 Hello everyone, today we have Suraj team, all in there I am 197 UPSC Seoul Service exam 2022. On behalf of all of you, I welcome Mr. Suraj for the session. Thank you sir. Hi Suraj. Hello sir. Congratulations for the success. Thank you very much sir. I would like to congratulate and also like give the gratitude of Shankara's academy. Thank you sir. For being here actually in spite of your schedule because already you are in IRS. Yes sir. This conversation will be like how you started your preparation. Yes sir. And how did you prepare for this exam and throughout the journey what are all the difficulties you faced, how did you motivate yourself in this preparation because this preparation is a very lengthy journey. True. So we will have a small discussion about this that will be fruitful to all the millions of students who are preparing for this exam. Sure. So first I would like to know about your educational background and about your parents and all. Yes sir. Can you please tell about that? Sir my father V.S. Dilip Kumar worked as an administrative officer in the Kanataka street police department. He is now retired from service and my mother works in the central public works department as a senior craft person. So right from my childhood I had this background of government servants in my family so that always motivated me to join the government service. But then why civil services or why IIS or IPS is a question which comes to my mind also very frequently. During my childhood when I used to ponder about what profession I would choose my father used to say you have to become an IIS or IPS officer because my father had worked very closely with many senior IPS officers like director general of police Kanataka street commissioner of police Bangalore city. So he wanted me also to become one of them serve the people and in fact act in a way that the problems of the people in the society reduce after a point of time. So that always motivated me and coming to my educational background I have done my bachelors of engineering in computer science and engineering from global technology Bangalore. Post that in 2017 once I completed my engineering I started preparing for the civil services exam and the academy I choose at that point of time was Shankara IIS academy and it was the first year that Shankara IIS had come to Bangalore and I was very fortunate to be one of those students in the first batch and today it's almost like a homecoming to me after getting selected for the second time in the exam. So it feels very nice to be interacting with you as well as you have also been an integral part of my preparation. Thank you. So you are telling that from childhood days you are having the dream of joining civil services. Yes. We started the preparation after completing your college. Yes sir. Like after coming out of engineering. Yes sir. Did you actually did something at your college time itself so that it was helpful for you in the preparation after the college? Sir though I had civil services in my mind I was not sure as to when I would actually start my preparation but then in the meanwhile I had few personal incidents which actually motivated me. The first one is when we had gone to Kodaikanal as a family trip when we were coming back we actually met with a very serious accident and then my sister was very severely injured in that accident in the Teni district. So at that point we received a lot of help from policemen in the district administration and you know at that point I started feeling that these people have been able to help my family. If I am also in one of these positions tomorrow I will be able to help so many people who are in need. So that actually motivated me to be either in the police service or in the administrative service. And one more incident was when I was in my third year of engineering. Though I was not seriously interested in civil services preparation at that time my father was working under Kuldipumar Jain Sahib who is an I.P.S. officer of Karnataka Ked. And it so happened that I met him in his office and he actually motivated me at that point to write the civil services exam. So that thought of civil services exam was there in me but he ignited a flame at that point which has actually come this far. That's great, that's great. So like because nowadays like students wanted immediate results you know because UPSC civil service exam needs at least two years of preparation. So it is very difficult for many of the students to sustain their motivation for the two years you know because one year of preparation and one year the exam itself happens. So it may take one, two years or three years or whatever it is depending upon their attempts. So how you maintained your motivation for these many years in this preparation which helped you to actually keep the motivation on throughout the preparation. Yes sir. So one thing is that I have gotten to, I will be getting into the Indian police service in my fourth attempt. So in my first attempt I did not even clear the preliminary examination. In my second attempt I did not clear the main examination. That was in the year 2020, early 2020 when the main results were announced and at that time the COVID-19 pandemic had hit the entire department. So because of COVID-19 pandemic I got that extra period of three to four months to prepare for the exam which was a game changer and I was actually able to cover my weaknesses in main examination because in problems I was actually doing pretty well in most of my attempts. But then what changed in my preparation phase because I would like to say this to all the aspirants as well because in this process of preparation for the examination there are going to be a lot of crests and tufts. It is not going to be an even surface or it is not going to be a level playing field. So I had to manage all the pressure, all the pulls with your mental attitude with a positive behaviour which will actually help you in the exam. This is what I did because I received a lot of help from my parents from the academy. These things actually change a lot. Whenever I used to feel low, I used to talk to my parents, they used to give me motivation and then all these things used to add to my potential and then I started believing in myself that I would be able to clear this examination at some point and so I started preparation focusing mainly on my