
Table of Contents
- 1 Pratham Kaushik IAS Biography
- 2 Pratham Kaushik IAS Booklist
- 3 Pratham Kaushik IAS Marksheet (Prelims)
- 4 Pratham Kaushik IAS MARKSHEET (MAINS)
- 5 Pratham Kaushik IAS Biography
- 6 Pratham Kaushik Optional Strategy
- 7 Pratham Kaushik Marksheet
- 8 Start of UPSC Preparation
- 9 Advice on how to start UPSC Preparation
- 10 Pratham Kaushik Interview Transcript
- 11 Q: First of all, from all of us, we want to give you our warmest congratulations. What do you think about getting AIR 5 in the UPSC Exam?
- 12 Q: What made you want to work as an IAS?
- 13 Q: Who do you think is most responsible for your success?
- 14 Q: Over the past few years, it has been seen that people who get their degrees in technical fields do better on the test. What could be the reason(s) for this?
- 15 Q: Students with these kinds of technical backgrounds choose Humanities as their elective, and they do well on the test. Why might they do this, and do you think it’s the right thing to do?
- 16 Q: How do you think you should choose an optional?
- 17 Q: Is there a link between how old someone is and how well they prepare? When should you start getting ready for the test?
- 18 Q: When did you first start getting ready?
- 19 Q: It’s common for 12th graders to start preparing for college three years before they get there. Do you think this will be good for them?
- 20 Q: What was your plan when you were studying for the test?
- 21 Q: Did you have a different plan for the Prelims and the Mains, or can you study for both at the same time?
- 22 Q: What should you think about when choosing notes and books to help you study, since there are often a lot of books and tools out there? So what should someone do?
- 23 Q: If you could describe a plan for studying for the whole test, what would it be?
- 24 Q: For the Mains test, you should look at things from different fields, and the questions are the same way. So, how can the inter-disciplinary method be developed?
- 25 Q: Can an essay be written with the help of classes that are just for writing essays, like GS?
- 26 Q: The ethics paper is a very interesting paper, but over the years, people have noticed that the questions are easy, but it’s hard to get good marks on it. Can you explain?
- 27 Q: Did you think it was important to study the whole UPSC course, since it is so long? Is it important to cover everything on the list? Is it possible?
- 28 Q: Can you tell us about how you studied for both the GS and the extra tests?
- 29 Q: Have you taken any lessons on how to be a coach?
- 30 Pratham Kaushik Geography Optional
- 31 Pratham Kaushik’s plan for his Climatology and Oceanography books and study methods:
- 32 Pratham Kaushik’s plan for his Perspectives in Human Geography materials and writing process:
- 33 Pratham Kaushik’s plan for where to find information and how to put together
- 34 Pratham Kaushik’s plan for finding sources and making Population and Settlement Geography:
- 35 Pratham Kaushik’s plan for getting information and putting together Models and Theories.
- 36 Pratham Kaushik’s plan for where to find books and how to study for Paper 2
- 37 Enrich your Answers
Pratham Kaushik IAS Biography
Pratham was born on September 28, 1993. He is 30 years old in 2023 and is working in Madhya Pradesh at the moment. His father was the person who gave him the most ideas. His father was also a government worker in Haryana.
Pratham lives in Mahendragarh district in the state of Haryana. He went to Punjab Engineering College to study materials and mechanical engineering.
This was what he tried? It was his second time trying to pass the test. He had also taken the test in 2016, but that was just to learn how the test was set up and how to take it.
