 Welcome everyone. Welcome to Shankaray's Academy success story series where we will be interacting with UPSC civil service rank holders of this year. Today we have with us Mr. Manjeet Kumar Yadav all India ranked 239. He has been a scientist at DRDO. He is a mechanical engineer from IIT Roper and he has made it into the examination prestigious rank list in his fifth attempt. So it would be a great opportunity to get to know more about Mr. Manjeet's preparation and also how he managed to overcome various challenges that he faced in his preparation. So first of all congratulations Mr. Manjeet Kumar Yadav and thank you for your time for this particular success story session. Thank you Arun and thank you Shankaray for having me on for this session. I am pleased and honored to be here. So we would like to begin with a very personal question. Where were you when the results came out and what was your first reactions? Actually I was in my office when the results came and results came around 11.30 or somewhere but I was not aware because in my office smartphones are not allowed. So I had that basic phone. So around 12 o'clock I was going for a meeting in my office itself. That time my sister called me that results are out and she asked my roll number. So I thought that I have not made into the list because the list comes with a name. So I thought oh my God it's gone. Then I told her okay let me check. Then I went to the internet PC and saw the PDF and when I saw my name there that was actually I didn't had any emotion. I was blank at that moment. Whether it's my name or not. Then I asked my colleagues to check the name again and then they said yeah it's your name. And then eventually I left the meeting and I didn't go for the meeting and came back to my home and then spoke to my family members. So initially there was actually no emotion at all. I was blank and the feeling was not sinking in. And it was more of a relief kind of thing than happiness. That finally oh my God I don't have to give this examination again. So it's more of a relief than happiness. Thank you. So I would like to know what about your parents and family? How supportive were they during the preparation? Actually I come from a very rural background. My father is an ex army person. He was working in Indian army and now he is retired. So in my village or surrounding area there were not many people who were very well educated and aware of this examination. And throughout this journey actually my parents were very supportive. They left to me that whatever I feel and whatever the way I want to do. They were full supportive and then they gave that autonomy to me that you decide for your life and there was no pressure from their side to do anything. Throughout my career and throughout my education. So it was a full support from my family in that sense. That's really great to know that your family was fully supportive and when was that first decision to prepare for civil services happen in your life? When did you decide that you wanted to prepare for this exam? Actually this thing came very late in my life because and I feel this, sorry I am diverting little bit from the topic. But I feel that in India or anywhere in the world this is a very big challenge for a first generation learners. Especially a person who are coming from a remote background or whose parents or previous generation are not very well educated also. So they come to know about all these career aspects of various educational aspects later in their life. For example I remember in 11th standard I came to know that there is something called IATJ. One of my friend told that if you clear this exam your life will be sorted. Then I thought okay let's try that. Then in my third or fourth year I came to know that I was knowing that what is IATJ, IPS and all those things. In the fourth year only I came to know that there is this career option and there is this examination based on this career is really good and a lot of opportunities and all those things. Then after graduation I joined DRDO and after May 2014 I completed my graduation and my DRDO training was about to start in August 2014. In that 2-3 months my cousin was preparing in Delhi. So I went to him once in Delhi and he was in Mukherjee Nagar preparing. So he motivated me a lot that you have that capability and aptitude you should try this for. Because here you will get a lot of chance to change various lives and contribute a lot to the nation as well. So I just listened to it. A small feeling kicked into it there. Then during my training one interesting thing is that in October 2014 during my training period I went to Labasna once. That photo what I sent you in that poster that is from Labasna parking. So October 2014 I was in Labasna as a visitor. Coming October 2020 I may be as a training there. So that time when I went to that library and all this there was some different feeling. And from there that feeling and then I read about what are the opportunities one can get in this services I started. And then in December I got posting in Bangalore and then from next March or April the process started. So this is the thing. But basically my cousin motivated me a lot during that short visit to Delhi. So Labasna and Musori are dream destinations for many candidates. And it is great to know that you went there as a candidate as an aspirant and later it was part of your inspiration to get into there. And now officially you will be joining there as part of one of the foundation course probationers. It is great to know sir. Now we would like to know briefly about your work experience at DRDO and how you managed your preparation parallely with pre-work. What a very brief like strategy about how you manage your time. Actually DRDO is a very prestigious organization and you have a lot of scope to do a lot of technical work there. But for my personal thing slowly and