Jayasree Pradhan (AIR-52 CSE-23) Law + Comprehensive Strategy

Nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, is where my home is. My name is Jayasree Pradhan, and I have been born and raised in a beautiful little town called Darjeeling in West Bengal. This was my second attempt at UPSC where I have been able to secure Rank 52.

Preparing for civil services requires one to take a number of decisions. One of the most crucial decisions a student must make is whether or not s/he will take formal coaching. I decided to opt for self-study. There were several reasons why:

1. The financial cost involved.
2. Unfamiliarity with Delhi city.
3. The need for flexibility in my studies.
4. Confidence that I could cover subjects on my own.

My First Attempt

I started studying for my 2022 attempt from January 2022 itself. In a meagre five months, I was tasked with the responsibility of completing the vast syllabus of UPSC. Even though it seemed impossible, I remember studying very diligently. At the time, there was a famous trend going around which expounded on the idea of giving 100 tests to clear prelims. That’s what I decided to do.

Instead of concept building and content enrichment, I gave tests non-stop, with no time to either analyze them or learn from the mistakes I had made.

What happened as a result was an acute sense of under confidence and fear, given the low to average scores I was getting in these tests.

Not surprisingly, I couldn’t clear my first prelims. I ended up scoring around 75 marks in both GS and CSAT. The cutoff for paper I was 88.22 for the general category.

Learning from Mistakes

Making mistakes is one thing, but learning from them is how you become successful. I realized that these were the mistakes I had made:

1. Not giving adequate time to preparation: UPSC needs at least one year of dedicated study.
2. Giving tests but not revising them.
3. Focusing too much on mocks instead of previous year questions.
4. Living in a constant state of fear. I was too afraid of the exam and too attached to the result. It was this mental block that I believe was the real deal breaker.

Re-starting my Second Attempt

My strategy for my second attempt where I was able to secure Rank 52 can be summed up in two broad words: Simplicity and clarity. I decided to simplify the preparation and have clarity about my targets. I divided my preparation part into 4 main phases:

1. The year-long phase
2. The prelims specific phase
3. The mains specific phase
4. Personality test phase

The Year-long Phase:

This phase lasted from July to December. My overall target for these months was to complete the GS papers and at least 80-90% of the Optional.

Resources I Used for GS:

1. Ancient History- Class VI NCERT, Class XII Part I NCERT
2. Medieval History- Class VII NCERT, Class XII Part II NCERT
3. Art and Culture- watched the Nithin Singhania marathon session conducted by Unacademy on YouTube and made notes out of it. Also, the first 20 pages or so of Lucent.
4. Modern History- Spectrum
5. Geography- Class XI and XII NCERT.
6. Polity- M. Laxmikanth
7. IR and Governance- Current affairs.
8. Economics- Class XI Macroeconomics (NCERT), Mrunal Sir's notes
9. Environment- Shankar IAS
10. Science and Technology- Made small notes of Class VI- X NCERT, current affairs.

Current Affairs Source:

1. Newspaper: I used to read The Hindu in my first attempt but then I switched to The Indian Express in my second one.
2. Monthly Vision IAS magazines
3. PT365 and Mains 365

Resources I Used for Optional (Law):

1. Constitutional Law- JN Pandey and DD Basu
2. Administrative Law- IP Massey
3. International Law- SK Kapoor
4. IPC- Ratanlal and Dhirajlal
5. Torts, Contracts - RK Bangia
6. CLD- Internet

Once the resources were decided, the next step was proper planning. Here i decided to give weekly tests for proper assessment. I subscribed to Forum IAS prelims mock test. My GS preparation was thus sorted because all I had to do now was to go along with the schedule that was given and my syllabus would be completed.

For Optional, my main goal was note-making. I had a print out of the syllabus that I kept with me at all times. I referred to the topic wise PYQs compiled by DeFacto IAS and LawXperts and made model answers for the same. This ended up being my notes. I made sure to practice them too in a given time limit. This summed up my Optional preparation throughout the year.

I also focused on daily practice. For prelims, I used to practice about 20 questions daily. I used to refer to free questions provided by sites such as Insights IAS, IAS Baba, Drishti IAS, etc.

I started answer writing practice somewhere around October. I made sure to write about 3-5 previous year questions daily.

Prelims Specific Phase:

I started preparing for Prelims in January itself. This is because I knew that Prelims was only getting challenging with every passing year.

