1. Bio
2. Coaching
3. Inception
4. Information
5. Study Momentum
6. Study Hours
7. Strategy: CSAT (Aptitude)
8. Strategy: General studies
9. Mains 2013
10. Optional: Electrical Engineering
11. Optional: Chemistry
12. Optional Subject in Mains 2013?
13. Compulsory papers
14. Essay
15. Previous Attempts
16. Insecurity  about “Profile”
17. Backup
18. Interview
19. Marksheet
20. Wisdom
21. Bogus marketing propaganda

Bio

Name	MAYANK AGRAWAL
Roll number	16178
Rank (CSE 2012)	67
Optional Subjects	Electrical Engineering Chemistry
Number of Attempts	2
Medium for Mains Exam	English
Schooling (Medium)	English
Centre for Prelim exam	Jaipur
Centre for Mains exam	Jaipur
Name of home town/city	Varanasi (UP)

Edu

% in class 10	91
% in class 12	82
Graduation course and %	93
Name of college and year of passing out	Indian Institute of Technology Madras, 2011 Batch
PG (if applicable)	M.Tech (as part of dual degree) in VLSI Design and Microelectronics
Any professional courses (if applicable)	Electrical Engineering

Hobbies:

Reading (mostly fiction) and I have interest in teaching.

Work Ex

Not Applicable

Family background

My father is an Engineer and mother housewife. My brother is studying engineering.

Coaching

Did you join any Coaching?	Joined for a month then left (because those people were wasting my time and money)
Did you join any postal courses?	I got brilliant tutorial material. (as I had very peculiar optionals, these material though useless provided some segregated question bank for my optionals.) My advice to future candidates is that if you have traditional optionals then you don’t need this. Better find some people who have cleared competition with similar subjects.
Did you join any Mock test series?	I came across some of the vision ias mock test series which my friend had subscribed.
Did you appear in any other competitive exams?	No.

Inception

For most of my life I have been like a race horse and upsc examination was another race that I ran. Though it is ironical but my main motivation was to explore myself and know myself better, other than knowing myself as a race horse. Career as a civil servant provides you variety of challenges and while facing those challenges (both successfully and unsuccessfully) you come to hone your skills and know yourself better. This is the same answer that I gave in the interview and it is mostly true.

Information

Q. Outside Delhi, it’s hard to dig how to prepare for civil service. So How did you gather the necessary information / strategy / booklist?

In my opinion when the general studies is mostly current oriented it may not be very difficult for people outside delhi to prepare for this exam. You can get the standard text books on blogs and websites oriented towards this exam preparation (including mrunal’s) and I think regarding the standard material they are mostly same. I have highlighted some of the books that I referred to later part this questionnaire.

Regarding the non standard and current material coming these days in the exams I followed debates and discussions on Lok-Sabha nad Rajya-Sabha TV channels. I had the recording set-top box where I used to record those programs daily and in about 1-2 hours went through the relevant programs daily. These programs are of very high standard (regarding anchors and panelists) and you could find quality discussions. These programs provide you non-biased complete picture of an ongoing issue or policy matter and stimulates you to form an independent opinion on them. Please note that even the newspapers are biased in their opinion and you cannot form opinion  just on the basis of their analysis. (for example hindu has left tilt in its opinion and vice versa is economics times, etc) But I read Hindu daily.

Some of programs on Lok-Sabha tv  which I found useful were:

Insigt: 1-2 pm mon-fri

Public  Forum / Lok Manch: 3-4 pm mon-fri

Talktime: 8-9pm Thursday

One-on-One: 4-5 pm Friday

Science This week (some time on saturday, please check as its time has changed)

Talk with Rajiv Mishra           9pm: Sunday

Some of programs on Rajya-Sabha Tv: (NOTE: programs of rajya sabha could be found on youtube)

These programs are:

Big Picture

Law of the Land

State of Economy

Sarokar

To the Point

I prepared my general studies with the above said programs and newspaper the hindu apart from standard text books.

Regarding Electrical Engineering and Chemistry, I followed Prakash Rajpurohit and Abhijeet Agrawal’s blog respectively.

