 Congratulations Vaseem. Thank you for securing such a wonderful rank all India 7 rank in civil service exam in 2022. I welcome you to this program success speaks and as you know this program is meant especially to help the people who are not able even to join coaching to be benefited with your journey and the success there right. Vaseem I would like you to introduce yourself for the audience where from you come and what is your family background. I am Vaseem Ahmad Bhatt and I have secured all India rank of 7 in CSC 2022. Regarding my background I belong to Nantnak district of Jumman Kashmir. I did my schooling from there till 12th and after that I moved to NIT Shernagar. Did my B. Tech in civil engineering from there that ended in 2019 and after that I came to civil services. Regarding my family background in my family there's my dad and mom and I have three youngest siblings. My dad works in government service and my youngest siblings they are starting. Vaseem the first question is how this idea you know of going into IAS came in your mind and which is called goal setting you know there's not that easy for anyone. People have wishes to do it but they don't make the real goal. So I would like you to explain what is the all behind this goal setting for IAS. So my dad since I was a child he had this idea that my son should become a DM someday. So that was his idea but I myself thought that I will do engineering. So after 12th I went into engineering and in the college itself I came to realize like after one or two years that I have to look at other options also and in that moment I don't know fate had it in I used to go to library and all found newspapers and all this thing and I knew about civil services earlier also but I didn't know exactly about what the job is and exactly what the syllabus is. There I came to know about this syllabus and I really liked what it had like the syllabus is such a diversity you talk about quality you talk about geography and all those things. So it really interested me. I was a student of engineering and I saw this as like humanities it will help me in understanding the world better that was one thing and second thing also at the back of my mind I also had this thing that like someday I will do civil services but it was not concrete. At that point I felt like I should try at least for this. So in college I think in third year the idea became little concrete that I will work for this and then I started doing some newspapers and some basic books in college. After the college then obviously I went for proper preparation. Wasim as I know it was your third attempt in the first attempt which you did in 2020 exam you got IRS with a very good rank that is for India ranked 225. Second attempt you could not qualify the pre right and third you are in already a seventh rank. So this is going to be very interesting for the audience to know those who are aspiring for the future that how what all happened especially that you even after qualifying in the first attempt you lost the second attempt so after I qualified in my first attempt there was like celebratory mode and all so for 10 days in my home there was constant celebration and I was also celebrating in that moment after that I realized I have to write the exam again in order to improve the rank but then I thought key I will write it like normally I already know the stuff I will do it so I don't know maybe because of that overconfidence I went to the exam picked all the options then I came outside I saw that some of the options I had ticked wrong so even outside the exam itself I felt like I would not do this brilliance and then the results when they came I saw that I was not there for like 1 hour 1 2 hours I was sad after that I thought key no it's a blessing in disguise I will prepare for the next attempt properly because I would get some time for preparing for mains also so that thing happened so I would say sometimes overconfidence also becomes an obstacle in this exam and secondly don't take it very lightly that was what I did in that every attempt is a very serious attempt and civil services examination overall is a very serious exam of course you have to do it joyfully pleasantly but not spoiling your seriousness that is something very important to keep anything in life which you want to achieve something extraordinary you have to make all and every time is a serious effort for that and I'm happy to know that you are very honestly sharing with the audience that how the celebration mode in the second attempt and taking it casually became deciding factor of not qualifying in the limited edition here civil services will make Jamsen of course is challenging and it is becoming year after year but there is nothing new in my 30 years of experience of civil services training program and the coach running the coaching I have understood one thing every year the students will come so this year the train has changed this year train nothing new is there so students should be very much well prepared with the basics and they should do all the groundwork and take every attempt seriously now first of all I would like to know from you about the preliminary exams and itself right to be sure in qualifying for the examination what are the basic certain things to be taken care of from the beginning itself so I think the basic thing is reading the basic standard books which is the NCRTs for a lot of subjects and NCRTs are very much relevant for example geography you cannot do geography without reading from the NCRTs for other subjects also you should try to read the basic material that's available do not go to advanced without reading the basic material and second thing that I feel a lot of candidates what the problem happens is we read the stuff one time then we go to the next source sometimes that happens and in problems I have seen this trend that sometimes you have to remember the thing that you have read very properly if you remember some part of it and you do not remember other part of it it becomes like that problem that little knowledge is a dangerous thing then you mark the option right you would have marked it you mark the option wrong you would have marked it right maybe if you do not know anything but with little knowledge you get confused so that thing I have seen that happens you have to devise the resources whatever resources you have basic resources that you have to devise properly third thing I think what happens is some candidates also they scored very