1. Bio
2. Education
3. Introduction
4. MCQ Paper
5. Essay/Descriptive paper
6. Physical Test
7. Interview
8. Marksheet
9. Tempo
10. Civil Service?
11. Service Preference
12. Career Backup
13. Wisdom
14. Credit: Friends/family
15. Marketing Propaganda

Bio

Name	Viplav
Rank in CAPF-2012	47
Roll No.	243677
Age	24
No. of previous attempts in CAPF	Nil
Home town/city	Begusarai,Bihar
Work-experience if any	No
Details of other competitive exams, including success/failures	Civil services-2013 (cleared prelims)
Details of coaching for any competitive exam (if taken)	Joined Insight academy one month afterwriting the CAPF-2012 written exam
Hobbies, Extra Curricular Activities, Achievements	President,Rotaract club(skit,jaipur)
Do you have NCC certificate?	No

Education

% in class 10	87.40
% in class 12	66
Schooling (Medium)	English
Graduation course and %	B.Tech.(ece),62%
Name of college and year of passing out	SKIT,Jaipur;2012
PG	No
Any professional courses	No
Hobbies	Playing cricket,writing hindi poetries

Introduction

Q. Tell us something about yourself. When and why did you enter in the competitive exam field?

I have been nursing the dream of getting into the civil services since my childhood days.Hoping to prepare a backup career before starting the civils-preparation I took medical-entrance exam twice but failed to make it through by a hairline distance.After this setback I landed in the engineering field and struggled with the ‘mathematical’ electronics and comm.i know this is not the right way to build one’s career but these errors proved a boon in disguise for me as the knowledge of these diverse areas helped me immensely in getting acquainted with the UPSC syllabus.i started preparing for the civil services from August-2012 and to test the waters I took the CAPF exam.

MCQ Paper

Q. List of Essential books and tips for success in the CAPF written exam?

The CAPF written exam is of prelims level and as it constitutes 75% of total score,it becomes the most important part of this exam.An English newspaper,preferably The Hindu,must be followed religiously throughout the exam process.it helps immensely in paper 1 and in paper2 as well.

Plausible list of books to be followed:

1. read all NCERTs to clear the basic concepts and to get into the mood of serious preparation.
2. Indian Polity by M.Laxmikant
3. General Studies manual(TMH)-after finishing the NCERTs,selective study of GS manual for sc.and tech. and geography.
4. India’s Struggle for independence by Bipan Chandra et al.
5. Economy from mrunal.org
6. Environment and biodiversity-basic concepts from NCERTs and complement it with the ministry-website
7. Defense section-IDSA website+ministry-website.

Essay/Descriptive paper

Q. How did you prepare the Essay, grammar, précis and report writing?

During my school days I had had wren and martin and I always used to refer it for grammar.my habit of reading novels and newspapers came handy in this exam.

Précis-writing is a game of concentration and visualizing power.keep underlining the keywords while reading the given passage and keep visualizing the things.one has to write the précis in  grid-format page so it is advisable to practice few précis in that format at home.

For essay writing spend some time in selecting the right essay.jot down the keywords in rough-space and design the format of your essay before actually writing it.try to avoid controversial topics;remain unbiased in your approach.

Q. In CAPF-2012 Exam, fWhich essay did you write and what keypoints did you include in it?

In the CAPF exam my strategy was to focus on the areas other than the essay(I was not confident on writing a ‘UPSC level’ essay so I decided to rely on other comparatively safer areas like report,précis,etc.).once I get my marksheet then only I will be able to assert whether this strategy worked or not. I could get only half an hour to write the essay because of this approach.i wrote on the role of technology in coping with challenges to internal security.

Q. In CAPF-2012, they asked counter-arguments for following, in 75 words. Please provide your answer.

argument	your counter argument
(i) FDI in retail in India is a bane for a small trader.	No middlemen-increased accessibility and profit margin;price stabilization;only 10% of Indian population-big retailers,rest 90%-small traders-so no overlapping interests;business-quality oriented.
(ii)  Control of social media is an anti-democratic proposition.	There is no freedom without discipline.unregulated social media-leads to misuse;democracy-body,discipline-soul;ill effects of uncontrolled social media-pornography,cyber crimes,defaming,pursuance of anti-national propaganda,etc.