weaknesses. The first attempt I did not clear problems. In my second attempt I did not clear means. So this actually gave me an input as to where I have to do right, what I had done wrong in my last two attempts. So I started improving upon my weaknesses which has probably resulted in my selection in the third attempt and also my fourth attempt. That's great. So in UPS examination choosing an optional is a very important aspect actually. Like what was your optional, how did you choose that optional? Please explain about that. So definitely many people go with trends because I have seen that right from my preparation days. People say if mathematics option is scoring well this year or public administration is doing well, they just go with the option thinking that they will also get good marks but that is not the strategy here. I chose geography optional in 2017 when it was not at all doing good, when average scores were not even 220, when other options were doing 280-300. So my only focus why I chose geography optional was that subject I was comfortable. You have to first look into the syllabus in the UPSC website whether you are actually comfortable with that subject and you know in fact contact some of the seniors who have already written that subject, contact teachers so that they will be able to give you a view as to how you have to prepare for that subject whether you actually suit that subject and then start your preparation because optional paper marks an important stage in your preparation especially in the main segment because you will be writing for 500 marks and if you are able to score more than 280, there are high chances of you getting selected. For example though you know in my first main I did not get a very good score in geography I just continued with the same optional because I had the feeling that there was a lot more improvement from I said which would happen so if you do that self-improvement any option you choose you will definitely score good marks. So there is also a trend that like students keep on changing their option that is not advisable right because actually once you stick on to your option you need to do lot of improvements in it either changing from one option to the next what you have suggested will be helping lot of students who are actually watching this video. So coming to the answer writing for GS GS is actually the more chunk of mark is actually with the GS including like SA and the four GS papers you have 1250 marks in the main exam which will be a very crucial role in getting into the service because two times you have cleared this examination and improved a lot of marks in the present attempt of 2022 also you have improved a lot of mark in GS. So what did you do to actually improve the marks and like how this answer writing is very important for scoring very good marks in main examination can you please elaborate on it. Definitely sir yes. Sir right from the time I cleared the preliminary examination in 2019 I was at that time not very sure as to how a very good answer has to be but then I did not bother too much about it because I knew that I would be joining Shankara is given the fact that I was guided by this academy right from my preparation days I just used to go with Shankara is main storming and especially in the last attempt I went with the main storming legend series which is very helpful in the fact that the kind of quality of questions they frame because answer writing as sir mentioned forms a major role in a person getting selected or not getting selected and when you choose a good institute like Shankara is academy they give you those good set of questions which can actually replicate in the examination and also when you make a lot of mistakes when you write the answers those mistakes and when we go into the depth of the analysis or the kind of solutions which they have given it adds a lot of points to our answers as well in that sense answer rating plays a major role and one thing I would suggest to the aspirants is right from day one of their preparation they have to start focusing on answer rating because even in my selection this year though my interview marks are not very good my selection in my rank 197 is because of the score in main examination so if you have a very good score in main examination you have a good rank so I would suggest choose a very good test series get good guidance from the mentors and improve upon your weaknesses say for example you are writing for 250 marks in 3 hours initially you will be writing only 16 questions because you won't be able to complete the entire paper every test you write you have to make an improvement you have to do that self-analysis that now I am writing 16 answers next test I will write 17 answers if you are writing all the 20 answers just try to make that the marks in GS will increase by 40 at least because 20 questions into 0.5 10 marks in each paper so 40 marks difference yes that's great so coming to the problems part you know like nowadays problems is becoming very dicey yes like the question paper is becoming more tougher around here and the factor of CSAT is also playing a major role in many of the students clearing the problems examinations so what will be a suggestion to the students who are preparing for the examinations like what can be done how the revisions can be done how many tests they need to take all like how important they need to give to the CSAT paper can you please tell about definitely yes sir I have also written four preliminary papers out of which there were many difficult papers especially with respect to CSAT but then with the kind of practice I had I never built CSAT was a difficult thing but then observing the trend in the last few years question papers I feel they are making CSAT a detrimental factor in the examination process so one thing I would suggest is especially with respect to prelims exam if you consider the entire UPSC journey as a marathon this prelims is like a 2020 match it is not that all balls are yorkers or all balls are bouncers you have to look for those loose balls and hit boundaries in those balls you can't wait for the loose balls all the time or you can't expect yorkers to be there all the time you have to make use of the gaps be good in your basics as possible the same source don't move with multiple sources choose a test series or maximum two preliminary test