Navita Kumari, AIR-251 CSE-22 Working Professional Journey, Prelims, Mains & Sociology

Hi All,

This is the 25th Topper Journey & Strategy post from the Batch of 2023. Navita Kumari has had 10 years of work experience before clearing CSE-22 with AIR-251. And, this she did in her 5th attempt even as she was unable to clear Prelims in her first 4 attempts. Following is her detailed strategy and learnings on Prelims, Mains & Sociology.

Introduction

I am Navita Kumari and have secured AIR 251 in UPSC CSE 2022 with sociology optional. I have done chemical engineering from Harcourt Butler Technological University, Kanpur. After graduation I worked for almost 10 years in SHELL INDIA (oil & gas company), CAIRN INDIA LTD and TATA CHEMICALS LTD. It was in 2018 (after working for almost 5 years in corporate sector) when I decided that I should try my destiny with civil services, because of limited sense of contentment there in private sector despite having a thriving career in my core field.

This was my 5th attempt, in the previous attempts I was not able to clear the Prelims Exam. After having done the analysis of these failures I found that it is lack of solving sufficient full length mock papers , not doing proper analysis of previous year questions and ignoring medieval and ancient history altogether. Another major reason of this long stretched journey was huge time crunch as I was continuously working full time all through my preparation. I was simultaneously managing both my professional responsibilities and my dream of becoming civil servant. However, after rectifying these lacunas and with better time management I was able to clear cut-off not only for civil services but also for Forest service.

You can stay connected with me at my Instagram profile and Telegram channel.

Prelims Strategy

DO’S

Have thorough command over subject knowledge of History , polity , economy , environment and Geography. Make static syllabus your strength after having repetitive revisions.
For current affairs read one newspaper (The Hindu /Indian Express) with in-depth analysis of relevant articles. Make sure to solve MCQs on daily basis based on current affairs. In month end can revise by referring to any Monthly compilation.
Extremely important to solve Mock papers from various institutes , will suggest to do more than 40 test . As they will help to learn the elimination trick and it’s easier to remember facts in question – answer format.
Solve at least 15 years PYQs . Also read about all the options deeply, they may have propensity to get repeated .
Revise solutions of Mock test from standard books rather than simply referring to answer booklets.
Try to attempt at least 45 questions in CSAT , first identify easier ones and attempt maximum from Maths & reasoning as they have higher accuracy.

DONT’S

Don’t refer multiple resources , rather have limited resources and revise multiple times.
Don’t ignore CSAT , attempt practice test in time bound manner.
Don’t leave any subject as there might be easiest question from that particular subject.

Prelims Booklist

Polity: Laxmikant
Modern history: Spectrum
Art and Culture: Nitin Singhania (selective chapters) , Fine Arts NCERT
Ancient and Medieval: Old NCERT
Science and Technology: VISION IAS Material, BYJUs prelims Q/A series
Environment: Shankar and PMFIAS
Economy: Nitin Singhania, Mrunal sir lectures on Unacademy
Geography: NCERT, GC LEONG (Selective chapters)

Mains Strategy

Mains examination is the most significant stage that assures one’s selection. At this stage not only knowledge is tested but how articulative and analytical one can be in writing answers is gauged.

Hereby I am mentioning few tricks that helped me to score 441 marks in GS :-

Start every answer with basic definition , facts , figures , ranking etc quoted by some report or committee.
Address main demand of the question in the body of answer and in short also mention some other fringe information (e.g. – challenges , opportunities etc)
Try to make conclusion solution oriented with way forward.
Write answers in bullet points , use flow charts , cyclic diagrams etc to have better visibility.
Attempt all questions, even those on which you have feeble knowledge.
Use quotes , renowned personality sayings etc for ethics paper.
Don’t compartmentalize syllabus , do cross linking across all the papers.
Give Mock tests ,at least two for each GS in a time bound manner.
Make short /crisp notes on keywords for ready reference , also use newspaper current affairs articles extensively. It will do extra value addition.
Try solving 3-4 questions daily after prelims and give at least one test every week.
Solve previous year questions as they might get repeated.

GS2 (How I scored 127?)

GS 2 mainly covers Polity ,IR and Governance. And for each of these subjects I prepared by referring to following resources:-

Polity :- Laxmikant was the only book that I read for both prelims and mains. Try to use article nos. wherever possible, mention. For value addition I referred vision IAS material and made my own notes from daily newspaper. Newspaper gives ample examples which can set apart your answers from others.
Governance :- I read only Vision IAS material and 2nd ARC report ( summary only). Also use ethics paper content here as well.
IR :- Used Mains 365 extensively and done value addition by making crisp notes from Sansad TV (Diplomatic dispatch) and FIRSTPOST(Vantage).

Mains Booklist

For Mains I referred standard books of prelims only along with Vision IAS value addition notes and Vision Mains 365.
For Ethics – also referred solved model answers of Forum IAS and Vision IAS test series.
Also referred to BYJUs Mains series videos in which subject wise important questions were discussed

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

Sociology Strategy

Sociology is a scoring optional which gives benefit in GS1 and Essays as well. It is previous year questions that helped me most especially in paper 1, they often gets repeated in one way or the other. It is required to quote thinkers, current affairs examples, village studies etc for enriching answers which might fetch extra marks. Often flow charts can be drawn to make answers more representative. In optional subject certain level of depth is needed unlike GS answers where breadth is needed.

Sociology Booklist