Physical Test

Q. To pass Physical Efficiency Tests (PET), what preparation did you do at home? Where was your PET held? How was your experience, share some tips.

• Before the results of written test I had never run even 500m at a stretch in my whole life , so I had to start from scratch.i focused on building my stamina by doing push-ups and running by the clock.
• PET takes place on a hot-sunny day so chances of nasal-bleeding are very high.one should keep a wet handkerchief and put it in his mouth while running.it helps in keeping the mouth moist and avoids any chances of bleeding.Do not take take rest between the events.
• While practising alone you may not clock the required timings but don’t panic.on the PET day you are made to run with 20-30 people so your timings will automatically improve without you even realizing.
• While practising don’t push yourself too hard,try not to get hurt before the PET.
• On the PET  day keep yourself motivated every minute and don’t lose hope even for a second.

Interview

Q. What specific preparation did you do for the interview? Who was the chairman? Provide the list of questions asked in CAPF Interview. (and if possible, the answers as well). How was the overall interview experience? And any tips for future aspirants.

I took a mock interview at ALS.I had prepared every detail of my DAF very well and even prepared the possible questions from my engineering syllabus.it helped me in boosting my confidence before the interview.

It was  Dr.Reddy sir’s board.i was the third to be interviewed in the afternoon session.

Though the list of questions is not exhaustive but I had tried to reproduce as much as I could.

M1.There is a city called Detroit in news recently.Have you heard about it?

M1.What is bankruptcy?

M1.How can a city get bankrupt.like,if I say suppose,Delhi got bankrupt.What does that mean?

M1.Recently a girl was in news in  the UN.Do you know her name?(Malala Yusufzai)

M1.What happened to her?

M1.What cause does she represent?

M1.Do you remember the date on which she delivered the speech in the UN?

M1.what is IMF?

M1.What is its role?

M2.What do you know about different generations?(2G,3G,4G..)

M2.Recently telegraph service was shut down.what may be its implications?

M2.How does the telegraph system work?

M2.Can you tell me the similarities and differences between telegraph and internet.

M2.Do you know the story behind the birth of telegraph?

M3.aapki ruchi kavita likhne me hai.kya aap veer-ras likhte hain?

M3.kya aap apni ek veer-ras ki kavita ki kuch panktiyan sunayenge?

M3.veer-ras aur ojaswa mein kya antar hai?

M3.veer-ras k aapke sabse pasandida kavi kaun hain?

M3.unki ek rachna jo aapko sabse pasand ho..

M3.Rashmirathi ka kya arth hai?

M3.Rathi aur sarathi mein kya antar hai?

M3.Rashmirathi mein ek patra ko Kendra mein rakha gya hai.woh kaun hai?

M3.Can you tell us about the Theory of relativity?

M3.what is the difference between special and general theory of relativity?

M3.You have been a student of science.which is your favourite area of study out of optics,magnetism,electronics,..

M3.What is Raman effect?

M3.It is related to spectrography or optics?

M4.Viplav,aap apni padhai k gap ko kaise explain karte hain(gap between class 12^th and engineering)?

M4.Viplav,you have done engineering and you are too young.why this job?Don’t you think you should have tried other options also?

M4.even an engineering job can serve these purposes.Don’t you think so?

M1.You have done your schooling from navodaya vidyalaya.Do you think they are serving their purpose?

M4.What is your take on giving autonomy to CBI?

M4.You agree with the govt.’s views or CBI’s?

M4.Lokpal was in news for quite some time.what are your views on lokpal?

Q. How was interview: normal, stress, mixed? Did they ask any uncomfortable questions, if yes how did you answer it?

This was the first interview of my life and believe me, those 25-30 minutes were one of the best moments of my life.The board was very cordial. They made me feel very comfortable.Before entering the interview-room I was a bit nervous but once the conversation started,the nervousness disappeared.i was so relaxed in the room that when they asked me to leave after the interview was over ,I kept on sitting for few moments,only then I realized its time to go.I did not want to leave,I was enjoying every bit of it.

