I , Aditya Hriday Upadhyay have cleared UPSC CSE 2023 with a rank of 416 in my 2nd attempt. I belong to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. I have done B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from IIT Roorkee. I graduated in July of 2021 and started my preparation right after, targeting CSE 2022.
I cleared prelims 2022 but was not prepared adequately for mains. I lacked discipline throughout the year and was not able to balance GS with my Optional Prep. I scored 345 in GS, 240 in Optional and 134 in Essay last year, missing the Mains cutoff by 30 marks..
I cleared Prelims again in 2023. I cleared the Mains cutoff this time on the back of my improved GS Score from 345 to 390 while Maths registered a meager increase of 23 marks despite a lot of hard work because I blundered a lot in Paper -I of optional. A very good PT score of 195 helped me get a position in the list. I feel I still have a long way to go with respect to my answer writing in GS and accuracy in Optional so as to get my desired service.
I think Time-Table should be flexible suiting your strengths and maximizing the output. The most productive slots of my study time were 2 pm – 7pm(Post-Lunch) and 9 pm – 1 am(Post-Dinner) . Including Time for Exercise and Prayers helped me to stay energized and motivated throughout the course of Preparation. I take breaks of 10-15 min after 1.30-2 hr sittings to retain my efficiency.
Prelims Books
Ancient and Medieval History : Book by IPS Poonam Dalal Dahiya (Combines RS Sharma and Satish Chandra in Lucid Manner). This portion was crucial to clear cutoff in 2023 attempt
Geography : NCERT of Class 11-12 with GC Leong. Did Rajtanil Mam Lectures from Youtube for a detailed understanding required as per latest trend of questions
Economy : Mrunal Handouts with Current Affairs from Vision PT 365
Referred to IMS Maths Notes for majority of Topics except following
Statics and Dynamics : Krishna Series Book for Statics + Success Clap Material on Dynamics(Freely Available Online)
Fluid Dynamics : MD Raisinghania
Algorithm and Flowcharts : Success Clap Material
Real Analysis : Malik and Arora Book
Please do not ignore Modern Algebra. I increased my Paper – II score from 115 in the first attempt to 134 in this attempt because of doing Modern Algebra rigorously.In my 2nd attempt I took the Mathematics Advance Course from Next IAS by Avinash Singh Sir. I benefited a lot from it. Had I not blundered that day I would have got a good score in Mathematics. I feel I did not practice enough papers in a simulated environment which messed up my accuracy in the actual exam. Balancing Mathematics with GS Prep is very important.
Note-Making
Note Making is sine qua non of my preparation. I have made digital notes of all keywords of Mains Syllabus from above resources. For better revision I have even made notes out of Spectrum and some chapters of Laxmikant. Making notes of formulas and important questions in Mathematics is very important. By Note-Making I am able to recall things better and keep myself calm close to the exam for revision purposes.
Role of PYQs
These are the heart-beat of UPSC Preparation I feel. For Prelims, PYQ guides us regarding the depth of conceptual clarity needed and teaches us how to identify wrong options. In Mains, PYQs get twisted around to form a question in future examinations. Writing answers of PYQ should be the first step of answer writing before any test series.
Answer Writing
In my first attempt I neglected answer writing and hence could not score well in mains. In this attempt I joined MGP of ForumIAS after Pre and followed it religiously. Also Mudit Jain Sir’s Main Guidance Group helped me improve my approach to questions and taught me how to break questions into subparts.
Test series Evaluations often fail to point out exact faults but are very good for dry run and reverse learning. I feel topper copies are boon in this regard and by learning from them we can improve significantly. One learning I have taken is to be more precise in a single point and diverse in totality. I often elaborate on a point for too long. Please take guidance and remove these defects as GS Papers are one of the most predictable parts of examination.
Essay Strategy
I have scored 134 and 112 in my first and second attempt respectively. I took 5 Tests from Forumias in each of these attempts. I structure Essays using innovative subheadings and try to ensure diversity in my points. Apart from GS Knowledge I try to include philosophical references and Scriptural References(Bhagavad Gita) to enrich my Essay. Reading topper copies helps but I feel originality in Essay matters a lot. Writing and taking reviews is the best way to improve Essay writing while improving the Knowledge Base.
Thankyou and Best Wishes to everyone in their UPSC CSE Journey.
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