Pratham Kaushik IAS Booklist
Pratham Kaushik IAS Marksheet (Prelims)
Pratham Kaushik IAS Marksheet (Prelims) | |
Roll Number | 0001574 |
Name | Pratham Kaushik IAS |
Paper 1 | Unknown |
Paper 2 | Unknown |
Pratham Kaushik IAS MARKSHEET (MAINS)
Pratham Kaushik IAS MARKSHEET (MAINS) | |
Subjects | Marks |
ESSAY | 146 |
GENERAL STUDIES 1 | 112 |
GENERAL STUDIES 2 | 130 |
GENERAL STUDIES 3 | 144 |
GENERAL STUDIES 4 | 115 |
Optional Paper 1 | 166 |
Optional Paper 2 | 161 |
Written Total | 974 |
Personality Total | 143 |
Final Total | 1117 |
Pratham Kaushik IAS Biography
Pratham Kaushik IAS Biography | |
Particulars | Details |
Name | Pratham Kaushik IAS |
Age | 30 |
All India Rank | 5th Rank |
Roll Number | 0001574 |
Marks | 1117 |
Optional Subject | Geography |
Hometown/City | Mahendragarh District, Haryana |
Pratham Kaushik Optional Strategy

Geography was one of Pratham Kaushik’s electives. He chose geography because he thought it would help him with his general studies paper and because he thought it was a very interesting subject because it is always changing.
So, he chose geography as his alternative subject because he was very interested in it. This also helped him do well on his tests.
He did get help with his extra subject, but not with his general studies. However, since geography is a part of general studies, he must have gotten some help, even if it wasn’t directly.
Pratham Kaushik Marksheet

Event | Marks |
Mains exam | 974 |
Personality Test | 143 |
Total Marks | 1117 |
His grades show how hard he worked. To get such a high score, you have to put in a lot of hard work and time. The two questions on Pratham Kaushik’s optional geography answer sheet added up to 327 points. His best score on the written tests was in an optional subject. This shows how important it is to like the subject that isn’t required.
Start of UPSC Preparation

Pratham had started to study for his exams before he graduated, but he didn’t get serious about it until after he finished.
He doesn’t think it’s important to start school early, and he doesn’t think age has anything to do with being a candidate. You can start whenever you want (as long as you meet the requirements), but you’ll need to stay focused and work very hard to reach all the goals you set for the test.
Advice on how to start UPSC Preparation

The most important part of Pratham’s study plan was to break up the curriculum into smaller pieces so he could easily focus on each topic. Because the material is so long, it’s easy to lose track of it.
He used to study for both the main exam and the preliminary exam up until a month before the preliminary test. Pratham thinks that the test topics overlap, which means that you can’t really separate them to study.
Use what the top students did to pass the test as a guide. There is a lot of information online now, and a candidate can easily use this information to their benefit. There is no perfect material for the whole course, so you will have to use different sources and make sure to review a lot.
More than any other tool, Pratham used NCERT. The NCERT books he used to study helped him get ready. For the test, especially for his GS 1 paper, he read NCERT books more than once.
The fact that NCERT books and the UPSC test are both made by the government makes them very useful.
There are also NCERT books everywhere, and they are very cheap. In fact, if a candidate goes to the official NCERT website and takes the book’s e-pdf, they can get the book for free. Use this to help you study for your test.
IAS Pratham Kaushik did well enough on the UPSC 2017 test to get the fifth place in all of India. He is from the state of Haryana, but he is now working in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
He had just graduated from Punjab Engineering College and was working hard to get ready for the UPSC test. His hard work paid off, and Pratham Kaushik’s report card says a lot about how hard he worked.
In this piece, you may have learned some good tips from the winner that will help you study better for your test. Use these tips and work hard to reach your goals. Don’t just use a top copy; make your own and you’ll do well.
Pratham Kaushik Interview Transcript

Q: First of all, from all of us, we want to give you our warmest congratulations. What do you think about getting AIR 5 in the UPSC Exam?
Pratham: I’m feeling very good. I feel great that I was able to make a dream that my family had had for a long time come true.
Q: What made you want to work as an IAS?
Pratham: My father, who is a Haryana Civil Services Officer, gave me ideas. Overall, I think that as an IAS, you are best able to give people power, and I’m a firm believer in the idea that you don’t give someone fish, you teach them how to fish. I think IAS is the best way to make people more independent and give them more chances.
Q: Who do you think is most responsible for your success?
Pratham: All of my friends, family, teachers, and well-wishers deserve credit. I especially wanted to be a good example for my little sister, which kept me going. She is the reason I was able to be a good example, so I give her credit for that.

Q: Over the past few years, it has been seen that people who get their degrees in technical fields do better on the test. What could be the reason(s) for this?
