunch, therefore, restrict your sphere of study
resources to a bare minimum. Read only 1 newspaper, 1 online resource and
study only 1 credible textbook/notes for any subject. If you start chasing
resources and referring multiple textbooks, then even after one year of
preparation, your actual progress would be very less and you would lack
confidence to appear for your prelim examination. As elucidated in the
Revision Chapter, you must try to read a single resource ten times rather than
ten resources only one time.
Simpler optional yield better results

It's difficult to prepare with Engineering and Science optional with job. These
optionals are time intensive and require at least 3-4 hours of preparation per
day for about 1.5 years which means that you would be hardly left with any
time for other subjects.
Since my optional subject was Mathematics therefore I had to leave my job to
prepare it thoroughly. If you are just starting with your preparation alongside
job, then my advice would be to go for humanities subject like Sociology,
Political Science or Anthropology.
Grass always looks greener on the other side

Aspirants preparing along with job always harbour this feeling that students
who are preparing 24x7 have a far greater chance of clearing the exam than
them. Since I have been on both sides of the table, let me assure that once
you leave your job, the boredom of doing nothing productive in life strikes
soon and students sitting at home always crave for doing something
meaningful in life. There can be nothing worse than depending on your
savings or on your parents' income at an age where should have been
financially independent. The importance of getting salary at the end of every
month can't be overstated.
Talking in terms of learning levels, once you are through with your basics
and optionals, then the daily increment in your knowledge soon hits an
asymptote and you no longer require ten hours of study per day. After giving
my mains, I soon found out that there was not much value addition and I
longed for getting a job. Soon I joined my earlier company and even with less
number of hours that I had per day for studies, I found myself more
productive. I became more alert and focussed.
Age is just a number

Many working aspirants are constantly worried about being a late entrant in
civil services. The problem is acute with aspirants who have crossed 25 years
of age. One should remember the fact that the average age of entry into the
civil services has been around 28 years. Many top rankers in the past were
well past even this average age. Civil Services offers you a long career and
even if you enter the service when you have crossed 30 years, you still have
30 years in store which is more than enough to bring a positive change in the
lives of millions.

13: ONLINE RESOURCES

FOR PREPARATION
I prepared without any coaching class or moving to Delhi. My friend circle
also had no civil service aspirant. In a sum, I had no like minded
environment to let me know the latest happening. It was due to this that I
relied heavily on online resources.
With a surge in working professionals, college students, aspirants from tier II
cities appearing for civil services examination, classroom coaching is losing
relevance for many. And fortunately, online resources are proving to be a
good substitute. There are e-magazines, All India Radio, online mock tests
and almost everything that you possibly need for preparation. I relied solely
on online tests and they have proved highly beneficial to me.
Resources for study:
Below is a list of online resources that you can access to augment your
standard text books and newspaper. I have categorised them according to the
different stages of the exam- Prelims, Mains and Interview.
Prelims:
● Insights India: Daily quiz must for current affairs.
● Vision IAS: Current Affairs monthly booklets is the very bread and
butter of the preparation. Online full length test series for Prelims is also very
helpful. Please understand that aim of the test series is not that same
questions get repeated in the actual exam but it trains your mind to take
intuitive guesses.
Mains:
● Vision IAS GS test series: This was really instrumental in my
preparation. It helped me in building stamina. Also helps you to think on your

feet. Ideal time to join would be after Prelims.

● Optional test series: Depending on your optional subject, do join a
pioneer test series for the subject. Online test series work really well.
● Also do refer to YouTube for RSTV Big Picture and Vision IAS
blog on AIR news alert.
Interview:
Apart from regular current affairs apps, you can arrange for a Skype based
mock interview just to get the content correct. Of course your body language
etc. cannot be gauged in a video interview but it can be used as the last resort
of sorts.
Productivity Apps
Smartphones are an important source of learning through online resources.
Apart from using your traditional books, you can make online notes, get news
bytes, maintain time table using several apps. I would recommend you
download the following apps-
Google Keep- An extensive multi-purpose productivity app where you can
set reminders, make to-do lists, store screenshots and collaborate with other
users. I largely used it for reminders and taking small notes etc.
Evernote- This has all the features of Google Keep but I find its interface
better than Keep in terms of note making. Evernote on the other hand is more
suitable for taking extensive notes. An Evernote on iPad or tablet is no less
than a standard text book. Evernote app allows you to take small facts that
you might read when you do not have your notebook around. It also has
better functionality. Let us say you read an e-news clip then you can clip that
article and paste it in your Evernote notebook.
Soundcloud- This app will serve two purposes: de-stressing as you hum some
favourite tune of yours and secondly keep you updated with AIR news alert.
You can download the app (it’s free) and then whether you are traveling in a
metro or have just finished studying for hours, you can simply plug your
earphones and listen to anything that soothes you.
I remember playing “Humsafar (Badrinath Ke Dulhaniya) and Dangal title
track” innumerable times after writing Mains on Soundcloud. You can use
any other music app as well but Soundcloud perhaps is the only one that has

an All India Radio’s channel.

How to attempt online tests
Online test series perhaps are a boon for candidates who cannot relocate to
Delhi (or other Mecca of Civil Services Preparation). I had joined Vision
IAS online test series for GS and Sociology and Elite IAS for Sociology. And
based on my experience, I would highly recommend them.
With reference to how online test series work, here’s a step-wise guide:
After you enrol for a designated test series, you are given login details to
access your student account.
As per the time-table of the test series, the test paper is uploaded on that day
(or may be a day before) on the student portal.
The student can either download the test paper or view it in the portal while
answering questions. I would recommend downloading the question paper
given that any disruption in internet connectivity can be a distraction or be a
drag on time.
The answer to these questions must be written by student in designated time
frame at one go lest the purpose of test series to build endurance stands
defeated. Answer sheet should preferably be A4 sheets. Margin space, much
like actual UPSC sheets, must be spared. Vision IAS also has sample answer
sheet format on its portal. I had downloaded a page of it and would use its
photocopy as my answer sheets for all the subsequent tests.
Once the answer writing is complete, student must scan the answer sheets and
upload them in PDF format using the ear-marked drop-down box. This is a
slightly time consuming part. But this answer sheet uploading etc is after the
three hours when you have completed the exam.
By scan I mean a fair quality picture clicked by camera phones. The images
would be in JPG format and must be then converted to PDF. Several online
JPG/PNG to PDF converters are available online. Once the pages are
converted to PDF, student can merge the PDFs into one document. For this I
would suggest downloading software like PDF Sam instead of merging
online. It saves time and data usage. At times PDF files would exceed the

size limit of coaching portals. In that case, please compress the document by
using softwares like PDF Compressor etc. For those using Mac OS, the
option of converting to PDF is readily available in “Export as” option (not
sure of Windows/Linux).
Once uploaded, the answer copies are visible to the student. Checked answer
copies too are uploaded after some time (usually 8–12 days in case of Vision
IAS). Vision IAS also sends you SMS intimation about the checked copy
being uploaded.
Checked copies should be reviewed by student thoroughly. Copies
have detailed answer-wise feedback. Student can also choose to talk to the
teacher over a phone call.
This might seem a bit tedious but it saves a lot of time when compared to
going to test centres. However, here are some mistakes to be avoided-
1) Clicking poor quality images
2) Wrong arrangement of answer sheets (which are generally loose paper
sheets)
3) Not writing test at one go.
Pitfalls of Online Studying

Now that I have told you in detail about the benefits of online studying, I
must also warn you about its pitfalls. There is a general tendency among
aspirants to do a PhD in a topic of interest. For instance you read about the
maternity bill. You read about it in newspaper, then you go to PRS
Legislature to read the bill detail. You download the Monthly Policy Review.
You made a dedicated folder for bill and acts. By the time you end up
reading, you have a huge folder piled up that you don’t even feel like
reading!
Please do not get into study material binging. Remember two things:
a) You have limited time at your disposal.
b) You do not have to do a PhD. Your aims is to merely get a rank to get your
dream service.

Internet minus social media

All through I have written that internet is your friend, philosopher and guide.
But by internet I mean Internet minus social media. Your Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter etc accounts should be never used. Not until Mains at
least. I used Twitter only when preparing but there also I followed only
government ministries, schemes and other sources of current affairs. You can
use Twitter but not for following Bollywood stars, Cricketers and other
flimsy accounts. Your entertainment dose can wait.
Please be reminded that you should delay your instant gratification. Read
here-
"The Marshmallow Experiment"
A bunch of kindergarten kids were given marshmallows. They were told to
wait for a while and not eat the candy. If they waited for the specified
duration, then they would be given another marshmallow. So they could in
the end have two marshmallows to eat! As expected, most young kids could
not resist the temptation of marshmallow and gave in to their desire for
instant gratification. But some children did exhibit patience and did not eat it.
They did everything to distract themselves from that object of desire.
Years later when these children had grown up to become adults, it was
observed that children who ate the marshmallow are less successful than the
ones who showed self-control and did not eat the marshmallow for a second
one. This of course proves that if you delay instant pleasures and immediate
demand of your senses, then you are more likely to be successful.
Moral of the story is- you must have self control and think of the bigger
picture. Not going for a party or cousin’s wedding today can reward you with
a rank in Top 10 in the civil services examination.
So that’s about using Internet. Remember just like fire can be used to either
cook food or to burn down a house, similarly internet can be used to study
current affairs or to get distracted by Instagram posts.
Happy studying!

14: NEWSPAPER
READING- BHAVESH
MISHRA
Newspaper plays the most pivotal role in UPSC preparation. A student who
has the habit of reading newspaper regularly will be miles ahead of other
aspirants. I too relied heavily on newspaper for my GS, Essay and Interview.
Devoting at least 2-3 hours per day towards reading and revising newspaper
is a good habit which goes a long way in securing excellent marks in all three
stages of the examination. In recent times there is an increasing trend of
asking questions related to events that have taken recently in last one year or
two. This makes reading of newspaper and staying updated all the more
important.
Many students are not regular with newspaper and tend to rely heavily on
current affairs magazines. Monthly magazines and current affairs booklets
can never be a substitute for newspapers. Relying only on them is akin to
watching a short twenty minutes summary of a full length movie. You may
get the idea but you miss the big picture.
For instance, if the Government comes up with an important legislation and if
you are regular with the newspaper then you will be a witness to its entire
journey starting from formulation stage, debate stage and contrasting
opinions from entire spectrum of political parties, civil society, public and
other stakeholders. Thus reading newspaper is an immersive and enlightening
process which magazines can't emulate. Quoting case studies, statistics from
newspaper makes your answers stand apart from thousands of other similar
answers that have drawn content from monthly magazines. I secured one of
the highest marks in Essay (151) and Interview (209) thanks to my habit of
reading newspaper thoroughly and using that knowledge to enhance my
answers.

