Hi all, My name is Utkarsh Kumar. I secured AIR 78 in UPSC CSE 2023. Hard work, blessings of the almighty and good wishes of my loved ones got me here. Throughout my preparation, I kept working as a software engineer ( have done by B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur). This was my last attempt (6th). I had cleared this exam in my first attempt as well through which I was allocated AFHQ civil service. I did not join the service and continued working as a software engineer. Here is a breakup of my attempts: 1st = cleared exam in 1st attempt and was allocated AFHQ civil service ( had actually missed main list by 6 marks but ended up in the reserve list) 2nd = missed final list by 6 marks (vacancies reduced so reserve list also missed by 2 marks) 3rd = did not qualify prelims ( the disappointments from the 1st two attempts took their toll on me and I could not study at all) 4th = went till interview stage again. (optional marks reduced by 85 marks and that singlehandedly crushed my chances) 5th = did not qualify mains ( I remember being numb for many days after the results were announced. I felt I had given my everything and had no more energy left.) 6th = Skipped CSE 2021 as I decided to change optional for my last attempt- AIR 78
For the first 5 attempts, my optional was history. I loved studying it and it rewarded me as well in the first 2 attempts (263 in 1st attempt and 303 in 2nd attempt). But, I don’t know what went wrong in the subsequent attempts – my score fell to 218 in optional in both years. This left me devastated and thus, for my final attempt I decided to change my optional to Anthropology. And thankfully, that worked as I got 284 in Anthropology. So, this was my first attempt with Anthropology.
Utkarsh Kumar UPSC Preparation Strategy
Some points that I wanted to share hoping this will help you all are:
1) Have VERY STRONG reasons as to why you want to give this exam and be a civil servant. They don’t need to sound good to others but they need to be strong enough for you. So strong that when you are down and you feel lost, depressed, these reasons will provide you the strength to get back up, keep going and try once again.
2) My first attempt actually turned out to be one of the best attempts. And I have seen this with several others too. I strongly recommend every newcomer to give it everything they have got and try their best to clear the exam in their 1st attempt. Don’t give your first attempt without proper preparation. I strongly suggest preparing for 2 years and then giving their 1st attempt. This way, knowledge is good and you are high on confidence and energy as well. Clear it and escape this chakravyuh. With each attempt, confidence, energy, optmism goes down.
3) I have stumbled in all possible ways in this exam (not qualifying prelims, not qualifying mains, not qualifying interview. In 1 attempt I got very high in essay (158 in 1st attempt) and in the other I did very bad. Similarly, my optional went from 303 to 218 with me having no clue why that happened. I got poor marks in my 2nd interview as well (146 – PK Joshi board), then improved to around 170 and this year finally 185. As aspirants, we often feel helpless, lost, anxious when we don’t get results as per our expectations. I have been there and I understand.
4) If there is anything I want the aspirants to take out from my journey above is to persist and persevere. Keep going. It will get better. Sooner or later. Sometimes, even when you least expect it. BUT, you need to keep doing your bit.
5) Luck does play a significant role ( for that matter, in any sphere of life, luck plays a role. We realize it sooner or later) in this exam. Sometimes, I got very high scores in subjects and I had no idea why! Similarly, there were times when I gave it my everything but ended up getting bad scores.
6) Because of the above point, I strongly recommend taking up a job if one does not get their desired rank in 2 attempts or 2-3 years. But yes, when we are working, we need to plan better and be very efficient. Because at the end of the day, CSE preparation must take priority. One must try to finish a day’s worth of officework in 2 hours so that UPSC CSE can be given the bulk of time. Yes I know, it’s easier said than done.
7) The main part about this exam is it can really humble you. And I realized that this does make your life better. Take everything in your stride (I know that can be very hard at times, but this exam forces you to look at things positively even in the most dire times). When you emerge out of this cycle( whether you got your desired rank, or you dropped out midway or exhausted all attempts), if you prepared seriously, I strongly believe this exam will make you a tougher and also a smarter, better person who is aware and is able to make sense of things happening around him/her in our country and in the world. In the end, THIS JOURNEY DOES MATTER.
8) REMEMBER, NO EXAM AND JOB is bigger than life. It is absolutely ok to stop giving the exam midway if you lose motivation, become interested in some other field, have some health problems, family issues etc. BUT, if you have decided to give it, forget about everything else and focus all your energy on the exam.
9) Be brutal. Neyawn of ForumIAS in one of his motivation emails made a point that I have not forgotten to this day. We need to be brutal on the day of the exam. There are people with much less knowledge who clear the exam with a top rank. Why? Because of the brutality and the sheer intensity and focus with which they approach this exam. They control fear and their insecurities, think clearly on the exam days and stay positive and make sure they give their absolute best in the exam. On the other hand, people who are way more knowledgable lose out sometimes, because they let the negative emotions, insecurities, underconfidence overpower them. Often because of the huge investments we make in this exam. So, it is our job to ensure we stay strong on the day of the exam.
10) Analyze but don’t overanalyze. It does not help and only creates more confusion. Think about your problems, discuss with people you trust, take a decision and stick to it. Remember, it should be YOUR decision. I faced this dilemma when I was thinking of changing my optional for my last attempt. I was confused if I should even change it. Whether I should take socio or pub ad or psir or anthro. You can use all the data you want but in the end, even that won’t be sufficient. Such is the mystery of this exam. So, think and go with whatever you feel is the best option at that stage and then DON’T think about it again. Close it.