Pratham: Actually, if you look, you’ll see that the Civil Services is the most diverse group of people that India has ever had and still has. You will see that students from many different backgrounds are becoming bureaucrats, including engineering, medicine, the arts, and law. People with mechanical backgrounds are doing a little bit better right now, but that could change in a few years. It won’t always be like this. It will change for sure.
Q: Students with these kinds of technical backgrounds choose Humanities as their elective, and they do well on the test. Why might they do this, and do you think it’s the right thing to do?
Pratham: I think UPSC gives you an optional subject to test your willingness to learn a lot about any field. Even I took Geography as an elective, and I have a background in engineering, but I don’t see any connection here. There are a lot of engineers, including a lot of my friends, who took engineering as an elective and are doing well. It depends on what the candidate himself or herself wants.

Q: How do you think you should choose an optional?
Pratham: Geography is an optional subject that I think helps you with General Studies as well. It is also an optional subject that is always changing because human geography is always changing. I chose it because it was an interesting extra.
Q: Is there a link between how old someone is and how well they prepare? When should you start getting ready for the test?
Pratham: I don’t think age matters when it comes to getting ready. As soon as you decide that you want to be an IAS or a Civil Servant, you jump right in.
Q: When did you first start getting ready?
Pratham: I started looking at books and newspapers on the side while I was in college, but I started studying seriously and regularly right after college.

Q: It’s common for 12th graders to start preparing for college three years before they get there. Do you think this will be good for them?
Pratham: Getting into the Civil Services isn’t just about what you’ve learned in school. It’s also about who you are as a person, and that starts when you’re a child. So, I think it’s too soon for kids to start coaching or taking certain classes right after 12th grade. Instead, they should focus on their graduation classes. They should start getting ready during or right after college.
Q: What was your plan when you were studying for the test?
Pratham: Because the material is so big, the most important part of my plan was to break it up into small pieces. Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in there, so I broke the paper into small parts and gave each part a few days to study and review. This helped me get ready for the test faster.
Q: Did you have a different plan for the Prelims and the Mains, or can you study for both at the same time?
Pratham: I think the preparation is done all at once, except for the month before the Prelims. This is because most of the topics on the syllabus are covered in both the Mains and the Prelims, so you only have to study certain things for the Mains and the month before the Prelims.
Q: What should you think about when choosing notes and books to help you study, since there are often a lot of books and tools out there? So what should someone do?
Pratham: There are many ways to get help. I looked for techniques that top students had used in the past. This helped me figure out which materials were best for which topics, since there is no single material that is best for the whole curriculum. In fact, you have to look for materials on that exact topic and read them more than once, even in GS and optional.
Q: If you could describe a plan for studying for the whole test, what would it be?
Pratham: First of all, I’ve already said that you should break down the material so that you can understand it better and so that it doesn’t bother you. The second thing is to gather a few resources based on what your seniors or stars tell you.
You look for the resources and find the best ones, and then you read them, re-read them, and then go over them again. Reading the same source more than once helps. If you look at the question papers from the previous year, you can figure out what is most important and what is less important.
Things that are more important can be planned in great depth, while the other things can be covered quickly.
You also need to have a very high opinion of yourself, a lot of self-confidence, and a strong belief that you will pass, because in the end, your attitude and belief are what will get you through the test.
Q: For the Mains test, you should look at things from different fields, and the questions are the same way. So, how can the inter-disciplinary method be developed?
Pratham: My elective was Geography, which is a field that combines history, geopolitics, political science, and society. So, because of the optional, I formed a cross-disciplinary way of thinking that helped me in GS as well.
Q: Can an essay be written with the help of classes that are just for writing essays, like GS?
Pratham: I think the essay is a written test of who you are because at the Mains level, you have three hours to write about just two topics. Preparing for the essay means working on two things: your thought process and the information and content you have.
The material can definitely come from preparing for the GS, and you need to practise the way you think and how you organise your essay many times. There is no link between classes that focus on writing essays and the test in this way.
