Neha Nautiyal cracks UPSC without leaving job. Here she shares the journey, the time Management tips for working professionals, strategy and booklist for General studies, History, Public Administration and more.

1. Introduction
2. Your Study plan
3. CSAT (Paper I) General studies
4. About the CSAT aptitude
5. Mains Examination
6. Compulsory Language papers
7. General Studies paper I
8. General Studies paper 2
9. Optional Subject #1 and #2
10. Public Administration
11. History
12. Marksheet

Introduction

Name	NEHA NAUTIYAL
Roll number	235262
Rank (CSE 2011)	185
Optional Subjects	1. History 2. Public Administration
Medium for Mains Exam	English
Mains Examination Centre	Chandigarh
Number of Attempts	2
Details of Graduation and Post-Grad.	1.B.Sc. B.Ed 4 yr integrated course 2.M.Sc. (Zoology)
Schooling (Medium)	Kendriya Vidhyalaya (English)
Extracurricular activities, hobbies, achievements etc.	Listening songs, Internet Surfing, Cooking, Playing Badminton
Are you a working professional?	Yes
If yes, then did you leave your job or prepared while on the job?	No I prepared while on job.
Did you take Coaching?	Prelims: Yes (From Dehradun) Mains: Yes (From Dehradun) Interview: Yes (From Delhi)
Did you buy any postal courses?	Yes from Cracking IAS
Did you join any Mock test series?	Yes for Interview only
Did you appear in any other competitive exams?	Yes
If yes, provide the details:	IBPS PO, SBI PO (qualified written of both but didn’t gave Interview), CASE( The present job I am holding was by this exam)

Inception

Q. When and how did the inspiration and idea of joining civil service come in your mind?

Ans: It was when I was doing my post graduation (during 2009) that I started thinking seriously about Civil Services. I was interested in teaching but slowly I realized about the Impact of various other factors on education. This was a major driving force which inspired me for joining the services. Besides there were many other factors like good career profile, varied opportunities etc. etc.

The Choice of Optional Subjects

Q7. After a person decides to appear in civil service exam, the first big obstacle is “Choice of optional subjects”. What factors did you consider before selecting your optional?

Ans: Definitely the choice of optional is the first major obstacle. My basis of selection of optional was based on many factors:

1. My interest and aptitude towards the optional.
2. Relative popularity of the optional.
3. Availability of good books related to that optional in Dehradun (Since Doon being a small city there is always a lack of good books related to many subjects particularly the science one).
4. Subjectivity and objectivity of the subject (For example, I took History due to its objectivity apart from my interest in it).

Momentum

Q. People initially prepare with much enthusiasm but then a boredom phase comes – they don’t even find the motivation to read the daily newspapers, let alone studying the books.
Sometimes they get diverted because of external factors e.g. heavy workload in office, family responsibilities and so on. How did you sustain the study-momentum throughout the year?

Ans: Whenever I got bored during preparation I took a break of 1 or 2 days. During the break I watched movies, read novel (which I love much), went for an outing. So it all depends upon you and your interest. If at any point of time I became de-motivated I thought about why I am preparing it? The inner motivation coupled with the motivation and support of family and friends kept me sail through the difficult phase of examination.

Hours

On an average, How many hours did you study per day? How many months did it take you to complete the core syllabus of GS and optional subjects?

Ans: I never gave much importance to hours. I believed that one should be honest to himself/herself while studying. If you don’t feel like studying don’t do it. It will not be much productive. Rather take interest while studying even if it is for a short duration of 15-20 min. Believe me it will give good results.
If I calculate on an average it will come around 2-4 hours. As I was a working professional I was not having much time on weekdays so I stretched it during weekends.

I started the preparation approx. 1 year before appearing in the prelims of 2010 so I took nearly 6-7 months in completing the core syllabus of G.S.

Internet

How did you use computer and internet for your exam-preparation?

Ans: The IT boom is really very helpful. Besides entertainment I used it to add up study-material. I used many forums like IO, Orkut to clear my doubts. Lok sabha channel for listening discussions . Many other sites to clear my doubt. Mrunal’s blog for economy and any other site which was helpful for preparation. One can arrange study material from net like IGNOU notes, ARC report, Economic survey, NCERT’s etc.

Essay

How did you prepare yourself for the essay?

Ans: Specifically I didn’t prepare much for essay. During preparation I wrote some essays on common topics like Corruption, Women empowerment, Judicial System, sustainable management etc. I purchased a book related to some common essays so as to get some points related to essay writing. Saw essays on net.