good in the test series but in problems they are not able to do that I think there is this mental pressure that comes in the exam that is not there in the test series so because stakes are high so third thing that I would say is you take the test as the problems exam read every test like you are writing proper problems exam treat it with that kind of seriousness so when you will go to the real exam you will do better as for example in 2020 when I wrote the exam problems exam after the exam I felt like here I wrote the exam like it was a test so that thing happened so I wrote it with like such ease there was not much mental pressure and I got good score in that problems that's right but if you take mental pressure then you will not firstly be able to concentrate on the question you will be thinking about what will happen in the future so that thing will also should not be there and then beyond that you should have very clear and crisp notes for prelims because actually reading from the like standard books sometimes including NCRT's it becomes tough when the exam is very close so if you have clear notes for those subjects it will make it easier see there are some very important things have come from your discussion the first thing is that the fundamentals should be very clear and you should not make superficial study UPSC is not expecting you to be a greater scholar in very in-depth study but the fundamentals which are there and the things related with that must be clear to you that is first important thing revealed from your talk and the second important thing is the maintaining the seriousness even while you're practicing you know if you sweat more in the practice you bleed less in the war that's the very beautiful saying right so you should just keep this thing in mind take it seriously and the third thing that as you have to remember a lot of things so naturally notes making should be your habit and you cannot read through other's notes read from the original sources but make your own notes so that you can quickly revise at any point of time especially before the examination day so let's take up first the question of note making which is an art okay because mostly the students get confused what kind of notes should be made and what is the real method of making notes so what do you have to say about that so I have also had this journey with notes so earlier I remember that I made notes for economics from one book and then after that I realized that I had written the whole book in my notes sometimes that happened but over time I have realized the essence of notes should be that it should be written in your own language firstly it should not be directly what the author has written you're just copying that it should be written in your own language because that will make it easier for you to read second thing it should have all the essential concepts that are there sometimes your notes will focus more on like the peripheral stuff rather than the basic concepts so basic concepts will not be there over time you will realize that you forgot those concepts itself so that thing should be there thirdly I have also realized that what note making is a continuous process so once I make a note then after three days I realized that in this topic I have to add this thing so I put one space on the right side of the page right every time on every page I would do this and after the time when I read for the second time and I'm looking at the note I think that I have to add one fact or something I would add it on the right side that makes your notes more neat and clean otherwise I have seen if notes become like unclean and they become jumbled then it's difficult to read them so that thing also has to be taken care of and you have to also put in all the facts that you can find because problems may sometimes facts become really necessary so as many facts as you can put concepts would be very clear and it should be written in your own language see this is everybody has his own style but more important how much organized you are and you are going to plan in a way that anytime in future when you are reading through your own notes it should not be further a fresh reading for you that what you have written and trying to comprehend so it should be neat and clean maybe some charts by graphs by diagrams and anything can be used that way that's the second important thing is how quickly you revise and keep revising that time and again that would help to them especially the preliminary examination with my experience also I will tell is a test of retention power also yes how much you good officers must have very good memory also yes but how you are able to identify relevant facts and figures not everything you are remembering and but in your mind with second important thing to select best option out of the given choices that is always part of service also in the service life also you will always be left with that what is the best option to take care in decision making and problem solving now well begun is half done this is a very old saying right so when I ask you to explain it how will you do it with your experience so that is true actually planning is very important for success I think without plan in this exam especially you will go on to some other part that does not lead to a good result so for me also in first attempt I think I was not planning that well so what my idea was time because I didn't know how to like combine GS and optional and do all the note making and all so some things went jumbled in my case in the first attempt for example in optional I did the option for three months at the coaching classes and for three months I kept making notes then I kept them in Delhi because covid came I went home and I did not read it for them so that was one mistake that I felt I made at that time in other cases for example GS and all I made the notes and everything but I did not do answer writing that much in the first attempt so I would say that if we are like starting the exam it should be with proper deliberation one should think for example one year down the line because for one year we have to prepare one should think one year down the line if the exam is next June or May we should start preparing for example from September we will do answer writing and you should make goals monthly goals weekly goals this time I did that in the third attempt so what I did for example I made exact timing that I will put for sectionals I will put this much time for full