 I will give a small introduction about her. She is from Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh. She has done her graduation in IIT Delhi from Engineering Physics. And she was with corporates for two years. Then she quit her job and started preparing for civil service examination. In her second attempt, she has cleared this examination with All India Rank 489 and got into Indian revenue service. Then in the third attempt, she has cleared this examination with All India Rank 3. Congratulations, ma'am. Thank you. For the next half an hour to 45 minutes, she will share the experience. She will share the journey what she have gone through in this last two, three years of preparation. And then we will have a question and answer session. You can type your questions in the Q&A box. I will moderate the questions on behalf of you people. And Ms. Pratipa will answer that. So with this short introduction about her, I will hand over the session to Ms. Pratipa. Ma'am, the session is yours. You can start the session ma'am. Thank you for the introduction and warm welcome here. I am actually very, I am looking forward to have this interaction, this fruitful interaction with the audience here because I haven't yet interacted with aspirants and haven't received their questions directly. So it is actually a good platform for me to reach out and help as many people as possible. So I hope with this talk, I would be able to address few of the questions, few of the commonly asked questions and it will be to a great benefit to all the aspirants. So I will first start with why I was motivated for civil services examination. So as he has already told that I was born and brought up in Sushantpur. It is a small district in Eastern UP. So I come from a place where generally what happens that if you're good at academics, the career choices in front of you are either be an engineer, doctor or become a DM. So this is what we are told. So my family was also inclined towards the idea of me entering into civil services. Then even then I was not very inspired by this idea because first of all, I did not have any kind of guidance or experience as to what I would like to do in my career. Then when I moved on to IIT Delhi, there I actually started having experience of working in social sector, working in development sector. I worked with a number of NGOs there, which were there in the field of education and women empowerment. From there I realized that in our society, there are a number of people, there is a number of section who do not have access to even the basic services that we take for granted. So I wanted to help them. But even then it wasn't very clear to me that I was willing to enter into civil services. So I went on to work for two years in private sector and there I realized that this is not the case for me. The work is not very satisfying, very fulfilling. I wanted more challenging roles. So then I looked back at what my family was thinking, what I had earlier thought during my school year that civil services could be a good option for me. That's why I decided to leave the job I was doing even though I was getting paid handsomely. I was not satisfied in the work. It wasn't a fulfilling job. Then I came in 2016. I came to Delhi to have a proper preparation plan and devote all my time towards this journey. So it started in 2016. I gave my first attempt in 2017 where I failed in prelims. I could not clear it. That was a big setback for me and that was actually a moment of realization as to what my weaknesses were, why I was not able to clear it. A number of students as parents face the similar kind of problem that since prelims is one of the most difficult stages of this exam. It is where the highest number of students are filtered out. Out of a lack student only 10,000, 12,000 are able to write main examination and then when I looked back, when I self-evaluated, when I made some introduction, I realized that my problems lied in the idea, in this fact that I refer to a lot of sources. I read a lot of things but I did not revise any of them for sufficient amount of time. That was the biggest weakness, that was the biggest mistake that I committed. The second one was that I did not practice enough. I did not take enough mock test for prelims so that I could test myself that whether I'm on the right path or not, just reading stuff doesn't work here. You have to put a lot of hard work into practice and revision also. Third mistake that I made in my first prelims was to not have a proper strategy, proper plan and a proper routine for studying all these things. There are seven subjects and then there is current affairs so you have to study a lot of things that cannot happen without a plan. So these were the mistakes that I committed in my first exam. So when 2017 prelims results came out, I looked at the number of marks I had gotten 98 marks in prelims and cut off that it was somewhere around 106 or 107. So I missed it by seven to eight marks. So I had to cover that miss distance. Then after that I prepared my strategy for prelims because by then prelims was the biggest fear for me. I prepared a strategy. I looked at videos by a number of toppers that years that what they have done. Everyone told that they stuck to just one source, one standard reference book for one subject and then current affairs along with that and they revised that thing over and over again. There were a number of toppers who had practiced 60 to 70 mock tests. I knew that it was impossible for me. So I prepared, I set a number for myself that I would attempt 35 to 36 mock tests. That is one complete test series from any coaching institutes. They provide good quality of questions. They are trying to every year improve that. So I stuck to one coaching institute's test series and I solved all of the questions there. So I started with this strategy and it really gave me great results. I got 124 marks in my second prelims which is supposed to be very good. That year cut off was somewhere around 100 to between 100 and 105. So I had about 20 marks more than the cut off. So this strategy of practicing a lot, revising standard material which was limited in amount. So maximum revision of limited amount of material over and over again basically helped me in improving my memory about all these things. So when you are distracted between a lot of materials, you're not able to memorize everything. So understanding the limitation of human brain, I started working on the strategy that has proved successful for a number of years. I did not improvise upon that and prelims actually came out very good for me. So after prelims when it was over for a week, I sat down as to how should I prepare maze because I did not have a strategy for maze. I gave all of my energy towards clearing the prelims. So when I sat down, started looking at the means of syllabus, then I realized that means is even bigger than the prelims. So it was a mistake that I committed myself just to prelims. So this was a second mistake that I made in my second attempt. As you all know, he has already said that I got 489th rank. I could not become IS that year. So there must have been a number of mistakes that I made. So I'm going to tell you about what those were. So I sat down to study for maze. I had to prepare for optional, which is for 500 marks and it is itself like a study. It is itself like completing your graduation in just four months. It is huge for any optional out there. Then there was essay, there are four general studies paper for which we do not completely study when we're preparing for