[Topper’s Interview] Akash (CSE-2013/AIR-63) First Attempt, 297 in prelims, IFoS ranker, maths optional, IIT Madras from Kerala

1. Candidate Profile
2. Education
3. Disclaimer about this interview
4. Introduction
5. Electronic Vs Paper material
6. Tempo and style
7. Working professional
8. Prelims (CSAT) General studies
9. Prelims (CSAT) Aptitude
10. Prelim accuracy
11. Mains: Compulsory language paper
12. Mains: Essay
13. General studies (Mains) paper 1
14. General studies (Mains) paper 2
15. General studies (Mains) Paper 3 (Mrunal rocks here!!!)
16. General Studies 4: Ethics, Integrity, aptitude
17. GS4 Ethics case study answers in Mains 2013
18. Mains answer-writing?
19. Mains Optional Subject
20. Before the interview
21. During the interview
22. CSE-2013 Marksheet
23. Career Backup
24. Views on UPSC reforms
25. Insecurity about profile
26. Wisdom
27. Credit: Friends/family
28. BOGUS Marketing Propaganda

Candidate Profile

Name	AKASH P
Rank in CSE-2013	63
Roll No.	086809
Age	22
Total attempts in CSE	1
Optional Subject	MATHEMATICS
Medium chosen for Mains answers	ENGLISH
Schooling medium	ENGLISH
College medium	ENGLISH
Home town/city	Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Work-experience if any	NIL
competitive exams, including success/failures	NSOs(National Science Olympiad), NMOs(Mathematical Olympiad) occasionally cleared first rounds but lost in finals; NTS Scholar (2007); KVPY (2008) passed aptitude test but failed in the interview ; IIT JEE (2009)-Rank 866; Kerala Engg Entrance Rank 2; AIEEE AIR 960 and State Rank 15; CAT(2012) Exam failure -72 percentile! Indian Forest Service (IFoS) 2013 Rank 27.)
Details of coaching, mock tests, postal material for any competitive exam (if used)	CSAT mock test series by TIME for paper-II. Nothing for paper-I. Joined Kerala State Civil Service Academy in August 2013 after prelims results were out. Attended GS class for one month till the realization dawned that GS is not something that can be crammed inside any classroom! Attended optional class- mathematics- till November. So the contribution of class room coaching to my result is to be estimated by the reader in their own judgment.
service preference #1, 2 and 3	IAS, IRS (IT) & IRS (C&CE).
state cadre preference (top3)	Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka

Education

% in class 10	95.xx
% in class 12	96.xx
Schooling (Medium)	ENGLISH
Graduation course and %	B-Tech Engg Physics, CGPA 8.24
Name of college, city, passing out year	IIT MADRAS, 2013
Post-graduation	NIL
Any other professional courses	NIL
Hobbies & Extra curricular	Reading, Teaching, Puzzles etc.

Disclaimer about this interview

The answers to the questions posed are plainly and honestly stated. You are free to read the interview or not. If you believe that topper’s interviews are useless don’t read. If you get something out of this, I am happy, else, I am sorry. I don’t necessarily recommend my ways to the readers- I am simply stating what I did. That may not be the best way. I am making this disclaimer because of the (controversies surrounding my previous interview with Mrunal.).

In view of the adverse feedback following changes were implemented in this interview:

1. Shorter and simpler sentences.
2. Skirting controversial issues and answering diplomatically (but without lying, of course. I shall not be a liar come what may).
3. Extra humility attempted in answering with lot less adjectives and dramatics!

I hope everyone is happy by these changes!

Introduction

Q. Tell us something about yourself, your family, when and why did you enter in this field of competitive exams?

I belong to a typical ‘average (tending to the lower side) middle class’ family with an intrinsic attraction towards govt. jobs. I am ambitious and have had a reasonably successful academic career before joining IIT after qualifying for the JEE entrance with no coaching (being too expensive and inaccessible) and relying wholly on self-study. In IIT I constantly suffered setbacks, crises and confusion. But a special seminar conducted at college by the alumni association which was presided by 3 IAS officers who themselves are IITians gave a fresh perspective on my career choice and I decided to go for the civil service. Regarding competitive examinations, I had regularly tasted success with intermittent failures till I crashed disastrously in CAT 2012 which was a wakeup call for me to shed my complacency and practice CSAT Paper-II rather than take it lightly, thinking that it’s a trivial exercise. I enrolled for TIME mock test series, comprising of 10 tests and I can vouchsafe for its quality and authenticity. I scored around 190 for CSAT-II.

