 Hello friends, I am A.K. Mishra, Founder and Chairman of Chanakya IS Academy. I welcome you all to this program, Success Speaks. As you know, this program I have designed especially for you, demystify a lot of things related to civil service examination. Most of you always have a fear whether you can do it or you cannot do it. That is why I select one candidate in every episode and make you understand that fears are fears, their realities could be different. So today with me in the studio is Swamit Kumar who has got all India 53 rank. It is his third attempt in which he got it and his journey is really interesting for you because he began from a small village background of Pihar and today he has reached here after his three attempts. In the first attempt he could not clear free. In the second attempt he got all India 493 rank and was allotted Indian defense state services and today after getting 53 rank now he is going to be allotted Indian investigative service. So welcome Swamit to the studio with all congratulations and best wishes. Thank you. How are you feeling after getting this rank? Sir, this year the enthusiasm has been less because when you get selected first time it was more. So the last year I was very elated and happy that I have got the results and I had the confidence in me that I will surely succeed the next time and get into IS. It means that in the very second attempt you had got this clarity that what I have got now I am fully prepared and whatever I have missed now I will cover up and get this rank also. So you have got 53 rank. But how your all journey began? What has been your family background, which place you are from? Just tell us in brief. Sir, my father and my native town belongs to a village background and I was being shifted to one of the hostels at the age of 8 years and from then I have been away from home and it is the vision of my parents to send me to a place where I could get an education of very high quality, be it primary, secondary, higher education so that my career is set accordingly. This is very interesting for the audience to know. You said your father sent to hostel in a days of 8 mostly it is done by the people who have high economic resources and everything. So it would be very very important for the audience to understand what has been background of your father what he does and why how this idea of sending to hostel came in his mind. Since he could not do much in his life and my family is well educated, my father has around 5 brothers and 6 sisters and everybody is away from the village and he is a lone person who is in the village. What he does? What is his profession? He is a goldsmith and he very well devotes his, he does hard work and he always thinks about his children. So but this is interesting to know a person who could not do much as compared to other brothers. Normally in such cases a person gets inferiority complex that I could not do it but what kind of strength do you see in your father which really started making him dreaming about you? He is very patient and perseverance, I have inculcated these qualities from him. He always has something in mind and he always does it and he passes on these qualities to me also. So he had the reason that since he could not do it he will ensure that he still do it and we are equally successful and they wanted us to become very much responsible citizens of the country and do well in a career and think for the nation. What is your father's name and which place you belong to? My father's name is Shishosil Kumar and he belongs to Sikandra block in Jammu district of Bihar. So when you moved to the hostel at the age of eight only, do you remember your journey how that happened and how you raised up to engineering to Kanpur? So there was a moment when father sacrificed his good food and good clothes to pay the fees of mine in the hostels and successfully I managed to be the topper of the school and I was receiving scholarship each year of around 40,000 rupees, the fees of the school was 50,000. So in the five years of school in Madhukpur in the state of Jharkhand, I managed to do one year of five years study in one year school fees. So that was the help for him to ensure that he continued my studies and after that I went to Bukharu in state of Jharkhand where I further continued the studies. In the after passing 12th in the freshman attempt, I cleared ITJ and I went to IT Kanpur. There also I received the scholarship which helped me in ensuring that my studies went well and after that I pursued two years of job in a private company named PricewaterhouseCoopersPrivateLimited where I ensure that I saved enough money for my preparation. This is very interesting because you have supported each other, your father kept of that then you with your hard study and sincere study you earn scholarship for yourself and made it possible. So it can be a joint venture of economic management in the family which you have done. This is really very interesting. Now to begin with you know there is always a demotivation factor whether I can do it or you cannot do it. Most of the people coming from the rural areas or humble economic background they have if think whether it is possible for them or not. So what message you would like to give to them? They are lack in confidence. So it is important for them to realize their potential. Because they are being clear on this they can achieve anything because the hardship they face is much greater than what the other people who belong to economic background face. So that belief has to be put inside the brains of them and then once that is realized that potential is made aware of to them they can achieve anything. Normally actually the challenges which come in the life people take it as a curse of God or maybe they are not lucky enough. This has been my experience also in my life and also while dealing with the students all through that only those people succeed in life who take all the challenges and opportunity as opportunities to succeed in their life. If there are troubles there are problems on the life they should be taken as challenges not as curse on them and this is what comes in your life also. So now after completing this education when this idea of IS came in my mind concrete idea like one idea was given to you by your father that I want to see is an IS. But that is a dream the idea comes well in reality when you can see in your mind and then you start working sincerely for that. So when that idea really got concretized in your mind. The concrete idea of becoming IS came in third year of college where alumni of my college