prelims. So there are papers of society, social justice, international relations, security and ethics for which we do not actually prepare a lot when we are studying for prelims. So I had to study all these things and I had just four months. So I knew that I had to prioritize in some of the areas. So I started with optional and ethics people. I gave maximum amount of time in these two areas. I got 10 best marks in these two areas. Apart from that, everywhere I had gotten below average marks. Paper one, two, three and essay. The second biggest mistake that I made during my second attempt was ignoring essay completely. My friends told me that essay can be attempted just by practicing in last month. You don't need to focus on that area. I listened to them and that was a mistake. So I would tell you that you have to prepare for all these things, essay, optional and general studies paper together. You cannot ignore any of the areas. You never know where you will get least marks and you will miss out getting IES by just five, six, 20 marks. This is exactly what happened to me. So not having a proper strategy or proper plan of mails paper, which is the most important stage of the examination from the point of view of getting you the best rank. So how much you score in the mails, how much you score in mails stage becomes the criteria of what rank you are going to get. So mails part because of me ignoring the main study part, not practicing answer writing, not being able to revise it enough time because I did not have, I did not study for mails before prelims happened. So these were the mistakes that I made and I did not get IES. So when I came out after writing mails, I knew that I will not be able to clear IES this year, even if I get to give interview. Fortunately, I got a call for interview and then I started preparing for my interview preparation, which went pretty okay. I got 173 marks in the second attempt when I gave my first interview that year. Fortunately, I was also able to clear Indian forest services. I had gotten 13th rank there. So that also became a motivation for me that somewhere my preparation is going in right direction. I just need to refine it more. I just need to make few changes there. Then again, after the results came out, I sat down and I looked at what mistakes I had made during the main stage. Remember, I had already found a good way to prepare for prelims. So I was pretty confident this year that I would be able to clear it easily by just sticking to the same formula. So the marks are not out yet. However, I'm expecting that I would be getting somewhere between 130 to 140 marks in 2019 prelims, which is again a decent score. So I was confident about the prelims part. Now I had to master the means part of this examination. So again, I started looking at the topics videos, a number of people such as Akshav Jan, who had gotten second rank last year, and Kanisha Katadia, Shrishti Deshmukh. I looked at their videos, what they had done. So one of the things that impressed me most of that, they had focused on their own notes making for the final revision and how their note making became a framework for answer writing in the final examination. So I thought this is actually a great idea that you have about, let's say 80 to 100 topics combining all the four papers of general studies. If I have just one to two pages of notes on all these topics, then my whole means general studies part would be covered in 200 to 250 pages, which is very easy to revise. So when I looked at this idea that actually it is a very efficient way to study for means. So I started doing just that. I started preparing my own notes on every topic of society, which was actually I never had read that much in before for society part, for paper two in entirety, quality, governance, international relations, paper three, economics, environment, and security, and then paper four, whole of ethics. I prepared one to two pages maximum notes for all these papers. And that was very fruitful. Let me tell you how, when I used to prepare my notes, I always used to write everything in point format. I always used to write for every topic, a definition, a good statistics or data or a very prominent report about that topic. Then what are the problems related to that? What are the government efforts in that direction? And what is the way forward? This is exactly what you are required to write in the final answer. This is what you're going to do. So actually, when I was making my notes, I was at the same time, simultaneously, I was preparing for answer writing. Then the second thing that I did was preparing my own framework, own blueprint of answer writing. And I stuck to that. I did not look at any toppers copies that year, because I had already done it previously. And I knew that I can't replicate all these things. I have my own strength. So according to that, I prepared my own answer writing strategy and I stuck to that. Third part was brainstorming. It is very difficult to write answers every day. But once you have actually mastered the time management part and the writing speed portion where you have to finish writing 20 answers in three hours, I first did that. In first two months, I actually wrote a number of test papers. And when I was confident that I can finish all 20 questions in three hours, I stopped answer writing and I started brainstorming the questions. So I used to go to the market, get all the test series papers which were available freely. I used to get that, go to home. And then every question wise, I used to think, what is the demand of this question? I used to highlight the keywords and then start thinking, what is the reason for this, why this question has been asked? What is going to be the answer to this? And then I used to read the model answer. So that way, continuously, I was thinking about the question and self evaluating my answer, comparing it with the model answer, then whatever important point or whatever important information that I had missed, I used to highlight that. And then add that part to my notes. So in this way, the practice was continuously going on. And I was getting a good platform to revise what I had studied earlier. You all know by question answer method, you are able to revise anything very efficiently. So I started doing that by myself and it actually gave me very good results. When I finally sat down to write the main answer, main question papers in the 2019 final examination. Actually, when I read the question, I was so comfortable with this thinking process that it just used to take me half a minute to one minute to frame the answer in my mind. And then I used to write it quickly. So it saved me a lot of time. In GS paper one, I finished the whole question paper five minutes before the time was over. So this whole process had made me very efficient in this area. So that was all the things that I did, all the things I tried, I learned from my mistake, I still I respected my strength and weaknesses, find out in what areas I can improve. Then after all this, I got the interview call for 2019 CSC 2019. And obviously, I was confident about the interview part as well because I had in last year appeared in two of the interviews, one for CSC and other one for Indian Forest Services. So I had a pretty good idea. Then for interview part, the most important things that I did, I would like to share that with you. So first of all, I looked at the transcript of previous years, where whatever question the interview panel had asked aspirants, they share their transcript, I looked at them, I identified