Virendra Kumar Meena, AIR-883 CSE-22 Prelims Strategy

Hi All,

This is the 7th Topper Journey & Strategy post from the Batch of 2023. Virendra Kumar Meena secured AIR-883 in his 4th attempt and has cleared Prelims thrice i.e. in 2020, 2021 & 2022, arguably the toughest years to do so untill the 2023 Prelims.

Virendra could not clear Prelims in his first attempt. In his next two attempts he could not clear Mains. This attempt was his first Interview and he did well to find his name in the final list.

You can contact Virendra on his Instagram Profile or his Telegram Handle: @Viren26m

Introduction

Hello, I’m Virendra Kumar Meena, AIR 883, CSE 2022. I’m from Kota, Rajasthan. I began my preperation in 2018 from Kota only and without any coaching, I secured rank in my 4th attempt. My medium was Hindi and my optional was PSIR. I did my B.tech in EIC branch from government engineering college, Ajmer. I cleared prelims thrice (2020, 2021 & 2022). My essay and ethics score was consistent throughout the 3 mains attempt.

Prelims Sources

I follow the strategy of minimum resources and maximum revisions in each subject.

‌Modern History – Spectrum + Ghatna Chakra
‌Ancient + Mediaeval History – Tamil Nadu State board book of class 11 + Ghatna Chakra
‌Art and Culture – Selective topics from Nitin Singhania
‌Polity – M. Laxmikant + previous year question
‌Geography – Mrunal sir YouTube lecture series + previous year question + mapping through Atlas
‌Economy – Current affairs + economic survey + budget + scheme handouts + revision through ghatna chakra
‌Environment – Shankar IAS book (static) + OnlyIAS udaan (Current)
‌Science and Tech. – Ghatna Chakra + OnlyIAS udaan
‌Current Affairs – Mainly Indian express newspaper + OnlyIAS udaan + StudyIQ YouTube channel + byjus newspaper analysis

Join here for free guidance from Mudit Jain, IRS CSE-17 (IPS CSE-14 & 15), Author of Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode GS2, Decode Ethics 4.0 & Decode History Books

Ethics book referred by CSE 22 Toppers: AIR –76, 91, 176, 189, 249, 288, 297, 299, 326, 356, 476, 541, 611, 616, 700, 737, 739, 746 & others

History book referred by CSE 21 Toppers: AIR – 44, 212, 572, 653 & others

Sample PDFs of Books: Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode Ethics 4th Edition, Decode GS2 & Decode History

Prelims Strategy

I used to focus mainly on core subjects like polity, economy, geography, modern history and current affairs.
I had a target to practice more and more questions before prelims (minimum 10000 questions) and 3-4 full length mocks (just a week before) for time management. For that I used the previous year question of CSE -Pre, CAPF and CDS. I also practice daily quiz on textbook app and from telegram channels.
I used to practice the sets of questions ( each set have 10 questions). These sets have random and mixed questions. These were very helpful to check my accuracy level.
On exam day, I try to be calm. In first reading of paper I attempt only those questions in which I was sure. In 2nd and 3rd round, I used the techniques like elimination, deduction and guesswork to maximize my number of questions attempted. I aim to cross the target of 85 questions.

CSAT Strategy

In this paper I used to solve previous year question from 2018.
I focus more on reading comprehension, reasoning and mathematics with easy and moderate difficulty level.
I aim to attempt minimum 50 questions with high accuracy.