who already had become IPS FS or IS officers and they came to a college to basically give a lecture on what is the profile of the services. So I decided to attend that lecture and the interaction we had in that course was that the impact which IS officer other bureaucrat does in his career is very huge. For example a district consists of around 14 lakhs 15 lakhs of people. So you can actually manage that district and make impact on those huge number of people. So that idea actually convinced me to pursue this civil service as a career. See you had an option to work in the corporates get her salary package but that you sacrificed you said I hope to do something where you could be close to the public deal with issues and problem of society and contribute to the nascent building. So that is something which really is inspiring behind you. Now well begin is half done this is the old saying right civil service exam is taken most by most of the students as really very difficult to crack right. You also have gone through three stages years of preparation you could not make in the pre you second attempt you got selected for with the rank of 493 and the final attempt 53. So it has been very interesting journey for the people who want to begin with kind of your background what suggestion would like to give to them that they can make a solid strategy for the preparation. Three things are important in this your hard work your consistency and the right approach to this exam. So I want to emphasize on the third aspect because first two are self-explanatory. This exam is not so transparent because you are not shown your weaknesses through your main copies. So you have to work the other way around in which you have to ask the toppers about their strategies and then adapt according to your personal strategy. You can ask for around four to five toppers about their studies and then imitate those and be successful. Or you can watch the interviews and such program or even the success speaks program yes that would help the students to analyze. I have also watched the success speaks and other interviews of the toppers which comes. This has been very helpful for me to frame the right strategy and then particularly follow the approach which I have personally built. See the right strategy in that includes also newspaper reading because current efforts has a major share in this whole examination. It has to be connected with the current perspective. So which newspaper to read how to read is also a question right. So what newspaper you are reading? I read Indian Express. It is important to read one newspaper because two newspapers becomes very difficult to manage time. These paper reading is an art. Some people keep wasting four five hours in that ideal condition is one and a half or something one hour you can read. So how to identify which is relevant to read which is not relevant to read a newspaper what has been your approach? It is important that you cover the issue aspect in the newspapers rather than through official news. So it is important that you go through the syllabus and past five years question papers and what has been being asked in the past five years. UPSC always is one step ahead of the candidates thinking. So you have to cast that approach and see that the issue which you read through newspaper and grab is holistic and it is directly the issue part. So you have to extract those things from the newspapers. It actually gradually was with time and you will get to understand the issue which has to be read from the newspaper. Basically one has to be clear about the syllabus. This is first thing. Second thing previous question. So that will give a kind of guidance and clarity for that. Then there are so many things in the newspaper but what as an administrator you should focus on is important. Now there are certain pages like what is the importance of first phase. Let us discuss a bit on that. What is this? We importance of the first phase to read. The first two pages which I read in the newspaper was the basic news which are really burning issues and any current is right. So this is basically superficial news on which issues has to be dealt and it is given in the newspaper in the editorial sections. So the next comes the editorial section. You can have highlights of the news in the first phase and the news phase but to get issue best information you should read editorial pages thoroughly right. Also in next phase there is a phase on explained section where issue is dealt end to end holistically. So that particular thing. Which phase is that? Explained. So that phase has also benefited me because I am always curious about the things which happen. So it gives me entire information and also deals the topic issue wise. So in those two sections editorial and explained are the most important ones according to me and then comes the world part. World news. So you have to be cautious that you do not understand only the news part. You have to understand what affects on India the policies which developed and developing countries frame or the regional and global grouping frame. The impact on India has to be understood and studied accordingly. Did you prepare some notes also out of the newspaper? Yes. So initially I used to make huge notes which was which became voluminous and couldn't study. So from that particular thing I realized that it has to be very crisp and has to deal end to end holistically. So whenever a newspaper came daily so I used to make a particular topics wise notes and whatever things came after reading gradually I used to make an amendment in those notes and I used to further elaborate on those. It means that you created some basic structure on the burning issues and the matter and you keep changing and supplementing the facts and figures which started coming on that. Is it you want to say? Yes. So I used A4 seat notes which I used to keep in files. So whenever some addition comes in between those issues I used to basically put up in file and then there then and there write it from newspapers. But if any has replacement then old things can be removed and the new phase you could insert that way. The idea is to remain connected whether now since we are talking about current efforts on the whole. So newspaper is one part of that. Did you read some magazines also or did you watch some television program or radio would you like to highlight that also? Yes. So initially in the two years of my preparation I used to read newspapers. In that period I basically understood the whole holistic things on the happenings which happen in the national or international