VAISHALI SINGH UPSC 2018 Rank-8

CANDIDATE PROFILE-

MAINS STRATEGY & BOOKLIST

STRATEGY

• She went through the entire syllabus very carefully and focused on each word given in the syllabus
• For example, the word ‘Employment’ in GS 3 Paper, to prepare this topic she went through all the current issues related to this topic, she herself prepared a set of questions regarding what could be asked on this topic. To cover this topic properly she prepared topics like employment data, jobless growth, fixed term employment, maternity leave etcso that she can answer anything asked from that topic.
• She does not advise to make a summary of newspaper editorials or of any other news rather noting down the points and solution given for any ongoing issue.
• She used to make online notes. So once a topic started, she used to keep updating it by adding more materials as and when she got. She dealt with a topic point wise like; the issue, its background, the problems around it, solutions available for it and what are the best practices going on to solve the issue etc. This helped her prepare answer for various questions and also helped her keeping notes organised and at one place
• From her way of note making one can understand that one day’s newspaper is not enough to cover any topic fully and you need to keep updating it again and again to cover it fully.
• She used Microsoft One Note to prepare her online notes.
• For Ethics, she made notes on all the basic terms mentioned in the syllabus and tried to add various dimensions to that topic. For example, for the topic Work Culture given in the syllabus, she prepared work culture of India (Public and private sector) then work culture around world for comparison and also how work culture can benefit an organisation.
• She used to study with a timer and for a topic she used to take time of 3 hours, 2 hours for research and 1 hour for note making.

BOOKLIST-

ANSWER WRITING APPROACH-

She believes answer writing is the most important part of preparation for mains.She used to write one answer daily before prelims exam. This practice helped her improving the quality of answers and understand the demand of the question. After prelims she joined test series and tried to finish the paper within 3 hours, which she says was the toughest part.

She practiced 25 to 27 tests for her mains preparation as she kept her mains preparation more writing oriented than reading. Her main emphasis was on writing more and more tests.

ESSAY –

She gave her prime focus to essay while preparing for mains and the effort also paid off. She started her preparation for essay by reading answer sheets of previous year toppers which helped her understand what all things constitute a good essay.

As she says a good essay consists of an introduction, body and a conclusion. The body of an essay includes diverse points and examples from various angles which again and again connects on the main topic of the essay.

For essay she made a list of 10 to 12 topics that she found was probable to be asked in exam and was in news continuously. So, whenever she got any information on a topic, she used to add them in the file of that particular topic. This helped her in collecting all the required information and then she started giving test series on essay.

OPTIONAL PAPERS STRATEGY & BOOKLIST-

STRATEGY

There were a few reasons why Vaishali chose Law as her optional subject

• Her being a lawyer made it a natural choice for her to take Law as optional.
• She had already studied it for five years during her higher studies which she knew will help her covering the Law syllabus quickly
• Ample number of sources are available to cover the syllabus
• It is also helpful in the interview if you chose the same subject as optional which you have studied in college level. You do not have to prepare .two different subjects for interview, neither you need to answer the interviewer as why you choose a different subject for optional.
• For answer writing practice she mostly relied on previous year question paper. She solved previous year question paper and prepared a model answer for all the questions, which she says was sufficient for practicing answer writing.
• So, if you have taken law optional and are facing difficulty in getting a good test series to practice as was the case with Vaishali, you can also follow the same strategy that she followed.

BOOKLIST

She covered the entire syllabus with A K JAIN and Singhal’s book. Constitutional law she covered from V N Shukla, whereas she followed Pillai to cover IPC.

INTERVIEW STAGE-

For Vaishali interview was the toughest stage. The UPSC CSE interview was also her first official interview. So, she decided to get over this fear of interview by giving at least 8 to 9 mock interviews. With every mock interview she was able to improve herself.

She divided her interview preparation in three parts; DAF, Law Optional and Current Affairs. For DAF she prepared every minor detail of whatever she had mentioned in her DAF. She even prepared thoroughly about her name like the place in Bihar called Vaishali, its history and present status. Since DAF is prepared by the students themselves, they must know everything about it.

Next, she prepared her Law Optional very well as it was very clear from the past interview scripts that she had read that interview panel members ask questions from law from lawyers.

Again, the next thing she gave importance to was current affairs. For this she prepared a list of 50 major ongoing issues and after doing proper research she developed her own opinion on those issues. So that she is ready with her answer when asked by the interviewer. These were issues like abortion, transgender bill, same sex marriage, marital rape etc.