Marksheet

Paper-I: General Ability and Intelligence	119
Paper-II: General Studies,Essay & Comprehension	074
Written Total	193
Personality Test	120
Final Total	313

Tempo

Q. How did you maintain the study-mood, motivation and tempo throughout this period? There are ups and downs- phases of mood swings, sometimes boredom and even depression. How did you fight that psychological battle? On an average, how many hours do you study?

I am a big movie buff.i used to watch movies regularly to rejuvenate myself.i did not study if I din’t feel like studying.one should fall in love with the books.Don’t think about the competition or exam, just enjoy studying.if you feel bored with some topic/subject try another totally different subject.enjoy the diversity of knowledge offered by this amazing exam-process.

Civil Service?

Q. Are you appearing in Civil Service (Mains) 2013? If yes, how are you approaching/preparing the ethics, and other new topics of GS?

• Yes.i had joined a coaching class for ethics paper.This is a test of personality of an individual.an institute can only offer you the bookish knowledge but it is your inherent instinct that is going to play the decisive role in the examination hall.try to practice as many case studies as you can and follow the syllabus given by UPSC.
• For other new topics of GS,I am following mrunal.org and websites of concerned ministries.first the basic textual study of different GS sections should be done and then it should be complemented with different sources (like mentioned above)while following the UPSC syllabus.

Service Preference

Q. What was your service preference order (CRPF>CISF>SSB etc) and why did you pick up the particular order?

CISF>CRPF>ITBP>BSF>SSB. I preferred CISF  because of its dynamic job profile and operational areas.it was comparatively more in consonance with my personality than the other services.Other preferences (order) are out of chance not by choice,I am equally open to all the other four forces.

Career Backup

Q. If you were not selected, what was your career backup plan?

With this exam my rendezvous with UPSC has started.i wish to push my limits further and, god willing,clear the civil services this year.a career in engineering could have been a backup option but I would have given an another attempt to clear this exam.

Wisdom

Q. Through this journey and success, what wisdom did you gain about competition and life? What is your message to the aspirants?

For almost 6-7 years(till my graduation) I had only failed and failed (medical-entrances and numerous backlogs).i was the last student of my class (navodaya vidyalaya) to complete his graduation, but I did not lose hope. i always thought that come what may,I was not going to give up.i was always ready to fight till the end.

Friends,you lose only when you start doubting yourself.take the failures of your life as lessons.failures are necessary to taste the real beauty of success.

Enjoy the beauty of this exam;study hard,party harder.never miss out anything be it your girl/boyfriend or movies,you do not have to be an ascetic to clear this exam.i wish you all the very best for your exam,HAPPY STUDYING!

Credit: Friends/family

Q. Behind every 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? Any specific incidence that you would like to share with the readers?

My father- mother and my family who stood with me during all these trying years and never doubted my capabilities.my sister Mili who took care of my food and health while doing her job(HCL) and being a constant motivator.my younger sisters Julie and Nishu for their unconditional love and support.my bestfriend Manoj who was always there whenever I needed him.Dimpie(Ajatshatru) bhaiya  for his infectious enthusiasm and crucial guidance during PET.Samir,Golu(Amit),Nicky di and jeeju for their constant support.my teachers of navodaya vidyalaya and my soulmate Chhaya for being a true critic and  the reason to smile.

Marketing Propaganda

Q. You are well aware for the sacred-golden-unwritten rule of conducting toppers’ interview= The last question must be about self-marketing. So, Did you use Mrunal.org for your preparation and if yes, how did it help you?  And you can even reply “No”. I’ll publish your answer as it is.

When I started preparing for civil services exam,I was in total darkness about the strategy and approach to be followed for this exam.one day I landed on this website by sheer luck and from then things changed forever.i am unearthing this knowledge mine since then.

It is the best website for the ‘fresh’ aspirants.But one should not depend solely on this website,use it to complement your studies.Don’t delve into the unmeaningful discussions and keep sharing your knowledge with everybody through this amazing platform!