Civil Services Chronicle June-July 2021

Deepak Kumar - Rank–10 AIR - BPSC

C.S.C.: Heartiest congratulations to you from Civil Services Chronicle for your success. How are you feeling about it? Deepak Kumar: Thanksa lot. It really feels special to get the first choice post. It seems the years of labour paid back. There is a feeling of gratitude towards all who supported me in this long journey. C.S.C.: What inspired you for becoming a BPS officer? Whom do you give credit for your success? What is the role of family and others (teacher, friends) in your preparation and success? Deepak Kumar: The work done by various IPS officers in public field and especially in my district has inspired me to come in this field. Recent work of Harprit Kaur madam, the work of Paresh Saxena sir and work of IAS Kundan Kumar sir inspired me a lot. The credit of my success goes to Mami-Papa, my elder brother (Arun Kumar), my respected teachers who have not been merely teachers but the guiding principles (like Sarvesh Sir, Lalit Sir), Shubhash Chandra Bhaiya (IRS), and my close friends. Role of family remained vital in supporting me with all the resources they can. Teachers and friends played very important role in making preparation, selecting right resources and directing my preparation in right direction. C.S.C.:What strategy one should follow for preparing General Studies Prelims & Mains? Did you integrate your Prelims and Mains preparation or was it separate? Deepak Kumar: Analyze the syllabus, previous years question paper and understand the demand of exam. Map the areas form where questions are being asked again and again, and prepare for that area based on its importance form exam perspective. Aspirants should have a basic and pragmatic calculation of marks they need to score in various papers to get the desirable rank and post. Choose optional wisely.Preparation of prelims and Mains in an integrated way was my strategy.Whatever facts & figures, standard books I studied for prelims, I used those concepts, facts and figures for mains as well. It helped me saving time and fruitful utilization of knowledge I gained through prelims preparation. C.S.C.:How much time did you devote for Prelims, Mains, Interview, and Optional? How did you manage your time in both Prelims and Mains examinations? Deepak Kumar: Since I have prepared Civil Services twice and qualified its prelims two times, I just prepared for Bihar special – mostly form Crown Publication books, then current affair from Bihar Samgrah, and science portion form Lucent General Knowledge. All this I covered in 20 days. For Mains, apart from standard books for civil services exam, I went through the book by Sarvesh sir for Bihar specific approach. Answer writing in Sarvesh sir Test series for BPSC helped me a lot in Mains and discussion of test was really helpful. For optional, I followed IMS study material both for UPSC and BPSC with some selected books like Malik and Arora, books of Krishna Series. In BPSC, questions are relatively easy and IMS materials are enough for preparation. For interview, I attended Mock Test of Sarvesh sir, in 63rd BPSC I also attended the mock of Patanjali IAS and Dristi IAS. C.S.C.:What was your optional? What was the basis of selecting this optional? Deepak Kumar: Math was my optional subject as I enjoy this subject since my school days. It also gave me window to study non-humanity subject. So, a balance between Math and GS helped in continuing my study for long. C.S.C.:How did you prepare for interview? How should one prepare for the interview? DeepakKumar: I prepared for interview on general terms like about myself: educational background, optional, why in public service, hometown/village, about Bihar, and potential and issues state is facing. Current affair is particularly important and questions are asked on the issues trending at the time of interview. One must be ready for logical questions rather than factual questions. One should try to be apolitical and stick to constitutional provisions. C.S.C.:What is the importance of coaching in the preparation of exam? Deepak Kumar: I particularly didn’t attend class room program of any coaching institute. But, for test series of good quality like that of Sharthak Samwad for BPSC is very helpful,and test discussion is even more important. Writing GS test series in exam mode helps in developing answer writing approach. C.S.C.:What is your source of preparation? Which books, magazines, newspapers and online sources were used by you during preparation? Deepak Kumar: Some youtube channels like Mrunal helped mein developing the basic understanding of history, geography and economics. After that, I read basic books for Civil services like – Lakshmikant for polity, Spectrum for history. For BPSC, special Sarthak Samwad books on Hisotry,Polity and economics are really helpful. C.S.C.:Suggest book list for preparing Prelims, GS & CSAT and Mains Paper 1 to 4 and Essay. Deepak Kumar: Book list for Prelims: Lucent (especially for Science), Crown Publication – Introduction of Bihar or Bihar ek Parichay (Imtiyaz Ahmad), Bihar Samagrh for current; For Mains: Selected topics form Lakshmi kant and Spectrum, and Sarthak Samwad. Along with this, newspaper-The Hindu or Indian Express are very