slowly when I got closer to this civil services preparation and things. My interest in technical things a little bit reduced. So I got more motivated. I used to get a lot of kick out of this preparation to imagine that I will be able to engage with social work and I will be doing. I had that inclination towards administrative and managerial work more than the technical work. So I started feeling that I will be a greater asset as a civil servant to the negation compared to an asset as a scientist in DRDO. This is a very personal choice and because of that I shifted from DRDO to civil services. Regarding the managing time, for me I have to be a student in two fields. One is as a civil servant and since the tag itself is scientist in DRDO, a scientist has to read a lot. So I had to read mechanical engineering as well during my preparation. So I was overburdened with reading and being as two kind of a student. So what I did during 10 hours of my professional work, I used to be grossly involved in mechanical engineering or related to those things. But other 14 hours of the day, apart from my professional life, I used to dedicate completely to UPSC civil services preparation. I tried to work in zero and one kind of thing, a binary, discrete kind of thing. When I am in office, I will not think about UPSC, but when I am home, I will not think about the office. So I tried to create that barrier between both the lives. And this is used to do it on a regular basis because life is not like it is so discrete. You have a lot of continuity and fusion and emotions from there will certainly come to home. Emotion from home will certainly go to office. This happens. But I tried to minimize that as much as possible. So work-life balance is something always talked about. Work-life carrier preparation balance is something which sir has achieved through his balancing act, what we can call. We would like to know, this was your fifth attempt, right? Could you share a couple of mistakes that you feel you had done in your previous attempts and which you were able to overcome in your upcoming or the present attempt that you gave? In my first attempt, I gave without preparation. I had three or four months of preparation that I could not clear for you so that practically not counted as an attempt itself. Second attempt, what I focused, because I have limited time, I was able to score well in GS part but in optional, I got only 220. My optional geography. So that was not from any standard, good enough to make you qualify. And in that attempt in the interview also, I got 146 months which were far removed. So in 2016, I realized that there are three areas where I can work. In ethics, I got 87 months, geography optional and interview. I had, and I missed the final cut-off by say 30 marks or so. So all these three areas, I had a lot of scope to improve the score. And thankfully, I performed well in SC and GS part. And so I was a little bit confident on that. One mistake what I did was because of lack of awareness, I used to look out for many materials. For example, if I tell you some specific examples for environmental ecology, I read some IGNU material, I read some videos which are available online, then read some other coaching materials also. But after three, four months and then when some question comes in the test series I used to write down from the solution, jot down points from there. Then someone suggested the Shankara IS environment ecology book. So I went through that book. And then there I realized that most of these materials I have read so far in question papers or questions given solution. Though I actually picked from Shankara IS. That has been a source. I realized that. So then I picked up that. Similar was the case with art and culture part of the syllabus. And a major thing what I observed in geography optional is that what are the basic books, what do we follow? For example, Kullar or Savinder Singh, all these books. I feel that these books are not sufficient and these books do not have a good quality material because they have not been updated over the last few years. These were written long back and these are more of accumulation, a lot of plethora of information in them, which is not actually required. And initially I used to read these books from page-wise, I mean from chapter to chapter. Start the book and end the book. But when I went to the syllabus, looked deeper into the syllabus of the geography option, I realized that actually it's not required. Geography is giving you a topic. You just pick that topic and read that topic from these books. If you are doing that, actually you have to read the 30 to 40% of the book itself. You don't have to read the 100% of Savinder Singh or Kullar. So in this 2019 attempt what I did was that, basically for geography option, that was my weaker part. So I read through topic-wise. And then I also looked for some international-authored geography books also. So that, which are re-updated in Off-Lake in 2015, 16 like that. So I went through those books, I got a lot of examples and case studies from international as well as India. So based on these things, these are things which I corrected. And one thing, last time I didn't had any geography option test series, I didn't wrote any test series in 2016. So I was not able to, in that time I wrote around, if I remember, 430 to 440 marks answers only. 50 to 60 marks I could not complete the thing. But this time I joined Shankarai's geography option test series as well. I joined Nien's also. So in this segment I was actually able to write around 480 marks answers in this geography. Marks are not come, I don't know how well I performed, but decently well only I might have performed. That's why I got this time. Could you share us a couple of things about the importance of coaching? Whether coaching is needed or whether it is selectively needed for a candidate? What