Tushar Gupta || IPS Batch of 2018 || IIT Hyderabad || AIR 113 CSE’17 @ 22 yrs| First Attempt | B.Tech IIT Hyd 2016

Optional Subject: Political Science & International Relations

• Interviewer: What motivated you to prepare for UPSC?

Tushar:  I wanted to serve my motherland with sincerity and devotions and I  believe that the civil services exam will directly help me do that.

• Interviewer: When did you start preparing?

Tushar: I completed my  B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad in 2016 and started preparing for CSE from  October 2016.

I gave prelims the very next year and after clearing prelims I  make it to the mains and then in the interview.

• Interviewer: How did you start preparing for this exam?

Tushar: Print the UPSC Syllabus and follow it religiously. It is the Holy Grail of your preparation. Answer writing practice is also very important.

Revision is the key to remembering the vast course that is the UPSC syllabus.

There are various sources to read current affairs from. The best one according to me was VisionIAS booklet. It used to the most exciting part of my month. The amount of information presented in such a beautiful form was just a delight to read and in the process, the CA also got covered.

Used to practice questions on INSIGHTS.

Always follow the rule of 1/10th. If the subject matter is 1000 words, the notes should be less than 100 words period.

Read the newspapers regularly and with interest. Analyze everything from the point of view of a civil servant. Consider yourself a civil servant and always try to make practical links with everything possible. Try to understand the issues deeply. Do not blindly mug up stuff.

• Interviewer: How study iq helped you in your preparation?

Tushar: For Current affairs, I followed study iq.

• Interviewer: Please share your marks?

Tushar:

Prelims Marks

• Paper I: 122.66
• Paper-II: 118.33

Mains Marks

Mandatory/ Compulsory Papers:

• Essay (Paper 1): 126
• General Studies I (Paper 2): 108
• General Studies II (Paper 3): 122
• General Studies III (Paper 4): 145
• General Studies IV (Paper 5): 87

Optional Papers:

• Optional paper I (Paper 6): 159
• Optional paper II (Paper 7): 135

Written Total: 882

Personality Test/ Interview: 165

Final Marks: 1047

• Interviewer:  How did you make notes using Evernote while preparing for the UPSC Civil Service Examination?

Tushar: Evernote is the mindblowing ability to consolidate your notes in one place after collecting it from various different sources. You can also use color-coding to help you better remember answers.

It has many advantages

You would be able to organize your notes much better.

You can add any new updates into the well-organized notes and highlight it for later reference and revision

You can have pics also added to your notes which help you remember better

Color coding of notes would also allow much quicker revisions especially near the exam when time is all the more essential

For Eg, for remembering the various animals in the IUCN list, I had used color-coding. Whenever a question was asked regarding the animal, the color used to hit me and I was able to correctly mark the answer.

Give online note making a try for a week and decided I was also skeptical in the beginning that only if I write would I be able to remember. But its not necessarily so. Remember that every word in your notes should have been typed by you and not a copy-paste from the net because then it is of no use.

• Interviewer: How did you prepare for the interview?

Tushar: One thing that needs to be understood with UPSC preparation is that you need to cover more Width and less depth.

Do not unnecessarily waste your time by going into too many details. The course is very vast, so you need a good command over various topics and not just depth in some topics.

DAF is important for UPSC.

You have to go in-depth on every topic in DAF.

My interview went for 40-45 minutes.

50 % OF QUESTIONS were asked from international relations.