length I'll put this much time and in this month in this day I will do this test it was exact to the day and then I would try to fulfill that of course we can't fulfill everything we write but even if you do 80% of that planning you will do good in the exam but without plan what will happen that sometimes you think that you will do it in 15 days it will take 30 days so over time your Parkinson's laws also say that work will expand to fill the time that is what happens in this exam also and after one year you will feel you haven't read properly so it is essential to have weekly goals daily goals monthly goals and even long-term one-year goal I feel that your the challenge of failure in the second attempt made you take it in a very positive way and you got more organized and even in the first attempt that's why certain such a big jump from 225 to all India seventh rank actually after the first attempt when I saw that I got 225 rank I would like I was like with this preparation I got 225 if you prepare properly I might get even better so that was but get great thing the second attempt mostly you might have discouraged you or you could have gone in comfort zone that I've already got a job and that is also fire is right income tax so that was good enough but you didn't compromise you thought of doing something but this is something for your audience to understand how to remain motivated for such a long time you know is a big thing time and again lot of emotional breakdown comes ups and downs comes so how will you explain with your experience so as everyone says I will also say from personal experience and motivation will be a very internal thing also so when you firstly decide to come into the civil services it is sort of a passion for you if it is not passion then after some point your motivation will start dying down passion not in sense that you are thinking of like videos key Lava Asna videos or something like that that is a short-term motivation a long term motivation would be key if you are looking at long term contribution you will be able to do to the society in civil services so that sort of motivation if you have I feel like every day when you wake up you try to remember that basic idea why you are coming into the service and if you do it what will you do what how will you contribute and all those things so that will be one internal motivation and second thing that I feel the motivation that is like achieving small goals I think for personally me achieving small goals is a big motivation like I put a goal that today I will do these many tests and in the night if I do these many tests I'll be happy so in the night I will check whether they have done and if I have done it gives me a motivation for the next day that I can do even better so small goals will ultimately make the task easier for you if you think in terms of for example we have this idea that I want to become I is right but every day we don't know what to do so that cannot be done you have to make every day goals and you have to fulfill them that will give you small sort of motivation for to move to the next day so this is again something interesting coming from your talk one thing that the motivation has not to be outside it can be initial ignition but this should be learning desire from within but to keep that on the question why is very important as you said that why you are taking this pain efforts yes that is important because there are certain naturally special efforts to be made in some pains to be faced also in the whole journey right yes so this why is important now coming back again to this question what is that why that kept you on so for me the why was that if I will go into civil services it was that idea future what I will be able to contribute so because I have seen so many IS officers doing wonderful job in JNK and outside also and within the preparation itself I also came to know about a lot of people who have done good in civil services so that why was that if I do the exam if I prepare properly I will also get to contribute something to the society and it is that sense of service I think ultimately that that is the reason for you to come to civil services otherwise any sort of corporate job or any other job may be there for us and I was also from engineering background but I did not sit for placement because it was very clear to me that I have to go into civil services and I want to contribute something in the longer and so that when I am old maybe I think that I have done something so that thing completely like every day I would think about that thing and good thing that you started from young age thinking and you are planning even what you will be there and what you're doing old days with your experience this must be some clarity about the road map yes but a journey of life and I'm very happy to interact with you on this point and I am sure audience are also enjoying your whole truthful explanation of things there in the preparation of civil services examination time management is also very crucial some people will say that you should read 15 hours 16 hours somebody who said this and that and students get badly confused so they start counting the number of hours rather than working on the quality yes with your experience what was the average number of hours you were utilizing during the preparation so in this context I want to say one thing that if you are totally focusing on how many hours to put in that means maybe you are not motivated enough whatever time you get you can study but the point is for me the average would change from time to time so if the exam is not close enough if it's far away let's say in the next year I would read probably for eight hours every day and for the rest of the time I would do whatever hobby I have and other things but when the exam was closed for example prelims between prelims and means I used to read for whatever time I had like if I was awake I was either reading or eating so that was mostly the thing and I feel it also depends on the context what kind of a person you are some people may be very hyper focused and they may be able to do in six hours what others do in 10 hours and others may be a sort of taking longer time taking longer time you have to find your own strengths and weaknesses in that and you have to think about it that how much time are you using efficiently like you can sit on a table for 10 hours and at the end of the day have only studied for actually three hours so you have to look at yourself