GSS PRAVEENCHAND UPSC 2018 Rank-64

CANDIDATE PROFILE-

FAMILY AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Praveenchand is a resident of Andhra Pradesh.His father was a ration shop dealer and his mother was a housewife. Unfortunately, his mother and father both are no more.

He was a very intelligent student from his childhood as we can see from the percentage of marks scored by him in 10th and 12th standard. He is an Electrical Engineering graduate from IIT Patna.

WHY CIVIL SERVICES

The main source of inspiration for Pravenchand was his mother. His mother always used to tell him that family is not only those people with whom we live but entire society is our family. Also, during his college time as a student leader Praveenchand realised that doing public service gives him real satisfaction. And hence, he decided to become a civil servant.

NUMBER OF ATTEMPTS

This was the third attempt for Praveenchand in which he secured AIR 64. Before this he gave two attempts earlier. In his first attempt due to improper planning and less revision, he could not clear the mains examination. Again, in his second attempt though he cleared the exam but he made so many calculation mistakes due to which he could score only 263 marks in optional paper and had to contend himself with rank 512. He worked on his mistakes and was able to score 324 marks in optional in his third attempt. He cleared the UPSC CSE examination with AIR 64 in his third attempt.

STUDY PLAN AND SCHEDULE

Since, he was in a full-time job while giving his third attempt, he used to study mostly on weekends. He kept his study materials limited and did not indulge into social media or with too many online study groups. He used to spend 2 to 3 hours online for preparation daily for only important source.

On managing work and studies together he suggests aspirants to-

• Find time during breaks and read newspaper
• Try to make notes online as its easy to revise during office hours and during commutation
• During weekdays wake up early and utilise the time to study as it is hard to study after office hours due to tiredness.
• During weekends utilise your full time for studies.

PRELIMS STRATEGY & BOOKLIST

• STRATEGY

Praveenchand asks aspirants to keep their strategy simple

• First read the textbooks and highlight the important points. Start making notes in your 2nd or 3rd revision whenever you feel comfortable
• He also prepared notes of The Hindu newspaper, each topic was divided as per different GS Papers.
• He used to take notes on OneNote software.
• Be thorough with the basic study materials. Revise them as many times as possible.
• Follow one newspaper diligently. Make your own notes from newspaper, this helps you gaining more clarity over ongoing issues.
• Follow govt websites to know more about govt schemes and policies and stay updated.
• Refer to previous year question paper to understand the pattern of questions that UPSC asks.
• Moreover, UPSC sometimes repeats the questions directly or indirectly, being thorough with PYQP can help you score better in this case.
• CSAT is another important paper beside GS I in prelims. Aspirants must give adequate attention to prepare aptitude, reasoning and comprehensive questions.
• Mock tests are important for you to assess your preparation level. It also helps you revise the syllabus. Attempt mock test to ace your preparation.

BOOKLIST-

MAINS STRATEGY & BOOKLIST

• STRATEGY

• One must be thorough with NCERTs and standard books.
• He gave 50% of his time for preparation of GS Papers and 50% of his time to Optional paper, Mathematics.
• In mains his maximum focus was on improving his answer writing skills.
• For this he used to practice 2 questions daily from InsightsonIndia Secure Initiative daily. Apart from this he also wrote full length test on VisionIAS test series.
• He thoroughly read all the model answers. Practicing answer writing and reading model answers not only helped him expanding his knowledge on various topics but also helped him in framing the answer quickly in the examination hall.
• Using constitutional terminology, quoting relevant articles of the constitution and Supreme Court judgements in the answers plays key role to write good answers in GS-2. One may use diagrams in international affairs part. E.g. Map of Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) if a question on BRI is asked
• While writing answers in GS-3,he used quotes, relevant terminologies, diagrams, flowcharts and tried to correlate his answers with current affairs which helped him making his answers more interesting and scoring.
• For Ethics Paper, he prepared the key words given in the syllabus very carefully and made notes of all those key words in his own language which helped him in retention and recalling while writing answers in the exam. He used to pick examples from his daily life and current events.
• Pervious year question paper is one of the basic pillars of UPSC CSE preparation. So, for Ethics Paper also he relied heavily on previous year question papers and revised previous year questions before exam.

BOOKLIST-

ANSWER WRITING APPROACH-

Praveenchand gives very much emphasis on practicing answer writing and developing your writing skill. For answer writing he suggests aspirants to-

• Write answer in Introduction-Body-Conclusion format. It helps examiner to check answer easily.
• Write your answer as it is expected from a civil servant
• Present your answers in diverse manner
• Use bullet points and paragraphs as and when required in your answer
• However, you must keep in mind that the most important factor in your answer is your content
• Use diagrams in answers wherever it demands
• Use the fixed space given to answer the question very aptly
• Lastly, don’t fill your answer sheet with rubbish, it creates a bad impression about you in the examiner’s eyes.