is your piece of word for upcoming aspirants? What I personally feel that coaching is, the need of coaching is based on two things. One is your affordability and second is your need. And need is that every candidate has a different kind of need. For example, if a candidate has the ability to understand from a text, if someone reads a book, some people have that ability to grasp what is written in the book. Some people need an advisor, some support from someone to make them understand. So in that scenario, if you need someone's help to understand certain things, then you have to, you don't have any option, but to seek help from a professional who is able to teach you or who will make you understand that. Another aspect of coaching is that if you need some environment or competitive environment for your preparation. For example, my personal thing is that I needed some environment. I was in a working scenario where my colleagues and everything was a different life. But I wanted to live that student's life also. For that, I wrote a series, so every weekend I sat at Sunday, I am going, then I find that environment of UPC preparation. That hangover is continuing the next four or five days in the week. By Thursday, I'll be lost again in my work space. But again, next Saturday, Sunday, I'll go and then again, I'll feel that environment. So you have to see, look into yourself, what kind of support you want from a coaching institute and make a choice accordingly. But one fact is that this is a different thing itself, but our education system in college or school, it's not so well-versed in the quality. It's not so much that they'll prepare for such a competitive examination. In such a scenario, you may need the help of a professional and you can seek accordingly. That's great to know, sir. Could you please share how Shankar IS can be Bangalore, how it has been any help to you during your preparation or any particular stage, any moment that you'd like to share with us? Yes, I would like to share because in 2016 attempt, till that Shankar IS is basically Chennai base in 2016 only, I guess they started Bangalore. So I came to know about that. Then I went to, before the interview, I went for a session with Shankar IS and there I met Shankar himself. So he was there fortunately there and I met him, I interacted with him and I actually, I liked the way he explained things and the concept and such a humble person I mean, one of the most humble person I have ever met in my life about Shankar, sir, I will say. I remember vividly that moment. So unfortunately I could not make that attempt and then 2017 and 2018 attempt because of some personal, unfortunate personal reasons I could not, I have to leave the studies for one year or so. So but in 2019, 2018 December I decided that I'll give this attempt and 2018 December I took a prelims day series with Shankar IS. I started my formal association with Shankar IS from 2018 December and I took prelims day series and then that has been very helpful. In fact, I remember that various questions which I got into this day series actually I could find in the prelims day series also and there's discussions which followed the series were very good food for thought and which helped me to read more and get more awareness and based on my good experience of the prelims day series I joined the main stage series and geography optional test series as well as Shankar IS. So all these stages, I mean, it has been very helpful. Shankar IS has been very helpful to me because basically the quality of discussions I liked and it gave me a lot of food for thought and on which I could capitalize and improve my knowledge base as well as the quality of answers. It's really great to know that we have been of some help to you at some of your stages and just a few more questions. What were the few common books that you referred for your prelims examination some very common books that you would suggest for the candidates somebody who's a beginner? What I read books based on the subject wise for example, for modern history I referred spectrum for environment ecology Shankar IS for art and culture I referred Nithin Singh Ghania book for quality I referred M Lakshmi Khan for ancient medieval period history actually there are not much questions on political history of ancient medieval times so I had my notes based on the dynasty wise for example, Indus Valley civilization I had certain points what are the important things from Gupta period I had certain things those things I made notes for economy initially, economy is very dynamic in nature if you observe the question paper the questions refer to the current underpinnings what are the things happening in the last one or two years but then every way the question has a foundation the static part there is some concept of economy which is at the background so one can refer to any standard economics book or coaching material for example I refer to Ramesh Singh there is one economic book which I read long back but I didn't revise it much because once I am aware of the concept then you have to from current you have to update it then one can take any current affairs magazine monthly magazine from a coaching institute that was for current parts for geography, geography was my option so I was well read in that and for prelims one more thing I will say that every one or two questions are coming from mapping part from world as well as India so one has to focus give some time to mapping as well especially based on current affairs and then I made out a lot of my personal notes jot down many facts and everything for example river systems or various mountains or what are the tribes in India and all those things based on whatever questions or topics I used to encounter in various test series I used to write them down and capitalise on that information that's great what is more important to you