Q: The ethics paper is a very interesting paper, but over the years, people have noticed that the questions are easy, but it’s hard to get good marks on it. Can you explain?
Pratham: Because there isn’t a lot of time and the paper is long, you just write what you think. The difference in grades is definitely due to two things: first, the answer you come up with to the case study or problem given, and second, how you write it or how you say it.
Q: Did you think it was important to study the whole UPSC course, since it is so long? Is it important to cover everything on the list? Is it possible?
Pratham: I told you to break up the curriculum into different parts. You’ll see that some parts of the curriculum are very important and are taught almost every year. These parts should be carefully planned for.
You can pick and choose from the rest of the issues. Definitely, you have to skip over some topics, either because they don’t come up much in the questions or because they change too often for you to be fully prepared.
Q: Can you tell us about how you studied for both the GS and the extra tests?
Pratham: The NCERT and core books are where I do most of my studying, and I’ve read the NCERT books more than once. For GS I, I studied everything from the NCERT books, like History, Art, and Culture. Geography was an elective for me, so I didn’t have to do anything special to prepare for it.
For GS II-Politics and Government, I looked at current events and tried to figure out why certain government decisions were made and what effect they had. For International Relations, I made a list of bullet points that show how international relations rely on and differ from each other. I then wrote my answers in GS II along these lines.
In my extra for GS III, I learned about agriculture and the Indian economy. For the rest, I read the newspaper, which is a good way to learn about GS II and GS III in general. I didn’t read anything in particular for Ethics. There are different books for different topics in Geography, which is an optional subject. Along with the books, there are also other things from teachers that helped.
Q: Have you taken any lessons on how to be a coach?
Pratham: Yes, I signed up for coaching and test series for my optional topic. Coaching has been a big part of how I’ve been getting ready.
Pratham Kaushik Geography Optional
This is what Pratham Kaushik has to say about Geography Optional in general.
Read the Geography material carefully and try to remember everything on it, as it will help you prepare.
Use no more than two or three sources, like a textbook and papers from class, for each topic. After that, go over the information more than once to help you remember it.
After you finish a unit, look at the New Vishal questions from the previous year on that topic and try to come up with answers. This will help you figure out what the reviewer is looking for and how well you know that subject. In Geomorphology, for example, the attention is on forces that come from the outside.
Don’t take notes on every subject, because it could take a lot of time. Instead, look back at your class notes and add to them in your class diary. Use A4 sheets or leave enough space in your diary to do this. Only make notes for yourself on the hardest topics.
For Paper 1, choose either Physical Geography or Human Geography to focus on in depth. Figure out ahead of time which part you will answer three questions from. For example, Pratham put a lot of effort into Human Geography because he found it more interesting.
For Paper 2, make short bullet-point notes from reliable sources about topics that come up often.
Make maps of India by region by looking at standard books that cover everything about a region, such as its terrain, drainage, resources, crops, industries, etc. This method, called the regional method, could be used for Paper 2.
Always try to connect what you wrote in Paper 1 to what you wrote in Paper 2. For example, read Climatology, Population and Settlement Geography, Regional Development, and Planning together for both papers and use examples from one paper when making answers for the other.
Pratham Kaushik’s plan for readings and how to prepare for Paper 1 Geomorphology is to read the book “Geomorphology” by Savinder Singh. You can skip the Geomorphology section of Savinder Singh’s Physical Geography because this book covers it well.
Focus on Chapter 2 “Fundamental Concepts in Geomorphology” and Chapter 3 “Theories of Landform Development.” These are the only chapters that are listed in the course outline. This book has a lot of information about Geomorphology, but it is not worth the money. So, plan it carefully and make notes to help you remember the information.
Pay close attention to ideas like geomorphic cycles and how landscapes change, erosion surfaces, and how slopes change. Use a lot of images to help you learn about these things. For example, in this year’s Slope Analysis question, Pratham showed how it could only be used in certain situations by making sketches for Davis, Penck, and King’s slope analyses and writing about their flaws.
Pratham Kaushik’s plan for his Climatology and Oceanography books and study methods:
Study the book “Physical Geography” by Savinder Singh to learn about climate and oceans.