how much time you are using your phone while you are studying in all those things you have to take into consideration so essentially it should be probably on average it can be 6 to 8 hours but ultimately when you are very close to the exam you have to read for a lot of time. See very interesting to know for this time management is used in this beginning used a very good concept that if you are really connected with the goal enjoying that so that counting of the hour goes over because you are more focused on enjoying your journey rather than counting when I will reach there and when this first comes in mind when you will reach there right then the counting begins in what time lagara it is taking a lot of time I will define very difficult to reach there but if you are just in the process such as so every minute you are focused you are enjoying and so long as you are focused keep doing that work but every 6 to 8 hours that is must when you are enjoying and you are getting good concentration you can go longer hours also yes more important is you should be goal oriented you are making small small goals daily yes and you are accomplishing that and with a bigger project that within this period of time if you are one year time how many days are there how many hours are there if you have broad calendar of that this another important thing you said you had balanced approach time maybe you are talking about good time to sleep good to time to other activities because they are also must to keep you better with your efficiency and efficiency and effect these all are very very important to keep you more effective and efficient on that so if I ask you how many hours you slept every day what will you say so maybe this will be a surprise for a lot of people but I have always slept 7 to 8 hours good never less than that before it sometimes before 8 hours if I wake up I feel like like I will study then I will go to the table come back and sleep again because I feel without a proper good sleep you cannot even study properly so there's no point of studying your body and mind has not taken proper rest absolutely your efficiency is bound your efficiency goes down you'll feel lethargic you feel lethargic also and this exam also requires a very good focus you have to be hyper focused on what you are studying otherwise you will just skim through the whole pages of NCRT and other thing and at the end you will not have studied anything the first thing came no compromise on sleep six to eight hours but when say no compromise does not mean that you go in 10-12 hours that's not that you should just limit because so biologically your body needs six to eight hours to sleep right what I used to do usually seven hours of sleep I would do then around 30-40 minutes of nap time after the lunch because after lunch I felt like I was always feeling sleepy so I thought you may not sleep properly for 30-40 minutes and then after I would start preparing again that thing also once you sleep in the afternoon for 30-40 minutes then when you wake up it feels like another day like you are fresh again so you can study properly I think it's very important to sleep small small nap as per the requirement of the body yes and mind you should take right that is very important yes now what kind of companions say friends circle you managed especially when there are a lot of distraction due to social media yes so regarding the companionship when I came to Delhi I came with two other friends of mine who were college friends itself they were also preparing we were in the same place so one of them has also called a friend he has got rank 84 this time so we used to like we would go to classes also together we would do all the things together like study in our own time then when we had like we would eat together discuss about things and all so that sort of companionship has actually helped because when you have people inside the exam who are also preparing for the same exam they also understand what sort of difficulties you are going through and you also understand their difficulties and their things so I think that has helped me and second thing those people if you are wasting too much time on social media then definitely you have to make an assessment like there can be two ways of using social media either it's a mature way of using social media for example I used to use WhatsApp and I even had a Twitter account never tweeted from it but I would always see it but I knew that I was using it in a limited time and I had that capacity of using it maturely if you are not able to do that then you should clearly switch it off completely if you feel like it's wasting too much of your time so it has to be a very personal assessment of how you are using it that is very true in case you are not disciplined in using it I come across many toppers and in the discussion they say sir I could not use it properly in discipline so better I should stop everything yes right it doesn't mean that only when you use social media so you will become topper but yes it can be of add on value to you provided you are making it a very meticulous and in disciplined way of that way friends create and friends destroy yes that's again a powerful so what will you say about that I say definitely that is the most true thing if you are in the company of saints you will become a saint and if you are in the company of properly thieves and that will have a negative effect on you so in my case also since college I have got friends who are very super smart intelligent and very friendly generous people that has also had some sort of effect on me in this exam also I was talking earlier about two other friends over with me in Delhi so because we would go together to the classes we would come back we would always keep discussing about issues social issues about these sort of things in the exam that definitely has helped me and sometimes they would quote something sometimes they would talk about a particular source and I would later on use it in the exam that obviously helps on the other hand it can very well be that if your friends are like a distraction or probably they don't know about the exam or something then it can have a negative influence on your preparation as there are friends outside good or bad so are there two friends inside every human being yes one is called Mr. Triumph another is called Mr. Defit right you have a choice with whom you want to be friend with right so with your experience how much Mr. Defit was taking