Links to his online notes

• https://www.evernote.com/pub/saipraveenchand/gs1
• https://www.evernote.com/pub/saipraveenchand/gs2
• https://www.evernote.com/pub/saipraveenchand/gs3
• https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhpLpE_G660ukFuwupwngA7Yvhpm (OneNote, he made some of these notes with his iPad and Apple Pencil)

ESSAY –

Majority of the content for essay comes from general studies itself. So, if one is thorough with general studies papers, they will be able to write decent essay. Apart from knowledge, writing skills also matters in the essay. Praveenchad says he was not very good in writing skills so he could not score very good marks in essay. He mainly prepared essays category wise like health, education, economy, women, society, philosophy etc. For this he picked up categorised topics from previous year’s question paper from Mrunal’s website. On every topic he prepared a rough draft and kept revising from there. While writing essays in mains exam he picked one factual and another philosophical topic to write on. His basic strategy while writing essay was to follow an Introduction, Body and Conclusion approach. He sticked to this approach for both of the essays. He tried to end the essays on a positive note or with a solution. This also helps you present yourself as a solution-oriented person in front of the examiner.

OPTIONAL PAPERS STRATEGY & BOOKLIST-

STRATEGY

• His optional subject was mathematics. There were a few reasons, why he chose mathematics as his optional subject-

  • Mathematics was a major part of his syllabus during college and he was comfortable with the subject
  • During his three-year work experience in private sector, he benefited heavily due to his mathematical skills
• He used to watch NPTEL lectures on https://nptel.ac.in and referred to one playlist on YouTube for Modern Algebra. Apart from these, most part of the syllabus can be done from books.
• It took him 7 – 8 months to finish whole optional syllabus.
• Mathematics is subject which cannot be done without pen and paper. So, answer writing was a part of his preparation from the day one.
• In last two attempts he did not make notes but during his preparation for third attempt he prepared notes of important formulae, concepts, theorems and solutions.
• He relied heavily on previous year question paper to keep his preparation on track.

BOOKLIST

• Paper 1

  • Linear Algebra:Schaum’s outline on Linear Algebra
  
  
  • Calculus:Mathematical analysis by S.C. Malik and Savita Arora, Krishna Series on Differential calculus, Krishna Series on Integral calculus and NPTEL lectures
  
  
  • Analytical Geometry:Krishna Series on Analytical Geometry and Krishna Series on Analytical Solid Geometry: for Conicoid, Generating Lines
  
  
  • Ordinary Differential Equation: Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations by MD Raisinghania. For Laplace, Advanced Differential Equations by MD Raisinghania
  
  
  • Vector Analysis: Vector Analysis by Krishna series.
  
  
  • Statics:Krishna Series
  
  
  • Dynamics:: Krishna Series
  
  

• Paper 2

  • Modern Algebra:Contemporary abstract algebra by Joseph Gallon.
  
  
  • Real Analysis:Mathematical analysis by S.C. Malik and Savita Arora, Krishna Series on Differential calculus, Krishna Series on Integral calculus and NPTEL lectures
  
  
  • Complex Analysis: Complex analysis by Krishna series.
  
  
  • Linear Programming:Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations by MD Raisinghania. For Laplace, Advanced Differential Equations by MD Raisinghania
  
  
  • Partial Differential Equations:Linear Programming, Krishna Series book and NPTEL lectures
  
  
  • Numerical analysis:Numerical Methods: For Scientific and Engineering Computation by Mahinder Kumar Jain, Satteluri R K Iyengar and Rajinder Kumar Jain
  
  
  • Fluid Mechanics: M D Raisinghania.
  
  
  • Mechanics:Rigid Dynamics (Volume I & Volume II) by Krishna series.
  
  

One must solve last 15-20 years question papers of UPSC civil services optional. Solutions to them could be written in a note. Revise these questions and solutions multiple times. It helps in quickly revising many concepts and formulae.

INTERVIEW STAGE-

For interview he went through all the key words used by him in his DAF. He prepared a note on all those key words and prepared answers of all possible questions from there. He used to practice in front of mirror and also used to record his practice and watch it later to improve himself.

He prepared current affairs from The Hindu and Indian Express. Beside this he also followed Big Picture Debate on RajyaSabha TV and on You Tube.

He had also attended a couple of mock interviews to get himself comfortable with the process. As per him the only purpose of mock interview is practice. He also suggests aspirants to not to take mock interview feedback too seriously and keep preparing themselves at their best.

His interview continued for 30 minutes. He was asked question on his home town, Patna, corruption, cryptocurrency, darknet, Saudi-Pakistan relation and from his optional subject.