 Hi, welcome friends, we have Yaks Choudhury rank 6 and Arpit Singhal who has a speak about preparation and strategies associated with that. Let us start by a brief introduction of yourself. Sir I come from a village in Amrotha district of Uttar Pradesh, I have done my schooling from Amrotha itself, then I pursued my major in civil engineering and minor in product design from IIT Guwahati and after that I have been preparing for civil services and this was my third attempt, I could not clear my problems in my first attempt, then I reached till the interview stage in my second attempt but failed to make it to the final test, this was my third attempt. You are the first civil servant from the family? Yes sir. Ok, that is a big thing. Yes. Arpit sir. I am Arpit Singhal, I come from Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh, I did my graduation from IIT Delhi with a BTEC degree in 2018. BTEC in? BTEC in Mathematics. Mathematics. This was my fourth attempt, I failed the first two problems, last I got all India rank 239 and I got into IPS, this year I got all India rank 53. Ok, I will start with something like, where were you when the results came? What was your first reaction? When the result came I was at my home and one of my friend called me and told me that I have got ranks. I was not expecting that. And this is the second time you are searching for your name in the rank list? Yes. Yes. So what was it? Shock, surprise, relief? It was a surprise and after that a sigh of relief, because I was not expecting this good rank. You do not have to read Hindu and Indian Express anymore. Yes. Arpit, where were you in the results came? I was also at my home. So while I saw the list, my parents were sitting, my brother, my sister were sitting with me. So generally I start from the first rank to see my rank and I was, yes, so I tell them I am not till 30, I am not till this rank. Then I saw my name at 53 rank. So most of my family members cried. I also shouted a lot after seeing my name because finally the UPSC journey, Seelal service in the end. How was it? Last year also you saw your name in the results. How was this different from last year? This was, last year it was more about getting a rank, finding the name in the list. This time the competition was tough because I had to get a good rank to upgrade myself from under 60, 50, 60 ranks, under 70, 75. So that was a major sigh of relief because this cycle of UPSC, CSC will, was over that day. Come to an end. Yes. This struggle is over. Yes. Other struggles will start in life. So I'll take it structure-wise from the various stages of the preparation. Considering both of you have failed the prelims in different years. What worked for you in prelims in the years when it cleared? Actually, I am not sure about this because I have used the same strategy in my all three attempts. So even when the year when you did not clear also it was a strategy or same? Yes, yes. It was almost the same strategy. So did you clear by a margin or it was just? No. In my first attempt I failed by six marks. In my second and third attempt it was a good score even I cleared the forest service cutoff. And for you? For me in the prelims I had a strategy because first time I gave just to test myself. My second attempt was a major attempt but I failed by 16 marks. 16 marks. Yes. The third time I qualified the forest also, forest cutoff. The change was primarily that I thought that prelims is primarily a knowledge game. But it is a knowledge game but there is also some use of common sense and techniques and wider understanding of the topics. And while attempting the paper it is about solving those 100 questions. So I worked on my temperament, I worked on my use of common sense. I enhanced my broader knowledge so that I can eliminate options. So it is not purely an intellectual exercise it is also about other factors? Other factors definitely. We have come across students who clear prelims by just studying for 15 days. Even this year interview results came last week and there will be a lot of people who will clear despite of getting only one week. And at the same time we have students who have been studying for years who are unable to crack prelims. So this is with respect to prelims. You did any test series or test solving for prelims? I did a lot of test for prelims. This attempt I couldn't do because the resultant prelims was very close enough. But last year I used to solve the prelims test series. Do you have a number of 40-50 tests? I think at the start you need to know yourself because sometimes it might happen that within the first test you are scoring good. But someone might be getting 50 marks in the first test. So if you have to improve you can find an increase if you do give more tests. So each test is an opportunity to improve and try something new? Definitely. So how many tests do you usually give for prelims? Actually in my first attempt I gave around 40-50 tests. In my second attempt I gave around 10-15 tests and I did not take any tests in my third attempt. Third attempt? Yes. I remember while we were speaking you said you know I don't have a strategy for prelims. I don't want to guide anyone for prelims. Prilims is unexpected. I think it changes. This year also if you look at the paper have you seen the paper? Yeah I have seen the paper. I have changed some new type of question and things like that. Prilims or do you make notes for prelims? Actually I have made notes for all the books that I have referred to. I have made notes from Spectrum also, from Lakshmi Kanth also, from basic NCRTs for example for Art and Culture. So whatever I have read I have made notes also. It's concise. Yes. It was more focused on prelims part for example from the Lakshmi Kanth. I have made notes from the prelims perspective itself, not from the main perspective. How do you differentiate? Let's take a topic like Punjabi Rad. How would your prelims notes and main notes be different? So what happens in prelims and notes is that we write the factual things like in which article, in which schedule, what are the provisions. But when we make notes for main, we write what are the problems, what are the recommendations, what is Supreme Court saying, how to solve this problem. So these sort of things are included in the NCRTs. So one is very factual in nature and the other is more conceptual in nature. Yes, yes. True. Right. So do you have like we have seen various toppers over the years who have very crisp notes and short notes. Yes. Crisp notes is just a collection of data. Do you have something like that also? No, my notes were very expensive. Very expensive. Yes. But how many times were you able to revise with your notes? Usually most of the times I used to read books but I used to focus more on my notes before exams. I used to read