place and how much Mr. Time was playing a role for you I think in my case particularly I have always been slightly confident I would like means you are more with Mr. Triumph right Mr. Triumph so I think in the second attempt that Mr. Triumph became like a nemesis because I became more confident I was like okay I can do it but usually sometimes obviously all of us have that Mr. Defit inside us this would essentially happen with me when I would get less marks and testries for example in this exam sometimes the examiner would write that you don't have understanding of basics or you don't know this and I was like I have written everything I have done it properly and still I'm not getting marks and that would make me sad in that moment but then again I would think each other in the next test I would do better so it was always like a fight between these two people but on the whole I would say I am more confident and Mr. Triumph and that helped me actually because I didn't take a lot of pressure in the exam in the first attempt I went through the exam I didn't even feel like I had done that kind of preparation but in this attempt I took it even more seriously I was like now I will enjoy it properly I will enjoy the preparation I will do a serious this is beautiful what you are using I will enjoy the preparation yes that's there and also this time I felt like later on when I will do the exam I will remember those days of preparation so it's better to do it properly this is again a very important thing that you should be really proud of yourself that you did justice with your time and hold the journey it's not that I you did casually right you say so it is better to fail with awareness than to succeed with ignorance because some or the other you will lose in your life if it becomes your habit yes a positive element of fear a positive fear keeps one going that flame what's going yeah I may lose it because that is the consistency required yes so that stops from one being overconfident also yes but allowing too much to Mr. Defeat to dominate that kills the Holy Spirit that way Wasim is it only that one should be focused towards the curriculum prescribed to read the book or there should be some additional studies also to give you going or maybe some giving you some additional wisdom and thoughts on that what is your experience so my personal experience with this has been I think the most important lesson in this exam that I have personally felt so I have been reading books for a lot of time since my school days itself and in my college also I read a lot of books later on when I came to the exam I wrote the first attempt for example my optionless anthropology and that time in anthropology questions were slightly difficult and I can say with confidence that that time whatever marks I got that was a major part of that was because of the reading that I had extra studies which you are doing right so I had read a lot of books I directly used case studies from there I directly used whatever anecdotes I had and I got good marks UPC at the end of the day does not know what you are reading they don't know your sources they only know what you're writing on the paper so if you are a well-read person a knowledgeable person if reading is your habit then that will definitely help you in exam be that an essay writing a good essay or ethics or even optional sometimes it will help you and in the interview obviously if you're a well-read personality then that will reflect I would like you to explain a bit more on that in addition to the prescribed books for the curriculum what other kind of reading you're talking about just a few references might tell so for example I used to read a lot of books about human evolution culture and psychology and all so I read for example sapiens right that was one of the earliest books everybody reads that right then I read guns germs and steel the story of human body and all of these books whatever I read the gene by Siddharth Mukherjee later on when I went to the exam I found out that what I was writing in the answers probably nobody else nobody else can write that kind of stuff so this time in anthropology I have scored 328 which is the highest that this has a major contribution in that a lot of people keep asking me what did you read from what standard books but standard books is only half of the story for me I have also read a lot of other books that I could quote from memory and when you read a book what happens because of that is it's easier to remember rather than if you read a direct quote from internet let's say from that book because you don't know the context of the book once you read the book you understand that okay this is the background story in that context this is the quote and similarly I have seen that when I used to write an essay last time I scored 114 essay that was only because I had read so much that it was easier to quote a story from some book or write something emotional because I understand how writers write so it becomes easier to write on the other and if you have never read a book if you're only reading UPSC syllabus and nothing beyond that then it becomes slightly difficult for you obviously you can also do it but you have to be like really hard and do a lot of hard work on that thing and that organic writing that is there like essay has to be very organic it has to be creative that creativity will not come in your essays without reading so kind of one should be good in reading some additional thing which might be related or something out of interest also which broadens your thinking process widens your horizon of thinking that is very very important not talking about the main examples especially what are the basic qualities that the UPSC is looking for in the mains and what should be the preparation strategy for the bates so I think the ultimate basic quality that UPSC wants in mains is you should be able to answer any question with proper arguments and examples to substantiate that or facts to substantiate that is the end of the story but within the story there are multiple stories to write that answer which is proper which has proper arguments which is proper facts and all you have to read a lot and you have to practice a lot so reading for me this time what I did last time I had done from notes this time I chose a slightly different path I did from model answers I did the model answers of like tesseries for two three years so I read all the answers for example let's say history so I read three