Electronic Vs Paper material

Q. In recent times, there is spur in electronic material- blogs, sites, pdfs, RSS-feeds. Many aspirants feel bogged down by this information overload. So, how much do you rely on electronic material and how much on the paper material (Books, newspapers)? If possible narrate a typical day in your studylife. What is your style of preparation (e.g. I continue making notes no matter what I’m reading, I just read multiple times but don’t maintain notes, I make mindmaps on computer …or xyz style)

• Yeah, I agree that a deluge of information can confuse and even de-motivate an aspirant. But I was not bogged down by the information explosion as I was very selective in referring material online. I did read many sites like Mrunal.org, insightsonindia.com, pib.nic, idsa.in etc to get specific material and I didn’t take any resolution to cram all the data available and only took what I felt was relevant for my preparation.
• I relied extensively on newspaper (HINDU), magazine (FRONTLINE) and journal (EPW) and I bet that almost, if not all, questions of GS in IFoS and CSE can be answered from these sources (probably except the history and culture part).
• I had no particular style, order, time-table, pattern etc in my preparation. I randomly did whatever I felt was useful in my preparation and frequently took outings to relax. There was no detailed strategic war plan or anything. No maps, no notes, just reading and left everything else to luck/destiny.

Tempo and style

Q. People know what books and syllabus points are to be prepared. But most of them lack consistency in their preparation. So, how do you keep study momentum going on? How do you fight against the mood swings and distractions?

I read on an average 6-8 hours per day. There are days when I don’t study at all- visiting relatives, entertaining guests etc. Surely preparation for the civil services is such a drab thing capable of psyching out even the most persistent player and one wishes the drudgery would end soon. Momentum was maintained by constant self-motivation and by taking rest and frequently undertaking outings.

I believe that a strong desire coupled by the determination to see the end of it would help one to succeed in any endeavor that one pursues in life.

Working professional

If you’re a working professional, share some tips on how to manage studies with job

The reason why I declined a private sector job was that I wanted to completely concentrate in civils. Of course, people in the past have cleared civils concurrently working privately. But if your family can afford to wait for a few months without you earning, then, I believe, it is better to dedicate full time into civils supported with a reliable back up plan.

Prelims (CSAT) General studies

Topic	strategy/booklist/comment
History Ancient	Largely left. Didn’t think its worth doing PhD for a few marks. Tried to scramble for my high school history books, not much success.
History Medieval	Same
History Modern (Freedom Struggle)	Spectrum publication’s brief history of Modern India
Culture society	Left. Bought spectrum culture, but was too boring.
Polity (theory + current)	Indian Polity by M.Laxmikant, hindu, frontline, EPW
Economy (theory + current)	Mrunal.org, Ramesh singh, hindu, frontline, EPW
Science (theory + current)	Hindu S&T, Frontline.
Environment (theory + current)	Mrunal.org, Hindu, frontline.
geography physical	left
geography India	left
geography world	left
other national/international current affairs	Hindu
Schemes, Policy & Filler Stuff	Hindu, frontline, EPW

Q. Any observation / comments / tips about GS prelim 2013 paper?

No time crunch in this paper. But one has to be very careful in finding the correct answer out of many choices which largely looks the same.

Prelims (CSAT) Aptitude

Topic	strategy / booklist
Maths	TIME mock test (10 nos)
reasoning	TIME mock test (10 nos)
comprehension	TIME mock test (10 nos)
Decision Making	TIME mock test (10 nos)

Q.Any observation / comments / tips about GS Aptitude 2013 paper.

No theoretical preparation, no coaching class necessary. Just enroll for some mock tests. Analyze performance regularly. Focus your care on weak areas. This is the sure fire way to crack CSAT.

Prelim accuracy

Q1. Did you attend any ‘mock tests’? do you think they’re necessary for success?

Yes TIME series. They are good for improving one’s accuracy.