the questions that were related to my background, my detailed application form, I prepared Excel sheets for all of those questions. And then I started trying to answer it in front of mirror taking a half a minute to one minute per answer. And then this practice made me very comfortable with speaking in front of people and thinking about a proper answer in just a second, just five to 10 seconds. Second thing that I did was preparing for the interview with my friends. They used to ask me questions, I used to answer them. So that practice gave me a lot of confidence and my interview preparation was refined a lot. Third thing that I did was appearing for the interview in front of panels that are actually organized by a number of coaching institutes. I took their help, they gave me great feedback, and I incorporated whatever was important for me. So that was a practice part of interview. As far as preparation part goes, I started with looking at each and every point in my detailed application form, my home state, my education, my graduation, my graduation subject, and my hobbies, my areas of leadership, and the awards that I had gotten. Also the previous employment. So I prepared notes on each and every aspect of all these areas. I used to sit down and imagine what possible question can be asked in this area, and I used to answer them in front of them. Apart from that for current affairs part, I stuck to reading Indian Express, which is a very good newspaper. And apart from that, I also prepared the static portion of means. Means that I had prepared notes for all the topics. I revised all of these things once again. In a situation if they ask any question from the means, I'm ready to answer them. So this was all about my interview preparation. Now I would like to talk about one of the most frequently asked questions. Why did I choose my optional? I had taken physics optional. So a number of aspirants face a lot of difficulty in this area. So when I came for preparing for this examination in 2016, I also faced a similar same dilemma as to what should be the best option. I already had a science background because I had studied from IT Delhi in engineering physics. So this was one area, one optional that I could take. But from physics optional, actually a very less number of students get selected this year, selected every year in fact. So that was a very big problem. Then the second option was to take any of the humanities optional, sociology, political science, public administration, which are the most popular ones. But then I started with analyzing my own strength and weaknesses. Optional, you have to study the most, you have to devote a lot of time and you should be able to enjoy that option and you should be able to be confident when you're reading that thing. So I know that physics, I'm already aware of everything what is happening in physics, I have studied it pretty well. I can perform decently in this option. I knew that. On the other hand, when issue of humanities came up, I knew that my areas of weaknesses lied in writing good answer. I had weak language skills and weak writing skills. I had completed my schooling in Hindi medium because of that, I was not that much comfortable with English back then. So I was aware about this weakness and I did not ignore that part. I stuck to this myself analysis and on the basis of that, I opted for physics. And I would advise all the aspirant to go through the same process. They should look at the syllabus of all the optional. If they can find out, they should look at the standard books that are referred for that optional, they should analyze their own background. If you have already studied something in graduation and you know you are comfortable with it, then you should go ahead with it. Do not listen to what people in the markets are saying. People in the coaching institutes are saying because they are not aware about your strengths, your personality, your weaknesses. You are the best judge of that. Have trust in yourself and decide on the basis of that. Now let's, I would actually discuss in very brief about what were the major problems that I faced. I already talked about the issue of language. A lot of students from Hindi medium will face a similar issue. The only thing that I can tell to them is that I have reached to this level by a lot of practice. There is no substitute for practice and hard work. If you think you are not comfortable in English or because you have taken Hindi, it is stopping you or any other language and that is going to stop you, then that is just a mental block. I had also faced the similar kind of fear and a lot of inertia because I thought I would perform poorly if it came to speaking in English and writing in English. But if you have set a goal for yourself, then you have to go through all these things. The second thing was that obviously I did not revise and practice enough when I was going for first two attempts. Again, the similar fear and inertia I had to shake it off and start with a proper plan and strategy. The third problem that I faced was essay writing. I had weak language skills and writing skills. Also, I did not have a lot of content when it came to writing 1,000 to 1,200 words for an essay. When I listened to the toppers, they all said that content of essay comes from general studies. If you have not studied general studies well, then you would definitely face this problem. I stuck to preparing general studies, paper one, two, three, four in its entirety and in a very comprehensive manner. Because of that, when I finally sat down to write my essay, it became very easy for me to produce the content. Then the next part was to organize and structure it. That came from writing a lot of essays. So, when I appeared for CSC 2019, I had written about 15 essays before the final, before the final examination. So, that practice helped me a lot and I would recommend doing the same with all of you. Third issue, third problem, the next problem, the fourth one, is about how to prepare current affairs. So, in market, actually, a lot of current affairs material is available and people get confused. They have this habit of buying everything. They have habit of buying notes of magazine of three to four coaching institution, which is unproductive. It is not efficient. Do not do that. What I did was I started reading newspaper from day one when I came to Delhi. It took me a lot of time before I understood what is the important part of the newspaper. So, I would tell you it is the front paper, the economy section, the world section and the editorial section. Apart from that, most of the news is not important for UPSC. So, you just have to devote your time very effectively four to five pages of a newspaper. Then, the second thing that I did was I was reading a vision IES magazine on monthly basis. That actually, that was the only thing that I read for current affairs. Apart from that, I had not, I haven't referred to any other current affairs magazine. So, this was my plan that I cannot read materials from two to three coaching institutes. So, find the best one and stick to that. Stick to revising that over and over again. So, I prepared my notes also for current affairs from the vision IES monthly magazine. That is the only current affairs source that I have referred to. And as far as taking notes from the newspaper is concerned, I did not do that on daily basis. I did not use to write in a separate copy or anywhere. I had prepared my own notes. Let's say I have taken a note for judiciary. The notes are in two pages and then there comes a