Can you narrate your UPSC journey was the question I had answered on Quora.

However, Quora deleted the answer following its so called moderation policy. 

Here is my UPSC Journey:

P.S. This is going to be a long write-up as I have to write about 6 long years!! 1st para summarizes the same.

I am fond of numbers and facts. Mathematically, I can summarize my UPSC journey in 6 years, 5 attempts, 4 interviews, 3 ranks, 2 IPS, 1 IRS and 0 IAS. Decorated right?

From outsider’s perspective the answer could be a plain yes. But as I have lived this journey for 6 long years, I can assure you that it was full of hardships.

At age of 12, I decided to be a public servant but lost course as I took PCMB in 12th and did engineering from Amity University Noida. I joined Accenture and worked there till the bond period. That 1 year brought me back to the right path.

I started civils journey in June 2012. Having reached hostel in Delhi, the first realization was that I wasn’t alone in the race. Out of first ten other aspirants I met eight were from IITs and other grand institutions. I mention this as I graduated from Amity University where culture of CSE preparation isn’t that popular. This very fact humbled me and perhaps worked in my favor in long run as it “forced” me not only to work hard but work out of my skin.

The start wasn’t good as I happened to be short of information regarding optional subjects. Taking advice of my seniors I blindly went for two of the most accepted combinations then, Geography and Public administration. I have only UPSC to thank that it reduced optional to one. This decreased my misery to some extent and I selected Geography.

Clearing prelims in first attempt was dream come true for me as even that appeared to be a big task. Then started the real “fun” that lasted for 180 odd days. It was MAINS preparation. My Prelims Strategy. My Mains Strategy.

Looking at the syllabus I decided that I will make my own study material and not rely on any institute. This was one instinctive decision that helped me a lot over the course of my preparation as I read 100 things and the 50 which most institutes would found to be not so important were asked by UPSC. As I decided this, many friends and seniors warned against the same. Advices rushed in from all corners and headed in one direction. But I stuck to my decision and had faith in myself. I always told myself that though it was a huge risk, it was worth taking. This resulted in following:

• Freedom Struggle 78 Page Notes.
• Ancient + Medieval 30 Page Notes.
• GS-2 IR Bodies Static Notes.
• GS-3 Economy + Agri Static Notes.

In my view the trickiest thing regarding MAINS exam is to understand what the examiner wants from you and once you catch the nerve of UPSC you can clear this exam every time you appear for it. Also you need to focus at each and every thing mentioned in syllabus. Once I was having a casual chat with one of my senior and he advised me to learn the syllabus. This was perhaps the most important thing I did. This also tells that UPSC aspirant should keep his senses open 24*7. You never know which thing might help you later.

My first Mains went quite good and I was confident about clearing it. And so I did but as I came to know later, I had performed very poorly in my optional subject geography scoring 156 out of 500. At the same time I did very well in GS securing 340 marks. This acted as a big boost for my second attempt. My strategy and all the risk I took had paid off, though only partially.

Where I lagged behind from others was the personality test round. My interview went quite well. The board was cordial as they always are. The members had smile on their faces. Later when the marks were disclosed I realized that smile meant something else. I managed a paltry 118 out of 275 while the average marks awarded were 170. This was bound to go against me and I failed to secure any rank.

A new week marked another beginning when I started studying for my second prelims exam. Time was less and hence I did the necessary things and banked on CSAT basically. After the prelims when I checked online answer keys I was in shock to see that I was managing a score that according to many was a borderline score. Next two months till the results were again a tough period. It was very important to maintain focus and study for mains.

I focused on my weaknesses this time around and studied geography the way I studied GS in my first attempt i.e. from internet. Learning from your past mistakes is very important. So is learning from your strengths and building on the already strong foundation. Hence I balanced out GS and geography. Frankly, even before appearing for mains I knew I will clear it and I did. At the risk of sounding pompous, I am confident that even today if I write Mains I will clear it for sure. Thats not out of arrogance but my confidence in my strategy and processes.

Now the challenge was to forget the 118 horror. I got 14 odd days to prepare for my second interview and I was very happy with the fact that I do not need to study for more time unnecessarily. Having appeared once, I was confident about doing well in my second personality test. Also there was a feeling that I had already seen the worse last year itself and it could not go below 118 “benchmark”.

The interview went well. Soon results were out and I secured AIR 222. I was obviously happy and felt that I must have done well in GS and got the personality test monkey off the back. But a friend of mine, now my senior in IRS, somehow came to the conclusion that I must have scored less in interview again.

I could not digest the fact as securing 222nd rank prima facie means an all-round score. But, as it happened, I scored second lowest marks (110) in interview amongst selected candidates. What it meant was that I scored heavily in mains (822, 11th rank in mains). My Mains Strategy.

The joy of clearing civil services exam was over powered by the disgust of not getting through the final hurdle yet again. Even if I had got a paltry 50% score of 138, I would have been IAS AGMUT Cadre that year!

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