Which Essay did you write in Mains-2011?

Ans:  Creation of smaller states and the consequent administrative, economic and developmental implication.

How many marks did you get in that essay?

Ans: 94

Phoenix

Q. What had gone wrong in your previous attempts? How did you fix those issues in your 2011’s attempt?

Ans: I would say that yes failure is really depressing but its important to rise again with full vigor. Analyze your mistakes, areas which need more focus, work out for a new strategy.

The mistake which I committed during 2010 was that I didn’t have much writing practice for mains. As a result the quality of my answers was not good at all. Besides I resorted to reading many books. But this time I did continuous revision, tried to memorize and relate different topics as much as I can. Apart from that mainly in Public Administration I focused more on theoretical part related to thinkers and used it in many other questions also.

Profile

Many aspirants fear the interview, thinking that “my profile is not good because

• I’ve low marks in SSC/HSC/College,
• I don’t have any extra-curricular certificates,
• I don’t have work experience,
• I graduated from some unknown college,
• I’m from non-English medium and so on…”

So, How important or relevant is the profile of a candidate during interview?

Ans: I don’t feel like the profile plays much importance. It can only give a plus point during the interview to a very limited extent. Even if you don’t have any such advantage you have to prove to the interviewer that you possess skills to do the job. You just have to impress the interviewer with your attitude.

How do you rate your own profile?

Ans: I myself rate my profile to be average or less than that. Neither I am a student of any reputed institute nor have any extra stars attached to my profile. The only positive point was that I am a working person.

How much portion of your interview centered on your profile?

Ans: There were few questions related to my PG subject, Job related, Hobbies and some were general.

Did they ask any uncomfortable questions from your profile?

Ans: No

Backup

Q. In case you had not cleared the UPSC exam, what was your career/future backup plan?

Ans: I would have continued with the job I am currently doing.

Working professional

What is your advice and tips to working professionals – particularly on time Management?

Ans: For time management I resorted to the tips given by Mrunal somewhere in the IO Forum.
I didn’t indulge in office gossiping, used free time of office for preparation. Did proper utilization of internet facility given by the office. Read newspaper during office hours.
Besides I resorted to studying daily even if it was only for an hour. I stretched during weekend upto 7-8 hrs.

Family and Friends

Q. Behind one topper are many people who stood by him/her during those uncertain times when he/she was merely an ‘aspirant’. Would you like to tell the world, who were those people in your case?

Ans: In my case my parents, brother and friends were the constant motivating factors.

Your Study plan

CSAT (Paper I) General studies

Topic	Source of your preparation	remark, if any
Current Affairs	From Chronicle (monthly edition) and from net. During the peak time any book covering the entire period (I used Wizard  special edition for pre preparation)	Internet
History Ancient/Medieval/Modern	Prepared it alongwith optional preparation
Physical Geography	From Khullar, Wizard special edition for geography	Some topics from internet for clarity.
Geography of India	From Khullar, Wizard special edition for geography, Atlas is must
Geography of World	From Wizard special edition for geography, atlas
Polity and Governance	D D Basu, P M Bakshi, Polity special edition
Public Policy	Monthly magazine
Rights issue	Monthly magazine
Environment and Biodiversity	Chronicle special edition	Many of the  topics from internet.
Economic and social Development	From India Year Book and monthly magazine
Science	NCERT’s, Internet, Special edition of magazines.
Economy	Mainly relied on net for this.

About the CSAT aptitude

I had study material of TIME given by one of my friend  so all the topics related to paper II were prepared from that only.

Mains Examination

Compulsory Language papers

	Source of your preparation
English	No preparation at all.
Indian language paper	No preparation at all.

There are some instances of candidates failing in Compulsory Indian language (Hindi / Bengali etc.) so please do provide your source of preparation for it.

Ans: If one is not confident in a language paper it is imperative for him to prepare it well as it is important for clearing mains. For that one can resort to very basic books of the subject concerned. For English one can use Wren and Martin whereas for any other language any basic grammer book will suffice.

General Studies paper I

Syllabus Topic	Source of your preparation	Remarks, if Any
History	Being optional subject same books
Culture	From spectrum for art and culture
Geography of India	Khullar,
Polity	P M Bakshi, D D Basu, Some topics from Special polity edition	Latest issues from Chronicle monthly magazine
Issues of social relevance	From Chronicle magazine and news paper
Indian economy and planning	From internet (I have mentioned the sites which I used), rest some issues from Economic survey, Budget and the monthly magazine. Any book related to special addition of economics.
Public health	From magazines
Law and order	From Chronicle magazine
Good governance	From magazine
Environment	Special edition by Chronicle	Didn’t study it much due to my bio background.