it many times. Okay. Like my option is sociology. I made extensive notes and in the middle of sociology, I just revised the notes. So I used to do notes before exams and I used to read books the rest of the time. And for you, how were the notes? I think similarly, I even made notes from the Laxmikanth because I have around 90 to 95 pages notes. Laxmikanth itself is around 500 pages. Yes. You can't revise that. So I made primarily, this is the thing that I did that I made separate notes for prelims and separate for means. I think he has added to all the points. The benefit of that is whenever you come across something new, you can add that to the to your notes and it becomes easier for you to revise again and again and again. So I think that is beneficial. I even made concise notes from Shankarayas because if you see that book, there will be less portion on prelims part, more on conceptual understanding. So if you can take that out, so it would save your time. The one common thing we find among people who score secure good nuances that they have good notes. I think notes is a very integral part. And the challenge is that when you make it, it's very time consuming. But after that, it's very useful when you are preparing for the examination. Sir, I think it is more efficient to make notes because you feel that it is time consuming. But the most things that you learn, it is during the note making process. Note making process. You research. Because you research that is an active learning. You try to make subsections where things will fall. So that will make your understanding better. So I think it is a very good thing to make notes. So you have notes for both prelims and main? Main. Different. Definitely. So subject-wise, topic-wise, difference between current affairs or conceptual, how is it? I think I personally feel that UPSC has less focus on current affairs. They focus on contemporary issues, definitely. But factually, current affairs, they don't focus much. It is more about understanding. And the things that are static in portion. I have an opinion here. I feel that they will ask a conceptual question from an issue which is in conceptually. Definitely. So the relevance is from contemporary, but the question is conceptual in nature. So prelims, I think we have talked about notes, we have talked about test solving. How has prelims papers changed since the last two or three years, from the first attempt to now? Actually, I think the pattern is changing a little bit. I feel a little random now. And questions are coming in some areas that are unexpected, like IR's questions have come this time. Like last year, agriculture equations have come, last year, sports equations have come. So I think the randomness has increased a little bit. Even in mains, that S-400 missile system question had come, so that was very unpredictable. So how do you strategize for an exam which is getting more and more random? From my perspective or from my opinion, we should pay more attention to understanding. Like Arpit said, static part is very important, it is very important for prelims. If we read it with a lot of understanding and conceptual clarity, then the question can come in any way, we can tackle it. We can interconnect things, that something is read in quality, it becomes a little recall. We interconnect one subject to another subject, from another subject, from quality to geography. We can interconnect in this way if we have understanding. And with the question of static, I think we can bring 100 marks in it, so that prelims' cut-off will be cleared. So I think understanding is very important. Broad learning will not work, conceptual understanding will not work. Because prelims do not ask factual questions. There are very few factual questions. I tell students that prelims are designed to eliminate, not to select. They are designed to eliminate. So that is something. Now I think last three years, another important change in prelims is CSAT exam. It is getting tougher and tougher, even this year. And I think when the marks were released this year for the exam, a lot of people have stayed back because of CSAT and not because of GS. I am assuming both of you are from IIT. So I don't think you have a separate preparation for CSAT. Was it a case or do you separately practice for CSAT? Actually, I have attempted a few tests from the previous years. Apart from that, I have not prepared for CSAT. But I have observed that the English that is coming up now, it has become a little difficult from the beginning. The options look a little the same. The basic understanding in the math, they are testing more. The formulas that used to be applied, the formula that was applied, is now closed according to me. English is unpredictable. Even when you look at the keys, every institute differs in opinion on the English solution. And max is comparatively more predictable compared to English. How is CSAT for you? I have never studied for CSAT. But for people who are appearing for prelims, I would suggest them please don't waste your entire preparation just because of CSAT. I think a person is intellectual enough. The problem is you have to let go of that fear. And you have to focus more on math's part. Because I have friends who have done their graduation in English literature. But they are also finding it difficult to solve the English part. So I think they should focus on basic maths. And please do that way before problems. And ensure that you are getting at least 80 to 90 marks. And it is a humble request to everyone. And another thing that I am seeing is that passages are one page and one question from them. So the amount of time you take to read the passage itself is so much. So whoever starts with English, they are stuck in English. And then they realize they have 30 minutes and math to solve. So time management is also a factor. And it's slowly moving towards that cat kind of space. They have increased the difficulty. Because I remember during my first attempt I got more than 170 marks in CSAT. It reduced by 30 to 40 marks next year. When we used to give the exam, CSAT was you just needed marks in CSAT. So it was a cumulative score. So we had candidates who had 180 marks in CSAT and 50 marks in GS. Still they are clear. I have even met people who decided which option to choose after the program's results. Because they never thought that they were going to clear this. So this is with respect to... I would like to add something. As you have said that randomness increased, I think we have to go back to the basics. We have to ensure that we are able to do those 50-60 questions which UPSC is consistently asking. For example, this year, they asked again about Ashokas Rock Addict. They asked about Web 3. They asked about software as a service. UPSC has been consistent in these