11) Last but not the least, DON’T LOSE FAITH/HOPE IN YOURSELF EVEN WHEN EVERYBODY ELSE HAS LOST THEIR FAITH/HOPES in you. YOU NEED TO BE YOUR OWN HERO. There were several times when I did very bad in mock tests. But, I ended up doing good in the actual exam.
All the very best to each and every single one of you.
Will share my mock test copies and review of the test series/coaching soon.
Coaching institute joined by Utkarsh Kumar
Coaching/test series I took and my REVIEW of them –
DISCLAIMER: My assessment is simply based on my experience and not what others think. And like any other person, I could be wrong too! So, please take everything I (and the other toppers) say with a pinch of salt. Also, do understand that quality of every coaching institute and its test series/classes varies every year. I have seen instances where an institute’s test series was great 1 year but the next year, the same test series became bad. Similarly, just because a particular coaching institute is considered good for a test series or a particular program does not mean it will be good for all programs in general. Teachers often shift from one institute to another. So, BOTTOMLINE is, irrespective of what toppers say, please do your own research and use your own discretion while deciding what to join. If needed, go speak to faculties, look at their test papers in the market etc.
GS Coaching joined by Utkarsh Kumar
I took GS coaching at Vajiram. It was decent in the sense that it helped me understand the basics. That was the time before all main teachers of Vajiram shifted to NextIAS. Now, I have heard almost the entire old faculty of Vajiram is teaching at NextIAS (please confirm this in case you are considering joining here). Anyway, even if you do take GS coaching (anywhere), remember, even in the best case scenario, it will only help you in understanding the basics properly. Beyond that, your readyness for prelims/mains will depend entirely on your self study.
I cleared prelims cut off every year with at least a margin of 10-15 marks except for 1 year when I did not qualify prelims. An important part of my strategy was to solve previous year questions and test series (from 2 institutes at least – just buy the tests from the market). Please try to give around 30-50 tests at least. Reason I suggest this is because no matter how much you read and revise, attempting prelims paper becomes a completely different ball game. You need to formulate your own strategy for the paper based on your preferences/ style before your attempt it. Like, how many questions to attempt, how many to answer in the 1st hour, last 10 minutes etc. While some analyze and revise the answers from these tests after attempting them, I did not do that. I would just go through the answers, but for revision, would always stick to my basic books and sources.
For prelims, I always took insights(NOT the one run by Baliyan, but the Bangalore one) and visionias tests for every attempt. In some attempts, forumias too (not for this attempt though). I did not find forumias to be good. Visionias was the most decent of all options. Insightsias initially used to be good, but I have seen their quality reduce over the years.
Again, irrespective of which institute’s test series you take, just make sure you do tests from at least 2 different institutes (simply for more diversity of questions and to prevent getting used to a particular institute’s style of asking questions. You just have to be ready for the unexpected in UPSC’s prelims).
MAINS Strategy by Utkarsh Kumar
ESSAY : In general, took vision and forum almost every year. Took insights too in my 4th attempt. All were more or less ok in terms of topics given and evaluation done. I do feel that vision’s essay evaluation used to be quite random XD. But then again, I experienced the same with UPSC too.
GS: Always took vision and forum. I do want to mention that initially, I used to write a lot of tests ( I gave more than 40-50 full length tests in my 1st, 2nd and 4th attempt each.) But, towards the end, I realized this was a waste of time and a better approach was to give limited tests while focusing more on daily answer writing. This way, we get more time to revise, especially towards the end without compromising on our answer writing skills. For this attempt, I took vision and forum. ( gave around 10-12 full length GS tests) I used to like vision’s test series but this year, I felt the quality of evaluation went down. Quality of questions has always been decent in vision though. ForumIAS this year was good. Questions were good and evaluation was decent as well.
I am sharing some of my answer copies for your reference.
ANTHROPOLOGY Optional Strategy by Utkarsh Kumar
This optional requires separate material/books for every syllabus point. No one standard material/coaching will suffice for all. Thankfully, the materials/booklist to be read for every syllabus point was clear to me simply because my very good friend (in fact, I consider him as my brother :D) Rickey Agarwal (AIR 87, CSE 2020) was there to guide me in this aspect. There are a lot of people with anthro in the final list this year and I think they will do a good job with guiding you. But, if you all want, I will share my anthro strategy separately as well. Also, I took online coaching ( did not have the liberty of time as I was working too) to save commutation time etc. I attended Kartic Sir’s online classes at Vajiram in 2022 ( the person behind the braintree material). The physical anthropology part was taken by Binoy Krishna. Kartic Sir was very good at clearing the basics while Mr. Binoy was decent. Remember, I repeat again, coaching ,at best, will help you prepare the foundation of your preparation. The final stage where you are ready for mains will only be reached by self study and answer writing.
L2A test series : found it to be good – timely and precise evaluation. Do note that except for 1 paper where I did very good ( around 135), I could only manage scores ranging from 110-120 in Bala Sir’s test series. Thankfully, the actual UPSC papers fetched me much better marks.
Reflections IAS academy by Vivekananda Sir – he is very approachable. Did timely correction as well. He was also kind enough to evaluate my attempt of CSE 2020 Anthro paper just a week before the cse 2022 mains. His evaluation is very very detailed, often to the extent that so many points leave you confused on what to do next. One can cherry pick the most relevant points in the evaluation and work on them. Because, towards the end, I don’t recommend making a lot of changes in your answer writing style anyway. Could leave you confused and underconfident.
In my experience – L2A> Reflections for test series.