Q2. Approximate no. of attempted answers vs. correct answers.in CSAT-2013

	attempted Q.	correct Questions (Expected)	Official score
GS	100	64	106.66
aptitude	80	77	190.83
total			297

Mrunal comments: you took unnecessary risk of attempting all 100 questions in GS. Otherwise your score may have been well above 310.

Mains: Compulsory language paper

Compulsory language paper	Your preparation strategy / booklist?
English paper	Just went through previous paper. Took the IFoS General English paper as a sort of mock test.
your regional language	No preparation. Very confident and fluent in Malayalam. It’s advisable to attempt a couple of previous papers in examination conditions.

Q2.other observations / tips / comments on the length / difficulty level of compulsory language papers in CSE-2013

As Mrunal had pointed out early, the length of these papers have somewhat increased. So the focus should have to be on to write fast while also being legible and careful.

Mains: Essay

Q1. How did you prepare for the essay paper?

I had prepared for writing in English by taking my minor in English Literature at college. The exam was my first effort in writing such a long essay within a stipulated time. No special books, institute or method of preparation. I did buy some useless books like how to write an essay from market but didn’t have time to read them at all.

Q2. Which among the following essay did you write? What key points did you include in it?

1. Be the change you want to see in others (Gandhi)
2. Is the Colonial mentality hindering India’s Success?
3. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) along with GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness) would be the right indices for judging the wellbeing of a country
4. Science and technology is the panacea for the growth and security of the nation.

Essay- the format of my essay was roughly like this:

I chose the S&T essay. First went on to explain science, technology and their mutual interdependence in separate paragraphs. I explored dimensions of growth and security. Then I explained S&T’s relevance to the growth and security of a nation especially in the Indian context. Illustrated the cardinality of S&T using 5 examples:

My memory is very sketchy, so I think these may roughly be the way it was:

• agriculture- food sufficiency-food security
• Energy security-renewable energy-nuclear- atomic-space national security
• S&T- growth- tech exporter etc.
• health sanitation, medicine etc
• education- knowledge creation-intellectual hub

After elaborating these in many pages, I concluded by saying that though S&T alone can’t solve everything but it is an imperative to develop it. It’s a necessary but not sufficient condition.

It was a flamboyant essay with many high-sounding words. Got reasonable 125, but was expecting more. I’ll share my answer sheet once it is out.

General studies (Mains) paper 1

I did not take any coaching notes. Attend Kerala State Civil Service Academy classes for GS for a month. It was all crap kind of university kind of clichéd things that they dictate in class which I found to be totally irrelevant.

My marks in GS are also poor- only 294/1000- so I don’t think that I am fit to suggest you how to prepare for it. But anyways for the sake of it.

I largely neglected GS 1 as I disliked history, geography etc at school. So I did pretty little for this paper. Yet I give below some references which I more or less followed.

Anyways, here starts the list:

Topic	How did you prepare?
culture	Left.Mrnual comments: Ustaad, you’re awesome in your own capacity.
Indian history	Spectrum’s brief history of Modern India
world history	Crash course in world history by john green- you tube videos, Mrunal.org.
post-independence India	Ram Guha, India after Gandhi.
Indian society	Wrote sociology questions without any reading. Answered using intuition and common sense.
role of women, poverty etc.	Do
globalization on Indian society	Do
communalism, regionalism, secularism	Do
world geo physical	Mexus videos in you tube.
resource distribution	Do
factors for industrial location	Mexus +Mrunal.org/geography
earthquake tsunami etc	Mexus
impact on flora-fauna	left

General studies (Mains) paper 2

Topic	How Did You Prepare?
Indian Constitution, devolution, dispute redressal etc.	M.Laxmikant’s Indian Polity Granville Austin’s working of a democratic constitution is excellent.
comparing Constitution with world	Mrunal competition.
parliament, state Legislatures	laxmikant
executive-judiciary	do
ministries departments	left
pressure group, informal asso.	left
Representation of people’s act	Google search
various bodies: Constitutional, statutory..	laxmikant
NGO, SHG etc	left
welfare schemes, bodies	Hindu, economic survey
social sector, health, edu, HRD	Economic survey, planning commission draft plan.
governance, transparency, accountability	Didn’t read much
e-governance	Google search
role of civil service	2nd ARC Laxmikant’s Public Administration book
India& neighbors	Mrunal.org, Mrunal competition, hindu, Tharoor’s Pax Indica is excellent.
bilateral/global grouping	Do
effect of foreign country policies on Indian interest	Do
diaspora	Left
international bodies- structure mandate	Wiki.