arena. After that I found that it is becoming monotonous and my efficiency is getting reduced by reading newspapers. So what I did during means was I used to read current affairs magazines which deals the news for the last one year and I used to make notes then and there through those magazines. But it has to be kept in mind that newspaper reading is important for the personality test stage. So the newspapers which I let for means came back and that came back by reading two newspapers for the personality test stage. So you made a combination of all the things there. The idea is that whether you watch television or you read newspaper some discussion so that you have the different perspectives being clear and all that. And with basically time management also is a very crucial thing in this exam right because students feel that they might have to read for maybe 15, 17 hours, 18 hours and they will have to sacrifice everything in their life and they work on that right. What is your experience? How much time you were devoting to your study on a regular basis? These civil service exam initial preparation of mine was a three and half years of investment. So in the initial two years I used to read around 10 hours daily and gradually after that I reduce it to 8 hours because it is important for me to pursue hobby also because it gives me relief from the tiring studies which I do every day. So it is important to have a balance between the studies and the fun you have. So basically in the initial years you needed 10 hours but gradually you developed efficiency to do the same thing in 8 hours. Secondly what is important is you also practiced hobby. What was your hobby? Sir my hobby was watching TED Talks and playing cricket. Apart from this I am basically a sports person so I also play badminton, volleyball. So that is also good. So I usually try to remain fit also. So these are the hobbies which I do. Even in the UPSC one special column is about the hobbies. Many of the students they think that they just have to be studious. They do not need hobbies but hobbies are also very very important to recreate you, regenerate you. I will keep you completely charged on that. So that is what you have been doing. So time management basically you decided your priorities, you made your health also good keeping yourself fit physically also is very important and so that you do not waste time falling sick time and again that is also very important. And more important is how effectively you are working. And the number of hours there is how many hours you have to breathe. Hello friends my name is Dilip Pratap Singh Shakawat I have secured all near rank 72 in this year civil service examination 2018 and now I am here to share my experiences of the mock interview for UPSC. I think mock interview for UPSC is very very important because it helps you to assess your level of preparation for the actual personality test at the UPSC. So in this context mock interviews always help you to give a very good feedback about your strengths as well as weaknesses so you can always gain confidence from your strengths as well as you can learn from your weaknesses and rectify them in due course of time. In this sense I would like to mention the role of China's IS Academy the mock interview which I gave at the China's IS Academy was very helpful for me because it was the last mock interview which I gave before the actual interview of UPSC and it really helped me to gain that confidence level back because I was facing very low because my final mock interview didn't go really well because I was facing such problems like I was nervous before the interview and hence I went to China's IS Academy gave a mock interview there and the board was very professional it was very cordial they asked me all the questions related to my bio data they assessed my personality in a very nice manner and boosted my confidence in the right time and that helped me to go with full confidence in the actual interview and in this way I was able to get very good marks in the interview which helped me secure IS in this attempt. In CRT books reading is also always the fundamental things which I when we suggest most of the people will suggest. So, in in CRT book what was your approach which you would like to suggest to others? In CRT I considered it to be a brief notes of all the issues you study in this exam. So, NCRT has to be covered by revising it multiple times and the notes making of NCRT I would not suggest because it itself is a criss-notes of whatever you study. It is better to mark the lines on that and maybe inside you can write the brief of that right. And NCRTs are to be studied in the context of the past year question papers and the syllabus. And it gives you a particular style of reading all the other books which you will gradually do after reading NCRTs. So, this basically helps you in clearing all the fundamentals and creating a structure then you can build your further studies and answers on the structure which has been created there. And NCRT how many times you read NCRT? So, means I have lost the count actually. So, several times you may have said. So, I think there was one book of geography and history that is so much underlined that even other people see it and they become fearful of it. How many times? So, that is the idea reading same books several times is more important rather than one one book one time and getting confused. This is the message which is coming from your thing you read it, it lies the things there right. It is important to read one book 10 times rather than 10 books one one time. So, it is not a question of completing the books it is a question of being precise mostly students go for voluminous studies of books and they say that they can do well because IAS exam is there. So, they should not read the thin books right idea is that they should read relevant things according to the syllabus and previous year's questions must be kept in mind always they have read. So, with let us discuss about the preliminary examination which is really very challenging large number of students appear and even you could not make in the first attempt. So, to be safe and secured in the preliminary examination what are the best things you can suggest. What I learned from the first attempt which worked for me in the second attempt was that I had enough knowledge in both the attempt. What I lacked in was the practice which I did for prelims in the first and the second attempt. In the first attempt I took around 3 to 4 tests while in the second attempt I ensured that I would take more than 30 tests. Oh