years answers of all the history questions that made me understand that when I was reading the book I was reading from a book perspective like a novel or something and when I was reading an answer the same thing became an answer format sort of thing so my my mind became like a customer to writing and later on when I would write I would be better able to recall what I had read in the answer so that sort of thing I did this time and third thing I would also say which is very important and means is practice and practice for me this time also was based on previous year questions which I had not done earlier that's very important every day I put one hour of practice for previous year questions and then I would self evaluate that I would do like let's say I would take 2021 paper of GS1 start writing it for one hour then for half an hour I would evaluate it and then my friend would also write he would evaluate my paper I would evaluate his and similarly I would keep doing this till I reached almost 2015 I did all those papers of previous year questions because I would write one day one hour every day I think that was one of the most important additions to my preparation basically more than even the test series what else is your previous year question definitely you should really do it and you should not miss in any case right now talking about especially the essay paper you are talking that where you make some star studies that helps your lot so what you have to suggest to the future parents while developing their experiences for the essay writing so for essay writing I would say two three things are majorly important one is that you have to understand that essay is different than GS it's not the same as GS GS tests your knowledge essay also tests your personality that what sort of a person and so the same essay topic will be given to different candidates they will write it in completely different contexts and different stories so that thing you have to keep in mind and for that you have to know a lot of stories I think that is that is the thing because an essay without a story is like I don't know an ocean without water some sort of so it's not an ocean so you you have to look at for example famous authors who have written very good essays once you look at that for example the introduction every time you will find a good author who writes an introduction it's a very introduction based on pathos which is emotions so it will connect to you on an emotional level so I tell to all the candidates and I used to tell this to myself also that whenever I would write introduction it should be such that when the examiner reads that introduction he would want to read more right that's the ultimate point and for that you have to make it slightly emotional that it touches his heart then later on you can like talk to his brain in the main body but that thing you have to keep in mind and that will only come if you keep practicing because for some people it may come early like you write the first essay it may be good I used to write essays and it was good from the start because I had read a lot but even if it's not happening with time with practice you can get better at it and second thing I would say is that in the body itself you have to elaborate on the essay with different substantiation like through examples or something so whatever great leaders we have had Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, B. R. M. Badkar and Nelson Mandela and all world leaders their stories will definitely add to your essay I have seen that for example Mahatma Gandhi's story or his quotes and all they are very good addition to the essay or even in ethics then in the conclusion you have to be very positivistic so give solutions that like a civil servant-direct bureaucrat would think so in that education parenting and all those things some things I had prepared properly like from the start itself I thought that education would be one part of the conclusion in most of the essays it happens that education because it's able to tackle a lot of issues so I would always put it in the conclusion so that was one sort of things and then beyond that you have to read a lot reading, reading everything write a good essay you have to read a lot either you read good books novels or whatever suits you or you read essays of other toppers who have already written essays you can collect a lot of stories from there this time what I had done I read a lot of stories about buddha and I read a lot of stories from zen buddhism also and from the gay leaders and all I collected them and wherever I would feel that it suits I would put them and I have felt that zen buddhism and buddha stories are very relevant in all the contexts be that essay or generally in our life also so that thing also helped on your behalf what you're trying to say I would like to explain a bit reading habit is really very very supportive and very helpful in especially essay essay is a kind of creative writing yes so of course how good you have been there in other papers history geography quality economy international these things are really needed but more is if you have done some additional studies with some great thoughts great personalities and maybe some health book also there is a self-help book also they all might help you in creating and you need a practice also of that you should keep writing it may not develop just in a way day ideally one should write at least one essay every week yes that will be the most ideal otherwise at least two essays in a month that will be very very important for that you are an engineer with your education and a background and you have taken anthropology or optional subject so my question is what is the right approach of selecting optional subject and what made you choose anthropology or optional so for me the story was very simple that I was interested in it that was as simple as that that's a very powerful thing but because I had a lot of books in college itself and that were related to anthropology at that time I did not exactly know that this was anthropology or whatever it's called but I would read a lot of stories for example about human culture about evolution and all those things later on when I came I took like five six optionals that I thought that I was interested in for example history philosophy anthropology sociology political science so within them I saw that what is the syllabus of each optional and when I looked at anthropology I found that it was really