questions. So people should ensure that they have good understanding of those 50-60 questions. And how they can do that? They have to analyze the previous year questions. Because for example, I am an examiner. I have some guidelines. I can't make a question randomly. So please understand UPSC's prelims perspective. Those questions that are unpredictable, that will be unpredictable for all. Don't waste your time on those questions. Focus on those questions which will be there in the exam. I think this is true for Mainz also. We have closely analyzed Mainz papers. Weightage of marks from subject area. Now in paper 2, federalism, panchayat, elections, these are all repetitive teams. Left wing extremism, border management. So at least I think 20-30% is highly predictable. I would say 50-60%. I think that will be too much of a claim. No, in Mainz it would increase. Because what will happen? They have mentioned left wing extremism. They are definitely going to ask one question. Cyber security one question. Definitely they will ask. I think UPSC's labors should be the Bible. Their PYQ should be the Bible for that. Even for a topic like IR, there is maximum 20 issues. Myanmar, Afghanistan, you can count in your hands. If you prepare those issues, the question has to come from that. Did you experience something like that? Questions came from what you prepared in Mainz? Actually I think Arpiz is more appropriate person to answer that question. Because I did not analyze PYQs. Now from whatever you prepared, whatever test that you have written. Did questions come from that? I do not remember whether it was P2 or not. Because I used to subject-wise. I did not prepare according to the theme-wise or PYQs. So you were taking paper 2 and then going subject-wise? I studied politics, geography, history. No analysis with previous years paper. I think I have made a mistake. I should have done that. I think EX has a natural ability to write very good answers. He is a prolific reader. He reads his newspaper. He has a wider understanding of things. My entire preparation was based on a process. So that is the difference between us. I think if he will write again, he will score definitely. But I had to go through the entire process again. I think the GS score is something that is a validation. Exactly. 460. 464. 464. I think it is among the top 3 scores of this year. I have not seen anybody above between you and rank 1 so far. Maybe there is somebody else. But as far as I understand, this is the 2nd or 3rd highest score. So last year we had only less days between Prudence and Mains. How did you strategize last year for Mains? Actually, I did not make any very detailed strategy. Last year, I only studied sociology. And for GS, I used to revise the notes of my prelims. Because I used to get them in time line, facts, order points. And last year I did not do much for current. This time I studied Mains 365. I did some subject in that. It is getting a little bulky. But it is helpful. Everything comes from that. But the amount of revisions that you can do, I think that is a factor. I studied Mains 365 once. I could not tell you how much it is useful. But it helped you write better answers. Yes, exactly. But one thing is very important and that is data. I have seen one of your papers and I think you have extensively substantiated your content. Last year, it was quite bulky. It was about politics and economics. This time, I also did data on it. And the important thing that I felt was that I remembered the data a lot by mixing them. It helped me there as well. So you made a separate notes from all these sources. I highlighted that data. Different colors or something. Same colors. I had a student 2-3 years back. He used to... Numbers for one color. Mains for one color. Different people work differently. So in that sense. For you, any experience where you written answers or you prepared things and did it repeat in mind? Again, I will say process. I understood about PYQ as you said. They will definitely ask one question about federalism. They will definitely about local self-government. They will definitely ask about... Secularism was a very problem. Exactly. Urbanization. Globalization they will ask. So I think we have to break those... Break them into sub-parts. Irrigation methodology. Exactly. Inclusive growth. They have mentioned everything. Right. They will ask from that only. For example, again inclusive growth was there in paper. There. Last 4 years there was a question on inclusive growth. Exactly. So they will ask. I prepared my themes. I have sub-sections like paper 1. I will go into politics and I will have sub-section like federalism, local self-government. I had very crisp notes. Notes. That I could revise them one day before the exam. For example, I came from one paper at 5. I will be home by 6. Within 3 hours, I can revise them at least by seeing them from above. Because eventually what matters is writing in those 3 hours. And what happens is that when you segregate those topics, you are better able to understand UPSC. So when you are writing an answer of GS1, you can make a link to GS2 or GS3 or GS4 in that. So I think that helps. I think this crisp notes, when people make notes, I tell that between one exam and the second exam, before you get in, you should be able to run through it. I think that crispness. Because one thing which I saw among many students is that, there are very good notes. Extensively made notes. But in the notes, it is not there in the answers. So then it is useless. So what is in the notes should be there in the answers. That is the goal. So your option is sociology, yours is max. Max didn't work out as good as you expected. Otherwise you will be in the top 3 or top 10 very likely. How was max? I am not qualified to ask that max question, but I will just ask a general question. I think people scored good marks. I have a friend, Siddharth who got 255 rank. He got 314 marks. There is rank 54, I think. He also got 300, more than 300. So people got good marks. I think I got less marks. Relatively less marks. Sociology, how was it this year? I think it was on the same expected lines. But I didn't analyze the paper that much. But you invested a lot of time on sociology this year? Yes, I studied sociology a lot. I studied a lot last year. I think I didn't have to read a book like that in sociology. I gave a lot of time to sociology through standard books. You scored 285. 285 in sociology. Last means, how much was your sociology score? It was 252. So 33 marks improvement. That is not an improvement. Actually, I made a mistake in paper 2. The optional questions came from part 2. So technically same marks. He would have made it to the list last year. That's because of the sociology thing. So means of answer writing. Let's get into answer writing. Was there a different strategy for different papers? Different topics. How was it? Actually, I didn't have a different strategy. I just wrote what I wanted to write. Is there a sequence of attempts? 