solving mock prelims questions or revising basic books if you would suggest anything I feel both are equally important because the thing is that if the question itself is that no matter how much you read you will be able to answer only 45-50 questions at best with your 100% knowledge you will be able to 100% know the answer in such a scenario when no matter how much you read you are not able to reach 70-80 questions then it becomes important that you practice a lot of questions at least you get that ability and how to intelligently guess and come to an answer because the logic is that if you are able to answer 45 questions correctly and then if you are able to guess 40 questions then out of that 40 you are getting 20 questions right then eventually you are making 65 questions right so that is what is required for clearing this prelims cutoff if you are making 65 questions right then no matter even 30 questions you are making what you actually clear the cutoff so both are equally important but then you have to manage your time that at least in revision part you should not miss out the basic things you should not be carried away for solving questions that you are missing revision of your basic books for Lakshmi, Kanatha, environment, ecology or spectrum or whatever that should not be missed so you have to focus on more things so talking about mains preparation could you please share us just couple of words about note making and answer writing for your mains examination how important is practice of answer writing and note making for the mains examination GS 1, 2, 3 I feel that answer writing is the key for success in this examination since the prelims are kindly unpredictable or uncertain little bit although if you are well prepared you will be certainly able to make it but the thing is one should always remind himself that here he is clearing this prelims that his name should be seen in the list name should be that the year you are clearing the prelims you should be so well prepared for your mains interview part that you actually make it to the list and for well preparation the quality of answers that is the thing which is going to decide whether you write on the answer sheet that is the thing which will yield marks and if one analyzes the previous questions and slavers and the kind of questions asked actually this exam is not so much difficult as we feel and you have to get down to detail of both optional as well as GS for example for optional there are certain ways you have to write the answer in optional answers you have to be that should be very technical in nature that will be very deeper in thought process those should be very theoretical in nature those answers should include lot of thinkers and ideas from that specific subject those optional answers should every subject has its own dictionary what I call that if geography is that there will certain words and certain dictionary things which are used in geographical terms you have to frequently use them optional answers but on the contrary in GS part you should be very generalistic in nature you should not take out those optional keywords and optional thinkers in GS GS should be very it should be a layman thing the point should be very generalistic in nature but then your argument should be supported by very specific examples so this is the differentiation between GS as well as optional and what do we have to practice lot of questions it depends on the person to person if some person is writing say 200 questions he has written on daily basis or whatever basis after 200-300 questions he may be able to at least understand if he reads the question he will be able to frame an immediate answer to that but for some people it may take some time for example for me around after writing 300-400 questions when I used to read a question I was able to frame an answer for that question immediately I had that structure ready for that answer and the only thing left was to put a lot of content in that that will depend on the amount of knowledge you have initially you may be able to write say 4-5 points only but eventually after deeper learning and after revision again you may be able to write 8-10 points in that particular question so these are the daily practice or whatever practice but you have to practice certain number of questions till the time automatically you are able to frame the answers what you are making is that it depends again at what time of the examination cycle you are for example if you are say before 2 months before prelims one should focus more on deepening and widening of knowledge and reading more about new things revising also but immediately say after the result of the prelims and between the starting of those 2 months one should not be focused too much focus on finding of new materials rather than the focus should be revising the existing materials 2-3 times so that at least whatever one has read that he is able to reproduce in the examination and I feel that taking a test series is very essential during that phase because that teaches you a lot and get into the habit of writing in that examination pressure that becomes very essential could you please share a view about essay preparation paper of essay yes actually essay we need to understand that essay is a very generalistic thing many people what happens that we generally choose a topic basically related to their optional subject and then put in a lot of technical words and a lot of some theoretical aspects for example some someone can start writing marks, call marks and all those aspects of Weber or something like but I personally feel that that is not essential essay should be very generalistic in it generalistic in that even a layman if a person reads that he must like it and enjoy it for essay preparation you don't have to go for a specific content building because for whatever you have read in GS part