interesting to me then I also checked that anthropology was getting good score like before that year anthropology has been scoring well for a lot of time so that was an additional thing but over time I also realized that there are a lot of things that go into selecting an optional one is your interest definitely because you have to read for a lot of time interest should be there then second is the scoring capacity of that option some optional sometimes do not score well but if you have that kind of interest you can take that but you should take that into consideration what sort of scoring ability it has the third thing that I have found was the resources that are available for that optional that includes the books and all and also the test series for some options it becomes difficult to find exact resources because they're they're very peripheral for example taking let's say Kashmiri literature right if I do that sort of option I am not sure where to get those resources and where to exactly find the test series and all for that study resources are important so you have to look at those majorly three things one is interest second is scoring capacity third is the resources if you find that there's an option which has all of these things then you can take that forward I feel that for the first and third things are very important scoring will definitely be related to these terms because if you have interest in the subject you can form opinion you will not count the hours again as we discussed earlier you will do with interest so you'll read then you'll enjoy the second thing whether you are getting light guidance study resources or not if these two things are there then of course the third thing whether this paper as for your need is scoring or not right all the optional subject is scoring provided you have been able to fulfill the requirements of that light now we are talking about the interview you have appeared twice in the first and the third attempt yes what was your experience in the first and what all you improved in the third attempt right and what is the expectation of the board from these candidates so my experience in the interview I will talk about the 2020 interview that I had so my board was Sujata Mehta man so at that time my experience was that interview board was very cordial I think sometimes what happens is we usually picture eyes a very serious sort of environment and we prepare according to that environment we do not think it's more of a conversation we think like it's a job interview which is I think the wrong way of looking at the interview the expectation from the board is ultimately that they want to look at a well-built personality a person who has a good mental caliber who can socialize well who has different interests and who can like look at the social problems and make his own his or her own arguments about that so in the first attempt I was very sure about one thing that I do not want to go with any preconceived notions I do not want to know which board I have even though I had the option to ask the person but I did not ask that I went and it was a very cordial by the end I was so invested in it that when they said the last question was that do you want us to ask you anything else I said yes I want to talk about my hobbies so that was how cordial it was I really liked the interview experience that time this time also my board was PT Sudhan ma'am a very cordial board the difference that I would say in my preparation and my personal experience was that in CSE 2020 it was my first attempt so I would answer every question like I'm answering like let's say a GS question and being asked something I would answer the question but this time what I did was I slightly personalized the interview so when they would ask a question I would also add a story a personal story or something like that because I feel at the end when we talk about for example bureaucracy itself if you talk to a bureaucrat who is 60 years old who has just retired some senior when you talk to them they would talk about that particular social issue itself but they would add their own personal experience with that issue on the other hand when we as students we don't have that kind of experience so we usually talk from like theoretical perspective so this time I would add whenever they would ask about something tourism in JNK or something so I would add my personal experience when I went some place or something I think they also like that and they want you to see as a personalized interviewer rather than as a robot sort of thing who would just answer the question at the end of the interview I'll ask you what top three things you would like to suggest to the future parents out of your experience so out of my experience one thing that I always say and I will say this again which is that consistency is the key to this exam without consistent if you lead the example let's say one week or even five days then after five days you will feel that you are like starting afresh yes that should not happen consistency even if you are reading for less time but make sure that every day you are touching the exam you're connected to the exam that would be one thing second thing is you also have to organize your life and unorganized life without planning in this exam will not work right so for that you have to have a proper plan for the whole exam one year down the line then monthly weekly targets and daily targets that should be the second thing the third thing should be as we earlier also said that you have to practice you have to sweat in peace rather than bleeding in the war and that exactly happens in this exam that you have to take a series or whatever previous questions you are practicing before the exam you have to take them as the real exam itself so that when you go to the exam you don't have to think twice before writing in answer it should come naturally to you so I think these are the three things that I would say excellent thank you very much Vasim for coming in this program success speaks I am sure by listening to you future parents will be able to correct themselves connect with you and design their own plans how they have to everyone has to customize his own or her own program and schedule accordingly that way and wish you all the best for a grand career thank you sir civil services especially in IS thank you God bless you thank you sir don't forget to like share and subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon to never miss an update