General studies (Mains) Paper 3 (Mrunal rocks here!!!)

Topic	How Did You Prepare?
Indian economy, resource mobilization	Ramesh singh, Mrunal, draft plan, eco survey
inclusive growth	Draft plan, survey
budgeting	left
major crops, irrigation	Majid Hussain geography
agro produce – storage, marketing	Draft plan, survey
e-technology for famers	do
farm subsidies, MSP	do
PDS, buffer, food security	do
technology mission	do
animal rearing economics	left
food processing	Draft, survey
land reforms	Majid husain
liberalization	Ramesh singh
infra	Draft, survey
investment models	left
science-tech day to day life	Hindu s&t, frontline
Indian achievements in sci-tech	do
awareness in IT, space, biotech, nano, IPR	do
environmental impact assessment	Mrunal competition
Disaster Management	do
non state actors, internal security	do
internal security – role of media, social networking site	do
cyber security	do
money laundering	do
border  Management	do
organized crime, terrorism	do
security agencies- structure mandate	Do. Mrunal competition really rocked in this part!! Thank you Mrunal for that.

General Studies 4: Ethics, Integrity, aptitude

• For this paper, I largely relied on internet- Wikipedia, insightsonindia.com etc and also the few Mrunal articles. I also did buy a book (worth around Rs 250) brought out by JTS which was a shoddy copy paste job but had some essential concepts explained. So much for my material sources and I am leaving the following table blank as it is difficult to delineate the sources of every topic.
• I did not prepare any moral thinkers.
• ne important word of wisdom- UPSC doesn’t tolerate nonsense. Answers should be rock solid and objective. When they say “the content of answer matters and not its length”, they really mean it!

GS4 Ethics case study answers in Mains 2013

Q. in GS4 ethics papers, please give a sketchy overview of your case study answers:

case	your approach/keypoints
1: RTI: To hide or not to hide	I have filed an RTI to retrieve my evaluated answer sheets.  I will send a copy to you once I have it. Mrunal comments: You’ve 96 marks in ethics. We certainly look forward to see your answercopy. Thanks in advance.
2: Engineer: Bogus flyover vs deadline
3: Child Labourers in Sivakasi
4: Nepotism in Job recruitment
5: Leaking information
6: Narrate one incident in your life when you were faced with such crisis of conscience and how you resolved the same.

Mains answer-writing?

Q. How was your experience with the ‘fixed space’ answer sheet?

I believe that the fixed space was a boon, except the Paper-I in Mathematics optional (very less space indeed) – as it provided abundant space to write our answers without bothering about messy question numbers and leaving space for unattended questions to return later. But they gave too much space for GS tempting us to write more than what was necessary.

Q. Did you write answers in bullet points or in paragraphs? Some players (who cleared mains and got interview call letter) were claiming that they wrote entire paper in bullet points, so it doesn’t matter….whether examiner is asking ‘examine, comment, discuss or xyz’….simply write in bullets and points.

I wrote in paragraphs, but that seems to have backfired given the marks obtained in GS. I attempted all the questions and that was useless as well. Probably it’s better to answer clearly highlighting the points only those questions which you have at least some idea. Don’t just bluff or beat around the bush and give concrete answers.

Q. Did you follow the “introduction-body-conclusion” format? because some mains-qualified candidates claim they simply wrote the points they could recall within the time, instead of bothering with proper introduction and conclusion.

There was only 7 minutes and 12 seconds for a question and I don’t think there will be any time to write a structured answer. I just scribbled whatever came to my mind in random order and that reflects in the (poor GS) marks too.

Q. In GS papers, Since UPSC came with those 100 and 200 words questions. What was your approach in the exam (I wrote all, I only focused on the questions where I could answer perfectly, I just not to high quality points to reach the word limit etc.)

I attempted all the questions and when I was not confident I wrote low quality filler answer. That strategy clearly backfired as evidenced by my abysmal performance in GS. So, I think it is better to answer only those questions that one is sure of and present them systematically and in an organized fashion.

