Introduction I’m Dr. Aaditya Sharma. I stayed in Chandigarh and went to school there the whole time. Chandigarh’s Government Medical College and Hospital is where I got my MBBS. Medical science was the elective I chose. I began getting ready in my third year of college. I worked on my MBBS and UPSC at the same time. I took my first exam during the last days of my internship and passed with AIR 70.
I used to pay a lot of attention to static. I had read books like Spectrum and Laxmikant several times. I spent a lot of time on the environment because it has a lot of problems.
I read PT 365 for Economy and Environment to stay up to date on current events. I tried to read the ones that came out once a month, but I was always behind and couldn’t. I couldn’t always read the papers. For me, it was more about learning how to write an intro, body, and end than about current events. I wouldn’t suggest taking notes from the newspaper because it takes too much time.
I took notes on hard and dangerous topics like Socio-religious reform movements, tribal and farmer revolts, Constitutional and non-constitutional bodies, and so on. You can take notes on any subject you find hard, which will be different for each person.
I used to try all 100 questions. It’s my own way of doing things, and it worked for me in mocks.
I didn’t do anything to prepare for the CSAT because my scores on PYQs and mocks were between 130 and 140. But the real test was hard, and I got a score of 100. IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that the fact that prelims get harder over time is good for new players. Since it’s more of a test of your skills and knowledge, you should pay close attention to what’s going on around you and always keep an open mind. Even questions that seem hard can be answered with common sense and careful reading of the choices. EVERYONE has the same level of difficulty with the questions. So, have confidence and trust yourself.
AMC: Old NCERTs from both the ancient and mediaeval times, with new words and a general reading of New Thematic NCERTs. I looked at Nitin Singhania sir’s book to learn about culture.
Class notes on world history
11th grade Geography: Physical Geography NCERT, GC Leong chose Sudarshan Gujjar sir’s YouTube videos for mapping and lesson notes, especially for the part about the weather.
Economy: Mrunal Sir’s old YouTube lessons and class notes
Environment: Booklet by Shankar IAS, videos by Sudarshan Gujjar for national parks and wildlife reserves, and lists of wetland areas
Ethics: Lexicon for basic ideas and definitions, Vajiram notes for ethics and case studies, and online search for examples of civil servants with good qualities
IR- PT 365 Vision
Internal Security: Class notes, MK Sirs QEP for mains
Essay Strategy by Aaditya Sharma
I read Anudeep Durishetty sir’s blog for my article. He had given some examples and stories for technical writings on topics like health and education.
But now, most of the pieces are philosophical, and I wanted to write one because it would let me say everything I wanted to say.
I always started with a story and ended with a connection to that story. On the final test, I wrote an essay called “When the sun is shining, it’s time to fix the roof.” I started with a man named Survinder who lived in Fazilka and was worried after hearing the morning news. When we were taking our main exams, floods were happening in Pakistan, and he was afraid that the floods might reach India and damage his crops there. Then, he put together a group and, with the help of the local government, started a project called “My village, my forest,” in which people will grow trees using the Miyawaki method (this is a real project in Fazilka). So now he doesn’t have to worry because he’s taken action, and the best time to fix the roof is when the sun is out.
I then talked about the PESTGEM (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Geographical, Environmental, and Moral) method, which has many different parts. For each paragraph, there is one aspect and a list of pros and cons for that aspect. The last line of each paragraph should give a hint about how the next one will start.
I finished my essays 15 minutes early, so I chose to end essay 2 with a short, four-line poem. Maybe they liked how creative I was, so they gave me a 130, which is a good grade this year.
For mains, I took a different method. Most of the answer writing was done between the pre-test and the main test.
I had 1.5 months for GS and my extra took 1.5 months.
I planned out a week for GS1—I did PYQs from the two years before (2020 and 21), looked at model answers online, and saw copies of answers from top students. I started to mix their style with my own methods. I gave two GS practise tests at Vision on the weekends, saw the reviews, and read the answers carefully.
The same process was used for GS2, 3, and 4. I only gave myself more time for GS4 because I couldn’t do it before.
I also took MK Yadav sir’s QEP, which was great for writing GS3 answers and is something I’d suggest.
I now had 4 solved tests for each GS, and I read the answers several times. I then gave Abhyaas, and now I had 5 papers that were all done.
I knew how to present, and I was sure I could answer questions even if I didn’t know the answers.
At first, my first test took 3 hours and 45 minutes, and I could only finish all of my papers on time during Abhyaas.
Answer writing: I drew a lot of maps, diagrams, flow charts, and micro diagrams, and I tried to break the question into smaller parts with a lot of points. I used to put the diagram in a box and write FIG: and the diagram’s name below it.
Optional Preparation Strategy by Aaditya Sharma
Medical Science was the elective I chose. It is a very big choice, and I only had a short amount of time to work with it. I stuck to the material and the PYQs, which is the best way to do this optional. To save time, I quickly wrote down small notes and marked some in the books themselves.
Anatomy- BDC
Physiology: Ak Jain + UPSC Medical Notes
Biochemistry: Satyanarayan + Internet for RIA and related topics • Pharma: Shanbhag and Shenoy • Micro: Ananthanarayan (only 9 organisms)
Forensic- upsc medical notes
PSM: Didn’t do much (but can do Park if needed). • Path: Harsh Mohan and upscmedico for certain topics.
No questions are asked in ENT/Ophtha. • Mathews+ Upsc medical is the best book for medicine. Surgery at Manipal, psychiatry at Upsc doctor
Derma- upsc doctor
Obs Gynae- Datta for Obs and Shaw for Gynae I think paper 1 went very well, but paper 2 could have been a little better. I got 130 and 123, and to be honest, I thought I would get more.
Timetable: My schedule was very off. During my third year, I went to college from 9 to 5, and then every day from 5 to 8 I went to Raj Malhotra’s IAS lessons in Chandigarh. So I had little or no time to study on my own. Was trying to get something done on the weekends.
In my first year, I mostly took notes and got a rough idea of what was going on. During my last year and the start of my job, I did self-study for 3 hours on busy days, 6-7 hours on weekends, and about 10 hours in the month before my finals. I also took days off when there was a college festival, a sports day, or a culture event. I’ve always wanted to take part in and enjoy college events to the fullest, and I have no problem with that.
Test Series: I gave 15 Vision tests, 1 Forum test, and 1 Vajiram test for Prelims. My main goal was to learn those answers, and having to take more tests made it hard to read the answers. I took the Prelims Abhyaas of Vision test and got 50, 100, and 90 points.
Once again, I used Vision test set to prepare for Mains. After giving two tests for each GS, I did the Abhyaas. My Abhyaas marks were 112 in Grade 1, 99 in Grade 2, 79 in Grade 3, and 89 in Grade 4. My final scores in GS1 were 107, in GS2 they were 120, in GS3 they were 100, and in GS4 they were 119. This shows that the marks on the final test can vary a lot.
I did about 10 fake interviews for Interview. Most of the schools were ones that everyone suggested. I liked the jokes about Unacademy, Chanakya Mandal, and Chahal.
