Crackingcivilservices.com’s Interview of successful candidates
Profile of the Candidate:
| Name | Apurv |
| Rank in 66th BPSC | 40 |
| Roll Number | 356685 |
| Age | 29 |
| Total attempts in BPSC (including present one) | 3 |
| Medium in mains examination (Hindi/English) | English |
| Marks in General Studies papers (Mention marks in both GS Paper I and II) | 186 & 146 |
| Marks in General Studies papers in previous attempts (Mention marks in both GS Paper I and II) | 166 & 150 |
| Optional Subject | Geology |
| Home town/village | Vaishali, Bihar |
| Any past Work-experience | Worked at an ed-tech firm |
| Were you preparing full time or working and preparing? | Was working and preparing while giving mains |
| Your place of preparation | At home in Ranchi |
| Details of other success and failure in competitive exams | Civil services and Indian Forest Service mains and Interview stage, but didn’t get my name in final selection list |
| Details of coaching/ test series/ study material of any coaching used for General studies | Self preparation, but used PYQ notes from crackingcivilservices.com , especially for questions related to Bihar section. I also used other materials freely available in market like VisionIAS magazine etc |
Educational Background:
| Percentage marks in class X | 96,00 % |
| Percentage marks in class XII | 88,80 % |
| Name of the subject in Graduation course and percentage marks | Earth Science (82.10 %) |
| Name of college of graduation and place | IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand |
| Passing out year | 2015 |
| Post-graduation if any |
Introduction
Tell us something about yourself.
I am Apurv. My native place is Vaishali in Bihar. Currently I am living in Ranchi. I did my initial schooling from Don Bosco Academy, Patna and matriculation from DAV Kapildev Public School in Ranchi. After that, I did my Class 12th from DPS R.K. Puram, New Delhi. I did my graduation from IIT Roorkee. I worked in an ed-tech firm before giving it up and starting civil services preparation full time.
Questions related to your preparation:
Why did you choose civil services as your career and when did you first decide to appear in BPSC?
Civil services, for me, offers a much rewarding career – in terms of scope, diversified nature of work, the ultimate beneficiaries of one’s work and other non-financial perks like social prestige. However, the most motivating factor is that civil services give us an opportunity to make macro level changes in the lives of many people. For me, it gives more satisfaction and a higher purpose to life and imparts greater significance to my life.
I decided to appear in BPSC for the first time in 64th BPSC. I had not prepared my optionals properly and could secure only 100 marks in it, and missed interview call by about 15 marks. In 65th BPSC, missed prelims cutoff by 3 marks. Finally, qualified in 66th CCE.
Mention booklist and sources which you followed for mains General studies papers (section wise). Also add about your strategy for different sections of both GS papers.
Standard books for all subjects (Like Lakshmikanth and Spectrum) + newspaper + freely available materials like current affairs magazine + Bihar Economic survey
Did you do answer writing regularly? If yes, what amount of time you devoted to it and how did it help you?
I did answer writing, though I was not very consistent with it. However, I feel, answer writing in very crucial for any subjective exam, including BPSC. And, one should do it. However, over-doing it should also be avoided. We aspirants should also keep in mind that answer writing is the means to an end and not an end itself. So every exam should be used as an opportunity to improve and to inculcate in our answers what we have mentally thought of and planned. Tests / answer writing should not be done just for the sake of writing answers.
Did you maintain self-notes? If yes, how did it help you?
I made self notes, especially for History part. For the rest in both GS 1 and GS 2, I relied on whatever I had read in standard books ( like Lakshmikanth for Polit, Spectrum for History), current affairs magazines, and newspapers.
How previous years questions helped in exam?
In my opinion, importance of PYQs cannot be over-emphasised for History part of GS 1 and for optionals. Also, they serve very useful for practice of 2 statistics questions that are going to come in GS 1.
How did crackingcivilservices.com benefitted you in your preparation of General Studies papers?
I used crackingcivilservices.com for PYQs of history and polity, especially for Bihar specific part. I supplemented my notes with their material. I was very short of time and their documents proved to be very helpful in this regard. They saved me a lot of time and effort, which I could then devote to my optionals and other things.