Mrunal comments: Akash bhai, your previous IFoS interview also generated lot of comment-wars about this “attempt everything” strategy….so, I take this opportunity to point out a few things, without meaning any disrespect to any toppers or readers:

1. Sakshi (Rank 6) left ~7 questions, but she too tried to maximize attempts by making “educated guesses” (her words).
2. Neha (Rank 12) attempted all questions except one blunder in Tashkand agreement. (her words)
3. Roman (rank 18) wrote something in all questions. (his words)

Topper	GS1	GS2	GS3	GS4	Total GS
1 Gaurav	85	63	88	102	338
2 Munish	89	66	85	111	351
3 Rachit	78	71	103	142	394
6 Sakshi*	93	62	88	109	352
12 Neha*	95	73	115	117	400
18 Roman*	97	61	108	98	364
63 Akash*	58	54	86	96	294

*attempted almost every question in GS1 to 4.

• Of course one can interpret this table in many ways. But from the interviews of Sakshi, Neha and Roman, we can see they had exhaustively prepared every syllabus topic in general studies paper 1 to 4.
• On the other hand, you Akash bhai (on your own admission) had left certain syllabus topics in GS1 and 2 altogether while studying. (Perhaps therefore) low score in GS1 and 2 because low quality filler answers.
• But, observe that in GS3 and GS4, you had prepared all topics (Except moral thinker), and therefore, you have almost parallel marks with toppers above.
• In other words, “attempt everything” was a rational strategy for GS-mains, but only works well when one has prepared everything exhaustively (to make educated guesses to write decent fodder points.)

Anyways, that doesn’t diminish or glamorize your achievement. You’re here because of your hardwork. I just had to make this commentary because aspirants have wasted lot of time in this debate (both in Mrunal.org and in other online forums).

moving to the next question:
Q. How many marks worth questions did you skip/couldn’t finish in the GS papers?

GS (Mains paper)	Couldn’t finish __ mark
GS1	0
GS2	0
GS3	0
GS4	0

Q5. Did you use highlighters / sketchpens in your answers?

No

Q6. Did you draw any diagram in any paper? (e.g. in GS1 Geography)

No

Q7. If yes, Did you draw diagrams with pencil or pen?

NA

Q8. Did you use ruler to draw the lines in diagram? Or did you just make it by hand?

NA

Q9. You wrote the answer in blue pen or black pen?

Black Pen

(Mrunal – since readers keep mailing such queries, therefore I’m asking the topper to clear all the air haha.)

Mains Optional Subject

Q1. First the essential book/resource list / strategy?

My Optional was Mathematics. There is no base book. There are as many books are there are topics. You can refer to any of them. The aim is to improve the problem solving ability and enhance the accuracy. I think it’s all about practice. The more, the merrier.

Booklist is given in Prakash Rajpurohit’s blog (previous rank holder). You may go through them as I have nothing to add.

Q2. How much of internet-research necessary for this optional? OR can one simply rely on the books and be done with this subject?

I didn’t use internet for Maths at all.

Q3. How many months did it take to finish the core optional syllabus?

Roughly 4-5 months, given I am an engineering student and most topics familiar.

Q4. Do you maintain self-notes for revision of optional? In which format- electronic or paper?

No notes. If you are able to solve a problem no need to keep notes of it.

Q5. Your observation about the difficultly level of 2013 mains vs previous papers. And what precautions / rectifications are necessary in the future strategy for given optional subject?

• Paper 1 was easy in the sense they were not tricky and eminently doable but there are pitfalls if you are not careful. Provided space was insufficient. If you make a mistake you screw, you stare at it helpless without any space to redo it.
• Paper 2 was difficult for me. I had to leave roughly 80 marks questions in it both due to my lack of tact as well as due to the appearance of unseen kind of questions.

Q7.How much did you skip OR couldn’t answer properly, in the optional paper?

optional paper	Couldn’t finish __ mark. + comments on any weird questions
Paper I	Finished all questions. Made 30 marks worth  careless mistake
paper II	Left 80 marks worth question.

Official score

Maths Paper 1	122
Maths Paper 2	106

Before the interview

Q1. How did you prepare for the interview? Particularly college graduation subjects related questions?

The interview sessions conducted by Kerala State Civil Services Academy was awesome and that’s that. No other sources. No he lergely ignored my graduation (one stray question or so) even though the interview was largely profile based.

