 Hi, my name is Joel Ibrahim and I secured 167th rank in the UPSC civil service examination of 2022. So basically I'm an electronics and communication engineer, graduated from St. Gitt's College of Engineering back in 2020, post which I decided to take up civil services. And when I look back, it was in fact my college life that prompted me to take civil services. Because towards the end, the final years of my college life, I got the opportunity to lead various events in the college to build last teams, coordinate people together. And all these activities made me feel that I can contribute something beyond engineering into the field of administration or into the field of leadership. And also when I was studying in my college, especially I was very instrumental and a very big part of the IEEE student branch of our college, a technical society. But the student branch of IEEE at our college also used to have very, very socially relevant activities. For example, something that I remember right now is the initial disaster response that we had towards the Kerala floods of 2018. So all of these activities, all of these different events prompted me to think different and to take up civil services in the long term. And in the year of 2020, that is March of 2020, I decided to shift my career from engineering and it was a critical decision in fact. And when I look back, I do believe that it is in fact one's courage to take bold decisions at some point of their life is actually what that prompts and helps them to achieve things that are very significant in their life. Also, that was about the motivation, my motivation to join the civil services. And speaking about my journey of the civil services, when I was preparing for this particular examination, I kept three principles as very important during my preparation. One is actually that minimal is always beautiful, that one has to learn to limit one's content, limits one's learning to the very basic sources and understand the concepts very well, especially the terms in the syllabus and use these concepts and use this understanding to develop a thinking ability by which we can solve questions with the very minimal information that we have. And the third is a tried and tested but very important strategy that is the revised test, revised test strategy. One has to practice things daily, like practicing MCQs, practicing questions and also a revision plan is very important because this exam is not about learning a lot of things, this exam is actually about recalling the things that we have, the minimal things that we have in the most proper manner. And that is the problems in the mains and when it comes to the personality test, again it is the practice, practice that makes perfect. So in the personality test activities like group discussions, peer group discussions can be very beneficial in providing an original concept, an original idea to the different problems that we have in the society and we can also share information with our peer group members and create a very good thinking, very good opinion on different issues that we have. And that was all about my strategy. And when I look back at this point of time, I do realize that my journey into the civil services preparation was in fact a very long journey. It took almost 2.5 years, 2.5 years for me to clear this examination and 3 attempts. This is very hard, this journey. So it is very important that we are confident and we are positive in this particular long journey. And what we can do for that. Number one is what I think is very important is having a very good support system that helps us in our demotivated times. One thing that I remember very specifically is last year, last year I missed the cutoff by 6 marks and the interview was also very late. For example, the interview, my interview at that point of time was on 24th May of 2022. The results came almost one week later and I had the problems at the beginning of the June. So I had just almost 5 or 6 days to prepare for the next problems and I was in a very mentally weak condition. And it was in fact my mentors at that point of time that motivated me to strike back. I still remember the message that was sent by one of my mentors and it said one more push you are through. And this particular message, this particular code gave me a lot of inspiration. So a good support system is very important in the form of mentors. It can also be in the form of your parents and also your friends can also play a very important role. Because when we talk to our friends about our journey, we understand that all of us preparing for this particular examinations share very similar concerns. And knowing that all of us are on the same boat or on the same page will actually help us to feel a bit calm and share our worries with them. So that is important. And the second thing is never ever overdo oneself. Like there may be instances when we actually feel to learn a lot and learn for like 12 or 14 hours a day. But learning more doesn't matter. It is learning in limited time but consistently. Like for example I used to have this idea of learning just for 8 hours a day or maximum 7 to 8 hours a day. But keeping that particular time limit consistently for over a long period of time. So it will help you to keep your efficiency intact in your preparation journey. And also the mental and physical well-being of the candidate, of the aspirin is also very important. It is good if we can exercise regularly. It is good if we can actually do things like yoga for example. So that our physical and mental health is intact and a very good sound mind, a very good physical health is very important for us to study things and also to write our exams very well. Especially the mains. And that is all about my journey. And when I speaking about my association with the Shangri-les Academy, it began with the interview preparation back in the year 2022. So we had couple of mock interviews here. And also we had very good classes. Especially regarding the current affairs topics that help us to revise the contents, revise the different important topics before the personality test. And also I do remember the guidance, the support given by Lina Sebastian Ma'am. And the guidance that she still gives in various aspects of the preparation. So thank you Academy, thank you Shangri-les Academy. And all the very best to the future aspirins. Thank you.