If you are just starting out with reading newspaper, then initially it may take
up to 3 hours to go through the newspaper once. This is because all the
information that you are coming across will seems new and unheard before.
Slowly things will settle down and most of the news items will start getting
repeated and after few months the time taken to read newspaper would
gradually come down to 1-1.5 hours.
I have seen students reading more than one newspaper during their
preparation; in few cases even three. This is completely avoidable. Always
stick to one newspaper during preparation. Don't get into The Hindu vs.
Indian Express debate. If you are confused between these two newspapers
then try reading both of them for a week and chose the one that suits you
best. Leaving out either The Hindu or Indian Express will not have any
negative impact on your preparation. Never succumb to the idea that by
reading only one newspaper you are missing out on something. Both these
newspapers are equally good and almost all current events that are considered
important from UPSC perspectives get sufficient coverage in both of them.
Also you don't require a separate financial newspaper to cover economy
section. The business section, followed by editorials on economic issues, is
more than enough as far as UPSC is concerned.
Never keep newspaper reading pending for more than a couple of days. If on
some days you have less time then at least try to read from the digital copy of
newspaper. I remember reading the digital version of newspaper at six in the
morning every day.
While reading newspaper, focus on front page, national, editorial,
international and business section only. Unless some very important
development has happened, the events related to politics, specific to
particular state or city, movies and sports are best left after having a cursory
glance.
Also avoid the habit of doing over analysis of items appearing in newspaper.
For instance if there is an article related to RCEP (Regional Comprehensive
Economic Programme) then there is no need to open dozens of article on
your browser trying to assimilate everything at once. At the most, you can
read one article from Wikipedia and some credible website. That's it.

During the course of your preparation, you will definitely come across many
more articles on RCEP which will help you plug whatever little gap was left
after the initial reading. Remember that at the end you will at most get one
question related to a topic for which two hundred words suffice or you may
be asked an opinion based question in your interview for which 1-2 minute of
talk is enough. For this even one article from newspaper will be enough.
Let's have a look at a newspaper article
(https://thehindu.com/news/national/law-commission-favours-simultaneous-
elections/article23578062.ece) published in The Hindu to throw some light
on how to derive maximum advantage from newspapers.
A draft white paper released by the Law Commission of India on Tuesday
recommends holding of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the
Assemblies, possibly in 2019.
It suggests amending the Constitution to realise this objective.
In a public notice annexed to the draft, the commission, which is the
government’s highest law advisory body, said the white paper would be
circulated to “constitutional experts, academia, political parties,
bureaucrats, students, etc.” The commission, headed by former Supreme
Court judge Justice B.S. Chauhan, says opinions and suggestions should
come in by May 8, 2018.
The commission says simultaneous elections were held in the country during
the first two decades after Independence up to 1967. Dissolution of certain
Assemblies in 1968 and 1969 followed by the dissolution of the Lok Sabha led
to the “disruption of the conduct of simultaneous elections.” The panel refers
to a January 2017 working paper of the NITI Aayog on simultaneous
elections.
The white paper contains a series of “possible recommendations” of the
commission. The first among these is that “simultaneous elections may be
restored in the nation by amending the Constitution, Representation of the
People Act of 1951 and the Rules of Procedure of the Lok Sabha and
Assemblies.”
There is a wealth of information in the above article. I have highlighted the
important once in bold. The following are the key takeaways from this

article:
The whole debate about Simultaneous Elections. We need to know both pros
and cons. Since it is a hot topic therefore be assured that there would be tons
of analysis and brainstorming in upcoming months.
We should know about functioning of Law Commission, its members etc.
Then comes the discussion about Representation of People's Act and its
amendment.
Two important points from prelims perspective are that for holding
simultaneous election the amendment of constitution is required (you should
go through the Amendment Chapter in Laxmikanth to know more about this
process) and the fact that for initial twenty years the system of simultaneous
election was in place.
Once you have marked important keywords, you can read about them later in
your free time and on weekends. Avoid the habit of searching for new
information at the time of reading newspaper. It leads to loss of focus and
wastage of time.
Finally, unless you revise the newspaper often, all these efforts would go
waste. It's very difficult to remember details from events that took place six
months ago if it has not been backed by multiple revisions and writing
exercise.

15: TACKLING
HUMANITIES AS AN
ENGINEERING STUDENT
Do you know what is common among Rank 1 of Civil Services Examination
2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017?
They were all engineers. In fact, my batch rank 1 is also an M.Tech! I hope
this has dispelled some belief that engineers find it difficult to give
humanities a try. Let’s read further to bust some more myths.
When I started my preparation, I was superbly confused about the optional I
should choose. I have never been a keen student of engineering. Hence
engineering related subjects were ruled out. Straight away. But I understand
that a majority of students from engineering background enjoy sciences.
However, this comes with the handicap of limited understanding of
humanities . A lot of queries that Bhavesh and I get on Quora are related to
how can a B. Tech understand economics? But believe me I was in a worse
situation. I had no interest in science/engineering subject and I did not have a
degree in Humanities either. Still I did it. And if I can, so can you.
In our current 92nd Foundation Course at LBSNAA, we were 70% engineers.
This pretty much proves that engineering can NOT be a handicap. However, I
must mention some caveats and caution points that pose some challenges. Of
course someone who has studied about semi-conductors for four years cannot
give straight fundas on women self help groups. But worry not. Practice can
make you as good and in fact better than a humanities graduate. I remember
in one of his interview, Gaurav Agrawal (Rank 1, 2013 exam) mentioned that
he did not even know the abbreviation of MNREGS when he first started
preparing. But his hard work achieved him stellar success.
So where do we engineers lack? We tend to be very bad at writing. As

engineers are wired to be, we don't like to fill pages. To the point is all we do.
But this exam is different. You have to read multidimensional answers and
write them down equally well. Unlike engineering subjects you are supposed
to write even what is not asked in the question!
For example, what is the impact of sand mining on watershed
management in urban areas?
Ideally, we would like to start off writing the impact straight-away. But that
is not how we do it here. Please first write a convincing introduction. Let’s
say, UNEP reports that by 202x only y% of the river beds would have a
watershed.
You need to be innovative and apply some jugaad. I understand it is not
possible to remember all the facts and reports. But you can always do some
jugaad. Like you can quote organisations that work in a certain field when a
question is asked. For example, UNICEF for infant mortality, WTO for
international trade, WHO for global health, Lancet for medicine, Doctors
without Borders for migration related issues etc. No one will check it. But it
should sound logical. You cannot quote UNICEF for citing reports on birds
extinction!
After a good introduction, define the relevant terms. In the question above,
you must define what a watershed area means. Do not act lazy there. One line
suffices and can fetch you good marks.
Following this you can write in points or small paragraph highlighting causal-
effect relationship. Both are equally good. And remember, the more the
points the more marks you stand to score. After this, your answer must also
criticise the premise in the question in 1 line. For instance in this question
you may write- “ Although sand mining is impacting environment, new
efforts like substitution of sand with fly ash is improving results of ecological
conservation”.
In the end, you must mention a positive conclusion. This is how a complete
answer looks like. Merely having content in your mind will not fetch you
results. You should be equally good at presenting the content.
Build a habit of writing by making notes and writing tests. We as engineers
tend to overlook social topics because our logical bent of mind wants reasons,

not theories. CSE wants you to unlearn this. Globalisation, urbanisation,

womenomics are as important as polity, history. Read surveys, reports on
them. These topics are abundant in GS I and GS I has huge impact on your
Mains score.
Next problem is knowledge about economics. There are two parts to
economics being asked in civil services: 1) the terms and their meanings. 2)
analysis of economic phenomenon.
For 1) you have to read standard NCERTS (Class XI and XII). It is not tough.
Some basic definitions. For Part 2) you need to be updated with newspaper
and economic survey. By doing this you will be able to understand what is
the impact of a decreasing tax to GDP ratio. Increasingly, even in Prelims
they no longer ask economic definition but analysis. Economics is more or
less like science. If you understand the underlying concept, then you will be
able to tackle any analytical issue at hand.
Some of the engineering background people might argue that why worry
about GS when we can score big in optional? We bank on optional to sail us
through. And this perception is right also given that engineering optionals
fetch 300+ marks very often. But believe me a skewed approach can sail you
through but not get you a good rank. Students do get 300+ easily in
engineering and sciences subjects but they are a handful. Why leave things to
chance. Prepare GS equally well.
I tell you Bhavesh’s example. His optional was Mathematics and he was
pretty good at it. Maths has a vast syllabus so he would mainly focus on the
optional after Prelims. But he could not perform really well in the Mains
paper as some of the topics he had left (due to paucity of time) featured in the
question paper. He scored as low as 92 in Paper I of mathematics. It was his
stellar score in Ethics, Essay and interview that got him IAS. Of course he
worked really hard, but merely thinking that you too would make up in essay
or ethics would be presumptuous. Please do not bank on luck to get marks.
Science optionals require time. Give them their due but also practice answer
writing for GS. In fact you would like writing answers in GS III. GS III gives
us considerable avenue to showcase our technical understanding in Questions
on artificial intelligence, biotechnology et al. However here also I must
mention that do not overwhelm the examiner with technical jargons. I have

discussed this in detail in chapter on GS III. Keep it simple.

Engineers are a well read breed of graduates. You have a good back-up just
in case you do not make it through. Just be consistent with answer writing
and Engineering can actually be a springboard to great scores.

16: AFTER PRELIMS,

BEFORE MAINS
Now that you have matched the answer key and are sailing through Prelims,
many congratulations! (Even if you did not, please read this chapter to brace
up for subsequent year’s Mains). Please do not wait for results to be
announced. Even if you are on border line, prepare for Mains. UPSC is full of
surprises.
It will be disheartening if you do not make it to Mains but it will be worse if
you sail through Prelims but are not adequately prepared for Mains. You will
not sail through Mains in that case. And all your efforts for Prelims will be
wasted. So start your preparation from the next day after Prelims (you have
had a good party last night already).
Collect Study Material
Let’s get started with easier things. Get all the material that you will need in
one place-
● All monthly Vision IAS booklets (starting from last year’s Mains
month)
● Insight IAS Secure (download or print)
● GS I books- mainly static, already mentioned in book list
● GS II- Laxmikanth + Newspaper
● GS III- Economic Survey, Newspaper (for International affairs,
security, technology).
● GS IV- Lexicon book for Ethics, GS Score booklet
Essay Writing and optional we will deal in different chapters ahead.
Test Series
I would strongly recommend answer writing from first week itself. Vision
IAS test series start mostly after a month from Prelims. In that one month
practice answer writing on your own and learn content. I must repeat that

answer writing style is more important than content. Of course it matters

what you write but it is more important how you write.
Let us say you have three months to Mains, in Month I complete all the GS
syllabus. By all I mean the static one and current affairs up to Prelims.
Newspaper reading should be done daily. Even till the day of Mains. Of
course the question paper is made in Month II itself but if you are updated
with current affairs, then you can give recent examples. To give you my
example, I wrote Mains starting 3rd December 2016. Demonetisation
happened on 8th November 2016. By October, the question paper was already
set and hence I need not bother much about current affairs. But since I had
read about demonetisation, I wrote about it in the essay.
There will be no straight forward question in UPSC. It is how you relate a
question with current affairs that can fetch you marks. I wrote about
demonetisation in essay titled “Innovation in social, economics etc...” Many
might not write about demonetisation but still many will. A current affairs
example also helps in Humanities optional.
Also, daily do study 2-3 hours for your optional. If you have not touched
your optional at all, don’t worry. You need to work hard on it now. Study
your optional for at least 6 hours.
Again, please don’t take your test series marks as a reflection of what you
would get in the actual exam. I scored my lowest of 57 in Vision test series of
GS I and in the UPSC exam I scored my highest of 147 in GS I. Low marks
should not discourage you. Remember that aim of test series is to tell you
where you went wrong and consequently they cut your marks. While for
UPSC the objective is to award you marks for what you have written well so
you are well placed to score way higher.
I personally recommend Vision because they give detailed feedback. Refer
my test series answer sheet feedback page. Their marking is very objective
and step-wise.



