Sujith Shankar, a candidate of 2019 UPSC exam’s dream came true when the result got released on 4th August 2020. He achieved something which is the dream of many. The 122nd all India rank in UPSC civil services exam was secured by him.
Read on to get a sneak peek into his UPSC preparation journey and prepare your own strategy for cracking the UPSC civil services exam.
Interview with Sujith Shankar
Can you tell us something about your academic background, Sujith?
Yes, sure.
Up to class seven, I did my schooling from my village Jujuar, Bihar, after that, I went to Muzaffarpur and completed my class 10th. I did my 12th class from Bokaro.
In 2016 I completed my B.Tech in IT from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science And Technology, Shibpur.
So, you don’t have a working background?
No. After my graduation got over I decided to prepare for competitive exams. So, I didn’t take up a job and chose civil service exam preparation.
Which attempt was it at the UPSC civil services exam, Sujith?
It was my third attempt. In my first attempt, I cleared the prelims exam and mains exam too but missed the interview round by 1 mark. In the next attempt, I cleared the prelims exam but was not sure due to wrong options marked by me so I put a hold on my preparation and hence could not prepare well for Mains.
So you have opted for IAS?
Yes. IAS in the first preference, second is the foreign service. As of now, I would be getting IPS with this rank being from the general category.
Can you share the UPSC preparation strategies for all the three stages?
For the prelims exam, it’s important that you have got a good clarity of the concept and should give a special focus on science and technology, environment, understanding the political aspect, Indian constitution. The basics of all the subjects should be clear, including geography and history. Especially for history, one has to remember all the facts.
One should also focus on giving the test series. I wrote around 50 test series in the preliminary examination. You should also have knowledge about the dynamic things like blockchain etc.
What about the mains exam?
For mains, I will say that there is a booklet for the syllabus and one has to prepare for each topic. I had notes for each topic mentioned in the syllabus. There must be one proper write-up that covers all the dimensions because no one knows what type of question will come. Like this year in the economic paper, there were lots of strategic events.
After notes, comes the practice. One has to do writing practice so one can write both good quality and quantity with a good understanding of the paper. As for different questions, there are different keywords that demand different answers.
Also Read : Who is Pradeep Singh? A Sneak Peek into the Biography of UPSC IAS Topper 2019
What was your strategy for practicing answer writing for UPSC?
I focus more on understanding the question and then come to the answers. Answers have three parts like introduction, body, and conclusion.