Civil Services Chronicle October 2020

Abhishek Saraf - All India Rank - 8AIR - Civil Services Examination - 2019

C.S.C. : Heartiest congratulations to you from Civil Services Chronicle for your success. How are you feeling about it?Abhishek Saraf : Honestly, it is a feeling of relief. The CSE chapter of my life has ended and it ended on a happy note. It also feel humbled and overwhelmed at the same time by the result. I never expected such a high rank. I was expecting a rank around 100. C.S.C. : 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?Abhishek Saraf : I am naturally inquisitive. I like to learn new things from a wide variety of sources, apply what I learn in daily life. IAS provides the best opportunity for that. This motivated me to join IAS. The fact that IAS officers along with other civil servants contribute to the largest cross section of society and in the most direct manner inspired me to become an IAS officer. I am eternally grateful to God Almighty for bestowing this success upon me. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my mother. I would give the biggest credit to her. But credit also goes to my brother and sister-in-law, my whole maternal family and dear friends (especially Shubhanshu Jain, IPS) without whose support it would not have been possible. My family supported me financially, logistically as well as emotionally. They gave me full freedom to write as many attempts as I wanted to no matter how much strain it put upon them. They dealt will all the problems that arose themselves without even telling me so that I can study free of any stress. I would like to thank my friend Shubhanshu Jain, IPS for his critical inputs to my essays without which such result would not have been possible. I got 105 marks in essay paper in CSE 2017 and 79 marks in CSE 2018.. this is 40 marks below average. Hence, improvement in essay paper was critical for my success and I thank Shubhanshu for it. I would also like to thank Anmol Jain (AIR-14 CSE 2019) for his help in interview preparation. C.S.C. : What strategy one should follow for preparing Examination General Studies Prelims & Mains? Did you integrate your Prelims and Mains preparation or was it separate?Abhishek Saraf : As the name suggests, general studies is about working understanding of things. One has to balance depth with width of knowledge of the subject matter. Other than that, memorize the syllabus because that will help you sort out exam relevant material from whatever you read. It is advisable to read the toppers answer booklets. That will enable one to understand the depth of content that needs to be covered and also tricks topper use to improve presentation. It is advisable to do answer writing practice for at least 8-10 months in the first attempt. Answer writing practice will help only if answers are either reviewed by senior aspirant, selected candidates or self review based on top voted answer if one is using websites. Writing practice can be reduced further as one proceeds to second third attempts. Special mention can be made of the ethics paper, it is more about application and less about theory. Not more than 20% of the answer should be composed of theory and 80% should discuss real life application of ethical principles. Examples from one’s own life and life of other accomplished people can be used. Essay preparation- Two years of subpar performance (105 marks in CSE 2017 and 79 marks in CSE 2018) made me realise that essay paper is not about volume of content and the depth of knowledge. It is about diversity and broadness of perspective. The closest analogy I can give to make my point is that of a balanced diet. A balanced diet is supposed to contain all the major and micro-nutrients needed for human survival. Just like that in an essay there has to be a balance between a various perspectives of the topic. UPSC expects candidates to be knowledgeable thinking and analytical persons. Knowledge gets tested in GS papers and thinking and analytical capacity gets tested in essay paper. Lastly, you have to write only 2400 words at the maximum in 3 hours. GS papers make you write 4000 words. Less written words means UPSC has given time to think. So if you have brainstormed on a topic for 20 or so minutes, then UPSC has the right to expect some sort of learning or a logical way ahead that can help make improvement to the state of affairs. That is what the essay should be about- a discussion on the state of affairs from positive and negative perspectives, an analysis of the cause and a solution for a better future. Dear candidates, kindly do not just spill the existing knowledge in the paper. It will not yield you marks. Give your new perspective and an insight. I oriented my preparation and answer writing strategy as per the above approach. And hopefully it yielded benefits. For Prelims- Yearlong preparation with self-notes. Revision in last one month with test series. Overall target was to finish 4000-5000 question including quizzes and full length mock tests for Paper 1 of prelims. Quizzes had to be solved all year long and notes have to be made. Preparation for prelims and mains has to go all year round but separately. Even in the 1-2 months same books have to be read for prelims as well as mains but focus has to be on facts for prelims and analytical part for mains. C.S.C. : How much time did you devote for This exam Prelims, Mains,Interview,Optional ? How did you manage your time in both prelims and mains examinations?PrelimsPrelims preparation has to go all year round. Candidates can devote last 1-2 months for interview preparation as per one’s own convenience. Along with yearlong preparation as mentioned above, I used to devote 1 full month for prelims preparation. MainsMy optional was