very important issue related to judiciary. For example, the contempt of court issue that is in the current affairs. If you have prepared your own notes on this matter of judiciary, then you can just add one to two lines about the contempt of court issue in the end of your own notes. That's it. You do not need to write the whole editorial or the whole story that is appearing every day. This is not important. If you look at the previous year question papers, you would find that UPSC does not ask editorial value question. They ask very specific question. If a question about contempt of court is to come, they would ask, what is it? What are the issues related to it? Then you would have to write three to four points that there is no clear rules about it. It could be misused. Judiciary is becoming the judge itself in its own manner. So justice has been denied. All these things, these are static things. You do not need to note it down from the newspaper because you have studied this in Lakshmikanth quality portion and in the current affairs magazine. You're not required to write down the whole editorial. A number of people are doing that on a daily basis. It is wastage of your time. It is duplication of your effort. I did not do that. I just used to write maximum one to two lines that were very important in my own notes. I did not prepare separate notes for newspaper. In that way, my notes were integrated. It contained both parts from the static portion. I used to write relevant articles with respect to judiciary in my notes. Then what are the issues? Solution, government efforts, way forward. And then at the same time, I used to add relevant current affairs related to judiciary in that notes itself. I did not have a separate notes for newspaper. So that was one thing. Then apart from that, again, I would just like to summarize what worked for me. It was note making that was highly fruitful. It gave me answer writing format. I revised multiple times my own sources, which were one single reference book for one subject and then current affairs. So multiple revision of limited sources was actually very beneficial for me. Then practicing both for prelims and main and again for interview as well. Practicing is the key to master all these stages of the examination. You have already heard that practice makes the man perfect. This is what you are required to do in this examination as well. Then at the end of it, because I was doing the same thing over and over again, I had a proper daily routine. And by the third time, I had a good strategy. I had a good planning. And when I was seeing the growth in myself every day, that I was writing better answers every day, I obviously started to enjoy the process. And with this enjoyment, with this reiteration, it became easier for me to stay committed to this goal every day. And that was really a very, I would say a gratifying process for me. It was in the end became about self growth. It was became about making myself better, making myself, taking myself to the level that is required for me to become an IS. Remember, you are trying to become an IS. So you have to improve yourself. The exam is not going to get easier. Every year, there are better candidates coming. Every year, your competition is getting even tougher, even bigger. So you have to come to their level by a lot of hard work, by rigorous practice, dedication, and obviously persistence. So these were the key to my preparation. And if you, all of you have any question regarding my journey or any tips with respect to the exam, you can go ahead and ask. Thank you, ma'am. You have covered extensively about all the stages of the examination. Thank you for that. So we have some questions in the Q&A box. I will just moderate that for you and just ask us for that. Many of the questions were related to current affairs. You have covered it extensively, but still people are like scared about current affairs. They wanted to know what kind of newspaper to refer. You have referred to Indian Express, but most of them are referring to Hindu. You said that you have referred to Vishnaya as material. So notes making is very important. Can you just summarize everything with regard to current affairs alone? Okay. So you are required to read one good newspaper. Hindu and Indian Express, both are fine. You can stick to any one of them. Personally, I started liking Indian Express better because I thought that it aligned more with the civil services preparation. If you like reading Hindu and you think it is beneficial for you, you can stick to that. So I would like to cover this in more detail. I was reading Indian Express when I was preparing for prelims and means, but when it came to preparing for interview, I started referring to one newspaper completely related to economy and business. So that gave the broader viewpoint of what is happening in our country with respect to economy as well. So this is about the newspaper part. And then actually, you don't need to be scared for current affairs. I believe that coaching institutes are doing a pretty good job of summarizing everything that is happening over the month in under few relevant articles that are related to the syllabus of the general study. So if you look at any of the current affairs magazine, personally, I liked Vishnaya because it was a very structured and organized content. If you're looking for that, you can read that. And if you find any other current affairs magazine good, then that is also good for you. Do not refer to multiple sources. That is one advice for you. So if you look at any current affairs magazine, they would divide everything in sections. First would be quality, international relations, then economy, in the order of how it is arranged in the general studies syllabus. So quality is first topic of paper two. Under that, you would find several heads. Let's say contempt of court is an issue. What is the issue of COVID-19 and federalism? You would find the coverage of that. So they would give you introduction of that. Why is it in the news? Some related statistics. What are the reasons? What are the problems? Solution, government efforts, way forward. This is exactly how you are supposed to prepare for the current affairs. So you don't need to be scared for this. This job has become very easy with a number of materials around us. You just have to pinpoint to a single source that is best for you and revise it over and over again. And how are you going to derive maximum benefit out of current affairs? I would tell you the secret of that. It is not unknown to anyone. You just have to take a printout of general studies syllabus. Sit down with that when you're reading for current affairs. When you're reading a particular topic in quality, for example, contempt of court, then look at the syllabus. Where does that topic fit in? It fits in judiciary. There is a second topic, COVID-19 and legal issues or federalism. Where does this topic fit in? This fits in center state relationship. When you can relate current affairs topics to the syllabus topics, then you would be able to include these things in your answer. So this practice has to be done. If you do that, then your preparation of current affairs is going to be very effective. And how did I incorporate current affairs in my notes? I told you, I prepared my notes on topic wise. I told you how I related current affairs topic to the syllabus topic. So I have notes on a syllabus topic, let's say center state relation. And there are important provisions with respect to COVID-19 where DM act disaster management act under that act center to control over all the decisions in India, which does not happen normally under constitution. It happens under emergency articles, but this time it was an unprecedented event. So you have to note this note this down under center state relation. So this is how you derive the maximum benefit out of studying current affairs by practicing this process. Then at the end of a month, you will actually get very efficient at doing this. You would be able to do it very quickly. So this is how you cover current affairs. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. The next question will be taking tests for the preliminary examination. A candidate is actually decided among how he takes the test and how he actually revises the test question papers again after a test is being given. So what strategy you followed with respect to taking a test? So can you give an insight about it? Okay. So for prelims test specifically, there are a number of good tests available in the market. You can refer to Insights, Vision, Forum, whatever. Even Shankar IS gives very good test series. So I had looked at all of that. I chose one and I completed all the test of that particular series. So I used to prepare for prelims examination completely just two months before the prelims examination. So if it is on 30th May, I would start preparing in April and May. I would give these two months. So I used to actually practice questions every day. I used to sit down and take a test series. They take one test of ended question and I used to solve it every day. Then after solving the test, obviously I would check how many marks I am getting. Then I would read the description of the answers where I have made mistakes. What mistakes did I make? What were the tricks that I could adopt to make such questions correct in the final examination? Remember, you have to adopt a certain number of tricks to get the questions right. And that comes from practicing the mock test. So I started doing this. Apart from this, the test series, one most important goal was to find out how many questions I am going to attempt in the final paper. A number of people are comfortable with just attempting at the some attempt hundred questions even then they don't clear it. So you have to find your accuracy rate. So when you are preparing, when you are writing mock prelims test, you should find what is the accuracy rate and what is the sweet spot where you are getting the maximum number. It could be additive question at 90 question at 95 question. For me, it was 95 questions. I attempted 95 questions in second and third attempt. And as far as revising the test series is concerned, I did not revise it because I think it is duplication of effort. I have read everything from the starting book and I have read everything about current affairs in my current affairs material. So if I am revising my static current affairs material as well as the test series, it is actually wasting my time and I did not do that. If you feel you should revise then go ahead with it. The next question is like maintaining the motivation map. So this examination you need like one year of preparation and the examination itself takes one year journey. So minimum two years of patience is required and you need to maintain the motivation for these two years. So that should be very difficult for most of the students. So how to have kept your motivation at the higher level so that you will be not like you will not feel down in the preparation time. So what is the solution for you ma'am? So one thing I would like to share here is that I was motivated by this very fact that every day I am moving closer to my goal. So how does that happen? How does that feeling come that you are actually moving ahead? You are not stuck. So your motivation you I feel it personally I feel that you lose your motivation when you feel stuck at one place or you think that other people are moving ahead faster than you. In my case I knew that what are my strengths and weaknesses? I would like to emphasize that again. I came from a school where I studied in Hindi medium. So I had to get comfortable in English. That was one area. I was weaker in answer writing. That was one area. So you have to write down your weaknesses and you have to work upon that. So every day when I was writing answers I knew that I have moved one step closer to my goal. So every day when I was improving upon these areas my motivation was becoming even stronger that I can do it. So in order to maintain your motivation you have to keep moving ahead on your strategy on your path. If you are not doing that it is obvious that you would lose your motivation. If you come if it is natural to compare yourselves with other if other people are doing better than you then you would lose motivation and how to beat them at this game is by taking yourself forward and that happens when you have a proper plan. I had a proper plan as to what things I have to read in how much time and how much time I have to give for practicing a test. How much time I have to give to read a newspaper. I had not just had a daily routine. I had early plans decided for me. I had my weekly plans. I had my monthly plans. And when I was completing each and every stage I knew that I have grown that I have acquired that much knowledge and just a little bit is left. So when you see that only a small amount of things are left to do then obviously you would do it. If you do not commit to your own schedule your own plan your strategy then you would say that there is a mountain ahead of you and you would lose your motivation. So this is how you maintain your motivation by moving forward. There is no other way to do that. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. The next patient will be regarding time management. So starting the preparation will face a lot of problem in managing that time especially if they ask like how to manage reading newspapers. I consume like three hours, four hours a day for newspapers. So how to manage the time. This is a very big question specifically for the newspaper I will address first then in general time management. So for newspaper you just you can only afford to devote one hour to one and a half hours. Anything more than that you're actually wasting your time because every day there is nothing that important in newspaper. So that comes that also needs a practice of at least one month because when you first take a newspaper everything looks important but it is not. You just have to read the most important pages. I already told what those pages are and then you should be able to highly efficient at relating whatever is appearing in the newspaper with the topics of general studies syllabus. For that for reading newspaper also you should keep the syllabus in front of you so that when you come across the news you should be able to figure out whether it is important or not. When you filter out all the unimportant content then actually it will not take more than one hour and the second thing is if you are in the habit of preparing notes every day from the newspaper obviously it will take a lot of time and I think it is not required because current affairs magazines summarize these things very wonderfully very efficiently you can refer to that. So that by doing this you can minimize your time that is going for the newspaper. If you're taking more than that then you need to self analyze whether it is a problem of concentration, focus or you're trying to do multiple things at once because of that you are being so inefficient. If it is taking more than that then this