1 to 20 or first 15 markers, 5th and 10 markers? I started writing from 1 to 20. I didn't leave anything for later. So it was a direct sequence? Yes. I gave time to all the questions uniformly. Whatever I didn't know, I wrote content that I knew very well. I was about to ask the next question. How did you deal with the S-400 question or the LED question? How was your strategy for that question? Actually, I don't remember the LED question. But I remember the S-400. We knew that the S-400 is going to attack a missile. So whatever common things we knew, we knew that there will be some sensors that will sense it. A missile will come out of it. It will attack it. We made it a small diagram. All the common things we knew, we wrote them all. The point is that if you write something right, then you write it wrong. Generally, you write it broadly. It's not wrong. I remember asking this question to Anadeed Dureshati. That here the question was the decolonization of Malaya Peninsula. He said, you know, I drew a map of Malaya Peninsula and I wrote about decolonization. So this sounds something like that. You write whatever general you can think of. Ethics, any specific different strategy for ethics? Yes. For that, I did diagrams separately. And my strategy, I never thought about it. The strategy is a very big word. But I didn't use theory in it. I used to write practical things in it. I didn't use the word in theory. Like deontological, tgeological. I didn't use it at that time. The common sensical things that I understood, I used to write according to that. And I made a lot of diagrams in it. Last year, I made diagrams in all the questions. How much was the last year's score? Last year, 117 marks. That is also a good score. This year, I got 126. I made diagrams in all the questions. There are 13 questions at the beginning. I drew diagrams. Specific diagrams or when diagrams, pie charts. What type of diagrams? In case studies, I made flow charts. Somewhere I made pie charts. Somewhere I made two things. Somewhere I made yes or no diagrams. If something like that happens, it won't happen. Like a flow chart. Whatever I wrote in my answer, I summarized it with my diagrams. So it's a repetition of the content. The diagram will be easy to interpret. Diagram interpretation was easy. But I would put it in keywords. Like if I wrote something above, that there will be no integrity, that there will be a lot of problems, that there will be no social welfare, or there will be no commitment. Then I would write down the common words. So my entire answer would be summarized. Visibility for keywords, but not using too much of technical keywords. I used a lot of simple words. In all the papers, in ethics. Did you collect a lot of examples? I tried collecting examples. But I couldn't do it. I wrote all the examples from current affairs. Whatever you read in your papers, current context. But I didn't write too many examples. I didn't write too many last year. So more emphasis on diagrams and keywords? No, not in keywords. I used to write keywords in simple language. There weren't many keywords. But I used to write them in a common language. There used to be a lot of basic things. I used to pay more attention to that. I used to pay more attention to the practical things. Continuing with that, quote-based questions in ethics. Any strategy for that? Or how do you do that? What I used to do for that? Because I didn't write too many tests. Ethics too. I still think that I should write one test of ethics. That too last year, in 2020. But when I saw it, I thought that the court would explain it in the introduction. In simple language. Rephrase it and write it. After that, the court would explain it in different dimensions. If the need versus greed comes to Gandhi Ji's court, they would relate it to international relations. They would relate it to environments. They would relate it to civil services. They would relate it to societies. They would explain it in any other dimension. They would explain it and make it a diagram. A simple conclusion. I will continue with ethics for you. You have also done reasonably well in ethics. Your score is... 116. How was your strategy for ethics? I think this is a good strategy that you write basic things which are more practical. I focused on certain other aspects like I had certain philosophies which are very basic. Which everyone can understand such as John Rawls' theory of justice or Gandhi's talisman. So I made a note of around 20 to 25 such philosophies. I tried to mention them. I made a note of examples, certain examples that are current ways or famous examples. For example, although I didn't use that, in the recent Olympics, some players because of mental health, they didn't participate. So that showed courage in some sense. So those current examples or international relations example that how India generally focus more on peace. So these basic examples, so basically examples, then philosophies and if possible basic definitions of the keywords. Diagrams. I tried to make diagrams, actually we prepared together as far as diagrams are concerned. So I also tried to incorporate diagrams. For example, an example of diagram can be if you are answering a case study and you have to take a stand, then you can use determinant of ethics. There are certain determinant of ethics factors like what was the condition in which you are taking a decision or what is the impact of that decision. So I used to make a diagram. I first thought before itself that I will make around 4 to 5 diagrams and case studies also. And in the part 1 also I tried to make diagrams to show a chain for example that if you do this then this can happen. Sequence. Diagrams we prepared together only extended. Basically you have to have that in mind before itself. I think you cannot just learn particular diagram but you can learn that what type of diagram you can draw there. In this context you are saying. So you cannot learn that. I will definitely make this particular diagram with these words and take this flow chart this type of flow chart if this type of question comes. So I think that will help. I want to add one thing. We have used one book by the red colour book. Decode Ethics and We both have learned the diagrams from that book. I suggest that book. Decode Ethics and Ethics 2 books are there. But in Decode Ethics I think more a PYQ question. Then you see how the diagrams he has made. He will elaborate more on this. So I did not like the theory of the book. But the diagrams it is a collection of previous years salt papers. The solutions of PYQ. When we read many keywords especially in