series solve the test series papers diligently analyze your mistakes and most importantly this is what most people don't do because I've seen that in my preparation phase as well most people what they do is once they finish the preliminary exam papers in case they are getting 150 marks they feel they know everything but that is not the case they have to go through the solution of each question in detail because there will be a lot of information in that solution part that will act as a good guide to answer the other questions which can appear in the examination so they have to go through the standard books first solve a lot of questions doesn't matter how difficult the paper is don't bother about what kind of questions UPSC is setting or don't try to read it just go with your normal strategy of preparing from standard books revising the standard books multiple times going with a good test series and revising the questions which are given in the test series and also the solutions that will give you an edge along with that you will have to practice few previous year question papers as well at least the last 5 years because you know the language which UPSC is using you will be able to predict what kind of statements can actually come in the exam doesn't matter because I've seen this year's preliminary question paper as well though it seems to be very tough if you are actually calm and if you apply your mind you will still be able to get around 100 marks easily this is my personal opinion so don't worry at all in the examination or even if you feel the paper is difficult to come be confident and eliminate the wrong options which are present in the statements this will easily give you the marks and you will easily qualify the exam so the presence of mind in the 2 hours is very important and the revision plays a major role because people keep on studying a lot of books tons and tons of books but they don't revise anything that doesn't make any sense and being very restless in the exam also is not going to give them foods you need to be having a calm mind and also the presence of mind like from the starting you are associated with Shankarai's again from your foundation GSBCM course then Bullimsa series, Mainstay series optional everything you have been associated so there are some students who actually like prepare for Bullimsa first then Mainstay again then Mowl there, Mowl there like personalities for the personalities whatever it is so what we understand is that it's a holistic process starting from the Bullimsa interview it is a holistic process so can you suggest something how they can actually holistically prepare for this entire examinations not like only clearing volumes or only clearing mains and overall they need to be in a very good rank in the final list so how they can mold themselves for that sir in fact if I can take my own example in my first year of preparation in fact even I focused only on prelims the moment you start focusing on a particular stage in the examination you will be wasting a lot of time that is because the preparation will not be holistic it will not be complete and what a specific aspirant has to do during his preparation phases see first suppose I am an aspirant today I am aspiring to rate disability exam and getting selected very next year because I don't want to waste much time I am studying a topic from Indian geography drainage system I am studying in modern Indian history what has happened from 1857 to 1947 I go through the content from Bipin Chandra or I go through the modern spectrum book I go through the NCRT what I have to do is based on the content I have already studied I have to solve questions from the previous year papers or take a particular institute's section wise papers or full-length papers take questions from that solve them doesn't matter even if you don't know the complete content because you can't wait in this examination to have the entire knowledge and then start writing answers or start following questions so the thing is once you have one single reading or two readings you have to start solving preliminary questions you will have to start writing mains answers only when you start writing answers where you are writing and how much time you are taking to actually write a 10 marker or 15 marker or 120 marker this actually makes a difference doesn't matter even if you don't know the complete content just start practicing within the stipulated time limits focus on content and focus on how well you can actually present the answer because presentation also plays a major role along with the content you will have to use figures, diagrams data all these things actually play a major role in presentation and with constant answer writing practice minimum of two to three questions every day you will have to write and this examination according to me is all about discipline if you are honest and disciplined if you are preparing for eight hours or any number of hours every day consistently there is no one who can stop you from succeeding in this exam that's great the word you use discipline is very important why because in all like the hard work and all these things are actually like complimented by this discipline you are continuously attending the sessions you are taking the test properly the word discipline is very like apt word to be used let me put the other question actually like previously before four years or five years in all the weightage of the subjects will be actually more or less it is fixed more weightage will be there for quality and problems more weightage for modern Indian history nowadays it is keep on changing but still no students are actually omitting certain subjects in their appropriation for example always this grey area subjects are there for example ancient India or something like that but nowadays the questions have increased in these parts so when you go to the exam hall and you see a lot of questions from the areas what you have not prepared you know it is a very big surprise and ultimately you break down there and there is a disaster so like you need to give equal importance to all the subjects in preparation in the preparation stage tell about that how did you prepare all the subjects how did you give weightage to all the subjects equally that will help the students also from math 30 you know yes sir when I started my preparation as well