Pradeep Singh - All India Rank–IstAIR - Civil Services Examination 2019

C.S.C. : Heartiest congratulations to you from Civil Services Chronicle for your success. How are you feeling about it?Pradeep Singh : Thank you I am feeling very happy and satisfied. C.S.C. : 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?Pradeep Singh : My inspiration for becoming IAS to is to work for the downtrodden sections mainly farmers and daily wage labourers. There has been immense support from family friends and teachers during my preparation. I would like to give them all the credit for my success. C.S.C. : What strategy one should follow for preparing for General Studies Prelims & Mains? Did you integrate your Prelims and Mains preparation or was it separate?Pradeep Singh : I think prelims and mains are the two different phases of the single exam and therefore one should prepare for each phase with a different mindset. However there is some syllabus that is common between prelims and mains and one need to focus on the factual aspects for the prelims and need to focus on building the opinion for mains. C.S.C. : How much time did you devote for Prelims, Mains, Interview, Optional ? How did you manage your time in both prelims and mains examinations?Pradeep Singh : I've been giving this exam since 2016 but started preparing seriously for this exam since 2017. I think one need to give focus to the mains and optional upto 6 months before the exam but last 6 months should be totally devoted to the prelims preparation. C.S.C. : Did you prepare notes? How helpful are the notes? What is your advice on notes-making?Pradeep Singh : Yes I also prepared the notes. notes are very handy when you have very less time for revision. One should make notes at least for the miscellaneous topics which you will not find normally in the conventional books. C.S.C. : What was your optional? What was the basis of selecting this optional? What strategy one should follow for optional?Pradeep Singh : My optional is public administration. I chose this optional because I have done BTech in Computer Science in Engineering which was not an available optional in the UPSC optional list and also I find it interesting and relevant to the service for which you are preparing. C.S.C. : What was your preparation strategy and books which you referred for Ethics Paper?Pradeep Singh : I have prepared some handwritten notes for the terms that is being given in the ethics paper 4 syllabus. for case studies I have practiced them enough before going to the exam. C.S.C. : Tell us something about preparation of Essay paper.Pradeep Singh : Essay is one paper which gives you the freedom to write freely in the exam. one should feel the freedom to write the essay. for preparing essay one should take cues from the topper’s copies of essay and from videos available on YouTube etc. C.S.C. : What was your style of writing in the exam? How was it distinct from the general writing style? How did you develop this writing style?Pradeep Singh : I did not have a single writing style in the exam . Actually one has to write the answer to the question according to the demand of the question. one needs to do enough answer writing practice to develop a style. C.S.C. : How did you prepare for interview? Which type of questions were asked in interview? Did you answer all? Was there any specific area they emphasised upon?Pradeep Singh : I prepared for the interview from various sources like internet newspaper magazine etc. interview mainly emphasized upon the government schemes , farmers problems , india china relations etc. there were some of the question whose Answer I wasn't able to give. C.S.C. : Importance of coaching in the preparation of exam.Pradeep Singh : The requirement of coaching depends upon various factors like availability of resources, study material , proper guidance. If it is available by any other means then there is no need of coaching. Otherwise you need someone while you start preparation and teach you if you are a fresh candidate. C.S.C. : Suggested Book list for Prelims, GS & CSAT and Mains Paper 1 to 4 and Essay.Book list for prelims Spectrum for modern history Laxmi kant for polity NCERTs for geography, Ramesh Singh or coaching notes for economics Pradeep Singh : Answer writing practice for mains for CSAT no specific book, just focus on basic reasoning and arithematic

