Introductory post

 The time to write my first blog couldn't be more opportune than post prelims. First of all, let me introduce myself and take you through my journey in UPSC CSE. 

Hello all 

I am Medha Anand and I have secured rank 13 in CSE'23 in my fifth attempt. I am already serving in the Indian Railway Traffic Service since 2019 (had secured rank 311 in CSE 2019). The journey from being an IRTS officer to being an IAS has been a long and arduous one. I believe that since I have had a long journey in this exam, I have a lot of experience to speak about the highs and lows and ups and downs of the exam. 


A brief snippet of my journey

1st attempt-couldn't get through prelims 

2nd- rank 311

3rd- reserve list(missed the list by 1 mark)

4th- couldn't get through prelims

5th- rank 13


My objective of creating this blog

Since the journey is a long and arduous one and misguided by many in the coaching industry, through this blog I aim to bring out the strategy of clearing this exam from a student's perspective. 

I sincerely believe in the fact that if I can do it, possibly everyone can do it and a student who gets proper guidance can make her/his dream come true! I shall also try to add on my life experiences and all the learnings I have had till now, both in life and while navigating this UPSC exam. While I am no saint, but my experiences in life are more than a beginner who has just started preparing for this exam and would love to share them with you all. 


A quick background

I am a civil engineer from HBTU Kanpur and since my final year, I had made up my mind to get into the civil services. I didn't sit for campus placement as I was sure enough that I wanted to get into a government job and do my bit in helping the people of India and give back to society in one way or the other. When I started preparing for the civil services exam, I was very naive and didn't even know the basics of the subjects. I had to start from scratch - how the govt worked, what factors led to changes in the economy, how are geographical landforms made etc etc. I remember how my friend introduced me to a guy who had cleared prelims once and I regarded him as a greater being, possessing some godly characteristics. I was so much in awe of him that I couldn't even speak to him directly, let alone ask him for his strategy. Coming back to the point,  the knowledge base I have now is far superior to what I originally had and therefore I strongly believe that a student who might not have the proper background in the subjects can start from scratch and with proper guidance can Crack the exam with a time lesser than what I took in clearing this exam. 


In the next blog, I will start by explaining step-wise how to prepare for prelims, mains and interview. What worked for me and what didn't?  How to improve one's mains and prelims marks and how to Crack this exam in less time with proper guidance. 


See you next time. 

Wish you good luck! 



Comments

  1. Mayuresh Gaikwad26 June 2024 at 14:48

    Would love to read a series of posts on preparing for UPSC while having a full time job / career. In your case, how did you balance your studies with your duties as a full time IRTS officer. I understand that you may not have to study as much while working given that you had already covered the entire syllabus for the exam in the past year and tasted success.

    The most useful post would be advice for a 22-23 year old graduate who's started working full time (say in a private firm) and wants to start preparation for the UPSC exam.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vaibhav verma26 June 2024 at 17:25

    Respected ma'am, first of all i would like to congratulate you for securing such a good rank in upsc CSE 2023 then I would like to highlight my concerns which I am facing due to lot of content which I have( detailed class(where I have noted down every thing in my notes, ncert, standard books)so I am not able to filter it out when I go for answer writing so please help me to come out of it

    ReplyDelete
  3. kp26 June 2024 at 20:09

    Thankyou mam to start this blog. It will surely going to help us. In this post you mentioned about misguidance of coaching industry. It will be very helpful if you throw more light on this point.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nithin Reddy26 June 2024 at 21:28

    Mam, How to improve speed in answer writing with good or mediocre content.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dreamer26 June 2024 at 23:37

    Ma'am as many of us have started with optional prep for mains, it would be of immense help if u share u strategy and notes for. Sociology

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ayush Pathak29 June 2024 at 10:02

    Please make a blog about the misguidance that you faced. As many people still succumb to it and waste their attempts. Having cleared with a decent rank, you are the right person to say it. It Doesnt have to be calling out any particular person/institution but generally the facts of the examination. As to what works and what doesnt. I hope i make sense. Hoping to read your future posts. THANK YOU.

    ReplyDelete
  7. nagaraju16 July 2024 at 08:21

    Madam Please write on sociology

    ReplyDelete
  8. nagaraju16 July 2024 at 18:00

    Good morning Madam please upload your notes of sociology and pyq answers.it help us to value addition and compare our answer to your answer

    ReplyDelete
  9. Asmita Upadhyay19 September 2024 at 12:08

    Hello ma'am, I cannot find you answer copies anywhere. I need those as guiding material. If you upload them on telegram that would be a huge help to all of us. Also, please share your optional strategy bcz the market is full of advices and it only creates a confusion. I have more than 10 resources enlisted.. but I don't know were to start. Kindly guide!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Problem of Plenty

UPSC Preparation market these days is flooded with materials. While some say that this has made  Preparation easier, my take is that this has made life trickier for most aspirants , especially those who have just started! In this blog , I will try to help you in making a correct choice about the materials to refer , how to ensure that you don't deviate from your goal and the Preparation track becomes easier for you. Rule1:Stick to basics Always go by traditional wisdom. Read the NCERT's first and then go for the subject specific book like Lakshmikant for polity,  Spectrum for modern history , shankar for environment , mrunal sir's notes for economy and pmf for geography.  Rule2:Have your own notes  Writing down content makes it easier for you to comprehend it and also gives you deeper  understanding of the same. But , please don't directly jump to note making . Pursuing note making in a scientific way will help you in revising it faster later and also help you i...
Read more

The first Answer

Many students are anxious about when they should start answer writing. It is a common problem and almost all aspirants suffer from this dilemma in the initial phases of the Preparation.   I think the best time to start answer writing is after finishing two rounds of revision of a subject. Once you have finished reading the whole subject once and also revising it once , you can start attempting the PYQ's of that topic. This Will ensure that you have comprehensively covered a topic and have in depth knowledge about it too. You can get the answers peer reviewed to get better insights into the topic.  My experience   I started answer writing similarly and wrote by the username "madhav upsc" via disqus platform . I remember how insights used to give 8 questions on a daily basis and also the link to the news article on which the question was based. It seems like a simple exercise , but helps in building quality of one's answers. This approach is helpful while answerin...
Read more