Hello everyone! I’m Megha Dinesh and I’ve secured AIR 268 in UPSC CSE 2023 with Sociology as my optional.
This post is my humble attempt to share my strategy for this exam. I’ve myself benefited a lot from reading the strategies featured in this blog so I hope to do my bit to give back the same.
Background and Journey
I hail from Kozhikode, Kerala but was brought up in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. I did my B. Tech. in Computer Science in 2020 and worked for about 1.5 years with a start up. Later on, I resigned to prepare for UPSC full time.
Having gone through the chaos of JEE coaching, I had decided to prioritize self-study over competition. So I did all my preparation by studying online, staying at home and never had any peer group. I’ve been questioned a lot about this as coaching and peer groups are seen as the sine qua non of UPSC preparation.
For me, there was always this anonymous competitor. Someone who is working harder than me, revises more than me, scores better than me and this pushed me to improve and work harder every single day. But this is what worked for me and might not work for everyone, so please take away only what makes sense to you.
That’s not to say that I never took any guidance or any coaching. I was lucky enough to have come across many mentors who showed me the right path and coaching materials which narrowed down my preparation. I’ll be mentioning their role subsequently.
This was my third attempt. My first attempt in 2020 was only three months into my preparation so I wasn’t really hopeful of clearing it. But my second attempt in 2021 was after I poured my heart and soul into this exam. So I was really disheartened when I couldn’t clear the prelims again. I briefly looked for plan Bs but I couldn’t settle for any. Then I made up my mind to give it one more attempt and give it my all.
General Strategy
I read a lot of toppers strategies and looked for similarities in terms of booklist, resources, test series etc. Then I compiled a list of things I needed to do.
The Syllabus: Please make sure that you know the syllabus by heart. This helps you understand what you need to prepare and not run behind the plethora of content created by the coaching industry.
PYQs: They are a must both for prelims and mains. It helps you understand the important areas to cover, the type of questions asked etc.
NCERTs: They lay the foundation to your preparation.
Booklist: I only referred to the basic booklist like Laxmikanth, Spectrum, Sankarganesh, Decode Ethics etc. I made sure to supplement it with my coaching notes (iLearnIAS), online resources (PMFIAS, DrishtiIAS, toppers notes etc) and current affairs (The Hindu, PT365, Mains365).
Prelims
I personally found prelims the most challenging part of my preparation and thus devoted a lot of time to it. Not clearing prelims twice had put some sort of fear inside me and in this attempt I decided to tackle exactly that.
Do PYQs multiple times. Do a 360 degree analysis of each question and corresponding options so that you’ll be able to answer any question related to it if asked in future.
Revise your basic books and notes as many times as possible. There’s no alternative to this. You cannot afford to lose marks in such static questions.
Give part and full mock tests. Identify your weak areas and give multiple mocks. After giving each mock, I would sit and analyze it for 4–5 hours. Then I would go back and read the areas/topics I couldn’t answer and jot down the extra points from the answer key. I also made sure to revise all the mocks twice before prelims.
Give 2–2.5 months solely for prelims preparation and take mock exams in a simulated environment during the same timings. It helps you get into the required rhythm before prelims.
Please don’t take CSAT lightly. I was quite confident in CSAT but even I found this year’s paper challenging. Prepare topic wise and master the art of answering each type of question.
Also, regarding the pattern change in prelims, please don’t go into the exam hall with a fixed mindset. Be ready to tackle any kind of question. The pattern doesn’t matter, your knowledge will help you tackle any type of question. I told myself that even if they asked subjective questions (very farfetched I know!) I’ll still answer them all. This helped me score 107.74 in prelims this year.
For mains, I read a lot of toppers answer copies available online. I took note of the key points, examples, case studies etc. cited by them.
The only way to crack mains I believe is to keep practicing writing answers. Once you’ve covered a significant portion of the syllabus, start writing answers. Everyone starts from zero so please don’t shy away from writing answers even if you feel you’re not good at it. You’ll see gradual improvement after every answer you write.
Have notes ready for each topic mentioned in the syllabus. Make sure they are concise enough for multiple revisions.
Practice PYQs. They play a key role in Mains prep as a lot of questions and topics are repeated over the years.
Give full length mocks in a simulated environment. Keep taking feedback from mentors.
Prepare keywords, short notes, intro, conclusion, value addition for each topic.
When I first took sociology as an optional I had hoped it would be an easy subject to grasp and understand. While that did prove to be true, I found writing sociological answers very difficult. I believe coming from an engineering background does that to you.
Though I did join a coaching for sociology I found it futile. So I started preparing through all the resources available online. It helped me build a solid foundation for the subject. But answer writing was still a roadblock. It was then that I stumbled upon SwarajIAS — an initiative by Vikas Palwe IPoS Sir. I owe a lot to him as he helped me build up my confidence and taught me how to write sociological answers.
During the first reading, try to understand each topic very well.
In the next reading, start making notes.
Analyse PYQs thoroughly as a lot of questions are repeated. I made sure to write the answers to all PYQs from 2013–2022.
Prepare similar topics in Paper 1 and 2 together. It gives you more clarity and a comprehensive understanding. Eg: Kinship, Religion etc
Resources: IGNOU material, Nitin Sangwan, Neha Bhosle Ma’am’s notes, SwarajIAS, Haralambos blue book(selective reading), Vikash Ranjan notes, ToppersIAS test series.
Personality Test
This is a very interesting phase of upsc preparation. This was also the phase during which I came across many civil servants tirelessly giving back to the community.
Prepare DAF very thoroughly. Seek help from mentors. Also be very genuine while filling the DAF.
Do a 360 degree analysis of every word mentioned in your DAF and prepare notes.
Read multiple newspapers towards the date of your interview to ensure that you don’t miss out on any news.
Watch news, debates etc. to understand multiple perspectives on each topic.
Give mocks to gain confidence and lessen your fear. Take only those feedback that you feel would benefit you.
I was blessed to have the guidance of Mahesh Bhagwat IPS Sir, Abhishek Saraf IAS Sir, Abhishek Kumar IAS Sir, Vikas Palwe IPoS Sir during my interview preparation.
Panel mocks attended: Samkalp, Vajiram, Vajirao, Kerala civil service academy.
I also owe a lot to my mother and my sister who came armed with a set of interview questions every single night for two whole months and took my mock interviews. This helped me refine my answers a lot and took down the fear of the interview by a few notches.
Special thanks to Muhammad Sahid IPoS Sir for guiding me throughout my upsc preparation. I was also privileged to have a family that stood behind me as a rock solid support which helped me give my entire focus to the preparation alone.
Conclusion
As cliché as it is, UPSC preparation is a marathon. It requires immense dedication, hard work and patience. Everyone goes through the cycle of stress, tears and worries before finding their name in the holy pdf. So hang in there every time you feel down. Take a small break and bounce back again. Your time will come. Just make sure to give it your all.
Leave a Reply