Use the book “Climatology” by D.S. Lal to study climatology, but only pay attention to the things you want to learn more about.
Pratham Kaushik’s plan for Biogeography and Environmental Geography tools and study methods:
Prepare for Biogeography and Environmental Geography with Shabbir Sir’s class notes and test series notes.
Read the book “Environmental Geography” by Savinder Singh for Environmental Geography, but only pay attention to the issues on the syllabus.
Ecology should get your full attention, and you should plan for it in great depth.
Use the Internet to learn more about things like Social Forestry and Environmental Management, but don’t spend too much time on study by gathering too much information.
Pratham Kaushik’s plan for his Perspectives in Human Geography materials and writing process:
To do well on the Perspectives in Human Geography part of the geography test, it is best to study in a certain way. Start by reading the Test Series class notes by Shabbir Sir. They give a good overview of how geography ideas have changed over time.
Then, read R. D. Dixit’s Geographical Thought (Chapters 1–8 and Chapter 11) and Sudeepta Adhikari’s Fundamentals of Geographical Thought (Chapters 11–16). If you need to, you can look at Himanshu Sir’s 500+ questions and notes on this subject.
This method will help you come up with great answers that use the exact meanings, theories, and examples that geographers used in their studies. It’s best to use real quotes from Hartshorne, Febvre, Semple, etc., along with the names of their theses or books. When answering questions, you should use flowcharts that show the order of events.
It’s also a good idea to get ready for things like Languages, Religions, Cultural Regions, and the Human Development Index (HDI) and connect them to Geographical Thought. For example, link HDI to Welfare Geography and Languages and Religion to Diffusion and Cultural Landscape of American and German Geographers.
Last but not least, it’s important to be ready for questions like “Explain the idea of Time Geography” and “Talk about the modern paradigms of Geography.” You can do this by making suggestions for Time Geography, such as Torsten Hagerstrand and the Space-Time Prism, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, and the Historical Geography of Radical Geographers.
It’s also important to have similar guidelines for contemporary paradigms, like Post-QR Geographies, which focus on Humanist Geography and its methods, New Regional Geographies, and offshoots like Environmentalism, Feminist Geography, and New Radical Geography.
Pratham Kaushik’s plan for where to find information and how to put together
Economic Geography and Regional Planning
Himanshu Sir’s class notes or more than 500 notes: These notes are thorough and cover a wide range of economic geography and regional planning-related subjects. You can use them to build a solid base and learn more about the subject in depth.
Shabbir Sir’s class notes: You can use Shabbir Sir’s notes to get a broad picture of the topic and to review important ideas.
NCERT 11th and 12th Grades: The NCERT textbooks are a good way to start learning about a topic and can be used to learn the basics.
Use world maps and real-life examples a lot in your answers: Economic geography and regional planning require a lot of study of space and knowledge of how economies around the world work. Using world maps and examples is a good way to show what you mean and make your replies better.
You can also look at the written materials on the RDP topic by Himanshu Sir, which can help you approach the topic in a more organised way. Focus on important ideas like theories about where industries should be located, networks for transportation and communication, regional imbalances and differences, and planning strategies for regional growth.
Pratham Kaushik’s plan for finding sources and making Population and Settlement Geography:
Start with Himanshu Sir’s 500+ notes and Shabbir Sir’s class notes and Test Series notes for Population and Settlement Geography. You can also look at Indian cases in Models in Geography by Majid Husain and Indian Geography by D R Khullar.
For this topic to go well, you need a good introduction. Make sure you know what words like “Conurbation,” “Metropolitan region,” “Slums,” “Satellite towns,” “RUF,” etc. mean and which Human Geographers came up with them. As much as possible, use diagrams in village geography and maps in population geography. Keep some data on hand to help your Population and Geography answers make more sense.
Make sure to study specific terms in the syllabus, such as “Social well-being and quality of life,” “Population as social capital,” etc. Use the names of thinkers and real-world cases. You can also get help with this from the Internet. This year, questions were asked about quality of life and social capital, and questions on these subjects may be asked again in the future in different ways.