Q2. Did you attend any mock interviews by coaching classes? How were they similar / different than official interview? Do you believe it is necessary to attend such mock interviews?

Refer above. The mock session had Mr. Roy Paul, ex member UPSC. It was a very helpful experience and the original interview was in fact very much similar. Personally, I would suggest that it is good to attend mock interviews.

Q3. What did you wear? Some experts say coat is must, some say tie is must, and some say black shoes must. What attire did you pick up?

I defied all such advices come what may and wore a simple full sleeve shirt and pants inserted but with black shoes. No blazers, no tie. Coats are unneeded. If it enhances your confidence go for it. If you think you are more than what you wear, no need. Whatever you wear, be neatly dressed.

Q4. Where did you stay for the interview? (Hotel / friend’s home …) and what books/material did you bring for the ‘revision before interview’?

Kerala govt provides free flight tickets, food and accommodation at Kerala House for those selected for interview. I just used this luxury. No material- read newspapers. That’s all.

During the interview

Q1. Who was the chairman of you interview board?

Mr  Chattar Singh IAS (retd)

Q2. How long was the interview?

30 minutes.

Q3. Why do you want to join civil service? Why don’t you continue in your graduation field? Social service can be done from private sector too.[Since I don’t know whether they ask you this question or not. But if they had asked- what will be your reply?]

Nope, he didn’t.  I would have told about responsibility, diversity and the social status attached with it.

Q4. Please narrate your entire interview- what questions did they ask and what did you reply and other pleasant or uncomfortable experiences during the interview.

Well, any question can be asked at the interview.  Since narrating one’s interview would at least give a sketchy picture for future aspirants to form a broad idea of how a UPSC interview may span out, I am giving some of the questions-which I recollect now- and the answers that I gave. The level of detail would be just enough to comprehend the question and the import of my answer and not vivid enough to betray my stupidity.

Chairman: Mr Akash, whats your opposite?

Me: Pataal (Akash =sky, pataal= underworld) {Answered promptly}.

Chairman: Very good. Despite being south Indian you immediately….blah…blah…. (visibly impressed, extremely happy gave, 204. That’s it, nailed; I think that was the high point. It enhanced my confidence to no end.)

C: reading  hobby, what do you read?

Me: said poetry, literature, non fiction, newspaper. (matter ended-no connected questions)

C: maths optional and interest (I gave mathematics as my hobby/interest also), why students find it difficult, what to do?

Me: said useless answer like you have to make students love the subject by personal attention and other crap.

C: finance commission? Planning commission? Overlapping mandate, why two?

Me: FC constitutional technocratic body, PC political body.

Then Chair extended my answer by saying that “so we need a pliable political handle” and he was extremely impressed by that point and said very good again.

M1 was again our friend.

1. M1: kerala, why better developed?
2. Me: said clichéd and canonical answers.
3. M1: smaller states good?
4. Me: said yes and no. explained advantages and disadvantages.
5. M1: some question about NREGA (answered satisfactorily)

There were connected questions which I don’t recollect in sequential order. This member was also very happy with my answers.

Next came the villain. M3 a history wallah.

1. M2: Some crap about Zamorin, Vasco da Gama, and latter’s visit to Kerala. (I drew a blank)
2. M2: Its deplorable that an ambitious young man knows so little about his own place. (Adverse comment. Heart pumps faster! But Chattar still happy, so I was happy!)
3. M2:what is petro dollars? (I bluffed)
4. M2: You are guessing man, I will ask another question.
5. M2: what is privy purse? Significance of Kerala in foreign contribution? Jingoism?
6. Answered  kind of OK.
7. M2: where is Mairai (I had no idea)

So this guy slightly screwed me but Chattar fortunately holds pen and paper!

M3 was a skeptical frenchie who always looked quizzical and unsatisfied. He looks like the stereotypical psychiatrist in movies!

1. M3: technological growth in 30s what spurred them?
2. Me: Said world war, consumerism, desire for better life, globalization etc. ( He looked sceptical)
3. M3:Treasures at Padmanabha swamy temple, what to do?

Since connected with religion, won’t reveal my answer. M3 still looked skeptical and suspicious.

Chattar Singh: Whats important about 1905 in physics (I am B-Tech in Engineering Physics)

Me: Einstein’s paper- Brownian, special relativity.