because we go with the bigger subjects which have a major chunk of share in the examination given I used to focus more on quality you have the feedback majority of the questions but later in my later that is in my third attempt and my fourth attempt especially in the preliminary examination lot of questions started appearing from art and culture like you mentioned ancient history and also from science and technology and also from sports related so what can happen here is if your preparation is not complete or holistic you will have some gaps so what you have to do is you have to give equal focus equal weightage to all the subjects doesn't matter how many questions actually appear when it comes to environment because it will have a weightage of around 20 questions in billions at least so you have to focus more on those core areas strengthen them see in case you have to focus more on quality more on geography in case there are 15 questions in quality you have to make sure that you answer 12 to 13 at least properly and even in geography if you are focusing on a particular subject the cost benefit treasure has to be very high if you are investing time it means that it has to translate into maths as well you are investing more time in quality you are not scoring good in that you are not concentrating at all on ancient history you are getting 15 questions on it you are not able to answer that as well that doesn't look good so if you give equal amount of weightage for all the subjects and keep this in mind even I used to find ancient and medieval history very difficult what I did was I chose the Tamil Nadu class 11 and class 12 books because the language is very simple the content is also very comprehensive I was able to cover it in a very short period of time and revise it so that actually gave me confidence that the subject is not difficult so you have to find those narrow gaps you know those narrow roads which can actually lead to success and then you have to practice more questions on it because the academy and all the other academies are offering a lot of test series specifically on these subjects so if you have more questions on it see what kind of questions are appearing in previous year papers it will give very good insights and don't have that thought in mind because even in main exam sir as you know I have written multiple main exams there are so many questions which are bouncers which nobody knows the answer in this exam is all about managing what you don't know and obviously that is what is expected as an IAS it's almost about managing because out of 20 questions even in main exam I would say perfectly I would note another 607 I just have a very very knowledge because I have this knowledge I know how to apply it in that particular situation though I do not have complete information I know how to manage it well and get 50% of the marks managing actually plays a major role even in preliminary examination doesn't matter see for example you can give me any random question I won't know anything about it but I easily eliminate two wrong options and decide between the two close options so this is the kind of logic you have to use in the examination this plays an important role important role so two things I have understood from this first thing is choosing the right material second thing is actually practicing more on the questions because you see a lot of bounce up questions in the test in the class itself you will be able to manage it very perfectly in the final exam that's great actually let us come to the interview part interview is always a fancy thing in UPSC civil service operation even everyday when I sit in the office people or the parents or the students for joining the Shankaraj Academy or want to take some guidance about this exam straight away they talk about the interview only they don't talk about the problems or main events because it is fascinating to go to UPSC civil service interview because millions of students ask for it only 2000 to 2500 students reach the interview stage how was your experience in two times you have cleared this examination so how was your experience with the interview part of the or the personality part of the examination sir the interview part I think is one of the easiest and it is also the toughest part because the other stages you will have certainty with respect to the kind of preparation you would have done especially in the main space whereas when it comes to the preliminary examination it is kind of very debatable it is kind of very variable but when it comes to interview it can be anything it can be really good it can be really bad but the only thing you have to do is you have to focus on your own personality as the name says personality test it is not checking your knowledge it is just what kind of a person you are whether you are actually a person who is suited to become an IIS or an IPS officer or any other group you are an officer if you have the attitude of emotional intelligence if you are confident, if your communication skills are good that is more than enough but the only thing which is expected from a candidate is they have to be honest and they should not be lying they should be accepting if they are not aware of something it is not that any person knows everything obviously even in spite of having experience because a panel members will usually be around 60-65 Euros their experience will be more than our age so they will be knowing each and everything about us and even if we are trying to make up for an answer they will easily make out that we are actually trying to fake so it is better to stay what kind of a person we are just answer them confidently and come out but then the kind of experience I have had in interviews is very different the first interview the kind of questions which were asked were different but then they made me very confident that is the best out of me and that is how I was able to score 195 but whereas in this attempt because I was already in service they will have some sort of valuation procedure their own methodology as well the questions were very random so you cannot have any expectation about the interview on the basis of your DAB they may ask few questions but in my second interview there were no questions from my DAB no questions from my educational background or from my home state, my city nothing was there just random questions