17: ANSWER WRITING

FOR MAINS- EXPLAINING
WITH EXPERIENCE

In this chapter, I will show you my answer sheets and let you know what
needs to be done.
The above answer is a content-intensive one where I just have to pen down
important facts. However, presentation is what separates my answer from
anyone else’s answer. I used small paragraphs that enhance readability,
underlined important words and started with a proper introduction followed
by a conclusion.


In the above answer, I first wrote sub-headings and then delineated the
points. This again is aimed at making the task of the examiner easy.

In the above answer, I drew a diagram just to enhance the understanding.

Nothing elaborate. But what is required is an effort to explain things in a
simple fashion.

In the above answer script, you may read that I have used current affairs
extensively. The lesson is use current affairs and data to form an opinion.
Also, start with an interesting introduction. Quoting some key words like
Global Slavery Report (with reference to human trafficking in India) can be a
good start.
So the key takeaways from my answer sheets are:
1) Depending on the question, answer in sub-heading with small paragraph or
points
2) Avoid long sentences
3) Stick to Introduction- Points- Criticism- Optimistic Conclusion format
4) Draw diagrams/flowchart where ever required.

18: TIME TABLE FOR

MAINS
Mains comprises of several components. However, score in some are more
deciding to your rank than others. Hence we must divide our time according
to the importance. In this chapter, we will discuss the division of time
depending upon how well you are already prepared upto Prelims.
General Studies:
Marks in GS are usually in a pattern- GS I gives highest marks, GS II lowest
and GS IV becomes deciding factor. Low marks in GS II will not impact your
result much given that the average score is the least among all GS papers. But
low score in GS IV or GS I can cost you dearly. Because the average marks
are high.
Ever since 2016 CSE, UPSC has been awarding many marks in GS papers.
My total for GS was 427. While in 2015 CSE, 426 was the highest GS marks.
High scores mandate that you perform up to at least a certain level.
GS is mainly from newspapers, so devote 4-5 hours for current affairs each
day and another one hour for static portion. Static portion is required
primarily for GS I and II. You must be already 75% prepared with it given
that you just wrote Prelims.
Optional
Optional is the deciding factor. In GS, everyone who gets a top 100 rank
fairly scores +/- 20 from the average score. It is the optional and interview
that, in most cases, play a deciding role. My 301 in Sociology was what got
me rank 51. My GS score of 427 was average in comparison to that year’s
score.
Thus, giving daily time for optional becomes essential. For sciences optional,
time can be as much as 10 hours per day. For humanities, I would

recommend 5-6 hours per day. Remember, giving more time to GS might not
guarantee you great marks but optional marks are guaranteed if you prepare
well. SO why not invest time on something predictable?
Essay
Essay again is important. Less important than optional but more important
than GS. Writing 2 or 1 essay per week should suffice. More than writing,
you should focus on evaluation. Make sure that you get your essays
evaluated. Vision essay test series is a good way for this. I did not join any
essay test series mainly because I never felt the need to do so. But if you
think you are weak or lack confidence, then please do join a test series.
The range of marks awarded in essay is wide. A batch mate of mine in top
100 got a 105/250 in essay while a 600+ ranker scored 165/250. 60 marks is a
huge divide in civil services exam. Regular preparation will ensure that you
score average marks (130-150), if not the highest.
Language Papers (Qualifying)
Last but not the least, please do not take your language papers casually. You
have to score a minimum of 25% in the two language- English and other
Indian language. There are some 5-8% of candidates every year who do not
sail through this stage.
SO if you do not sail through language papers, no matter how high you score
in rest of the exam, your scores do not matter. Worst part, you are also not
shown your marks. So you never really know where to improve in subsequent
attempts.
It is not needed to be studied every day. One must be your mother tongue, so
just a week before the exam, have a look at the previous one year paper.
Also, read newspaper in that language. I started reading Dainik Jagran – a
Hindi daily- just a week before the exam. It helped.
For English, if your medium of education has not been this then you need to
put in some effort. Start a month before and read newspapers daily. Also,
solve previous five year papers. The level of difficulty is not much but the
exam requires that you have basic understanding of the language.
In subsequent chapters, let us delve in a descriptive way. Devil lies in detail.

19: FILLING UP DAF AND

PREPARING IT FOR
INTERVIEW
The Interview Stage is a very critical part. Some of us think that Mains are
game changers but let me warn you, Mains exam determines whether you get
into the service or not whereas interview stage dictates what service, what
cadre is allotted to you.
Interview stage also becomes important because the range of marks awarded
ishuge. In my batch, I remember AIR 2, Anmol Sher Singh Bedi scored a
brilliant 206/275 whereas my score was an average 179. So you see the
difference. This is sufficient to differentiate AIR 2 from AIR 51.
Interview stage also has the potential to cover up for your mistakes in Mains
examination. Bhavesh did not perform well in Paper I of his optional (Maths)
resulting in him scoring a 92/250. This was a disaster. But his 209/275 in
interview not only got his name in the list but also an IAS in the first attempt.
Below is what an admit ticket for interview stage looks like. It’s a great
feeling. It makes you feel accomplished. After all you have sailed past lacs of
aspirants to make it to top .01%. You also keep telling yourself- 2 down, one
to go. In simpler words, you have rushed past two hurdles of Prelims and
Mains and now only one stage is left.

Now that you have graduated to interview stage, you must also realise that
anything and everything can be asked in the interview. You can be asked the
capital of Papua New Guinea or GDP of USA as compared to Ahmedabad.
But don’t be afraid by these fact based questions. All of these question types
can be easily predicted- through your Detailed Application Form (DAF). As
mentioned before, the interview board never expects you to be a walking
encyclopaedia. No one can be. Not even the interview board knows
everything. So where does the board asks questions from? Your DAF. Apart
from current affairs, DAF is the single major component of your interview.
You can predict the questions you will be asked by simply carefully filling
your DAF.
There are various parts in a DAF. I have attached summary sheet of my DAF
that has basic information about me like education, work experience, hobbies
and family. Hobbies should be filled in carefully. I would suggest filling
something unusual. Reading, listening to music are slightly boring and
unpredictable subjects. They can ask you the genre you read and then talk
about a book in that genre that you might have not read. And answering
wrongly about your own hobby does not look good.
Similarly, the company that you were earlier working in should to be
carefully studied- its turnover, nature of work, competitors, prediction for
industries. Let us say you were in Indian Railways, then you must be aware
of technicalities and jargons. These questions cannot be answered with an “I
don’t know Sir”. So fill this part carefully.
Your hometown, meaning of your name, significance of your alma mater is

very crucial. My hometown is Lucknow and I had prepared everything about

the city ranging from its historical significance in 1857 revolt to chikan kari
embroidery. Similarly, Bhavesh is an IIT Delhi graduate so he was asked a
question in his interview that why do IIT graduates not join DRDO?
Thankfully, he had prepared an answer to this question that impressed the
board.
Apart from that, the part that can trick you is the service and cadre preference
(for IAS and IPS only). Below is a screen shot of my service preference. The
general trend is IAS>IFS>IPS. However, now some top rankers prefer other
services over IAS. If you are inclined on doing so, please be prepared with a
reason. I had filled IFS rather down in the preference list because I wanted to
work in India since I wanted to be with my mother after my Father’s demise.
This was a well-accepted logic.

Similarly, for your cadre preference, if you do not choose your home cadre as
the first preference you will not be considered for your home cadre at all.
Also, this might not go down well with some of the interview board
members. This is particularly true for not so financially well off states.
I remember during my mock at Vajiram, there was an aspirant from Bihar
who had filled his home state at 5th preference which automatically meant he
would not be considered for Bihar at all. When asked the reason, he cited his
willingness to travel and serve the poor. This was a not so logical argument
and the board refuted that Bihar has considerable number of poor people
whom he can serve. So please be cautious filling up your cadre preference.
Apart from that, ensure that you fill in your factual information- roll No in
previous attempts, school percentages etc. - correctly. On the day of
interview, your documents are verified. Any lack of substantial proof can
cancel your candidature for that exam and even land you as a debarred

candidate for lifetime.

Your awards/work experience certificates are not asked but make sure that
you don’t lie about them. Because if a question is posed from that section and
you are unable to answer it then the interview board can catch that you are
lying. A dishonest candidate is immediately awarded very low marks. The
competition ends then and there.
So please be careful, honest and sincere in filling your DAF. Take a week’s
time, consult your seniors or others in the service and make a well-informed
decision. All the best!

20: CADRE AND SERVICE

CHOICE
There are two All India Services (AIS) and rest Central Group A services that
are recruited through civil services examination. The two AIS are IAS and
IPS. Please note cadre preference for Indian Forest Service, the third AIS, is
through a different exam and form.
The common preference is to put IAS as the first preference. However, there
are many top rankers who choose IFS or IPS or even IRS over IAS. In my
batch, rank 2 chose IFS as the first preference. Rank 38 chose IPS as the first
preference. Both of them could have got IAS had they put IAS as the first
preference.
It is completely understood that service preference is a matter of personal
choice. In civil service 2017 exam as well, I am told that rank 13 has IPS as
his first preference. This is a personal choice and everyone is entitled to it.
However, sometime to avoid a service preference, we put it at such a low
preference that it hurts us in the interview. Now let us say you are not keen
on Indian Foreign Service and consequently you place it as 24th preference.
It is certain that even if you get last rank, you will not be allocated IFS. But
what if your interview board member is an IFS officer? He/she might not take
it too well. Same goes for any so-called preferred service like IAS, IPS or
IRS. If you put IPS as 20th just to avoid it, it might send a negative signal to
a board member from the IPS fraternity.
In order to avoid any unpleasant incident, you must know services’ cut off.
Let us say you do not want to be an IFS, come what may. So you should put
it as third or fourth preference. Now if you get rank 1, you will get your first
preference. If you get rank 150, then you will get your second preference (if
your 1st preference is not IAS). If your rank is 200 above, you will end up
getting your third preference or the preference after IFS. This is because IFS

rank cut off is generally 150-170. In no way will you get IFS as your service
allotment. Please note these ranks cut off pertain to general category.
I must mention that the above is not a rule but a trend and this trend has
remained the same throughout the years. Same goes for IPS. If you do not
want to become an IPS, put it below IRS or as your fourth or fifth preference.
You will easily escape it.
I wanted to escape IFS as well as IPS. IFS because I wanted to live in India
and IPS because I thought NPA training would be too tough for me. So I had
put the following preference:
IAS> IRS (IT) > IPS> IFS....
In the above preference, even if I was rank 151 instead of 51, then I would
have been allotted IRS despite that IFS vacancy was available at my rank.
Your preference for service are not questioned unless and until you make
some drastic choices.
Cadre preference:
UPSC wants you to declare a cadre as your home state. For Delhi, Union
Territories and Mizoram, Goa, it is a common cadre by the name of
AGMUT. If you do not put your home cadre as your first preference, then
you will not be considered for your home cadre at all. For example, my home
cadre is Uttar Pradesh. If I put UP as 2nd preference, then I will not get UP
even if there is a vacancy.
On 5th September 2017, the Government came out with a totally new Cadre
Policy for All India Services (IAS, IPS and IFoS). Since then it has aroused
much interest as well as confusion amongst new aspirants.
The aim of this post is to demystify the new cadre policy. Before we go
further explaining the nitty gritty of the new policy, it would be good to first
have a brief look into the previous cadre policies.
In the 90s until 2008, the cadre allocation was done through Roster
System. In this either of these 2 things used to take place.
A candidate will be given his / her home state will be allotted a cadre based
on a complex system based on alphabetical grouping of states.