Chattar: Thank You Akash.

Thank You Sir, Sirs. Exit.

So the board (mine had only 4 members as 1 left before mine due to personal reasons) was very cordial and friendly and there are a few words of wisdom:

1. Interview is unpredictable and clearly some luck is involved. But your attire is irrelevant as long as you are neatly dressed.
2. They may be looking for some key words and specific points in your answers and they will reward you plentifully if they get it from your mouth.
3. Placate the Chairman. Only he has the pen and paper. Its 275 marks of pure whimsy. Make him happy. Don’t argue with him, but take his questions very seriously. Even if some members aren’t happy about you, still doesn’t matter.

 Q5. Was your interview on the expected lines of what you had prepared or did they ask you totally unexpected questions?  Was it a stress interview, did they ask any uncomfortable questions? If yes, how did you handle it?

The interview was largely background (Kerala) based and there was nothing unexpected. Perhaps those questions on Kerala history completely caught me off guard.

Q6. Any side details about technicalities like “make sure you bring xyz document or do xyz thing, or you’ll face problem”?

Just read the call letter send by UPSC and make sure you bring all necessary docs to the interview. You can be screwed if you don’t!

CSE-2013 Marksheet

Essay	125
GS1	58
GS2	54
GS3	86
GS4	96
Maths Paper 1	122
Maths Paper 2	106
Written Total	647
Interview	204
Final total	851
Rank	63

Career Backup

Q1. If you were not selected, what was your career backup plan?

No backup plan considered -a fight to finish was envisaged. With a reasonable record behind me, I was sure that if I keep on writing I would succeed today or tomorrow.

Q2. when were you going to “execute” that backup plan? (e.g. after __ failed attempts/after I cross __ age/after dad retires/ etc.)

I know that I could clear at least some UPSC or bank tests within a couple of years.

Mrunal comments: besides you already got selected in Indian Forest service also.

Views on UPSC reforms

What are your views on following issues?

Q. Optional subjects should be removed altogether. The present stalemate is helping no-one, except coaching-owners, book publishers and the candidate whose optional subject gets favorable treatment under given year’s scaling formula.

May be optional can be retained but the UPSC should stop the policy of selective butchering of arbitrarily selected optional each year. The scaling policy should be transparent, uniform, reasonable and scientific and should be declared beforehand.

Q. Despite what UPSC has done in recent years, it has failed to curb the nuisance of Delhi’s coaching factories. In fact it’s increased under the new syllabus in 2013. Let’s face it, most toppers have fully or partially relied on (authentic OR Xeroxed) coaching notes because there was hardly any time left to prepare so many topics in such short time. This system work against an individual preparing from far-away area, without any financial resources, high-speed internet or contacts in Delhi.

I didn’t have any Xeroxed material from Delhi both because of accessibility and affordability issues. There seems to be no way to curb the menace of coaching factories unless some special tax is imposed on them or all forms of coaching are banned outright, which is stupid!

Q. Half-merger of IFoS with CSE is a bad move because it has raised the cutoffs for players who’re solely dedicated to IFoS only (and not to IAS/IPS).Adding salt to the wounds, many who had applied for both jobs, cleared the prelims- they did not even bother to appear in all the papers of Mains-IFoS. (RTI revealed this).

It was unfair on UPSC’s part to do that. There should be separate prelims for IFoS so that this random ‘ticking’ of both boxes doesn’t take place.

Most importantly, if any changes are sought to be implemented, the UPSC should notify them much in advance and give the aspirants’ sufficient time, may be a year-and-a-half or so, to adapt themselves to the changes so as to be fair on them.

Q. UPSC should disclose official prelim answerkey and cutoffs, immediately after prelim is over, instead of postponing it till interview phase is over.

Though the UPSC’s reasoning that it would affect the examination procedure is patently specious, I think it isn’t urgent and can wait.

Q. UPSC should be conducted online like IBPS and CAT exam to shorten the duration of exam.

Yup definitely, UPSC prelims should be made online that will save a couple of months. In the whole the 15 month process should be squeezed to 7-8 months so that the candidates are not mentally tortured and kept in suspense and anticipation for a prolonged period.