Initially, I was sceptic about the quality of their material. But, after going through it, I was pleasantly surprised.
Any specific thing you want to share about your strategy for different sections of General Studies papers?
One should try to score heavily in GS 1.
History PYQs should be at one’s fingertips.
Also, if you are good in stats, try not to do silly mistakes / calculation mistakes in exam.
If you are not entirely comfortable in it, practice it extensively till you become comfortable enough.
We should try to get full marks in stats. In my 1st mains, I got 35/36 in 1st question of stats, but only 17/36 in 2nd question (due to calculation mistake).
Without scoring heavily in statistiscs questions, it’s very difficult to score heavily in GS 1.
For rest of GS 1 and GS 2, try to address each part of the question, supplement it with diagrams, maps etc. Sprinkle Bihar specific knowledge in whichever question you can, in both GS 1 and GS 2. One can read and make notes out of Bihar Economic Survey for this.
What were the major questions asked in your Interview? If you can give brief overview of your interview?
I didn’t perform well in interview and as I expected, I could secure only 65 marks. There are mainly 2 reasons for this. I was short of time as I had my UPSC prelims just 2 days before my interview. Secondly, I missed some questions which one is expected to know and should know while facing this interview. For example, my 1st choice was DSP and I couldn’t answer the hierarchy of posts in Police in Bihar. Also, I was not able to properly tackle questions related to my optional subject. Overall, I felt the interview board expected much more from me compared to what I delivered.
What challenges did you face during your preparation journey?
One major problem was that I didn’t know where to study Bihar specific matters from. I did try to take help from some of my friends. But then, I had to give a lot of time to collect material from internet. I got to know about crackingcivilservices.com during online material search. But, I got to know about them a bit late. So, I tried to supplement my material with their material in whatever time I could get and it proved to be helpful in final exam.
The same problem I faced during interview preparation also. I was simultaneously preparing for UPSC prelims and BPSC interview and was always short of time. I didn’t know what are the relevant materials/sites etc from where I should prepare for interview from.
But I believe it’s entirely my fault as the onus lies on me to gather information regarding the materials/sources I should prepare from.
Another problem I faced was that since my optional is not a very popular one, I was not able to get PYQ of BPSC for that in market. I filed RTI for getting the PYQs, but BPSC could provide me with only a few question papers.
Any message about the other aspirants?
I have 5 message to give to my fellow aspirants:
- Don’t make the following mistakes I made:
(a) Get proper info about what and where to read/study from. Otherwise, input/output ratio would be worse ( a lot of effort will give less than desired output, resulting into unwanted outcomes in the form of marks).
(b) Try not to make any mistake in statistics question. We aspirants should try to score 70-71 out of 72 in it.
- Do smart study. We should not just try to do slog and study for long hours. We should always have the compass at the back of the mind which will help us understand whether we are studying with the right approach and direction needed to secure marks in prelims and mains.
For this, don’t be entirely dependent on your teachers and friends with regard to the way you study. Always use PYQs of prelims and mains to see if you are reading properly.
To illustrate, suppose we are reading current affairs from X,Y,Z sources. And if after reading those X,Y,Z sources, we are able to answer most of the current affairs questions in BPSC prelims, then our source is correct. If not, we should explore what source we should follow.
- Don’t chase excellence, chase optimality. That is, don’t overdo any one section in prelims or mains. Give focus to all the sections. For example. Many of us may ignore statistics to study other sections of GS and then later have to pay heavily for this with our marks. Every mark gained has equal value, whether we gain it in statistics or history or polity.
- In Science questions in exam which we don’t know the answer to, don’t just give up or and don’t give very very less time to it. If the question is difficult and not straight forward, most of us aspirants don’t know the answer to it. That question becomes important to gain differential marks over others. Fight with the question and give all your mental energy to write whatever you can in the limited time in exam.
- Use diagrams, flowcharts, Bihar map, India map etc wherever we can. This will help gain additional marks over others.