very big number of tests. So that was a 10 times jump from the earlier attempt and I ensured that I revised all the tests. The knack of taking test is that you get to know what strategy you have to follow. So, there are people who attempt around 70 questions are get qualified but there are also people who take around 9 above 90 question attempts and then they become successful. The latter was the strategy of mine because I used to make lots of mistakes and my accuracy hit ratio was not so appropriate. So, through test I developed that how many. So, you mean to say test is one important thing which one should try but then study first the study base and how to memorize things how to keep in mind and syllabus is quite extensive. So, what kind of approach you adopted to ensure that you have studied most of things there. So, the revision is the key in all the stages of the exam. So, I ensured that I read one book and revised it multiple times and this test practice papers and the study goes in tandem with each other. So, whatever mistakes you do in the test papers you analyze that and ensure that you read those particular topics more carefully than the other ones. So, here prioritization of topics also helps in clearing. That is very good and now talking about the main examination. What are the difference fundamental differences or similarity which you have to make between pre and mains? Generally, there is an integrated approach to. That is the best approach. But you have to adapt according to the questions asked in both exams. Reliance is basically a horizontal knowledge test exam while mains is vertical knowledge test exam. So, you have to deep dive into the issues to study basically in the preparation. But you have to go deeper inside the matter in the main exam. So, I basically what I did was whenever Prelims exam came two or three months before it I went into the mode of horizontal knowledge. And after Prelims exam I went into the mode of vertical knowledge. And I prepared the issue wise notes of mains examination and revise it multiple times to ensure that I answer the questions well in the main exam. Very good. So, basically the writing skill has to be worked on. There could be some issues and problems, best studies to make on all the subjects there. Optional subject is very important and selection of that you are engineer, but you have taken anthropology. So, what are the basic parameters on which you can select an optional subject? The parameters of selecting my optional subject was simple. That your mind goes into the studying of that particular optional. You are devoted to study multiple times particular optional. Second is the availability of material and guidance for that particular optional. Third is how the optional is fairing in the civil service examination. There might be a case that you are very good in our college background subject. But that option may not be fairing well according to the train which is going on. But anyway, your first choice was the interest in the subject which is very, very important. If you do not have interest, the other things will not fall off there. That is very important. And how much time you took to prepare your anthropology? Sir, I took around 5-6 months. It means that in 5-6 months, a candidate can take any new optional and can prepare. There is no need of having really background in graduation also, even if you do not have background, 5-6 months are enough to prepare that subject there. Now, finally, I would like to know about your interview experience. Twice you have gone to interview. What the interviewers want to see new? Sir, basically the knowledge has been tested in the prelims and main examination. What the test? Finally, in the personality test is are you fit to be an administrator? So, my interview marks has actually jumped from 140 marks in 17 exam attempt to 179 marks which is very, very good jump to make my rank, pull my rank into the top 100. So, again the approach has been changed from the earlier exam. Earlier, I used to put up points like the main examination. More on the facts best, right? And I did not substantiate enough by three examples of which would make interesting the conversation of the personality test. This time, I had made sure that the conversation remains interesting and it focuses on the social aspects which is what you do as an administrator to focus on the people. So, in that way, I have molded my approach towards personality test and I have read the evidence. That is very good. That is it. Basically, it is an assessment of your personality. They want to see your integrity, your emotional intelligence, legislative quality and how you are honest in your approach there. So, that is not the basically facts best in test, it is more of a assessment of different traits of personality which are going to be suitable for every service. That is very interesting. Now, you have become IS and you have certain dreams in your mind. So, what do you think you have right now? You can visualize where you would like to work on and focus on. Sir, my key areas which I would focus on is education and since most of the people focus on education and I also want to venture into areas like economy and agriculture manufacturing. So, and work for the vulnerable sections of the society. What message, Sumit, you would like to give to the students of your kind of background who come from villages and they have economic challenges in the family also. What would you like to say? I want to give a simple advice to them that have confidence. When you have confidence, 50% of the battle is already won. After that, you frame the right approach and you ensure that you assess your strengths and weaknesses and work on it because most people are resistant to change in their strategies, in their approach. Either they become inferiority complex people or superiority complex, right? So, it is important that you become flexible in approach and accept the mistakes and then revise the approach and then succeed. So, that is the thing and in this I would like to quote the philosophy of Nishkam Garmain Bhagavad Gita that you have to only do your work, the fruits or the results will automatically follow. So, basically when you do work sincerely with the result and the award also comes according. So, God bless you, Sumit, you are and best wishes for a wonderful career in IAS. God bless you. Thank you. I hope your success story discussion with me will help many to connect with you and strategize for themselves. Thank you. Thank you. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon to never miss an update.