Under this system if a candidate securing Rank 1 does not get her home state
(due to lack of insider vacancy) then she could be randomly assigned any
state.
This policy was discontinued in CSE 2008 which brought Choice
Based system. Under this a candidate had to give preference for the states (1,
2, 3, 15, 16,).
Now if a candidate secures Rank 1 then she is sure to get a cadre which is
amongst her top 3 choices. This system resulted in a situation where the
students from North India mostly remained in North Indian states and vice
versa. The Government felt that somewhere the sense of being in All India
Service was getting lost.
To strike a balance between choice and maintaining the spirit of AIS the
Government came up with this new policy.
In this system the states have been grouped into 5 zones.
Zone I
AGMUT
Jammu & Kashmir
Himachal Pradesh
Uttarakhand
Punjab
Rajasthan
Haryana
Zone II
Uttar Pradesh
Bihar
Jharkhand
Odisha

Zone III
Gujarat
Maharashtra
Madhya Pradesh
Chhattisgarh
Zone IV
West Bengal
Sikkim
Assam Meghalaya
Manipur
Tripura
Nagaland
Zone V
Telangana
Andhra Pradesh
Karnataka
Tamil Nadu
Kerala
Now a candidate has to first give preferences for zones and then within that
zone give preferences for states.
For instance let’s consider a hypothetical case where a student has given
preferences like this.
Zone 4 : 5, 2, 4, 1, 6, 3
Zone 2 : 3, 1, 4, 2

Zone 5 : 1, 5, 3, 2, 4
Zone 1 : 2, 1, 5, 6, 3, 4, 7
Zone 3 : 2, 4, 3, 1
Now when it comes to allocating cadre, the cycle would be as follows:
1st preference in Zone 4
2nd preference in Zone 4
2nd preference in Zone 2
……
……
3rd preference in Zone 4
3rd preference in Zone 2
….
….
Thus if one doesn’t get 1st preference of a particular zone then one would be
considered for 1st preference of next preferred zone rather than 2nd
preference within same zone.
Since zones are grouped region wise instead of alphabetically therefore, the
chances of getting a cadre within same zone reduces significantly since four
other states from other zones separates 1st and 2nd preferences within same
zone.
With this new system the government hopes to address the regional

imbalance in cadre allocation.

The other aspects related to cadre allotment like insider-outsider ratio,
reservation would remain unchanged.
For the last several years there was a certain predictability in cadre allotment
which is likely to end now with the new system in place.
With the zonal system, the all India nature of the service has been kept intact.
A UP waala will not find it easy to land up in Bihar. Similarly, Tamil folks
will have to cover one cycle of zones to reach Karnataka.
So please fill in your service and cadre preference with some caution. Both
cadre as well as service choice impact your personal life.

21: RUN UP TO MAINS: GS

1
Syllabus: Below is a snapshot of GS I Syllabus from UPSC notification
2018. Let us decode it word by word along with resources.

● Indian Culture is to be read only from NCERT class XI book titled

Fine arts and crafts and Nitin Singhania notes. Apart from this, ancient
and medieval history NCERT (old) suffice. Basic understanding of the
topic is required. CCRT website is advisable only if you are thorough
with the above resources. Spectrum Art and Culture book is a strict no.
Only 1-2 questions are asked from this section. No need for an in-depth
analysis. Answer writing will take care of the rest. Also, keep in mind
any relevant current affairs. For example, the year Nalanda was
declared a UNESCO heritage site, questions were likely to come on
Buddhism architecture.
● Modern Indian history, freedom struggle, post-independence
analysis is the most important topic. Easily 3-4 questions feature
every year. Sources required are Bipin Chandra, Spectrum and
NCERTs. That is it. Static questions. Low hanging fruits. You can
easily get 6 marks in every question. That increases your score by 8
marks straight. You, however, have to remember facts. Again, answer
writing will help you remember facts.
● World history is another not so important topic. But one question
does feature every year. Read only Arjun Dev NCERTs. Read it only
for Mains. Not required in Prelims. Test series answer writing will take
care of the rest. Mostly vague, unrelated questions are asked in Mains.
But do write some facts related to the topic even if you do not know
much.
In the next page is what I wrote in one of the questions on communism
in world. I did not have much knowledge yet I attempted it.
● Indian Society, role of women, globalisation etc. are where you get
ahead of others. In this you should write general information but they
must be substantiated with reports, examples from current affairs.
Reading newspaper and Vision IAS magazines suffices. For Indian
society, do mention some data from NSSO or ASER (Pratham India).
For Globalisation issues, mention UNCTAD, WHO reports, Lancet (a
medicine journal). Mentioning names of NGOs also lends credibility to
your answer. For example, mentioning Kudumbashree for women
empowerment or Akshay Patra for better mid-day meals are good
examples.

You can also quote books like “Everybody loves a good drought” by P.
Sainath etc. You do not have to read the entire book but just understand what
the book is about.
Furthermore, please be cautious to not use “heavy theories”. For example, if
you are from Sociology optional, do not quote Margarett Mead on her study
of tribal women. You can quote Marx for communism as an antidote to
globalisation but not Emile Durkheim. Remember it’s a general studies
paper. Anything that makes you come across as an “expert” instead of a
generalist will get you penalised.
● Distribution of natural resources and geographical phenomena are
best dealt in GC Leong and NCERT class XI NCERT. These two books
is all you need. Do draw diagrams when asked questions on cyclones,
vegetation etc. It’s another very important part of syllabus. 3-4
questions are very likely to come. Requires static knowledge. Do
remember facts.
Over all, GS I is the most scoring of all the GS papers. It has large static
component. So if you are able to remember 6-8 women freedom fighters or
draw global wind map, then you can score as high as 6-7 marks per question.
They make you miles ahead of others.
Similarly, questions on society should be dealt with sincerity. Quote
reference materials and support with current affairs example. They are bound
to get you good marks. And like mentioned before, do attempt all the
questions.
Refer to my test booklet towards end of this chapter. You can see the break-
up of my marks along with general comments. It was one of my best answers
where I got 6 marks. My mistakes shall also help you in improving your
performance by not repeating them.



22: RUN UP TO MAINS: GS

2
Syllabus:


GS Paper II is the trickiest of all the GS Papers and perhaps also the least
scoring. You should be thorough with Polity, Legal developments and
international affairs.
The sources that need to be referred for the above part of the syllabus are:
● Laxmikanth Polity
● Laxmikanth book on Governance. This is important to know about
various government bodies, their functions and important
developments. Please note that it is different from the book on Polity.
● PRS website Monthly Policy Review (MPR). These are available
on PRS Legislature’s website. It’s a think tank that analyses legal and
regulatory proceedings. For any latest bill, the website gives a detailed
note. You do not have to go through each and every bill but important
ones should be known. MPRs for each month should be read. Not
everything in that is important but the essential ones should be
highlighted for revision at later time.
Vision IAS monthly magazine is important. Under Polity section they also
give a back ground of what had happened in the previous amendment to bill
or how Monetary Policy Committee was first formed. Those are important
facts that you will not find in newspapers.
Now, part II of the syllabus.
This is mainly about NGOs, government welfare schemes, international
relations and organisations. Most important source for these topics are the
newspapers. This portion is mainly around current affairs. Important sources
of current affairs are as follows:
● Vision IAS monthly magazine. Refer to sections on International
Relations, Border Issues. In last 2-3 years, these topic are very
important due to recent development- J&K unrest, Trump’s policies,
and rise of ISIS etc. Do remember to quote recent incidents. For
example, during my exam preparation, Uri attack had happened. There
was a question on relations with our neighbours. I mentioned the Uri
and Nagrota attack as examples.

● For NGOs/Welfare schemes, newspapers, AIR news alert are

important sources. They do not ask about trivial organisations but only
important ones or those that have been in news. For example, during
2016-17, FEMA and FERA were in news for NGO funding. Reading
newspaper in sufficient. Same goes for international organisations.
Below are some comments I would receive for GS II in mock tests.

23: RUN UP TO MAINS - GS

3
GS III, much like GS I, is highly scoring. However, unlike GS I, the syllabus
is very dynamic and static portion is limited. I have divided the syllabus into
two parts- Economics and Others.
Let us analyse Part I (Economics)

This part is mainly concerned with economic schemes of the government,

impact of latest global investment trends (if any). Any social/economic
scheme that government has introduced. Or any latest development in
agriculture and related scheme like agriculture, agro-energy, food etc.
The most vital source for this is the concerned year’s Economic Survey. By
concerned I mean that if you are writing Mains in 2019, Economic Survey of
2019-20 is to be read. Apart from this, Indian Express has a special column
called “Explained” where most government schemes are decoded or any
economic term is simplified.
Please do not be afraid of this syllabus merely if you think that you are not
from Economics or Humanities background. It does not matter. Answer
writing in your case becomes very important. You must explain a term that
features in the question (even if its definition is not asked). Then analyse
what is asked. Mention criticism but always end on an optimistic note.
Apart from this, Vikaspedia.com is good website for agriculture and related
developments. Newspapers and Vision IASmagazines and test series become
very important. Vision magazine has good coverage of schemes in the past
and how the present scheme differ from the past one. You can read articles
in Yojana on agriculture and related topics of irrigation. But that is to be done
only after you are sure of your resources mentioned above.
Now below is part II of syllabus:

This part mainly concerns border security forces (slightly different from GS
II), environmental issues, Left-Wing Extremism (this is particular to India),
radicalisation and lastly (also most importantly) Science and Technology.
For Science and technology, you need not worry if you are not from an
engineering or science background. The questions asked are mainly current

affairs centric. However, you must look up definitions of keywords like

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Optical Fibre, WAN/LAN, Intranet
etc. if you do not know them already. You can make a list of new technology
terms you come across in newspaper and look them up on internet. That is it.
The main source again is newspaper, Vision IAS magazine and AIR news
alert. No additional source is required. Do not waste time on science reporter
etc. Questions are asked only from recent developments.
In the end of the chapter, I have attached my general comments from test
series and an answer on technology. Do take a note of them. I scored fairly
well in GS III. It’s a highly scoring paper and can easily compensate for any
poor performance in GS II. I scored only 84 in GS II but my 99 marks in GS
III and 147 in GS I made up for any loss.
A good practice of answer writing, coupled with basic knowledge from
newspapers is all you need for GS I, II and III.