Pratham Kaushik’s plan for getting information and putting together Models and Theories.
Models and Theories is the second most important part of the Geography course after Geographical Thought. It is advised that diagrams, flowcharts, and maps be used to answer many questions about models like the Rimland-Heartland Theory, Von Thunen, Boundaries, Frontiers, etc., in order to show this topic in a better way. It is very important to learn each model’s and theory’s postulates by heart.
Models and ideas will be easier to understand if you read the book “Models in Geography” by Majid Husain. Link each model and idea to the sub-topic it came from. It is also important to use the names of geographers, the titles of their books, and a few cases from the modern world, such as CPT, Von Thunen, Rostow, etc.
UPSC likes to ask questions about systems analysis, and the questions are getting more and more different. For example, questions about Geographical Systems, the Application of System Analysis, and the Importance of System Analysis are becoming more common.
Use your class notes, Majid Husain’s book, and some online sources to get ready for these subjects. Once you’re ready, you should focus on showing the answer with flowcharts of systems instead of adding too much value to the material.
Pratham Kaushik’s plan for where to find books and how to study for Paper 2
“India: A Comprehensive Geography” by D. R. Khullar is the best book for basic information to use to prepare for Paper 2 of geography. For easy reference, it is suggested to make clear arrows, short descriptions, and simplified maps from the book.
Vision PT 365 and Mains 365 are two examples of books that can be used to study current events. Magazines like Yojana, Kurukshetra, and Geography and You can be used to prepare for case studies. It is very important to come up with at least 10 easy, common, and clear case studies.
For maps, you don’t have to remember exact numbers about rainfall, population, number of roads, or agricultural output. Instead, use brackets, shading, flow maps, and arrows to show trade trends, migration, and the spread of languages on the maps in Khullar’s book. At home, you can practise making maps and putting the right names on them.
Common topics to cover in short notes include floods and droughts, epidemics, deforestation, land erosion, river linking, and deforestation. This will help you answer questions clearly and in the allotted number of words.
Enrich your Answers
Besides the presentation rules listed above, there are other ways to make your response better:
Use examples to make your points clearer and your replies more concrete. For example, if you’re talking about how climate change affects farming, you can talk about the foods that are affected and where they are grown.
Include statistics. Statistics can give your answers more weight and show that you did your study. For instance, if you’re talking about urbanisation, you can talk about how much of the world’s population lives in cities and how fast cities are growing.
Use current events: Current events can give you examples that are current and up-to-date. For example, if you are talking about how COVID-19 has affected the tourism industry, you can talk about how travel limits and lockdowns have hurt the business.
Consider different perspectives: Many map questions can be looked at from different points of view. For example, if you’re talking about how globalisation affects developing countries, you can talk about both its pros and cons.
Use diagrams and graphs. Like maps, diagrams and graphs can help you show your points and make your replies more interesting to look at. For instance, if you’re talking about how weather and rain are related, you can include a graph that shows how these two things are linked.
By using these tips, you can write replies that are more complete and nuanced and are more likely to get you better grades.
It seems like you have used different teaching and test series programmes to prepare for UPSC. Here is an overview of what you said about the pros and cons of each.
Some of Shabbir Sir’s classes were built into his Test Series.
Pros: Excellent way to do things, good review of some topics, and good class notes for the test series.
Cons: Sir doesn’t check the answer copies himself, and some topics aren’t covered in depth because the programme is a test series and not classroom teaching.
Advice 500+ is a programme created by Himanshu Sir Pros: It covers a lot of information well, looks a lot like the UPSC paper, has an answer booklet in the UPSC style, is based on questions and answers to make it easy to review, and can be used in place of the class copy for most topics.
Sir did not check the answer copies himself.
Pros of Shamim Sir’s Test Series: Shamim Sir checks the papers himself, and the way he marks them is the best and easiest way to handle hard questions.
Cons: The test questions don’t look much like the real UPSC tests, and the programme is a set of tests, not classroom training.
It’s important to remember that every test set and coaching programme has its own pros and cons. It’s up to you to choose the programme that fits your learning style and needs the best. Have a good time getting ready!