is a problem of inefficiency and you have to shake the sphere out of your mind that probably you will miss one or two news items that is going to come in brilliance. It is not going to happen. Do not worry about that and address the problems that you're facing. Three hours is not required for the newspaper. If you're doing that then you are inefficient. You need to solve this problem by improving your focus, concentration and by getting into the habit of filtering unimportant things out and then the second part is managing time for time management in general. So obviously when you are sitting down to study you can in a stretch only study with a lot of focus for up to 1.5 hours to 2 hours. After that take some break then again sit down to study, prepare a daily routine for 9 to 10 hours whatever you are comfortable with and then if you are not able to finish all these things in that day then you need to prepare your hourly plan that in this hour you will read 20 pages or 10 pages and finish that stuck stick to that timeline. So this is how you do that for actually for making the best out of the time given between prelims and means again you need to have a plan. You need to prepare that in this month you would finish GS 1, GS 2 these many units of optional. You would practice these many essays. You would practice these many questions prepare a monthly plan for 3 to 4 months that are given to you for prelims and means and try to cover the whole syllabus. So this all happens with having a proper plan that is very much required for time management. Thank you ma'am. Next question we will be having essay writing. So essay is not like other papers because you need to write around for 8 to 10 pages or 12 pages you need a proper coherence and the language should also be in it should be in at least the average side. So people from Hindi medium or in the regional language medium they feel difficult difficulty in writing an essay in a coherent manner. So what you have followed as a strategy to get good marks in essay writing because you said that you have from you are from Hindi medium you have done something to improve your language because in essay language plays a major role. So the marks are not out yet so I'm not able to comment as to how much So I will definitely share my strategy. So I faced the issue of language. I did not know very I did not I wasn't in habit of writing essays in very embellished language because I did not know that good words. So my as far as language is concerned I actually wrote my answer in essays in very simple language the language that I use in general studies paper nothing more than that. What I focused was was majorly on the structure and content of the essay. So I prepared a framework that how I am going to approach each and every essay. I looked at topper's answer sheet they actually write essays in very simple language there is nothing flashing that it just comes with a lot of practice that you have a coherence in each and every paragraph. So I decided that I would write 100 words of introduction then 50 words of a linking paragraph. I used to write a different introduction. I wrote a simple story of a little girl when I'm talking about education or health. So I would write a story so that becomes an attractive introduction that you're trying to do something innovative. So I would do that and then I would relate the story to the topic of education or health or whatever is given in the topic basically by the paper. So I would write 50 words of linking paragraph then I would start with the body. So standard thing was that I used to choose topics that I had read in general studies example education health or international relations. I've already read this. I have a proper content two pages of content. I just have to basically expand that content. So in body part I would write 700 words. I would start with existing problems. What are the government efforts? What are the solutions? How can we move ahead with this? Then obviously 800 to 850 words is done. Then I would write 200 words of whole confusion two pages of confusion first with way forward giving a futuristic vision then ending confusion with some quotations that I have memorized. So this is how I used to do how I used to write essays. I practiced 15 essays before the final examination. This was a structure part. Now I would come to the content part. How did I prepare content for the essay? So for introduction I already told you I had the standard method of writing a story or describing an event from the current affairs. This is how I used to do this for the body part that contains problem solution government efforts and way forward. I did not prepare anything else. I completely relied upon my general studies notes because trust me every topic that can be asked in essay gets covered in general studies topic. Even the philosophical essays for example wisdom finds truth. These kinds of essays can also be covered by studying ethics very properly where you come across a lot of examples of prominent people of our religious examples are there example from current affairs. Therefore by memorizing that you can write good philosophical essays and again you have to stay committed to the same structure. So content part was covered in general studies for writing conclusion. I used to memorize good quotations from prominent people and I used to write some part of Prime Minister's speech as to what his vision is for New India or the speech of our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He talked a lot about how he envisions India trust with destiny. So I used to find these very good paragraphs for writing my conclusion and I had memorized about four to five of them and by linking that thing to the topic of education or health or whatever has been asked by linking that to the topic I used to conclude with these things. So in the end when the examiner is looking that you have wrote such a good conclusion then obviously it has a very good last impact on the examiner. So automatically your marks will be increased by let's say even by four or five marks then it is a good thing. So that was my whole strategy to approach essay part. Thank you ma'am. So the next question will be regarding answer writing for the GS papers. So in GS paper there was a confusion for the students like whether it should be factual we should give more facts or it can be analytical. So that should be like some students will write a lot of facts but there are not be any coherence or no analysis will be there. Some students will write a lot of analysis but there will not be any facts to substantiate their analysis. So what will be the correct method of answer writing for GS papers? General studies paper is all about analytical abilities. It is about how you are able to analyze a particular issue from multiple dimensions. You have to support this analysis with the facts that you are writing. Fact cannot be the content of your answer. It should be the analysis only but just analysis is not enough. You cannot write generic sentences in all the answers. You have to write examples. You have to write facts. So these things are important. How does this happen? So when a question is given you have to first identify what the keywords are there. So for example when this there was a question about a cyber dome last year. What is cyber dome? What are what is the importance of this project and what should be the way forward? The question was on the line of this. So if people are sticking to fact that I would just write fact they would not be able to answer this question if