24: RUN UP TO MAINS - GS

4
Syllabus: Part I.

There are broadly two parts into which we can categories the syllabus. Part-I
deals with static theory. Here one is asked about definitions, philosophy and
thinkers related to ethics and values. There is no one source for these but the
following three should be read without fail:
● Lexicon book on Ethics
● Michael Sandals (Harvard Faculty) videos on Justice on YouTube
● S.K. Mishra’s Ethics note for GS Score
IN Part-I, some commonly featured questions are based on:
● Mahatma Gandhi and his ideals- Seven Sins, Working for
Village/Rural India, Casteism
● Max Weber’s view on Bureaucracy
● Kautilya/Chanakya Neeti.
Apart from this, do prepare questions like what makes you happy, why
civil services, your most memorable experience, and thing you regret
the most. Of course this is not an exhaustive list but if you give these
questions a thought, you will spend less time thinking in the exam.
Always give non-personal examples in these. For example, if you are
asked the thing you regret the most, don’t write that your regret your
pet animal’s death. Write something society related like the day you
could not help a lady on the road who had met with a minor accident
because you were running late for your job interview.
Then comes Part-II syllabus. This is a bit tricky because there is no hard and
fast rule to sail through them. Here your ideals about service, your
expectations, experiences, motivations are gauged. It is like a written
interview where your personality is assessed.
Question 9-14 are case study questions. These 7 questions can be a game
changer. Rachit Raj, Rank 3, 2014 batch scored a mind blowing 142/250 in
Ethics papers. That was the largest contributor to his score card and got him
Rank 3. The range of marks awarded in Ethics is high, from 60 to 130. Such a
high range means that your poor performance can throw you out of list and a
120+ can get you a Rank in top 10. I scored a decent 117 while Bhavesh
scored 113 which was above average in his year.

Remember there is no right or wrong answer in case study. But you must
avoid extremes. Let us say you come across a sub-ordinate who is corrupt.
Then what would you do? The two extremes are-
1) You let him continue and ask for your share of bribe from his under the
table earning
2) You immediately suspend him and order disciplinary proceedings.
But UPSC admires neither of the two options. To the best of my knowledge,
you should take a middle path. First gather evidence that he is corrupt
through a trap and if found guilty, take actions that are proportionate to the
crime.
Mentioning legendary bureaucrats like TCA Raghavan, TSR Subramaniam in
your answers in Part II is a good exercise. Also books like “Difficulty of
being good” by Gurcharan Das can be quoted for its empathy for the poor.

“Small is Beautiful” by E.F. Schumacher is another legendary work that can

be mentioned for using education as a tool for emancipation of the needy.
Lastly, do attempt ALL the questions. It’s the most lengthy of all the papers
so practice writing in stipulated time by time management in mock exams.
The best part about this paper is you do not require any specialised
knowledge. For Paper II it’s all about your qualities as an administrator.
Reading about former civil servants in leisure time is a good habit that you
can mention in your DAF as well as quote them when mentioning Case
Study.
Below is my answer transcript from mocks. First have a look at the general
comments I received:

Here is my answer for a question that asked suggestions for Swachh Bharat.
Remember to write in first person. I did this, I did that…


25: RUN UP TO MAINS -

ESSAY
I always thought Essay was easy since we all have been writing them since
school times. But the scene is different for UPSC. I remember Sakshi
Sawhney, Rank 6, IAS 2014 batch who got only around 80 marks in essay. In
her previous attempts too, Ma’am could not sail through due to poor marks in
Essay. After looking at her score card, I realised essay is not as easy as it may
seem.
In this chapter, we will analyse Essay question paper of 2017 and take you
through a near-ideal thinking process. As is known to most, questions paper
requires you to write 2 essays- one from each section of around 1000-1200
words each in three hour duration.
Section I:
Selecting the essay:

Given the choices, let us critically analyse them:
1. Very narrow topic. We can right only on a certain section of the society i.e.
the farmer. There is not enough content. I will not choose it

2. Again a very technical topic dealing with finances and related measures in
a federal set up. Also, if I go wrong with facts like the Finance Commission
suggestions etc., then I risk losing marks. There is little room for creativity
like quotations or idioms.
3. Interesting topic. Very broad. Can write about how demographic dividend
holds the key. But the people need to be educated else they are only a
liability. We can mention several government schemes like Nai Manzil that
focus on bridge courses thus bringing dropouts back to school. Several
quotations by S. RadhaKrishnan, Mahatma Gandhi can be used. Idioms like
“Pen is mightier than the sword” can be used. Further, examples from
developed countries can be given that won over the world through skilled
manpower and not conquest.
4. Again, a very narrow topic. A bit wider than the 1. I would have written on
this had 3rd not been a choice. We can write about new geopolitical
developments, rise of nuclear states, increase in state-sponsored terrorism. All
this mandates that countries align themselves to some superpower. However,
unlike topic 3, we have to be factually correct- dates of NAM, its
leaders/participants, the various other organisations of the UN that promote
neutrality.
Finally, I would recommend writing on topic 3 due to enough content and
room for creativity.
Section II: Selection of essay:

1. A broad topic. But a bit philosophical. Less of facts, more of opinion
based. Would not recommend writing it.

2. Broad topic but we should refute it. Generally UPSC wants you to take a
positive outlook. A lot can be written with examples from Nirmala
Sitharaman as the second only woman Defence Minister. However criticism
needs to be covered with details of MMR, female foeticide and dowry deaths.
Also pay gap between men and women can be discussed.
3. Vague topic. I am not sure whether my understanding of the topic is same
as what UPSC intends it to be. Such topic that have ambiguous meanings can
best be avoided.
4. Broad topic again. I would strongly recommend writing this. Here you can
refute claims made in the argument because social media is increasingly
being made to aware the masses. It is also increasing accountability of
bureaucrats as a pothole in street, or a delay in train can be corrected by
merely a tweet! Data points from World Bank’s digital dividend can be
quoted. We can however mention some criticism where people become
anxious as they seek to promote themselves and create a brand of themselves.
They also develop jealousy and think only about themselves as a matter of
fake comparison.
Now that we have made our choices, here are some guidelines for attempting
an essay:
● Choose a topic for which you have considerable content
● After choosing, write a rough draft on back pages about various
headings. Yes, do give headings. For example in section A essay on
classroom, create sub-heads of Economic, Social, Political impact of
educated populace.
● Give almost 1.5 hour to each essay. Write at least 1000 words.
● An introduction with a quotation becomes impactful. For this, learn
20 quotations on topics like development, technology, education,
nation-hood etc.
● Criticism should be substantiated with considerable facts. Keep it
short so that your main argument is not over-shadowed. Too much
criticism is bad.
● End with a hopeful conclusion. Preferably a quotation.
A good essay score will give you an edge over many others because
most candidates tend to overlook the importance.

25: Run up to Mains: Sociology Optional

In this chapter, we will tell you what you stand to gain from Sociology as an
optional and what you will have to do to score 300 + in the optional.
Why Sociology:
When I wrote my first attempt, my optional was Public Administration. I had
little information about optional back then and hence randomly filled the
form since PubAd was famous. Thankfully, I did not even sail through
Prelims and hence there was no need for me to even start with PubAd. But it
was only after October 2015 that I realised the need to assess various
optionals depending on my abilities.
The first obvious choice was Economics given that I have studied as well
worked in this field. But after I had a look at the previous 5 years papers, I
realised my limited understanding of topics that were asked in UPSC. I would
not have fared well and to sail through, I would have to put in extra efforts.
Next obvious choice was engineering/science optional given that I am an
engineer by degree. But I had little heart in those subjects. Also, science
subjects mandate immense hard-work. Bhavesh’s optional was Maths and he
would tell me that it took him good one year to prepare only the optional. It
was ruled out.
The only choice then was humanities. Even in that field, there were many
options- literature, geography, psychology, philosophy and the likes. I
consulted Bhavesh and also read blogs of successful candidates like Kannan
G Sir (IAS 2012 batch). Sociology looked as a “Sadabahaar” (evergreen)
subject. As in, you can at least score middle range marks if not top it. Unlike
Science, where a correct one fetches full marks while an incorrect one gets a
0, humanities is more about writing. There is no right or wrong.
Also, sociology marks depend upon your writing skills to some extent. I have
always been fond of penning down essays etc. So the choice was made.
Sociology it was.
For other aspirants, who do not enjoy writing much, I would like to
encourage you to take up sociology by saying that this optional comes handy
at various stages:

● Essay Writing- you can quote thinkers, write about impact of social
issues from a broader perspective
● GS I- Part on society can be answered with better data points.
Apart from this, Sociology Paper II syllabus is about Indian Society and
hence requires less effort. Current affairs can be quoted extensively in Paper
II as examples.
In the end of this chapter are my answer copies in mocks with remarks to
help you get a flavour of how the writing goes in this optional. Hope it helps
you get clarity.


26: DURING THE MAINS’

DAYS!
The beauty of the civil services exam is that all your hard work is decided by
those moments of actual writing. The three hours in which you write the
essay dictates whether you get home cadre or a non-cadre service. If you are
able to think quickly on your feet, you will score really well. But the problem
comes when you start getting a question that you did not expect. UPSC can
well be termed as “Unpredictable” Public Service Commission. The hack is
to not get nervous by seeing an unexpected question.
Just like Prelims, be prepared to face bouncers. Test series only prepare you
to think quickly. Expecting similar question to feature in the actual exam
would be childish. Also, Mains, unlike Prelims, is a lengthy process. Mostly
it lasts over a week. The exam schedule starts with Essay paper for three
hours. The next days’ exam are planned as two exams on each day, three
hours each. For example, GS I and II will be on same day, GS III and IV next
then language papers and on the last day would be the optional Paper I and II.
The Night Before:
The most important thing is to prepare your armour- admit card, ID proof
with clear picture (else carry separate passport size photographs), writing
pens. I would also recommend you to decide on your clothing for the next
day in the night itself. It should be comfortable. Mains are mainly in a season
when winters have started to set in North India. Make sure that you are not
over clad that you feel bogged under your jacket. Also, you should not be
without a coat or sweater that you are left shivering. Remember, almost none
exam centres have heater or AC facilities. Also, do carry a water bottle along.
Make sure that you have visited the exam centre once before the actual exam.
Do not bank solely on Google Maps.