Kirti - Rank–1 AIR - Gujarat Judicial Services Examination - 2020

C.S.C: Achieving top slot in the Judicial Services Examination is no small feat, accept our heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.Kirti: Thank you so much. Much obliged. C.S.C: Describe the exact moment when you came to know about the importance of Judicial Services? Kirti: It was after I visited a court for the first time and witnessed the fame and respect received by the Judicial Officers. C.S.C: Many candidates have set impressions about Interview Boards. Do you consider such thoughts help or hinder one’s performance in Interview? Kirti: No, not at all, since the Board is there to select and not to reject candidates. One should focus on his own personality, legal knowledge and work on building own confidence instead of setting impressions about the Interview Board. C.S.C: What was your first step when you were really serious about making a career in Judicial Services? Kirti: I joined Ambition Law Institute, Delhi which I consider to be my first step towards my journey. C.S.C: In how many attempts have you achieved this success? How do you visualize your preparation/previous attempts? Kirti: This was my fourth attempt. I was used to analyse each attempt and tried to make amends in the next attempt. C.S.C: Were you preparing for other career opportunities as well while preparing for your ultimate goal i.e. Career in Judicial Services? Kirti: No, I prepared for the Judicial Service only and wanted to focus on it. I thought that my best efforts would come out only when I dedicate better part of time to preparation. C.S.C: While the changing economic environment offers immense lucrative career opportunities in various sectors, still what kept you motivated towards Judicial Services? Kirti: The dignity of this post, opportunity to serve the society, and my family’s support kept me motivated. C.S.C: What’s important and what’s not? Share your thoughts and opinions. Kirti: Most important thing is to have faith in ourselves despite of many unsuccessful attempts. Secondly, patience is very important. Surround yourself with people who motivate you and stay away from negative thoughts. C.S.C: ‘Time Management’ is a key factor while making preparations as well as in writing examination papers. Did you come across such a problem during this period? If yes, then how did you manage things? Kirti: Definitely,while I was in Ambition Law Institute, Alok Sir always told us to focus on answer writing.Answers should be specific and must also be done in a time bound manner. In Ambition Law Institute, we used to get a topic daily for answer writing, which certainly helped me during Main preparation because through that I did daily exercise of answer writing. I had covered quite a number of topics already. C.S.C: List some of the Magazines, Newspapers, Books, etc. which you read for ‘General Studies’ preparation. Kirti: For magazine, I studied Civil Services Chronicle and for newspapers, I read The Hindu as well as Indian Express. C.S.C: How did you prepare for the Interview? How was the interview Board? How did your interview go on, how much time it lasted? Kirti: My strategy was to be thorough with the Law subjects and also be aware of recent judgments of the Supreme Court and High Courts. I also did research about the latest amendments.My interview board was very polite and my interview went well. It lasted for about 10 minutes. C.S.C: What is the importance of medium of language for exams like JSE? Kirti: It doesn’t really matter if one has good command over his language. C.S.C: According to a recent report published by a reputed survey agency, Civil Services Chronicle is the largest read Career & Competition magazine. What is your opinion? Kirti: So true, I along with my other fellow aspirants highly relied upon Civil Services Chronicle for GS preparation. C.S.C:To whom would you like to give the credit for your success? Kirti: My parents, they constantly supported me throughout my journey. I believe that god has been very kind to us. I would also like to thank Ambition Law Institute for guiding me through this journey. C.S.C:Any suggestion/advice you would like to give to the future aspirants. Kirti: Never give up. Keep working hard and have faith in your preparation. Hard work always pays off. C.S.C: Thank you very much and wishing you all the best for your future

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