they have not read anything about cyber dome project itself. But if you are in the habit of analyzing the question then you would know cyber dome is about cyber security. So if you don't know anything start writing start analyzing the issue of cyber security and then incorporate cyber dome into your answer. So that way you can approach any of the answer if you are in the habit of analyzing the question. So you have to find out the keywords. What is the demand of the question? What are you expected to write? Then when you find that after that you write subheadings you start with an introduction. You write the definition or a data or a fact whatever you know write about that. Then write what are the problems associated with it. What are the causes of this problem? Write five to six points. It can be a fact. It can be analytical point. It can be a data. It can be anything. You just have to structure all the content. Even if you're writing fact you should be able to structure it. Write the first subheading what are the problems and when you have written the problems you have to provide the solution for that. In solution you can be as analytical as you want. You can be as innovative as you want and when that happens you fetch automatically very good marks. So this is the way to write answers. The next question will be like maintaining word limit and managing time. So some people tend to leave questions. Some people write overwrite like if the question is demanded for 150 words they write for 180, 190 words and they end up leaving some questions at the end. So the first thing that you should target is to complete all the 20 questions. So that should be your first target and then actually words it doesn't matter how much words have you written. If it is not the quality content it is not relevant to the question then your whole answer even if it is for 300 words is a waste. So if you're in the habit of writing relevant content and in the habit of finding out what the question is demanding if you're addressing the demand of the question you would automatically be expert at time management. How can we achieve this obviously this is a very important question how to manage time for each and every question. For 10 marks question there are two pages nothing more than that. So you cannot write more than that for 15 marks question you have three pages obviously you cannot write more than that. Now to manage the word limit you should get in the habit of writing answer in points. So point format actually helps you in that area that you are at one hand able to express whatever you want to write and then at the same time limit the word. So if there is a point that relating to women that women face a lot of violence in their home you can just write number one point domestic violence in two words you have expressed the content. So it comes with a lot of practice you should get in the habit of writing answer in point making flowchart diagrams by that way actually the whole the space is also filled as well as you are able to express your thought in very few words. So this comes with a lot of practice you should get into the habit of that and try to make diagrams flowchart or some kind of figure schematics that way you can explain everything in just few words. So this is how you manage the word limit. Thank you ma'am. The next question will be regarding ethics paper in ethics you have two parts one will be like question and answer part another will be case study. So like how to manage time in ethics number one and what's the strategy for ethics to get good marks in ethics some people tend to get very low marks in ethics because of which they are out of the list. So can you give a solution for ethics paper ma'am? For ethics there is a defined syllabus in the syllabus keywords are given the areas are given where you have to study. So first of all you should have good definition good one line one to two line definition for all the keywords integrity honesty selflessness leadership what are these you have to write definition for that you should write four to five examples in all these areas. So that way you have a good good information basically in five to six pages you will have good source of information for all these keywords. Now that you have that you should revise that content over and over again in the theoretical question from these sources itself you can answer most of them. Second is you should find a good book for me I had referred to one book which is Balaji ethics that's it I did not refer to any coaching material I did not attended any classes for that and I did not read any other book for this this was my one book I prepared five pages of notes from that book for every area I wrote definition examples how to achieve integrity how to bring out good leadership qualities just in four to five words. So that way my whole information was covered in five pages and I revised it multiple times. When I was writing case studies case studies come with a lot of practice I had practiced 70 to 80 case studies when I appeared for the final examination again I prepared a framework for that identify the ethical issues in the case studies what are the key stakeholders what are the ethical dilemmas what are the solution for it and for writing solution I always provided short term solution and long term solution it shows that you are innovative it shows that you are thinking for bringing out reform in longer runs in longer run ethics actually concerns with bringing out systematic reform bringing out long term changes in the system that is either sticking to unethical means or there is corruption so that way I used to provide solution for that and as far as time management management in ethics is concerned I used to divide my time in a way that one and half hours for that I would write case studies and for the rest one and half hours I would address the theoretical questions from the paper from the section one of the paper so that way I managed my time in ethics apart from that I would say innovation innovative thinking is very important in ethics if you're writing in answer which is unique if you're providing a perspective which is different and original then in my opinion you tend to fetch good marks I have not memorized a lot of things for ethics but I used to analyze the question when there are quotes given analyze it address from different point of view from social point of view from political economic these are the standard things that we do for general studies I adopted the same formula here and I tried to bring whatever originality in my answer I could so this is how I approached ethics question paper thank you ma'am the next question will be for optional so you have chosen a science-based optional your optional is physics so like many students when they come for counseling or when they require any advice with regard to choosing an optional you'll always have a dilemma between like between a science subject and humanities so you have chosen physics as your optional so what will be the sessions for the student who are like thinking to have a science-based subject for their optional well it depends upon how much you have studied previously about that science option if you have a background in science and you're comfortable with all the topics then you should go ahead and choose this the second thing you should keep in mind we're choosing optional that you should have a long-term plan if imagine you have to study a particular subject we in a detailed manner for three to four years or maybe if you're trying to give the fourth or