Before dozing off to sleep, chant the mantra to yourself- “I will do very well
in the exam tomorrow. I’m confident and hard-working”. What you think,
will materialise.
The Morning Date:

The morning of only the first exam day is important. For the rest 4 days, you
get accustomed.
Wake up at appropriate time after having a good night sleep. Leave your
house at such time that you are at least half an hour before the scheduled start
time. This should be done for the first exam day. The next exams you are
certain of traffic etc. and hence can take a margin of only 15 minutes. But
make sure you keep some buffer time. Last minute entry will make you
panic. And remember every minute counts in the exam.
At the cost of repetition, eat well and carry some eatables along for break-
time. We have dealt with the same in preparation for Prelims chapter. The
same diet needs to be repeated.
Also, please do some meditation and yoga. It might sound funny at first but I
say it out of experience. Stretching and surya namaskar improve blood
circulation to your brain and you feel less tired and more active.
In short, you overcome fatigue to give your best. I used to do surya namaskar
ten times before going to bathe. I did it to reduce my weight but it also helped
me in improving my concentration and body posture among other things. Just
15 minutes can make a lifelong change in your life.
Leave for your exam well in time. Be relaxed, you have worked
tremendously hard to sail through Prelims, now make your Mains chance
count.
In between the two exams: Like I said before, Mains is mainly a test of how
well you perform in those three hours. Stamina matters. It is generally seen
that after writing for good three hours, aspirants are less enthusiastic about
the second meeting Paper. And this can cost you dearly.
This lack of enthusiasm is primarily because you feel tired. Either you are
hungry, feeling exhausted or sleep deprived. Please understand that these

bodily symptoms are signs that you preparing for a disastrous Paper II. You
will not be able to think properly and consequently will also not have the
energy to write well.
The best way to avoid any such non-academic hindrances is to be fuelled up.
If your exam centre is near your house/place of living, you can choose to go
there, take rest, eat food and return to exam centre 15 minutes before the
actual exam starts. By near I mean a location within 15 minutes of travel
time.
My exam centre was in Lucknow (near Purania crossing) and my home was a
10 minutes’ drive from there. I would go home, eat and take a nap before
returning to the exam centre. I understand I was lucky and such luxury is rare
in big cities like Delhi etc. But make the most of it by not bothering about the
paper that you have already written. You must carry something to eat.
The break between the two exams is of good two hours. Do not waste time
discussing the question paper. Bhavesh after his Maths optional Paper-I rang
up his friend and cried his heart out as he had made calculation mistakes.
This, even today, he considers a wrong practice. Crying should be saved for
last. After you have done and dusted all your exams. Crying or discussing
will not undo any calculation or factual error that you have committed. But it
certainly will demotivate you from performing better in future exams.
During exam:
You have to attempt all the question. There are some 20 questions in GS. On
an average 7-8 minutes are to be spent on each question. Keep extra pens
handy. Also, 5 minutes get “wasted” in signing on attendance sheet etc., so
that time should also be included in the three hour timing when writing mock
tests.
Between the days of next exam:
I understand that Mains is particularly difficult given that it is not a one day
match. It’s a test match that requires mix of stamina, patience and knowledge.
Lack in any one of these can spoil all the hard work put in so far. Without
stamina, your knowledge will not be written on the exam answer sheet and
hence your knowledge will not earn you marks. Without patience you will
grow anxious with the thought of quickly finishing the exam and partying

with friends. Your heart and mind will be somewhere else while your body
will be struggling in the exam centre.
And lastly, if you don’t have knowledge, no matter how attentive you are,
you will not be able to write in much. SO all three are important.
Now talking of the time when you have returned in the evening and next
morning you have another exam due. The best way to utilise this time is to
only revise the important topics. This is the time when note making will
come to your rescue.
In the short span, it is not possible to revise everything. But it is advisable to
revise the topics you are weak at or do not remember at all. I don’t believe
that you should not read anything new. You can. UPSC does not require in-
depth knowledge but wider knowledge. If you know little about many
schemes then it is better than knowing much about few schemes.
Also, you tend to get tired after the tiresome 6 hour journey. And it is but
natural. YSF is the formula- Yoga, Sleep, and Food! Focus on them. 15
minutes Yoga, 6-7 hours sleep, filling food is as important as revision or
answer writing.
I understand these things are easy to come when you are at home. I stayed in
Lucknow while writing my Mains and hence had all the comforts. But please
try and give YSF at least the time it deserves. A yoga-less life will tire you
easily. A sleep-less night will give you head-ache the next morning and a
food deprived day again will cause fatigue. It’s a matter of 5 days. Some
additional expense on fruits will make you fatigue free. Some 15 minutes of
Yoga can get you 150 extra marks. Some 60 minutes of extra sleep can
change your rank from 660 to 60!
The above mentioned is the complete and sufficient schedule when writing
Mains. Like I have mentioned before, UPSC doe not only tests your
knowledge but also your temperament. How well you adapt, how well you
handle nervousness, how well you articulate your thoughts, how well you
manage your time to attempt each question equally well. All this is not
merely possible by reading zillions of books.
As an officer, you should be a complete human being. Mains is the run-up to
the same. Be fit, manage your time effectively, and set your priorities.

Maintain balance and you will do great.

27: AFTER MAINS,

BEFORE RESULTS!
The period after having written your mains and awaiting the result is the most
frustrating one. I distinctly remember that I wrote my last Mains paper
(Optional) on 9th December 2016 and the results of Mains were out on 21st
February 2017! Those 73 days were easily the worst in my preparation
regime. I was restless. I believed my career was going nowhere.
My relationship status with Bhavesh was also in shambles because I would
largely be frustrated (we were only good friends back then). I would not talk
to people and stay aloof. My failure to crack the Forest Mains examination
aggravated my pathetic condition.
However, I did somethings right. I would work-out daily. I kept reading
newspapers. The former I did because I wanted to distract myself from stress
related to results. Also, I had put on weight after I had left my job. It was
disturbing to see myself in the mirror. Plus, I had read somewhere that
exercise releases a hormone called serotonin, also called the Happy Hormone
that helps to lift your mood.
I badly needed a breather. Running and yoga were the only two modes I
resorted to. And they helped me a lot. I would strongly recommend 45
minutes to 1 hour of yoga comprising mainly of surya namaskar and leg lifts.
This should be preceeded by a 20-30 minutes running (not walking) session.
I agree that on day 1 you would not be able to have that motivation. In fact
for one week after writing your Mains you must not even look at books or
newspaper. I had stopped the newspaper subscription for entire one week. I
went out to restaurants for eating, went shopping, and chatted with my
friends/cousins. It was relaxing and I insist that everyone must do this to
unwind themselves. In that one week, you realise the importance of time.

Also you are re-charged to perform better in interview.

But I should remind you that this unwinding should be limited. You MUST
NOT revamp your social media channels. I am assuming that you have
deactivated your Facebook, Twitter etc. handles. I had only returned to
WhatsApp given that I needed documents/photos for preparation from my
other friends who were not living in Lucknow. Also, do not mingle too much
in your social circle as it would be difficult to return to studies. I did not
attend my cousin’s wedding in January fearing that once I get in the vicious
circle of check-ins and selfie, it will be difficult for me to focus on studies. I
would constantly be thinking that I am wasting time reading about Kisan
Insurance Scheme while my friends are busy buying lehengas and sarees.
Add to it, too much social interaction exposes you to questions that almost
cause a nervous breakdown- “Aur beta kya kar rahe ho aaj kal?” (Dear, what
are you working on these days?) Then starts the comparison with Sharma Ji
ka beta who cracked civil services in the first attempt itself. These
comparisons are fatal to your confidence. Just one week of break is sufficient.
After the one week of honeymoon period, please be back to The Indian
Express and The Hindu. I would recommend reading two-three newspapers at
this junction and rightly so. Believe me if you are not a veteran (by veteran I
mean 4-5 attempts old), you would not even want to look at the text books
you had read for Mains or Prelims. The very thought of reading them again
would give a feeling of you having failed in a class and having to repeat the
syllabus. So if not text books then what? You cannot sit pretty idling away.
The best possible option is to keep yourself occupied with something
productive.
Newspapers not only help you prepare for interview but god forbid if you do
not make it in this attempt, you are ready to take the next Prelims. Current
Affairs have increasingly become an important part of Civil Services Exam at
all the three stages.
Also, you should constantly remind yourself that this is just an examination.
Your life is not determined by merely this one examination. Remember not
all IAS officers are happy and not all happy people are IAS officers.
I know this is easier said than done. And in fact until January, I too would

become anxious almost daily thinking of results. But it was only in February
that my niece was born and I realised that happiness is a choice you make.
You can choose to be happy even without being an officer and you can be
gloomy even after being an IAS. It’s all upto you.
My niece was a great gift to me. She was named Bubbles by me as a nick
name. (I basically wanted some name with B as initial given my liking for
Bhavesh but I could not have explicitly stated it given that my family was not
aware of Bhavesh back then). And she brought me great luck. She was born
on 13th February 2017 and on 21st February I had sailed through Mains. The
two people with “B” as initials were my lucky charm.
But even before sailing through Mains, I was happy after witnessing
Bubbles’ birth. I somehow felt my father is back given the striking resembles
Bubbles had with Papa. I did not think about anything then. It was perhaps
that one and only day since January 2016 (when I had started preparing)
when I was not thinking about UPSC or related things.
So please realise, this is just an exam. There are many more things that will
make you ecstatic. All you must remember is to work your best, then leave
the rest.
Here I also must warn you of various forums speculating about cut-offs,
result date and “Pub Ad being butchered” etc. They are your worst enemies.
They add to your anxiety. You are always hooked to the webpage on your
phone or tablet, refreshing the screen every second hoping to get some useful
information.
But let me tell you from my own experience that no one out there has
credible information. UPSC is a deeply guarded institution and any leakage is
unwarranted. I had committed this mistake until Mains results were out but
once I moved on to Interview preparation, I completely gave up those
forums. I would suggest the same.
The result date should not derail or drive your study pattern. Results cannot
be changed. What you wrote is now sealed. People claiming that they know
“people” who checked copies might be legitimate claims but they can reveal
nothing about checking pattern. There is not a set answer key. Individual
discretion has some role in it.

So please do not waste your time over stupid forums and even more stupid
people who are creating propaganda. Once you are selected, you can create as
a many profile with funky names like raju_ias or coolguy_ifs but not now.
Wait until your final victory is sealed in that life-changing PDF.
Apart from this, please work on cultivating a hobby. You must have filled up
a hobby in your DAF. Make sure to develop it. Preferably, your hobby must
be something interesting. We have dealt with it in DAF chapter. A question
on hobby is unavoidable if your hobby is something unusual. And there you
score a chance to get ahead of others. My hobbies were: cooking fusion food
and spending time with animals. Fusion food was what caught the attention
of my interview board. I was prepared for it as well. I practised cooking for
quite a while after Mains and all the effort paid off.
Bhavesh’s hobby was learning new languages and he was asked by the
interview board to write his name in Bengali and Tamil. Given that he had
prepared for it considerably well, he pulled it equally well too. Such brilliant
was his performance that one of the lady member exclaimed- “Wow! We can
post him in any part of the country!” As a side note, of course now he is my
husband learning Telugu like a pro :)
That is largely about utilising this period to the maximum of its potential. It is
your choice to either waste time worrying about result or speculating about
cut-offs or using it to build up a fit body, acquainting yourself with a wide
range of opinions by reading 2-3 newspapers and making your chances of
making it to the list more certain.
Please remember that it’s a marathon not a sprint. Have patience in those 50-
70 days, do not overthink. Whatever happens, happens for good. And, last but
not the least, remember it is just an exam. You do not have to be an IAS or
IPS to be successful. If you’re smart, hard-working, confident, you will
achieve greater success than a District Collector or an SP. But if you believe
in being lazy, then you will end up on the losing side even if you become
AIR 1.
Be patient.

28: RUN UP TO
INTERVIEWS -MOCKS!
After completing the DAF component, it’s time to test the waters. Mock
interviews are a good way to see whether the DAF you filled would cut an ice
with the interview board. It will help you determine which part of your
personality you need to work on and what mannerism is expected out of a
civil servant.
As mentioned in the chapter on tests, 4-5 mocks are sufficient. Vajiram is
recommended in this regard.
Scheduling Mocks
After the results of Mains are announced, your interview slot is released
within 3-4 days by UPSC. The interviews last for 2.5-3 months for all
shortlisted aspirants. Depending upon your actual date of interview, you must
plan all your mocks.
Let me give you my example. The Mains result was declared on 21st February
and my interview date was 28th March. Almost a month’s time. I appeared for
some 5 mocks. So every weekend I appeared for one mock and the last mock
I took was on 22nd March. This was strategic. Do not appear for any mock
immediately before your actual interview. Because if you do not perform
well, you are pessimistic about your performance and do not do well in the
actual one as well.
If your interview slot is later, let us say in May (while the results are out in
February), then schedule one early- like February itself just to assess where
you stand and then appear for mocks only in late March or April. Do not
appear for too many mocks. They do little value addition. In fact they only
confuse you.