Dipankar Choudhary - All India Rank–42AIR - Civil Services Examination 2019

C.S.C. : Heartiest congratulations to you from Civil Services Chronicle for your success. How are you feeling about it? Dipankar Choudhary : I am very happy. I am also very excited for new challenges and opportunities. Finally all my hard work and patience has paid off and I can take a sigh of relief. C.S.C. : 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? Dipankar Choudhary : My father who is a retired civil servant was my primary inspiration. I could see myself working like him. Civil services give you diverse opportunities and the chance to grow to your full potential. That itself was a huge inspiration for me. I give credit to my parents, my elder sister, my mentor Mr Smar Ranjan he is associate members of indian institute of public administration. He has always stood besides me throughout my preparation. He is truly my mentor in all respect. my friends and my fiancé (Tanwika) for my success. Family, friends and your mentor are your support systems, your pillars of strength and a source of constant motivation and guidance in this long and arduous preparation. They help in every possible way be it mental support, emotional support, financial support or guidance of any sort. C.S.C. : What strategy one should follow for preparing for General Studies Prelims & Mains? Did you integrate your Prelims and Mains preparation or was it separate? Dipankar Choudhary : Yes, the strategy should be integrated but there are times when you need to prepare separately too. 3 months prior to prelims, you should be more prelims oriented and after prelims you have to be Mains oriented. C.S.C. : How much time did you devote for Prelims, Mains, Interview, Optional ? How did you manage your time in both prelims and mains examinations? Dipankar Choudhary : I started preparing in 2016 and in 2018 I was selected with a rank of 166 and was serving as an IPS in Kerala. So almost 2.5 to 3 years of dedicated preparation. Intially, like I said my preparation was integrated. For optional, it took me 5-6 months to finish it once and cover my basics. Thereafter I polished it; added more material, examples, theories; wrote test series and kept discussing with Smar Ranjan Sir. I used to put in 8-10 hours of dedicated study everyday after I left my job. C.S.C. : Did you prepare notes? How helpful are the notes? What is your advice on notes-making? Dipankar Choudhary : Yes, I prepared notes for optional, ethics and modern history. For current affairs and everything else, I relied on the books and magazines but I used to scribble at the margins, cross reference everything and highlight using a marker. They served as my notes and I revised them over and over again for, maybe, I guess 7-8 times. I also prepared diagrams and flowcharts for many topics in my notes. Notes are very important. They help you to revise speedily. As far as my advice goes, you can and should make notes specially for optional. The notes should be as concise as possible. You should be able to revise the entire paper 1 or paper 2 of your optional with the help of those notes in 2-3 hours. The same goes for any subject you choose to make notes for. Making notes for current affairs can get very bulky in my opinion, so better rely on magazines and newspapers. But if one feels that some topic for current affairs is difficult to follow and understand then one can make notes for it. C.S.C. : What was your optional?What was the basis of selecting this optional? What strategy one should follow for optional? Dipankar Choudhary : My optional was Public Administration. I chose it because I had a very good mentor and the syllabus was simple. Moreover it overlapped with GS Paper 2, Indian economy, social issues and ethics. For optionals it is very important to make notes and read good books. One shouldn’t completely rely on readymade notes but make it for oneself. Also keep reading Yojana, newspaper, NITI Aayog website etc for case studies, examples etc. Write test series to gauge your level of preparation. C.S.C. : What was your preparation strategy and books which you referred for Ethics Paper? Dipankar Choudhary : I relied on class notes of Mr Sanjeev Kumar, my public administration notes wherever they overlapped and examples from various sources like newspapers and Yojana. I also wrote test series for it. C.S.C. : Tell us something about preparation of Essay paper. Dipankar Choudhary : For essay I practiced a lot and focused on my flow and lucidity. The essay shouldn’t look abrupt and bumpy. The connection from one paragraph to another should be smooth. You don’t have to prepare extra GS topics for essay. All you should do is practice and focus on your writing skills. The trick is moderation. Use of examples, stories, anecdotes, facts, case studies, personal life examples, quotations from eminent people, poems or couplets etc, but all in moderation. To develop these practice a lot and get it reviewed from peers and mentors. Read good essays written by toppers. C.S.C. : What was your style of writing in the exam? How was it distinct from the general writing style? How did you develop this writing style? Dipankar Choudhary : I focused a lot on presentation i.e. use of diagrams and flowcharts. I used it in almost 8-9 questions in every paper. Don’t overdo it though. Interlink your content by using cross referencing when revising as I have already mentioned. Focus on an edge of 1-2 marks in each question. Write answers point wise and also number all your points. You can use paragraph for introduction, conclusion and to connect two different parts of the answer but these should be brief, to the point and crisp. Avoid flowery and flamboyant language. C.S.C. : How did you prepare for interview? Which type of questions were asked in interview? Did you answer all?

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