Zinnia Aurora
CSC: Heartiest congratulations to you from Civil Services Chronicle for your success. How are you feeling about it?
Zinnia: It is surreal and I feel ecstatic. I am now gearing up for my training at LBSNAA.
CSC: What is your inspiration for becoming an IAS officer? Whom do you give credit for your success? What is the role of family and others (teacher, friends) in your preparation and success?
Zinnia: It is a matured aspiration. I tried the corporate sector and the social development sector, post which I realised that true satisfaction, for me, lies in serving the nation through this medium.
I give credit to the Almighty and my mother. She has stood by me through thick and thin, even when everything seemed like it was falling apart. She has sacrificed her own night’s sleep for years at length to see me do something worthwhile and I will always be grateful for her silent but stout support.
Family and friends are the most crucial pillars that shape you into becoming a consistent and motivated aspirant that ultimately holds the key to success. In my case, I consider my mentor and professor, Prof Sanjay Rao Ayde as the guiding light of my preparation who always encouraged me and helped me believe in myself whenever there were torrential waters in my personal or aspirant journey.
CSC:What strategy one should follow for preparing Examination General Studies Prelims & Mains? Did you integrate your Prelims and Mains preparation or was it separate?
Zinnia: One should follow a step-by-step approach. Do your NCERTs, read the newspaper, evaluate yourself regularly, do previous year papers with a psychological understanding of the examiner and trend analysis, make practically feasible timetables, and most importantly, pursue conceptual clarity over rote learning. One should enjoy this process.
I did not integrate my preparation for prelims and mains in the truest sense because my initial focus mostly stuck to prelims. The readings are the same; the way of presenting is different. Hence, it is best to do them side-by-side. You have to read the same NCERTs, just contextualise them with current affairs. Apart from that, you need to hone your writing skills for mains. Thus, the basics are same, just the process of delivery onto paper varies.
CSC:How much time did you devote for this exam prelim, mains, interview, optional? How did you manage your time in both prelims and mains examinations?
Zinnia: My preparation did not remain well-planned but it remained conceptually strong. 3-4 months before prelims, I would stop studying for mains. Before that, I would break the day down into 30:70 ratio for mains: prelims because I found prelims to be a stronger hurdle given that I saw failure at the stage before.
In the 3 months before mains of 2024, I did my entire mains syllabus. I gave optional and GS the same amount of time.
CSC: What was your optional? What was the basis of selecting this optional? What strategy one should follow for preparing?
Zinnia: Political Science and International Relations (PSIR) is my optional. I selected it for the following reasons:
- Passion and interest
- Overlap with General Studies
Strategy for PSIR: Clarity should be the first pursuit. Making interlinkages, picking any 1 source as your basic foundation (for example, IGNOU), going through basic texts (books written by theorists rather than their summaries only). In my case, since my notes were not ready, I had to make quick-notes in the 3 months before mains. I would suggest not letting this happen so that you can focus on answer writing in those 3 months before mains. Apart from that, living the subject is essential because it is a live organism. There are changes all the time and so fresh examples, especially in Paper 2, can really help.
CSC: What was your strategy, preparation, and which books did you use for Ethics Paper IV?
Zinnia: It is best to start by making yourself known to the kind of question asked. There are 2 sections and going through previous year papers helps know the kind of depth and reading that the ethics paper requires. I researched the syllabus myself and took classes before mains. You too can do that apart from reading on each word in the syllabus. Aspirants can also read G Subba Rao Sir’s book on ethics for a very nice deep dive into the subject, for the paper and also for general personality development.