I remember I attended a mock in a 4-star hotel just because it was free. The
coaching had no reputation as such in Delhi but was known in Chandigarh.
The interview panel was inexperienced and they gave me sweeping
comments appreciating my English. I was on cloud nine thinking I am going
to ace the interview with 1000/275.
But it was far from reality. When I discussed my feedback with Bhavesh, he
told me UPSC people are not concerned only with your English speaking
skills. There is more to it. This reality check made me stop appearing from
more mocks. It was the last mock I took and I am glad I did so. Different
people have different perceptions and hence different feedback to give. Too
many mocks will only confuse you.
Before Mocks
Now that you have scheduled your interview, the next important step is to
take these mocks seriously. Prepare well in advance. Let us say your mock is
on Saturday, then you should divide time accordingly. Give at least a week of
preparation as per below schedule-
Monday:Do everything about your DAF. Everything. Make a laundry list of
all the questions that come to your mind. It is not possible to think every
question in one sitting but keep updating it. You should know the history of
your home town if it’s a heritage one. You must know about recent events in
your city, school, or your previous employer. Your hobbies should be
prepared accordingly. If your hobby is some sports, you require thorough
preparation. The terms of the sport (e.g. lame duck in basketball), prominent
international and Indian players (if any), tournaments/Olympics etc. These
are predictable questions and the board expects you to be knowing them. The
underlying rationale is that if a thing is your hobby, you must be passionate
about it. And if you are passionate, you become inquisitive. This curiosity
should lead you to knowing each and everything about that hobby.
Tuesday & Wednesday- Once sorted with DAF, the other pillar to conquer is
current affairs. Revise the major events that have happened over last one
year. Since mock interviews are in the month of or after Budget session, you
should be thorough with basic statistics like India’s CAD, fiscal deficit,
budget deficit, new/popular schemes introduced in the latest budget or
improvements suggested in existing schemes. I remember during my
preparation phase, MNREGS got its highest ever allocation in the budget that

year. I had prepared related questions on that (however, I was never asked a
question on the same. Anyway, better be over-prepared than under-prepared).
Also, do read the local newspaper. Times of India is best in this regard. At
this stage, 2-3 newspaper are mandatory to be read. Just some extra effort can
give you major lead in the actual interview. Moreover, the masala content in
newspaper like TOI is interesting to read as well.
Thursday- Here you should try speaking in the mirror just to check your
pronunciation, body language. Make sure you do not use too many hand
gestures. It can be offensive at times. Also, ensure that you sit upright,
maintain eye contact with the board members. Do not stare into their eyes.
Also look cheerful. Don’t smile too much, but just a little bit.
It is also advisable to have a look at the board members’ profile for that year.
Know a brief bio of all the members, not only the chairman. During my year,
Sujatha Ma’am, an IFS officer, was newly recruited as the member. Aspirants
who faced her panel were inevitably asked questions on foreign affairs.
You are not aware of which panel you would go, but then you must know
broad issues on which they can ask questions. An IFS is bound to seek your
view on an important policy matter, an ex-Air Force man might ask
something about air force. So on and so forth.
Friday- It’s a pretty relaxed day. Just ensure you dress appropriately. For
men, suit is advisable if it is in March. Please bear with the little heat. For
other months, light coloured shirt, dark trouser, tie and black lace shoes work
fine. For women, cotton saree or suit is good. Preferably light colour. I wore
a cream coloured suit for my interview.
This is the cycle for each mock. Over the next mocks your DAF knowledge
would increase, you would be able to remember current affairs more vividly.
However, you must keep updating your notes.
On the day of mocks, do read the newspaper of that very day. They will
certainly ask one or two questions from there. Read only the important ones
that would be printed across all newspapers.
During Mocks- Please refrain from making any politically loaded remark.
As a bureaucrat, you are expected to be politically neutral. Even if you are

posed question regarding stand-off between officers and the Delhi

government, do not vehemently disregard the political executive merely to
support the IAS fraternity. Take a neutral stand.
For issues that are controversial and pending in the court, the best way to
answer is: “Ma’am/Sir, the matter is sub judice and hence I think the law will
take its own course”.
As an officer you will be expected to be tactfully avoiding controversies, so
practice that. Also, do not stand by an opinion very strongly.
Let us say you a feminist and you are supporting the Maternity Bill but the
interview board argues that it is a substantial loss to the economy. Then
politely present your opinion. If the argument still goes on then take a step
back saying- “Sure Sir/Ma’am, I stand corrected.” Please don’t make it a
battle of ideology or ego. One minute of subservience can win you good
points. By submissive I mean you should at least present one argument. This
will show you have knowledge but beyond it, do not argue.
After Mocks
If you have recording of your mocks (generally they give it), then watch it
and see where you are going wrong. I had this habit of saying “You know” or
“Basically” very often. It was only after watching my video did I realise my
mistake
Also, make a diary of questions that you could not answer and find suitable
answers to them. Any missing out on such would weaken your confidence.
Take the feedback sincerely but do not take it to heart. The objective of a
mock is not fault finding. I understand that some of the boards disregard you
in every possible way. But that does not happen in the actual UPSC
interview.
You must treat all your mocks as the actual interview day but try to improve
and not get depressed with any negative feedback that might come your way.
In some mocks they would deliberately tell you to come again just to get
another round of fee. Don’t fall for it. Give another mock somewhere else
and if there are still some errors persisting, then work on it.

Mocks are a great way to assess and improve your performance. Treat their
feedback as important but take them to heart. Improve but don’t become
emotional.

29: ON THE EVE OF

INTERVIEW
Congratulations! You are at the last stage of becoming a civil servant- proud
and accomplished. But wait, stay calm. The interview day is very important.
You have come really far by surpassing a huge crowd of talented Indian
youth. Make the most of this opportunity by preparing yourself appropriately
for the D Day. This chapter is more or less a checklist that needs to be done
on the day of interview.
Dress Appropriately
As mentioned before, for Gentlemen candidates, it should be a dark coloured
suit with light shirt, tie, black lace shoes and socks. This is if the weather is
early March. It is not that hot back in Delhi at that time. If it is April or May,
you can let go the coat. Rest all remains same. Ensure to carry your
handkerchief. Sweat is inevitable in those situations.
For ladies, light coloured saree or salwar suit is recommended. If your
traditional attire mandates something else like a skirt or hijab, you can sport
them. UPSC is flexible with that. For ladies who are wearing saree for the
first time, make sure that you have worn them before at mock interviews.
Saree, as an attire, requires more effort in movements. Make sure that you are
comfortable.
If saree does not work for you, a salwar suit or churidar suit is equally good.
There are some perceptions that wearing a suit leads to less marks. That’s
absolutely untrue. I wore a suit and my friend Tejasvi Rana (Rank 12) also
ditched saree for a suit. We both got fairly good marks. If you are
uncomfortable wearing a saree and that becomes evident to the board then
you certainly end up on the wrong side. So no need to risk it. Your attire
should be decent and clean, no matter whether it is saree or not.

Eat Properly
I have always emphasized the importance of eating well before exam. It helps
you to think better. Interview is all about thinking on feet while maintaining
your calm. Eat a healthy breakfast and carry fruits along. Your bags are
deposited inside once your session begins, so the wait can be more than 3
hours if you are the last one to be interviewed in that session. (There are two
session of interview- Morning and Afternoon). You should carry a banana, a
water bottle, and some chocolates. That suffices.
Read Newspaper for that day
This is a very important part of your preparation. There have been interviews
where people were asked to state 5 important news items they read today. So
make sure you do not miss out on this. Bhavesh was traveling by metro to
reach Dholpur house (UPSC Bhavan). He read that day’s newspaper in the
metro itself due to paucity of time. You can read it on your way to the
interview as well only if your session is in afternoon. But I would advise
reading the newspaper at home itself.
Meditate
Your preparation for interview is incomplete if you do not put yourself
together. Meditation calms you down. You are able to collect all your
thoughts organise them and feel better. Your emotions are in control. And in
the interview room, the board members watch every little nuances. A calm
mind will be at ease and you would come across as a confident candidate.
Just ten minutes. Breathe deeply. Think positive. Visualise yourself achieving
great success in the interview. These thoughts will make you optimistic and
happy.
Arrive early
You must arrive at least an hour before the session timing starts. Generally
Morning session candidates come at 9 AM and afternoon at 12 noon. There is
a waiting room from the back side of Dholpur House where you can wait in a
shaded area. People accompanying you are allowed till here.
After the waiting room, only you can go inside. I went alone mainly because

I had no family living with me in Delhi at that time. And even if I had one, I
would not have liked them coming here given that it would just build more
pressure on me.
Make sure that you carry all your important documents:
● Interview Call Letter
● Class Xth Mark Sheet
● Graduation Mark Sheet
● Caste certificate (if not General category)
● PH candidate (if applicable)
● Additional course- PG/ Foreign Degree etc.
Even if you miss out on any of these on that day, please do not panic. UPSC
allows you to sign an undertaking that you whould furnish the missing
document at the earliest else your candidature shall be provisional.
Inside Dholpur House
Once you are inside the hallowed hall of Dholpur house, please do not chatter
here and there. You might see many familiar faces. You do not have to catch
up with them at that very moment. It can wait for your next meeting. These
things will only distract you. Focus entirely on your document verification
there.
Same rule applies when you are led into the corridors for the interview. There
will be newspapers kept at a round table. No need to read the last minute
thing. You have worked sufficient to reach where you are. The next few
hours only require you to be calm and composed.
Inside the interview room
Once inside the room, start with greeting the lady member (if any) and then
the gentlemen. You must enter with a smile, sit only when asked to. When
you sit, pull the chair close to you and sit with your back straight. Smile, not
laugh.
I tell you a litmus test if the board likes you- if there is some light moment. I
remember that one of the board member asked me what is fusion food
cooking (I had mentioned it as one of my hobbies). I gave a Wikipedia type

reply and then added: “but my mother thinks it to be no better than left-over
food cooking”. To this everyone smiled.
Apart from that, just say “Don’t Know” if you do not know an answer. If you
have the slightest of inkling ask for permission to make a guess. Do not ever
bluff. This goes down wrong.
This pretty much sums up your interview day. Go back to take some rest and
don’t stop the grind. The next day will be your medical exam. Make sure that
you reach on time.