My Strategy for Prelims was as Under:

1. Planning: Dedicating 7 days, 4 days, 3 days then 2 days to each subject.
2. Practicing: 9:30-11:30 AM is when I would practice GS questions in a mock test format with a proper OMR sheet.
3. PYQs: I started giving less emphasis on mocks and more on PYQs. In fact, two months before prelims, I stopped giving mocks altogether. I also focused on other exams that UPSC conducts like CDS, CAPF, etc.
4. CSAT: Two months before the exam, I started practicing CSAT daily from 2:30-3:30 PM. I used to intersperse PYQ practice with a few mocks. On the topics that I found difficult, I used to look up videos online and learn from them.

Giving Prelims 2023 is an experience I’ll never forget. Seeing the unconventional paper last year, I had to remind myself not to panic in the hall. I think that the extensive PYQ practice is what really pulled me through. The only thing I’d like to tell people giving Prelims this year is to stay calm. If you lose your cool in the exam hall, you’ll end up making careless mistakes. Even if the paper seems difficult, remember that if it’s difficult for you, it is difficult for everyone else too.

Mains Specific Phase:

Once the Prelims results were out, I found myself being pushed into this experience, without my armor ready. In three months, I had to prepare for a battle, one that had the magnanimous possibility of sealing my fate.

Having cleared Prelims, which I thought was the most difficult phase of all, I made a promise to myself that I would have to clear mains this time. These three months were the ‘Do or Die’ phase of my preparation journey.

At the time, I discovered Satyam Jain Sir’s channel. I joined his SFG initiative where he had made proper plans and schedules for mains. That is what I decided to follow.

In addition to the schedule, I knew that the key to mains was answer writing practice. This is how I went about it:

1. Practicing about 10 PYQs daily in a given time frame
2. Active recalling my Optional notes that were PYQ based, in an answer format
3. After dinner, I spent about an hour with topper’s copies. I used to write the answer to the questions, then would compare it with their answers. This was immensely helpful in not only learning the art of answer writing but also letting go of the idea that toppers have perfect answers.

With respect to Optional, I had divided my day into the ratio of 60:40. 60% of my time I would give to my Optional, the rest to GS.

Like I said before, my main notes were model answers to PYQs. It is these that I revised daily, using active recall, and writing and re-writing the answers to these questions.

Writing mains was scary, exciting, and challenging, all at the same time. I was mostly happy with my performance except for one particular paper. On the last day of mains, I remember I messed up my Optional Paper I. I made a mistake in the selection of questions. As a result, I ended up striking down one paragraph and starting a different question altogether. In fact, I almost even ran out of time while writing the paper.

When I came out of the hall, I was in tears. Given the importance of Optional in mains, I thought I had ruined my chances this year. Yet, here’s the funny thing. When the mains marks were out, I found out that I had gotten average marks in GS, where I was hoping for excellent scores, and one of the highest marks in Law optional this year with a total score of 288. With UPSC, surprises never end.

The lesson I learnt from this, which I’d like to pass on to others as well, is that you must learn to detach yourself from the result. Once you’ve done your bit, the result is out of your hands. There is no point in trying to speculate marks and scores and trends. After you’re done with your exam, put all those questions aside and take a well-deserved break.

Personality Development Phase:

When the Mains results were out, I was overjoyed. I was so close to achieving my dream, it felt unbelievable. For the first time in my life, I decided to go to Delhi. This was specifically to give mock interviews and make friends. I knew that interaction was going to be a key skill in interview preparation.

For the interview, I had formed peer groups. I had one for current affairs discussion and another one for Law discussion. We used to discuss topics from an interview point of view for about 2-3 hours daily.

In addition, I also joined the Drishti IAS library where I found other people who were also appearing for the interview. Here is where I would sit and extensively prepare my DAF.

The actual Interview was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I had Sanjay Verma Sir as the Chair of my Interview board. When I left the room, I remember being in a daze. Those 30 minutes felt just like 5 minutes. I ended up getting 200 marks in the personality test.

I think what worked in my favor was taking stands when I was asked to, admitting that I didn’t know the answers in places that I didn’t, being confident about my answers even when I felt nervous on the inside and thinking on my feet when posed with unconventional questions (e.g. Sanjay Verma Sir asked me about the jewelry industry when my DAF had nothing related to it at all).

Results:

Life has changed completely since the result. It has been beautiful, overwhelming and humbling all at the same time. For me, it will be a constant hope and endeavor to handle this success with grace and humility. But the outside accolades are just a part of the outer journey. The true prize is what I gained on the inside, and the person that I’ve become as a result of my struggles.

Lessons Learnt:

On introspection, these two years have been the most memorable years of my life. It has been the years of struggle, of self-discovery and courage. I read somewhere that if you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking too much space. So go ahead and take that leap of faith. You just might discover that you’ve learnt how to fly.