diagrams such as nepotism, corruption welfare, commitment dedication. I have been recommending this book for last 3-4 years. I think it is 18 or 19 if I am not wrong. But there is one catch in this. It is a bulky book. So again what he is saying Ethics is more about writing than about content. Basically, it is about notes but you don't make it too complex. Don't read bulky books. Make it more personalized and write good answers. More relatable. You have to convince someone. You have to tell them what you are thinking. I have a theory on this. I feel every other subject could be checked by subject experts. Geography masters. But for ethics I don't think there are subject experts. So the complex keywords that we use might not be relatable to the person who is taking. When you are writing simple stuff it may be relatable. This is something we have seen in the last few years. People who write simple stuff with current contemporary examples. I think the feeling it gives to the evaluator is that he knows what he is writing. He is able to relate to things around him. That is probably why it is working. Moving on in ethics itself. Case studies. Do you write introductions for case studies? Yes. I wrote introduction in all cases for stakeholders. What type of introduction? The introduction case was explained a little. In 2-3 lines. Summarize. Yes. This case involves this, this, this or this ethical dilemma involved. After that there was a small diagram that these were stakeholders or they were making issues. The ethical dilemma was made. The questions asked in this way were handled. In fact, I learnt from Jain Sir's book that if we take this step, the concerns of all stakeholders are covered. I wrote conclusions like this. Basically, I summarized what I wrote. I think there was a strategy that was going around last year that conclusion should be attributing your decision to something which is higher than you. Your decision was based on Gandhi and Talisman. My idea I learnt this is also the same values that Gandhi would have taken or a banker would have taken or something like that. Some kind of summarization. Sir, I don't use all these theories in my own. It may be sad, but I don't do it. This is a good way, I think. Because they have mentioned like philosophers. So if you can tell them that I am guided ethically by this value or I am guided ethically by constitution. We had a student who had mugged up the motto of all the services Satyame Vijayte. He used to write that these decisions were guided by the values of Satyame Vijayte. It was basically saying that this is not my decision. If somebody of a higher ethical value was in my position, they would do the same thing. I think it will make it more than your own self. They will in the end also talk about what the actual person in that situation did. I think something like that would do is that you are telling the value to I know why you have asked this question. This is a good question. I sometimes do that in introduction. We can write the context of current affairs in that where it recently happened, but I think you can diversify your introductions. You diversified or everything was same. Different types of introductions for different case studies. In case studies, what I had written in case study, I had to screen it. Summarization plus stakeholders. Yes, stakeholders. Ethics paper. I think the strategy of Arpit is not in this. It is a very structured strategy. I do not have any such grand strategy. I have not even been in ethics. You both are 17 marks in GS. That is half mark here, half mark there. I do not think it will be big difference. During preparation, I used to tell him I am more of a process guy and you are natural. Naturally. So I think we help each other in that way. Both works. Moving on from there, I think one paper that has not been doing well in the last 3-4 years is GS3. If you see this year's score also, last year's score also. How can somebody work on GS3? How to improve GS3 scores? You have how much marks in GS3? 100 or 99? 99 for you and you have scored 102. I think this year's highest mark is 108 in GS3. How is your strategy in paper 3? I did not make any specific preparation for GS3. Data. I had mentioned all the subjects. It was not specific GS3. Last year my GS3 was less. Arpit was very good. I could tell him better. Maps in paper 3? Environment, security maps? Maps. I used to make IRKs like Indo-Pacific. This time my focus was in the Diagrams. GS1 to 3. Indo-Pacific. So if left-wing extremism question is there, you would include a map? Yes. How is your strategy for paper 3? Paper 3 is the most bulky paper. You end up getting lost in the final paper. But you can break it into subsections. Completely agree on that. You will get 6 questions on security. I have the break up. Economic 50 marks. 210 markers, 215 markers. Question number 1, 2, question number 11, 12. This is the usual pattern. And that too you can tell. One is inclusive growth. And 2 conceptual questions. Conceptual questions are repeating now. Repeat and you will easily do them with the prelims knowledge. And then inclusive growth prepared separately. And one more question you can prepare separately. You can prepare them also. Irrigation. Then you have cropping pattern, PDS, MSP, livestock missions. Exactly. Then you have security 4 questions, 50 marks. Yes. 210 markers, 215 markers. We set the question paper. So we look at we put this combination. Science and Tech marks 4 questions. Science and Tech also I think a lot of teams repeat. AI, blockchain, machine learning. These things also keep. Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology, these things. Environment and disaster management put together another 50 marks. Yes. This is the combination. So you break it down into smaller, smaller parts. For example, if I am attempting a left wing extremism question. So I will have a particular data that I will definitely use in that. For example, Ministry of Home Affairs will release the data under left wing extremism. Last 5 years, how many people got killed? How many people, how many extremists surrendered? Right. So I had that data. In the introduction? In the body part. In the body part. But very crisp. Very crisp. I know that they will definitely ask about this or border management. You can make a diagram or for instance in terrorism, how many people got killed? So in that sense we can pre-prepare all these data. Exactly. I have like around 3 page or 3 to 4 page note for left wing extremism. Left wing extremism. They will definitely ask. One question is very high. Definitely. They will ask definitely for sure. Last year, I think I think 2 questions. Left wing extremism. Yeah. They ask something from security. They ask 2 questions. For example, border management they will definitely ask. So I think, I personally feel paper 3 is the most bulky one. But it is the most timable paper. And most difficult to score also. Because what is happening is that people generally throughout the preparation read about GS3 a lot. And I think the disproportionate emphasis is given on economy and not on agriculture. Exactly. So some areas are blind spot for... And they don't ask economy much. They will ask about inclusive growth every year. So if you have those keywords then you can answer those questions. Science and tech also similar nature. Science and tech, you need to understand what is science and tech. Science is not just ICT. There is also nanotechnology. There is also space technology. Biotechnology. So if you can somehow relate to all these subsectors in one answer itself, then I think they will... That will also help you. Paper 2, I think you have a better understanding. You have scored one of the highest scores also in paper 2. Paper 2, you had 126. I think that's one of the highest scores. Highest is 128. 