30: AFTER INTERVIEW,

BEFORE RESULTS

I will start this chapter with the above picture that I borrowed from Google
Image Search. The picture was stuck on my study room’s wall (apart from
my father’s and Bhavesh’s). Its of Govind Jaiswal, IAS. As you can see in the
photo, sir was the son of a rickshaw-waala (rickshaw puller).
The reason I mention him in this chapter is to drive home a realisation. All
through your preparation you might have felt that you are working really
hard, making sacrifice by not attending friend’s party, doing a favour to
someone etc. Even I felt that sometimes. I thought I am making a big
“sacrifice” by not going abroad for an MBA just to stay with my mother.
Sometimes I even was under the impression that I am working “very hard” by
merely sitting on a chair and table for 10 hours.
But thinking about Jaiswal sir brought me down. Sir is an inspiration for not
only IAS aspirants but everyone who wants to be successful. Sir became
successful despite acute poverty- something that we cannot even imagine. He
worked way harder than what one might even imagine.
So don’t ever feel burn out. Never ever get tired. Remember there are many
people who do not even have a chair to sit on and are yet working every
second to move closer to their goal.
And now let us discuss the issue at hand- what to do when you have taken the
interview and results are yet to be declared. Like I mentioned, stay away from
forums for a while. At this stage, you can check them once every 2 days. No
more. It will distract you and increase anxiety.
Based on your performance, you might be having some inkling of your result.
For instance, based on my Mains, I was certain that I am making it to the list
but was not certain that I will get IAS. Below we discuss the three scenarios
that almost all aspirants face after interviews. You too would fall in any of
the three once you are done and dusted with the last stage of the exam.
Scenario I: When you are sure of making it to your choice of service
Congratulations! If you are certain to get the service of your choice, you
were not only successful at working hard but also good at assessing your
weakness and strength. Hopefully, your predictions will come true and you
will stand the test of time.

In this case you can relax for a while. Again the same one week rule- do no
studying at that time. Simply sleep, go on a vacation, meet friends, and attend
weddings and all that you have missed during preparation. You deserve it.
After the one week, please return to reading newspaper. You ask why? Well,
because UPSC is full of surprises. You never know when you might get
penalised for something you thought to be acceptable. What if you
interpreted the essay topic incorrectly? What if the interview board did not
like your opinion on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor? These things cannot
be predicted with 100% accuracy. So to shield ourselves from unpleasant
surprises, let us not lose the sight of our bigger objective. After all, once you
sail through, the party will never stop.
Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.
Scenario II: When you are sure of making it to the list but not to your choice
of service
This is an interesting case where you are 50% happy but 50% sad. You are
happy because you are no longer jobless (if you left your job for civil
services preparation). But at the same time you are disgruntled that you did
not land the job of your choice. Still there will be many who would have to
write the exam again if attempts remain.
It’s a mixed feeling in this case. But the best bet to do is to keep going. Do
not give up. Much like Scenario I, you must keep reading newspapers. Apart
from that, brush up Laxmikanth and NCERTs. That is all that it will take.
Remember you are in the most beneficial situation. If you do not get through
your desired service, you are utilising your time in the most optimal of the
way.
I belonged to this category. Like I mentioned, I was certain of making it to
the list but not sure of the service. I was not mentally ready to study the same
text books again and make notes for yet another year. I was idling away in
the time between results and interview. Thankfully I sailed through with 51
rank. Otherwise, I was not at all prepared for Prelims.
You must learn from my mistake. DO not waste time in that duration.
Another clarification is about joining LBSNAA. If you want to write the
exam again, then you will not be allowed to attend the Foundation Course

(FC) at LBSNAA. And why should you? You will feel much better attending
the FC when you are allotted the service of your choice. The FC is of 3
months and in that duration you can wrap up your Mains.
After Mains, you are sent to your respective academies. For example, IPS
goes to National Police Academy, Hyderabad and IFS goes to Foreign
Service Institute, New Delhi. So let us say you get Indian Audit and Account
Service (IAAS) and you want to write another attempt. SO you will not
attend FC at LBSNAA but will have to attend training at IAAS training
institute in Shimla. But by then you would have completed your Mains and
will have to prepare for interview from Shimla. Not much of a hassle.
Many of my now IAS/IFS batch mates were earlier in other services and they
had taken EOL (Extra Ordinary Leave) to prepare. Consequently, they did
not attend FC then but were still a part of service allotted to them.
EOL is unpaid leave. Also, an officer allotted to Indian Foreign Service and
Indian Administrative Service cannot take EOL to write the exam again. He
will have to reject the service allocation to be able to write the exam again.
Scenario III: When you are not sure of making it to the list at all.
In this scenario, firstly please analyse where you went wrong. Of course you
cannot wait for the score card to be released (score cards are out only after
final result). But you must be a good judge of your performance. As of now,
you should focus on revising for Prelims. They must be looming over your
head. Solving mocks should also be started at this juncture.
Stay away from anything that reminds you of results. My father would
always tell me that not a single page that you ever read would go waste.
Please believe in that. Everything that you ever read would be applied at
some or the other point in your life. Have faith.
This I understand is not a good state to be in. You had worked hard and
reached the last leg of the tiresome journey. It is painful and depressing. It is
difficult to convince yourself to study the same syllabus again. But there is a
silver lining to everything. Let me tell you the story of one of my batch mate.
He is a top 10 ranker in my batch but he failed to clear even the Prelims in
previous 3 attempts. But all those 3 years, there used to be no insider vacancy
in IAS in his home cadre. But this year there was one and he bagged it. So

you see, all good things come to those who wait.

Even I am thankful that I did not make it to IAS in 2016 because then
Bhavesh would have never featured in my life. Or even if he had, I would not
have got the chance to know him as much as I did during my preparation
phase.
Here I must also add that what if your evaluation of your performance was
slightly misplaced? What if you are making it to the list and perhaps your
desired service? Bhavesh did not fare well in Paper-I of his mathematics
optional. When results were slated on 4th of July 2015, he was certain of
making it to the list with some 300+ rank. But as luck would have it, his
interview marks made him sail past through some of the top 100 rankers who
were Mains toppers.
SO have faith. Be positive but keep studying.

31: WHAT IF YOU FAIL?

Date: 28th August, 2015
I was out of examination hall after writing Prelims, first attempt. I knew I was
under-prepared and even if the cut off was 90, I am not making it. I scored a
disastrous 71 in Paper-I. Back home when my mother enquired, I made all
excuses I possibly could. Mummy also knew that I would not sail through
given my preparation.
I later messaged Bhavesh too about the disaster and gave the most lame
logic- “Now that CSAT is qualifying, it is difficult to sail through.” 2015 was
the first year after introduction of CSAT that only Paper I (GS) would count
towards selection. CSAT being made qualifying.
My ego was hurt. I have been a fairly good student all my life and an above
average general knowledge person. This failure was hard to digest. “How can
this happen to me? I’m so intelligent!” I was down and out.
Now fast forward to: 31st May 2017 (after a year and half)
My phone had 7 missed calls from Bhavesh at 7:27 p.m. I knew the results
were out and probably a positive one (Bhavesh is too patient a person to give
back to back missed calls for a trivial issue). When I called him back, I heard
his voice in an excitement filled tone that I had never heard in 2.5 years of
knowing him. He exclaimed- “Tanzania it is!” We had planned to go to
Tanzania if I made it to IAS in 2017.
My house was flooded with relatives and media. I had tears rolling down my
cheeks. But believe me that feeling is incredible. Relaxed because you don’t
have to study those books again. Happy that you are settled professionally.
Accomplished because you make your family, friends, teachers proud.
Now compare my feelings on Date I and Date II. Had I given up on Date I, I
would have never experienced Date II- one of the happiest days of my life.

Moral of the story- do not be discouraged by your failures, they lead you to
success.
Let me give you a comparison with cricket. When preparing for Prelims, be
like Virat Kohli- aggressive, attempt every question, be spot on! When you
are in the interview, be like Rahul Dravid- calm, composed yet rock solid.
And in Mains, you have to be Kapil Dev- an all-rounder! You will be asked
questions from everywhere and you have to attempt them all.
I have failed in my first attempt and the feeling of self-doubt persisted until I
sailed through Prelims in August 2016. That one year duration you feel low.
It is natural. All your friends are either getting married, or are moving to
foreign countries. Whereas you are sulking with GC Leong and NCERTs.
But please don’t be disheartened. Visualise your end result. Think yourself
becoming the officer you want- Collector, Ambassador, SP, Income Tax
Commissioner.
Reassess your strategy. Think where you went wrong and work upon your
weakness. Let’s say you did not do sufficient answer writing, then please
focus on writing more and more tests this year. If you failed because of
wrong interpretation of essay topic then write one essay per week and get it
evaluated. If your interview score was low, focus on DAF this year. But
please don’t give up. The fault lies in you. Had you given your 100%, you
would not have failed.
Remember, tough times don’t last but tough people do. If you do not develop
mental strength right now then even in the service you will fail to succeed.
Don’t think what will others think or how come one of your friend is already
in LBSNAA. Focus on yourself. Remain in hibernation. Talk only to people
who motivate you.
Even if you have failed, do not make it a prestige issue. I know aspirants who
even after 4-5 attempts are idling away to give it till final attempt just because
they “have” to. Please don’t do it for revenge or ego issue. What’s the point
of impressing others when you yourself are not happy? And let us say you
could have done far better as a coder than as a collector then why waste your
skill? Sunder Pichai, Satya Nadella, Abdul Kalam, Indra Nooyi and many
others are not civil servants. But will we call them unsuccessful? Certainly
not. They are leaders in whatever field they chose.

Do not waste your life’s prime time by idling away writing half-hearted
attempts. Also, do not consider failure in this exam as the ultimate failure.
Extreme step of suicide is beyond my understanding. Were you born only to
become an IAS? One service defined your life?
Take a step back and go back to where you came from. I had planned only to
write three attempts. Had I failed in my 2016 CSE, I would have attempted
only CSE 2017. Not any further. As a back-up I had two options- I would
have either done an MBA (half-heartedly though) or resumed working.
I understand that not all people have the luxury of going back to their job but
you always have one option. You can pursue your higher studies- M.Phil. or
M. tech or PhD. You can join a coaching institute as a teacher. You can look
for a job with think tanks, NGOs. Opportunities are plenty. You just have to
be brave. Have a positive outlook and remember whatever happens, happens
for good.
When I look in hindsight and see my failure in 2015 CSE, I think it was for
good. Had I got through, I would have got my third or fourth preference
service. IAS would have been difficult for me given my preparation. In that
case, I would not have been able to prepare with complete focus. I would
have been a little relaxed thinking that I have one job atleast.
So always remember that if you have worked hard and been honest in your
efforts and still you are failing in your immediate goal, then something bigger
and better is in store for you.
Finally, I would also advice you to watch two movies- Dangal and Soorma.
Both real life adaptations who teach you immense discipline. They teach you
that legends are not born, they are made. You do not have to be an IAS’s son
to become a top shot bureaucrat. All you need is will.
All the best. Create your won success story, like I did.
One last time- Nothing else matters, everything else can wait.

71 To 51 My Journey From Failure

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My Journey from Failure to IAS

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academic issues like the chapter on GS papers (I-IV) to some personal

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But as is common in consulting industry, not every project is as exciting as

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to become a “Collector”. I remember a newspaper edition called “Josh”

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me that only being a good student is not sufficient to become a DM. My

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Apart from emotionally being drained, I also felt a lack of confidence. I no

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4: BHAVESH AND THE

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Months passed, we never interacted. I believe we even succumbed to oblivion

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with this. Below is our first movie date:

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5: HOW TO START- THE

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A very important first step is also to be stealth about your preparation.

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6: ALL ABOUT TEST

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If you write an answer with proper indentation, underlining the important

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limit. For a 10 marks answer, you must fill up 3 sides of papers.

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cost you your exam. So no experimenting.

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might consider it a waste of time and money. But believe me it is very

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9: WHEN THE GOING GETS

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can make you feel inferior without your permission.

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two examples- Bhavesh got a 209 in interview partly because he could