Study Momentum

I think this is the most important aspect of preparation especially for this examination. According to me the main problem is the absence of feedback. It is an engineering principle: the world / systems work on negative feedback. I have already hinted above that you have to evolve your own system to your standard of your preparation and continuously update that standard according to the need. For people having surrounded by serious motivated candidates there is little problem. They are always on the edge to compete with their peers. The only problem that I see in this case is finding serious candidates. (I am sorry but this is my personal opinion that you won’t find many serious candidates, most of the candidates are not themselves convinced what they want from their life and just passing time dreaming without any action)

Now coming on other set of people who don’t have peers around them to compete with. I cannot make a general comment on it and I would just highlight my strategy.

Step1: you need to be aware of the scope of syllabus.

Step2: figure out materials to be studied. Try to fix the scope while allowing some flexibility for additional material.

Step3: figure out a plan to manage the syllabus with keeping in mind that revision would take at least 50% of the time that the main syllabus has taken.

Step4: Break the plan into monthly, then into weekly targets.

Step5: Now compete with yourself to achieve those targets. As you go on you would have better idea of your capacity.

Over a period of time with positive results you would gain confidence in your progress and would be away from negative thoughts. Remember when you are busy chasing your target you would have little time to worry about your shortcomings.

Study Hours

Q. On an average, How many hours did you study per day?

Ans. I am not sure how to answer this question. I was in front of books around 7-8 hours. I think around 60-70% of time I was absorbing the content of the book.

Q. How many months did it take you to complete the core syllabus of GS and optional subjects?

Ans. I used to give around 3 hrs to GS daily.

Around 3 hrs each to optionals daily.

Everything took 1-1.25 years to complete syllabus.

Strategy: CSAT (Aptitude)

I didn’t do any preparation for CSAT paper. But if people find reasoning, aptitude difficult they could refer some preliminary CAT books.

Strategy: General studies

		Book/ source
History	Ancient	Left
	Medieval	Left
	Modern	India’s Struggle for Freedom by Bipan Chandra
	Culture	Ccrtindia.gov.in
	Mains	Same
Polity	Basics	Lakshmikanth
	Current	Loksabha and Rajyasabha TV
	mains	Loksabha and Rajyasabha TV
Economy	Basics	Hindu Paper
	Current	Loksabha Rajyasabha TV
	mains	Loksabha and Rajyasabha TV
Geography	Physical	Little bit from NCERT,
	Indian	NCERT
	World	Left
	mains	Above sources, economic survey and 12th plan
Environment, Biodiversity	Basics	NCERT biology classs 12
	Current	Science Reporter and Down to earth magazine,
	Mains	Above sources, economic survey and 12th plan
Science Tech	Basics	Left
	Current	Science Reporter, down to earth, loksabha tv
	Mains	Above sources, economic survey and 12th plan
Yearbook / Govt. schemes etc.		Economic Survey, 12th five year plan
IR/diplomacy		Hindu,  rajyasabha and loksabha tv

• I didn’t prepare for prelims separately.
• For mains I covered the standard material. Followed the hindu newspaper and sincerely went over debates and discussions on loksabha and rajyasabha tv (I used to record programs and later listen to them).
• As I did general studies on a regular basis so I was mostly updated and didn’t  competition magazines.
• I used to selected issues in Economic and Political Weekly (left research articles in it).

Mains 2013

UPSC has changed the GS syllabus for Mains 2013. So if you were to prepare for it, what’d be your approach/strategy/booklist?

I did start my preparation for mains 2013. I would just give the books for the portion which I had completed. (though most the book list is similar to that provided by mrunal’s website.)

1. Sociology: Class 12 NCERT both books
2. World History: Class 9 and 10 NCERT history books
3. Post Independence: selected chapters from India Since Independence by Bipan Chandra
4. World Geography: 6,7,8 ICSE geography books
5. Public admin part: from ARC reports summary : http://www.4shared.com/folder/9YX5CWCf/2nd_ARC_Report.html
6. Ethics: William Frankena [I am not sure whether it is required or not, I have found it generally useful.]

Other than that IGNOU material is a good source. (it has been highlighted by mrunal in his older older post).