127 or 128. How was paper 2 strategy? Same standard current affairs. In my GS, I read the newspaper very well. Subject wise or paper wise, I didn't make a strategy. Whatever I read, I understood it. The newspaper as you just discussed about GS3, is a PDAS, agriculture, security. These newspapers were very well covered. I didn't teach them a specific advantage. Once you read you are able to recollect. The understanding created by reading the newspaper, it covers everything. And then the data you extract and you revise the data. As soon as any question comes, it automatically comes to mind that we have to write these things in it. It was also in GS2. GS1 has more static. I didn't make a different strategy. You had a common strategy. I say that I have written something like GS2, I don't know but sometimes you realize I had a rank holder in 2017 or 2018. I was the highest mark in the essay. And you ask that person she is not sure why she got the highest marks in the essay. So something like that. You have done the same strategy for 1, 2, 3, 4. I used to read my sociology most of the time. I say 90-95% of the time. But I read the newspaper very well. The understanding that I made from the newspaper was very good. I used to do that very well. I used to update it daily as I used to follow it. That made my understanding very good about GS2. There was a subject like I didn't study security separately but I studied the newspaper. I could solve any question. So it was directly related to the current phase that you were consuming. And static you have already made your notes and you are revising from that. The static is also revised from the newspaper. Like there is noxialism. So we give it with a little interest. We give it a little context. We google it a little. When it comes to noxialism, we see the definition of noxialism. We read Wikipedia. The static is also covered. The current is covered. And in the end, 10 days ago, the data. I think one trend that we are seeing in paper 2, paper 3 is that 6 constitutional articles, 1 or 2 judgments. So the intensity of data points is increasing. That is I think one of the new trends that we are seeing. And diagrams are reasonably back in business because after 2017, diagrams had gone down. Because everybody was drawing diagrams in everything. They are the relevance of the diagrams. We should add only those diagrams which add value to the answers. It should not be irrelevant. Otherwise, it would irritate the examiner. The role of answer writing in the main preparation. You wrote one paper with us. You have written 6 papers with us. How important is answer writing for the main preparation? I haven't done much. You have not written much. I think it is very important to learn diagrams without practicing. Introduction, conclusion. In fact, we cannot add data exactly in the background. Where to use it? I haven't done much like this time I have written with you. I have written about vision in one or two tests. I have written about sociology in two or three tests. I had done this much of answer writing. But it is very important. But if you were to do it differently, you would have written more. If I was given time to do it again. It is more than 1 month. Last time it was 83. This time it is 103 or 105 days. It was almost 20-25 days more compared to last year. That is a lot. You have written extensively compared to your last attempt versus this year. How was it? I think it was almost similar. I used to write around 2 papers each for 4 papers. So it is around 8 hours. Did you do any stimulators from 2 days back to back? Last year I did. I wrote 4 papers for 2 consecutive days. This year I wrote 2 papers on a single day. We had a rank holder last year who said she had done 3 times stimulator basically to experience that fatigue of writing 4 papers consecutively. More importantly 2 experiences whether you can revise something or not because you are in a misconception that you will get some time. But it is very less time and you are highly tired. So you should have understanding of that. Even writing the ethics paper on the second day the last 1 hour you get very tired by then. SAI I think you both have done almost similar score. We have similar marks, 130. Last year how was your SAI score? It was around 126 I think. So this is a significant improvement this year. It is not a 4 mark improvement because it is a big upgrade. For you what was the score last year? It was 133. So you have more or less but I think 130 this year is better than 133 last year. This time it was a philosophical essay so it might be considered that way. How do you approach philosophical topics? Especially this year's topics are very weird this year. How do you approach essay topics? Actually I don't think it is a very good score. I think on a relative basis from what I have seen there is only 10 or 15 people maximum. So what I used to do for that I used to divide the topic of essay in one word. For example I wrote that this time there is always a better practice to the best practices. So I used to break the essay into a better practice Now we know that we have to improve it. Now we have to search which was the best practice historical best practices and what is better than that and what is better than what is going on what can be better than what is going on Whatever is written in that dimension of what is in social economical, political and whatever is related to it How do you write introductions and essays? How do you introduce? I didn't do anything I didn't do any introduction or conclusion I just naturally remember whatever was in my mind at that time So there is a story type I remember on Hidden Patriarchy I made a story not even an anecdote where I compared a boy a girl child to a boy child that when he lives in the house his socialization is like