fifth attempt then probably for longer amount of period so you should actually think from that point of view whether you can study this thing over and over again every year if it is possible then only you should go ahead with it because science optional require a lot of hard work a lot of practice and they don't help you in your general studies or a safe portion it is completely different so you have to understand the risk in taking that but at the same time if you're comfortable with it you know about this particular optional in very depth then you would be able to fetch very good marks in science that is also guaranteed if you're willing to commit to that so actually your commitment your commitment your background your comfort level with that option matters a lot so when you're going to choose an optional look at the syllabus what topics are there in the syllabus do that look at the question paper what kind of questions are they asking is it static is it dynamic is it very difficult find that out for me I found that physics syllabus topics and whatever was taught there was very easy for me because I had already studied I looked at question paper they were very static in nature I knew that I just have to practice this theory this proof over and over again and I just have to go and copy that I knew that I can do that that's why I chose the science option so that is one benefit that you derive in this area that static portion is there you don't have to update it with current affairs so if you're comfortable then go ahead with it this will be the last question ma'am it has two parts actually in this question the first part is that your interview experience and the interview was called as personality test in UPS it was examination so how should you groom your personality for this interview at the same time how clear it should be with the thought process we should have a clear idea about the topic so which requires a lot of analysis also again in the interview so number one part first part is personality and the second part is analytical skill how you have approached for the interview ma'am so first part about my experience in interview I had a very good experience at all the personality test that I have appeared in the panels were very were trying to make me comfortable they asked question related to my background and the current affairs which is expected but they were neither too critical nor harsh with me they were actually very it looked like a friendly conversation between between future colleagues maybe so it was a very smooth experience for me and interview test which is obviously called personality test is about your presentation skills how you present yourself your knowledge your thinking ability your critical analysis ability so remember that prelims stage is about testing your knowledge and understanding main stage is about testing your critical analysis ability and personality test stage is about presenting all this in front of five people so you have to master that part so you have to maintain good etiquettes you have to maintain good proper conduct that is expected out of an IS officer and you have to present your thoughts in an organized structured manner the way you do in general studies answer writing it is not actually difficult to do this if you practice a lot if you practice speaking in front of mirror if examiner is asking a question about bringing women empowerment then you have read this thing in society you have read how to bring women empowerment in society you just have to mention this point that for so in social area we have to provide good education good health opportunity good skill for political area we have to bring reform in panchayati raja organization for economic we have to provide them employment this is how i answered question uh when women empowerment question was asked and this is exactly how i studied in my general studies so there is nothing different here you just have to practice in speaking these things out instead of writing it so that way when you practice a lot speaking questions in front of mirror in front of friends in front of mock panels then you get expert at that so it is very easy to do that you just have to be present at the moment and that comes with practice thank you ma'am thanks a lot so we have on october 4th we have the problems for this year students were like preparing for the problems so what will be our suggestion for this last 15 days of preparation what they can do in this last 15 days now so yeah these last 15 days are very crucial as well now remember that you cannot refer to any new source even if someone gives you a good 15 page document that all the questions will be asked from this do not do that stuck to what you have studied before start revising it 15 days are good enough time to revise all the subject there are seven subjects and current affairs start revising it now do not read anything new and if you know if you have not practiced enough question then start practicing preliminary questions you have to get comfortable to that question paper and that comes with practicing so for last 15 days these will be the only two areas of focus practicing and revising and obviously the third most important thing maintaining a good health remember that COVID-19 crisis still there so just try to keep yourself healthy boost your immunity because on the final day of the examination there will be a lot of uncertainty a lot of interaction with people so keep that in mind also as far as studies are concerned just talk to revision and practice nothing more than that is required right now thank you ma'am it was more than one heart it was an extensive conversation you have covered each and every part of the examination given a lot of tips to the students it was a really a motivating session so I thank you on behalf of Shankarayas academy for being here and sharing your experience with the students we are also wishing you a great success in your career so we will be seeing you in a lot of interviews in the near days also thanks thanks a lot for being here ma'am thank you you are thanks to students ma'am sorry you are advised to students my advice to student for a new aspirant my advice would be to create your own strategy and stick to that do not look at a number of toppers and try to replicate their strategy for new aspirants create your strategy now I've told you I made the mistakes of attempting the first examination without a plan or strategy learn from that mistake create a strategy stick to that create a plan create a one-year plan how you are going to address each and every stage of that examination so start with covering all the general studies syllabus that is given by UPSC if you have covered that in entirety then trust me maze will become very easy for you choose the optional wisely I told you you have to analyze your strengths and weaknesses you have to be aware about yourself choose the optional wisely stick to that give your 100 percent there and with these routine with these planning with this strategy you will definitely become successful maintain your motivation by your own growth by not looking at someone else your own growth will become the biggest motivator for you for the candidates who are appearing this year I already told you stick to revising revision practice and if you can make your own notes go ahead do that it is very helpful and apart from that I think I I had already told you that hard work and consistency is the only thing that can lead you to achieve your goal so stick to that thank you ma'am thank you thank you thank you