Optional: Electrical Engineering

Electrical Engineering I followed books highlighted by Prakash Rajpurohit’s blog. http://prakashrajpurohit.wordpress.com/

The only challenge for this optional is course content is huge and you need to give time to practice questions. But questions are not unpredictable and candidates can achieve high scored easily

Optional: Chemistry

Chemistry from Abhijeet Agarwals blog: http://abhijeetagrawal.blogspot.in/

Similar comment as above about this optional also.

Optional Subject in Mains 2013?

I would have taken Electrical Engineering. As major syllabus has been covered I require  just practicing questions and scoring high marks is easier as few people opt for it.

Compulsory papers

Q. Your booklist/strategy for compulsory Regional language paper.

Didn’t do any special preparation

Q. Your booklist/strategy for compulsory English language paper.

Didn’t do any special preparation

Essay

Q. How did you prepare yourself for the essay?

Didn’t do any special preparation

Q. Which Essay did you write in Mains-2012?

On Public Private Partnership

Q.Provide some keypoints/highlights of your Essay.

My essay was mostly based on one of the debate loksabha tv in the program Taktime

• Gave general descriptions of investment models.
• importance and requirements of ppp
• technicalities of ppp
• recent controversies
• legal and auditing issues
• remedy
• personal opinion

Score: 86 marks in Essay

Previous Attempts

Q. When you look back in the past, what were the deficiency in your preparation in the previous attempt? How did you rectify them this time?

I was not able to complete my syllabus during my first attempt. I just attempted the prelims (2011) and due to csat was selected.

I do not think people would have optional like mine, but if by mere chance you have them, then just concentrate on completing the syllabus and practicing old ias questions and text book questions.

Insecurity  about “Profile”

Q. Many aspirants have the (unnecessary) fear of interview, thinking that “my profile is not good because  I’ve low score in class 10/12/college/ I’m from unknown college, I’ve no work experience etc.etc.etc.” What’s your take on this?

Ans. Remember: “It does not depend on the size of dog in a fight but the size of fight in the dog” ( some movie dialog, but don’t know who said it originally).

I think your behavior should be coherent with your profile rather than having too much written in your biodata.

In the interview they asked me why I wanted to join civil services. I gave the answer which I have already mentioned somewhere above in the questionnaire.

Backup

There was no backup but if not upsc then I would plan for Ph.D

Family and Friends

I dedicate this success to My family.

Interview

Q. How did you prepare for the interview?

I used to discuss regularly questions regarding current affairs and biodata with one of my friend.

Q. Who was the chairman of you interview board?

IMG Khan

Q. How long was the interview?

20-30 min

Q. Provide the list of questions asked (and if possible answers also)

I don’t remember exact questions but will try to give broad outline:

1. How do look for personally while making decisions.
2. Reasons for terrorisms in india and outside india
3. how useful is watching tv nowdays
4. asked about my hobby
5. unhrc voting on srilanka
6. why dense planets are nearer to sun
7. legacy of british rule in india
8. sivasamudram project
9. tidal change behaviour

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

Did they ask you totally unexpected questions?  If yes, how did you handle it?

I didn’t prepare anything specifically for the interview.  I prepared on my Biodata and opinion on current affairs. So, I was not expecting anything special from the interview panel.

Marksheet

Essay	86
GS	107, 124
Electrical engg	114, 167
Chemistry	113,124
Written Total	835
Interview	198
Final Total	1033

Wisdom

Q. Through this struggle and success, what have you learned about life and competition? What is your message to future aspirants?

Ans.

There are some quotes by some people (which I don’t know) have been a source of inspiration for me.

1. Success of a person does not depend on how high a person rises but high he bounces after touching the ground.
2. Being courageous does not mean having no fear, but it is an understanding that something is more important than fear.
3. There is very little difference between a winner and looser and that difference is of attitude.

Bogus marketing propaganda

You are well aware of the unwritten golden rule of conducting toppers’ interview: Final question has to be about the bogus marketing propaganda. So,

Q1. Were you a subscriber/ regular reader of Mrunal.org. If yes, since when?

And You can even say “no”, I’ll publish it without editing.

Ans. Yes I was a subscriber of mrunal.org since 2011.

Q2. How did Mrunal.org help you in your preparation?

Ans. In the initial phase it helped to grasp some economic concepts easily. Later helped to remain updated.