which were thrown at me I just managed them well I just handled them with confidence though my interview score was not very good but then I had the confidence that I did not crumble under pressure they are looking for people who don't crumble under pressure because even as an IAS officer IHPS officer suddenly some commoner rate will happen suddenly some natural disaster will happen under those situations whether you will actually be able to apply your mind in a logical way whether you will be able to handle the stress this is what they will be trying to do yes of course these are all the qualities so the corrects what I found from your answer is that whatever might be the situation you should be able to handle it one minute you have to answer you have to be sure of what your thought process is don't try to adopt some process or some opinion see for example people are talking about same sex knowledge in India lot of opinion articles are coming in the newspaper lot of people are debating in news channels as well you can't just take their opinion tell that as your opinion you will have to frame your own opinion about few issues in a national stage have an opinion about it and give your own opinion because UPSC actually gives a lot of weightage to your original opinion if you are original in your thoughts original in your approach that's great so obviously in this interview we should not expect anything in the interview go with the open mind to actually face the questions and manage the situation as well as possible that's great actually so the last question would be like do you have any experience like millions of students are actually preparing for this exam so you have succeeded in this exam twice and now you are going to get into Indian police service and soon you are going to serve the people of the nation I wish you to get the home state cadet so give some words some suggestions to the budding aspirants like how they can actually more themself for this service so basically this exam preparation is an integral part of your life entirely your life you have to make sure that you decide on priority what has to be done because this examination phase is so so kind of well packed that you won't have time to think about the other things which are happening in your life so you have to be very focused be very practical about the goals you set because you have to set daily targets monthly, weekly targets, monthly targets because without having these targets you can't achieve the ultimate goal and from 2017 till 2023 no 6 years in preparation and you also got into Indian Revenue Service in 2021 after 4 years of preparation so according to me this examination tests your patience whether you can perceive here whether you have the attitude to pursue even in spite of failing it is actually testing what kind of a person you are even in life life tests us whether we are strong people or whether we are not strong people those people who crumble under pressure can never become great which actually becomes the lord or which becomes the sculpture would have taken a lot of hits on it so in the same way if you have to become a great person if you have to achieve something great you will have to perceive here and then you will have to make sure you give all your attempts or in the sense you will have to give your best attempt you have to give all your efforts into it and then expect a good result without giving good or without making good efforts you can't expect a good result give everything from your side whatever is possible have faith in God believe in yourself and also make sure that your preparation is on track by keeping yourself in the loop with the mentors, with the academies and also with the best kind of preparation which can be possible from your side be hopeful and be positive this is the only thing of which I say all aspirants because right from my preparation phase if I have come this far it is because of the kind of positive attitude with the kind of mindset that I will accept failure if you have to become a successful man you have to be ready to accept failures I have used many times in my life and that is actually given the accepting and also like learning from the failures is also very important and bouncing back with the same mentality because people who actually do not bounce back after their failure they go to the very nominal position very menial position people who have actually bounced back after their failures and learnt many things from the failures are definitely coming up with flying colours you are a very good example for that actually thank you what I would like to say to all the aspirants does not matter if you fail in one problem does not matter if you fail in one means does not matter if you fail in that interview it does not matter at all because in this process of life everyday is a learning process and everything you do is learning so ultimately your goal is to clear the civil services examination have a single minded focus you will definitely be able to achieve it have a positive attitude and keep preparing confidently with good guidance because without good guidance you know that there is light at the end of the tunnel in which direction you have to go to see that light you need some guide and you need a good mentor and that mentor actually plays an important role in my life as well a lot of mentors have played a major role and that is why I am here today thank you so this discussion we discussed about various stages of this examination also how to actually keep the motivation on throughout the examination how to be patient in the success yes sir it was a very good conversation it would have thrown a lot of lights for the students who are preparing for this examination first of all thank you for sparing your time here with Shankara's academy and we are very happy that you have come up with flying colors in this examination and all the rest for your future for serving this nation and we would see you as a very prominent type of officer in the country and do a lot of good service to the people of this nation thank you for coming here it was a nice conversation with you I hope the conversation would have helped you in watching this video how to prepare for this examination especially with respect to problems, mains and interview on various stages of the examination we have discussed here thank you