How to crack UPSC civil services exam? “Self-study, perseverance, practice”
The daughter of a cop father, Smriti Mishra will now join the distinguished Indian bureaucracy after securing an all-India rank (AIR) of four in the civil services exam-2022.
The daughter of a cop father, Smriti Mishra will now join the distinguished Indian bureaucracy after securing an all-India rank (AIR) of four in the civil services exam-2022.
Mishra is from the Allahpur locality of Prayagraj, and is pursuing her bachelors in science from Miranda House, University of Delhi. She chose zoology as her optional subject for the mains exam. Her father, Rajkumar Mishra, is presently posted as circle officer-II in Bareilly.
“I dedicated seven to eight hours of each day to prepare for the UPSC exam. I regularly took notes to consolidate my learning,” she said.
Similarly, Pratiksha Singh of Dhanaicha-Malkhanpur village of Hanumanganj area of Prayagraj has secured 52nd rank in the exam. This was her third attempt.
Presently posted as sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in Shamli, Pratiksha’s father Prem Bahadur Singh is a teacher in a government school in Delhi and mother Neelam Singh a homemaker.
Pratiksha completed her classed 10 and 12 from a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Ghaziabad. After that she completed pursued bachelors in arts (BA) with geography as her honors in 2017 from Miranda House. She went on to complete her masters from Delhi School of Economics.
Along with her regular studies, she also kept preparing for the civil services. She was posted as SDM in 2020.
“My suggestion to all aspirants is to remain positive and disciplined, and try to learn from your failures. I also believe reading NCERT books of classes 9 to 12 is a must. Prepare a time table and know the syllabus right from the beginning.”
“Coaching helps, but self-study is more important,” said Pratiksha, who shifted to Ghaziabad in 2005 but comes to Dhanaicha-Malkhanpur every year for vacation.
Anirudha Pandey, from Tagore Town, bagged 64th rank in his fourth attempt. Anirudha, who completed BTech in civil engineering from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) in 2019, spent the last few years of his life preparing for civils.
Anirudh succeeded without ever going to any coaching. Having passed class 10 with a CGPA of 10 from a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Pune and class 12 with 92.6%, Anirudha took political science and international relations as his optional subjects in the mains.
“In my first attempt in 2019, I could not even clear the preliminary examination. I spent the next two years trying to figure out how to crack the mains. But I did not lose courage. I laid more emphasis on practice as part of my preparation, and practiced with pre-mock tests for the prelims, “test series” for the mains, and gave mock interviews to clear the interview round,” he added.
Don’t just study, practice equally hard, his advice to aspirants.
Anuridha’s father Adarsh Pandey has retired from the Military Engineering Service (MES) and mother Manju Pandey is a homemaker.
Similarly, Shreya Singh, also a resident of Allapur, has bagged 639th rank in her fourth attempt. Originally from Kotwa Hanumanganj, Shreya’s father Shailesh Kumar Singh is a farmer and mother Pankaja Singh a teacher at Central Academy, Jhunsi.
Shreya passed her high school from Central Academy in 2012 with 10 CGPA and class 12th in 2014 with 96%.
In class 12, she was the third topper of the district. After that she pursued BTech from IIIT-Vadodara and then completed her masters in sociology from Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University, Prayagraj. Sociology was her optional subject in the IAS mains exam.
Abhishek Bind, son of Lalji Bind, a former administrative officer at the district collectorate and currently practicing as a lawyer in the district court, has secured 673rd rank in the exam.
Abhishek is an MTech in Mathematics from IIT-BHU. Earlier, he worked with Microsoft on an annual salary package of ₹38 lakhs. After working there for 15 months, he left the job and went to Delhi to prepare for Civil Services.