that I related it to sociology This time the better practices I didn't write the theory of Marx that we used to give the communism the best practices and what was natural Did you use diagrams and essays also? No There are some students who use diagrams and essays also I used headings headings I used to put them in 2-3 headings Basically to divide the essay into different parts I used to understand that I have covered this Data in essays, examples I used to write data I used to write data on Hidden Patriarchy I used to write a lot of gs data Things from sociology also I used to use sociology So sociology really helps in essays I think it helps For you essays how was it? Similarly there were more philosophical topics this year I think we have to start by understanding the topics There is only philosophical topics this year I think it is slowly moving towards all philosophical topics The prime thing that a person should do is stick to the topic and if you are unable to understand the topic please don't write about it What I tell people after every page go back and read the topic because you don't know where you are headed Because there you will lose around 15-20 marks That is the starting point Many people have got 60s, 70s, 80s This interpretation has been a serious issue in philosophical topics I will tell you an anecdote We went to give a paper together when we were coming back in the auto So it was like the hands which rock the credit of the world He said that he didn't do it If you would have done it, what would you have written The interpretation he gave and the interpretation I gave was completely different I left that part because primarily of this I think there are different debates on feminism, on parenting That is a completely different question There was one essay which was very difficult Your perception of me The topic was also very different Interpretation is very important You have to interpret it properly And stick to the demand of the topic They have mentioned the syllabus of the essay like clear and logical exposition Then you have to make it continuous There should be no flow Should be continuous Also try to incorporate all the GS papers Non-GS papers also For example I also wrote There are better practices than the best practices So I started with like Earlier there was feudalism Then people found a better practice Then there was monarchy Then they found constitutionalism Still there was with constitutionalism There was still no rights to women Then they found democracy Then they John Rawls came with this theory of justice Then later on Amrita Singh said that there should be capability enhancement But there is still a better practice where all people are equal And there could be still better practices And then I divided into sub parts For example in social life Or in political space What can be even better For example currently India has democracy But democracy in completely Decentralized form It should be our aim So in that way across sectors also Thinking broadly and ensuring flow And good interpretation If you are moving from one paragraph to another There should be flow That way you can ensure about more than 150 and 120 I think It is tempting to get more than 140 And lending up with less than 100 140 and 150 and all is random We don't know because sometimes it works Sometimes it don't work Like you said paper to or paper to I did the same in paper to That kind of situation You said you took a lot of time on sociology Between Pulin and Names And Max is also very time consuming So how much time would you have given for Max For his GS? I think it would be around There are 3 months in the first 2 months I gave around 70% time to Max 30% to GS In the last month I gave around 40% time To Max in 62 GS I think people should Study more GS in the last month Because it is extensive And you end up remembering those things More because optional is more Academic in nature More conceptual So this is more factual So if you are writing this year How would you strategize in the next 3 months? My maths score is very less It is around 257 So I will write a lot of test papers I think I did a mistake there I wrote very less Less tests in maths Because there is no Not a very big peer group In maths paper So I will write more maths paper Definitely And what would you do if you were writing this year? One I will prepare GS very well Secondly I would like to Write more papers What would you have done differently last year? If you were to do something different More time on GS and More number of papers And more time on the GS That would be my 2 priorities For you? For me I would For example I was thinking Like if I have to write again If I don't get into it So I would have Extensively written test papers in maths For people who are watching They have to write more maths paper Because eventually it is about practice And in maths it is more about Temperament in the paper and choosing the right portion Because for example in sociology If you end up choosing a room Subsection You might lose 5-10 marks But in maths you can lose 30-40 marks I did that mistake this year It is a binary So I think I would write more Test and develop a temperament I had a top 10 rank holder In 2018 Who wrote 50 papers between 50 papers between Everyday one paper So he was like If you wake him up He will write Anything you give he will write Writing always helps Finally To the AW preparation I think this is your Second interview How was your interview preparation Different from last year This year I think I prepared less this year How many marks did you give I gave around 6 marks 6-7 marks Marks are always helpful But make sure You learn about the process And I still believe although I have 168 marks But I believe that confidence Is the presence of mind Sometimes And you can tell them Sorry I was wrong I am changing my opinion this year For example I will tell you this year's interview They asked me about pressure group So they asked me are they good I said yes they are good But they can be bad also So while coming out The chairperson asked me Do you want to tell us something I should have told them that I need to correct myself That I said that pressure groups are good But they might be bad also So I think that presence of mind And balance Which board was this How was your interview preparation this year Actually last year I got 146 And this year I got 154 But I think this year's 154 Is much better Because last year the interview scores Went up to 215 This time it is 205 I did few different things As compared to last year When I gave more number of mocks 14 to 15 mocks Because in my last Interview I was under confident And I was a little nervous in the interview So I had to improve my communication skills I have to improve my confidence Speaking to the Senior members My