Interviewer: Which thing motivated you to start your preparation for UPSC?

Namita:  I was working in IBM for two years and there was some chain of events that keep on occurring with me.

• Starting from my friend who suggested me a book called, a monk who sold his Ferrari and from there I got the message that one should always work for what his/her heart desires for.
• The second thing that happened was, my constant contact with my dad’s higher officials, I talked to them and got to know about there lifestyle, social interaction and much other important stuff.
• After working for two years in IBM, at the end of 2014 I thought for preparing for civil services.

Interviewer: How you felt after cracking the civil services exam in your last attempt.

• Namita: In one word if I will like to say, I will say it was a relief for me, because in the end I just wanted to see my name in the pdf and that would have been enough for me.
• When I got 145 ranks, I cannot express my feeling for that.

Interviewer: How would you like to describe your journey of the UPSC preparation .

Namita:  I completed my  engineering from IP university from  2008-2012 and wanted to work in the reputed private sector so I got myself recruited in IBM.

• Earlier I wasted my attempt in 2012 and 2014 for UPSC.
• After 2014 I started preparing seriously for the civil services.
• I got enrolled in Vajiram institute in Karol Bagh and my whole day was invested in coaching only, I had no time left even for newspaper reading and gave my attempt in  2015  which was also the unprepared attempt.
• After 2015, I kept myself at home and started preparing for it from home itself.
• 2016 was my prepared attempt- I covered everything but lacked in the revision so I could not qualify in that attempt also.
• Till now my four attempts were been wasted.
• I failed in my fourth attempt -2016 prelims despite preparing a lot, but not in the right direction.
• For back up, I gave SSC CGL exam for in 2014 and presently working as a Tax Assistant in Central GST(Mumbai ).
• I had my seniors as IRS  in Mumbai, they guided me a lot saying not to give up told me that you are been underemployed here as I joined as TA after leaving my job.
• I narrated them my whole journey of UPSC uptill now.
• CSE 2017 was my 5th attempt where I cleared Prelims for the first time and reached till interview, missing out the final list by a small margin.

Interviewer: How you kept yourself motivated for your last attempt?

Namita: CSE 2018 being my last attempt I filled the form at the very last moment, cause I thought I will get through 2016, but I could not.

• Vacancies were very low this time(2018), lowest in the whole decade.
• But again I started my preparation for prelims.
• I cut myself off from all social media accounts as I only had 15 days in my hand.
• Joined a test series and started revision .
• This time paper was very unusual kind of so I started my preparation for UPPSC as it was also approaching, and went to Lucknow for its prelims exam.
• Meanwhile, I check the prelims result for UPSC and I cleared Prelims for the second time.

Now, coming to the Mains

• Everyone has it is on strategy for answer writing.
• I had speed in writing the answers and the only thing which I wanted to work was the
• This time I mentioned Data facts, graphs, quote in my answers.
• I gave my best, I was satisfied with all the answers that I wrote in the mains exam

Interviewer: So beautifully you have narrated all the points, what suggestion would you like to give to the fellow aspirants?

Namita: UPSC journey in itself is a very long process and involves a lot of Uncertainty.

• It is very important to keep oneself positive.
• I used to write my diary and do the blogging, whenever I got time.
• I felt very relieved whenever I used to write the diary.
• I read a lot of Motivational books.

Interviewer: Should one keep himself/herself locked up and become a book worm while preparing ? Should we do anything else apart from studying?

Namita:  Sometimes it is difficult to keep the momentum.

• Practice meditation, yoga or some physical exercise to keep yourself pumped up and positive to tackle the anxiety of approaching the exam. That will not waste your time but it will boost your preparation.

Interviewer: What was that constant thing that kept you motivated in the whole process of preparation.

• Namita: I will say one should find out his/her reason for starting this journey , it can be for  your parents or you want it yourself or you want some change in society, find out that reason.

Interviewer: What was your optional, how you decided it?

Namita: My optional was sociology and 500 marks are allocated for the optional subject.

• I could not clear my 2017 exam due to optional only .
• Go through entire syllabus from UPSC website, for all GS papers and optionals.
• You have to devote a lot of your time on the optional, so choose it carefully.
• For the preparation of any subject, prepare it topic-wise.
• I made my handwritten notes and used the internet (very helpful)
• Understand every concept in details. I followed two things the Internet and my basic notes.
• Personally, I joined the two-test series, Elite IAS and Vision IAS test series.
• Nitin Sangwan book for sociology optional, it is important for filling the gaps while studying for sociology. Thinkers name is very helpful for answer writing.
• Practice as much as possible. Never skip doing the previous year papers keep revising multiple times apply elimination and intelligent guesses to increase the score.

Interviewer: Thank you so much for this talk and congratulations again from the whole team of study iq .

 Namita: Thank you