Q. If you are made the UPSC chairman, what other reforms would you initiate for the civil service exam?

I do have some ideas but most of them are unpopular and I will be torn down by the blogosphere if I actually state them here!

But I would prescribe guidelines for evaluation in interview and mains to reduce the arbitrariness and conduct multiple interviews and take the average or some sort of that. In the whole, the process would be more systemized and whimsies reduced.

Insecurity about profile

Q. Many candidates prepare sincerely but constantly live under fear about ‘profile insecurity’. I’m not from a big college, I’m not from English medium, and I don’t have work-experience. What if they ask some stressful questions in the interview about this? What is your message to these candidates?

I am not well placed to guide aspirants who are not situated as given in the question. But, regarding work experience, I think they don’t matter. I’ve even heard rumors/conspiracy theories suggesting that UPSC secretly favors candidates who are young, unmarried, fresh graduates and without working experience. But I’ve heard nothing that indicates otherwise. Doyens of the personality test suggest that one’s background doesn’t matter as much as his personal presentation before the board.

Wisdom

Q. Through this struggle and success, what have your learned? What is the wisdom of life and competition? What is your message to the new aspirants?

UPSC is unpredictable and unrepentant. Be prepared for all exigencies. Try your level best and all the best.

Focus on your goals and ignore the existence/hype of any undue competition. Do one’s work judiciously and diligently. Don’t get bogged down by peers, parents, failures, society etc. (which is easier said than done!). Also remember, as Mrunal says, life is greater than all transient success or failures and bigger than all competitive exams, which are indeed, only a part of life and not the other way around. Life is the mother of all exams and not CSE!

Q. Many hardworking candidates have failed in Mains/Interview of CSE-2013. They’re feeling dejected- what is your message to them?

It is known that hard work or raw talent by themselves may not be enough for one to succeed. Sometimes sheer luck may also play a major role. I have seen many of my friends, wholly deserving gentlemen, unable to be in the list because of the whimsical tyranny of some UPSC board members who screwed them unreasonably in interview by giving them absurdly low score. The same thing happens in Mains in Essay paper which is no less arbitrary.

And many have in fact gotten into IAS after having failed in their first few attempts. Analyze your situation dispassionately, take advice from elders, and take a considered decision about what to do in life- to continue or to take an alternative career- giving due importance to pragmatism rather than idealism or childhood dreams.

Credit: Friends/family

Q. Behind every topper are many people who stood by 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?

I should be eternally indebted to my parents, who despite being well educated and aware, did not shove their personal ambitions and individual opinions down my throat and gave me full leeway to make any choices in academic matters. They trusted me completely, and did not try to influence my thinking when it came to my studies and career choice. So I suffered no insecurities, psychological stress (due to parental pressure- I was stressed due to other extraneous factors) etc and they were infinitely and uncritically co-operative in whatever endeavor I pursued. Also my friends have played a major role in motivating and assisting me in the journey so far.

BOGUS Marketing Propaganda

Q. You are well aware of the sacred rule – 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 still publish your answer without tempering, unlike those competitive magazines.

• I am indeed indebted to Mrunal for the conceptual clarity and solid understanding of the basics that he gave me in economics, ecology and international relations- a sizeable chunk of GS portion. And after the enlarged version of GS came out, Mrunal was my major hope.
• It’s due to Mrunal competition articles alone that I got at least 86 in GS3. If I am an IAS officer today, a substantial chunk of credit goes to Mrunal.
• Also it is my reference of first resort whenever I decide to mine data from the web. In addition to the valuable information that he so generously lavish, the keen wit, candid and prescient insights as well as the kind words of empathy and warmth showered by Mrunal makes this site an ideal place to visit for a UPSC aspirant- more so, for the beginners- for informational and emotional security.
• P.S 1- I am a great admirer of the ‘Mrunalian’ take on coaching factories of Delhi! :-)
• P.S 2- I think almost all the toppers refer to your site but some maybe too hypocritical to openly admit it. So whether they say or not, you are indeed rendering a yeoman service to every batch of civils aspirants. Kudos to that!
• To sum up, You are simply awesome. Kindly keep the good work.

Mrunal comments: honored with these compliments. I also thank the folks who participated in write2win competition and indirectly helped in success of this topper. Thank a lot Mr.Akash P. for sharing your journey with us. We wish you the best for the service and cadre allocation ahead.