medium was English English only So more number of mocks Speaking or communication practice So these were my Did you get any questions which were repeated Like from mock interviews to UPC Yes there were many questions In that way I think it helps Almost I would say more than 60-70% Of the questions were from my diap itself And I have practiced them And you had got that in some interview or the other Yes but although I was I failed to Communicate well to the board When we used to sit together When we talk to each other We end up giving very good Views on subjects But as soon as we sit in front of the board So in front of the panel I think our performance reduced a lot I think confidence is a big factor And I think sometimes it happens that You sometimes fall short of Vocabulary That problem I face That vocabulary problem I face a lot And that will lead to miscommunication You are saying something and they don't understand That factor Last question Anything that you want to pass on to the aspirants With respect to the whole process of preparation I would like to say that you should have A little confidence You should have a little motivation Because your consistency and perseverance Will maintain that A little confidence And the way to read things That should be right Understand things Relate things Remember things Read with conceptual clarity Because the same thing Prelims, means or interview The same thing is going to work on the three stages Second practice I did less practice I regret it now I regret it now I regret it now I regret it now In the back end Your understanding of conceptual clarity You should cover all the topics And finally what we have to practice PYQs or Prelims test That should be done First is that there will be failures You have to stand up Because you will be alone in those failures So don't lose your confidence Secondly anyone can clear UPSC Thirdly You have to focus on PYQs And syllabus in each and every aspect That should be very clear Extremely clear And you have to understand your strengths For example, EXH has a different strength I have a different strength I knew that I have to follow the process So I think you have to understand that Who are you and what works for you Thirdly practice I think you have to Develop that thing If you are given any answer You will write that Practice only And one thing that I faced Problem throughout the process Was aiming for perfection That is a big problem There is nothing like perfection I think even if we will retire After the service One person was asking me yesterday itself So Do you think I have knowledge I think I don't have that much knowledge I said a person who is retiring After the service I don't have that much knowledge So I think don't aim for perfection You can aim for excellence This might sound cliche But this is not cliche It's a very good advice Don't aim for perfection Just keep on hustling Keep on practicing Because I keep telling people Even if you get one more year It's not going to make a big difference People compare UPSC exam with Graduation and PLUSP exam You will never be satisfied With your preparation I have never heard anybody say I am ready, give me the paper For example there is one thing There was a senior He wrote brilliant essays If I start comparing myself with him As far as essays are concerned And his rank was around 40 My rank is 53 Had I gone mad I have to write the perfect essay I wouldn't land up anywhere This year there are 685 Different strategies to clear the exam Everybody has a different strategy Different things for different people You can understand that what is working for you Is by practice even smaller Things like retention capacity I might have a different Process to remember things Even in this whole conversation Your approach has been completely different What I did is I tried to learn something from it But I didn't try to replicate For example And I think people from Different backgrounds, 1st attempt 9th attempt Different success stories are coming out And don't think that I should qualify in the 1st attempt itself And also don't believe people who say There is no need to study much in UPSC Because those are exceptions If you are exception that is well enough for you I think there was a response by the government For that additional attempt Prolims is only required to study 15 days So that is And I think another problem Is that people Somewhere believe that this is the only thing I can do in my life So much pressure towards the outcome Is there among lot of people Let me tell you we got into service Now we start feeling that It's not just about I I have already started thinking about the future That it is worthless If I don't do good work And that good work And that can be done everywhere For example if a person is doing a startup He is contributing immensely To the society Even there might be a situation that An IES can't contribute that much So I think it's about Treat this as an exam and Exactly It is an exam sir Nobody is different But from the sentiments in Rajendra Nagar Or people feel that this is the only goal In my life I think they should be driven With that The thought in their mind But see for example there are 180 IES This year But those are not the only ones that deserve To be in IES there are many more So I think that is the The only thing is that you should do your part Put in your 100% effort Outcome is not in the end Similarly there was problems recently So I would suggest people Who weren't able to qualify Please prepare for next And who are saturated Please find something good in the other sectors Because they will find something good There is always something better too Anyway thank you so much for your time It was a great Interaction And also I would like to thank you Personally you have helped me a lot I think I will briefly tell people that IEX was part of the HIT test series It is a five test plan I think IEX Wrote one test as a part of it I believe And Arpit suggested the IEX To the program And I wrote a lot of tests I think your personal guidance and The best part about the test series is that It is very well crafted The questions are appropriate And you asked on the similar patterns So I think this is Apart from all the test series That I have come across It is very well crafted I think a program is very challenging I am telling my team that this week was fine Next week you can always screw up So you just make sure that we do not screw up You do not have to do excellent work You just have to do consistent work So I think your personal guidance has helped me a lot It will look like this has been done for that The primary purpose of this interaction Was to talk about preparation And different aspects of preparation And thank you again so much for your time Thank you sir Thank you Thank you guys