that will be sufficient so sufficient content will give sufficient content for your essay but what you have to do is that the way you are utilizing that concept that becomes very essential for what candidates follow and what I also follow that once you choose the topic then you make a framework of the essay what you want to write generally I used to divide say take 5-6 main aspects what I was going to address and in all those 5-6 aspects I used to write 5-6 points and then one person should ensure that the essay should be very lucid you don't have to use very fabulous English or very good language or whatever original language you are writing in paper but there should be a degree of continuity in essay but one should when one starts reading your essay one should feel like finishing it go through that you have to capture that imagination for that continuity is required and you should use the facts and examples whenever required but it should not be like dumping of information many essays whatever is that many can just put in lot of information and lot of facts in that essay but that essentially is not required wherever you need support you should use it but continuity and conveying of your ideas that is very essential in essay writing that's great to know about the essay aspect of the preparation last thing moving on to the main part is the optional and how about the key strategies for geography optional preparation few books if you could suggest the candidates for my experience as well many geography optional candidates what I met and talked about geography is no doubt many people take it and there are many success stories also of geography but but the problem with geography is that what I personally realized that getting around 260 to 70 marks is okay I am one can read well and get to 260 to 70 marks but from 260 to 300 to 365 it is very very difficult especially in geography it is relatively easy in other options my personal interpretation may be wrong also but for reaching 260 to 70 one can go through standard books for example physical geography or kullar for Indian geography but again for the first reading one can book from page to page but after that second reading first reading one should focus more on topic based reading so by topic based reading one will able to reduce the amount of reading one has to do for that then for for this geomorphology part I read some specific book from thornberry it is again a personal choice because that is a very comprehensive book it is not required but I liked and I wanted to improve my score in geography last selection I failed because of geography so I read that for geography geomorphology part and then there are some these are fringe topics for geography for example topics related to language changing pattern of foreign trade or geopolitics or religion these are fringe topics which we do not focus much for example generally what we have that perception is that geomorphology which talks about mountain oceanography and climatology these are as perception that these are the main geography part but actually in reality these are only 20 to 30 percent of geography there is a lot of fringe topics economic geography and all this which form essential part of geography and there are a lot of general questions are very generalistic in nature of these parts so I read a lot of research papers also I get to the level of reading research papers in these fringe topics for language and religion all these things so I made notes out of them or downloaded the PDF and underlined them so these are the few things I did then there were for economic geography I went through geography book of Rupa and these are the certain books I have read and more detail I will write on my blog I will share that sure that would be really helpful for the aspirants and moving on how did you keep yourself motivated throughout the preparation being a long journey could you share us the things you did to keep yourself motivated during this preparation phase moving on to the last couple of questions when related to motivation I feel that the two key for motivation keeping or motivated is that passion or how much passion and love you have for this exam and the end result and the second aspect is that how day to day you are managing your affairs I mean issues related to your work or your family and all these things so there will be a lot of negatives sometimes coming from family side because some things will be happening in family but all these points you have to just keep reminding yourself the larger goal what you have there is it doesn't happen that one day you decide you are motivated then you can keep yourself motivated but what will happen is that one day you will feel high again next day you will be like low and all this but all these moments you have to realize that what you have in your control is the response to a situation for example you are feeling sad because something sad has happened in your life or some relatives life or something it's good to feel sad there is no problem in that what you used to I embraced that feeling I was feeling low I will feel low I enjoy that low part also and I remind myself what is my response what options I have I don't have any option only option is the way I am able to respond to that situation so my focus was more about response to feeling or demotivation rather than demotivation itself I enjoyed all the things in my life I try to make myself enjoy that and then respond to it positively that feels sad for 10 years then again 11th minute you sit down and make yourself that one day you will be IAS and you will be doing lot of society and all this you remind yourself the larger and sit down to studies that is the way it is a testimony to the fact that emotional intelligence is not just in your paper 4 but in your life as well during your preparation it is great to know about those things