I also read some of the topics from India Yearbook mainly the topics related to Welfare, Environment, Art and culture.

General Studies paper 2

Syllabus Topic	Source of your preparation	Remarks, if Any
India and the World	From newspaper and magazine
Indian diaspora	From the study material of Cracking IAS
India’s Economic interaction with world	Mainly From Internet	Study material of Cracking IAS
International affairs and institutions	Internet	Prepared self notes for these topics and added latest issues related to it in them.
Statistics	From the study material of BT tutorial
Science & Tech.	From the monthly magazine and study material of cracking IAS.	Study material of Cracking IAS

Optional Subject #1 and #2

Instead of reading many books I mainly relied on reading single book many times.

Public Administration

Paper I

Sharma and Sadana
Some topics from Mohit Bhattacharya
Thinkers from Prasad and Prasad
Notes of R.V. Varun Kumar (which I got from IO forum)

Paper II

Indian Administration from Arora And Goyal
Report of 2^nd ARC
Selected topics from IIPA journals
Some topics from internet also.
Some of the topics for both papers from IGNOU notes.

History

Paper I

• Ancient India: D. N. Jha
• Romila Thapar
• Medieval India: By Satish Chandra (Both Parts)
• An atlas (Spectrum)
• IGNOU notes mainly for the pre historic period.

Paper II

For Modern India

1. India’s struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra
2. Modern India by Grover and Grover

For World History

1. From Jain and Mathur

IGNOU notes for selected topics
The major focus of History preparation was on society, Art and architecture, culture. This helped me in writing quality answers.

Interview

How did you prepare for the interview?

Ans: For interview preparation I focused mainly on bio-data. I did a scrutiny of my DAF and identified the areas of preparation. Try to formulate questions related to that. Read two newspapers during the month of March so that I didn’t miss any important news.
I did a mistake as I didn’t prepared my PG subject (Zoology) much and so was not able to answer some of the questions related to zoology.

Who was the chairman of you interview board?

Ans: Dr K.K. Paul

Was your interview on the expected lines of what you had prepared or

Did they ask you totally unexpected questions?
Ans: Some of the questions asked were related to the Biodata, Mainly related to Zoology, Uttarakhand. Besides some were general like Land acquisition, Privatization, difference between regulatory adm and development adm, your area of priority, mountain peaks of Uttarakhand etc. etc.

Marksheet

	2011	2010
ESSAY(PAPER-III)	94	97
GENRALSTUDIES(PAPER-IV)	143	102
GENRALSTUDIES(PAPER-V)	114	101
OPTIONAL-I(HISTORY)(PAPER-VI)	177	161
OPTIONAL-I(HISTORY)(PAPER-VII)	172	137
OPTIONAL-II(PUBLICADMIN.)(PAPER-VIII)	174	103
OPTIONAL-II(PUBLICADMIN.)(PAPER-IX)	153	147
WRITTENTOTAL	1027	848 (not qualified in Mains)
PERSONALITY TEST	129
FINAL TOTAL	1156

Message

Q. What is your message to the aspirants?

Ans: Be honest to yourself and always believe that yes you can do it. Its not easy to think about preparation of Civil Services but you have thought about it which means you have the caliber.
Work smartly and think about what the exam demands? Perseverance, Self-confidence and positive attitude is the key to success.

Finally two questions

When you’ll give interview in the famous competitive magazines, the last question is generally a loaded question “how did your magazine help us in preparing for IAS Exam!?”
In the era of blatant marketing campaigns, I too have to ask two similar but unloaded questions. Although you can answer “No”, yet it’ll be published without distortion.

1. Did you use indianofficer.com  for your preparation? If yes, How did it help you?

Ans: Yes I used IO very much during the preparation. I was the passive follower of the forum. The dignity maintained by the candidates on this forum is what I like most about it. It helped me in covering many important topics, to have another opinion related to many topics, in relieving tension during the result time, for optional preparation.

2. Did you use mrunal.org  for your preparation? If yes, how did it help you?

Ans: Yes I used your website quite often. I love your website very much. Believe me I was very poor in economics. And one of my friends gave me the link to your website and yes it helped me very much in understanding the core principles of economy. The explanation given by you was so easy that the economics which gave me nightmare earlier was now being interested by me much.
Even till day I use your website. The Diclophenac and vulture, graphene etc. quest in pre was solved bcoz of your website. I love the economy part of your website most.