Prajnanandan Giri (CSE-23 AIR-24) Journey, Geography & Comprehensive Strategy

Hi to all aspirants reading this. My name is Prajnanandan Giri. I have secured 24th Rank in UPSC CSE 2023. This was my 4th Attempt, 4th Mains and 2nd Interview in UPSC.

I had Geography Optional for all 4 attempts.

I was born and brought up in Karanjia Town of Mayurbhanj District in Odisha. I did Integrated MSc in Chemistry from National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar i.e. an autonomous institute under Department of Atomic Energy, Govt of India and graduated in 2020.

The dream of becoming an IAS Officer was there since my school days, as such was also the dream of my parents. However, I never gave a serious thought to plan for the same till my 5th year in NISER. I joined NISER with an American dream of going abroad for a PhD as that has been a trend from the institute. I did 2 years of Lab work and also published a Research Paper in the journal of “Frontiers in Chemistry”. However, all this while I was not happy and certain about a career in Research. I was always looking for a life which would provide me diversity. At such a time, few of my like-minded friends decided to start preparing for Civil Services and not to pursue a PhD abroad. When I shared the same decision with my family, they supported me and also reminded me about this dream of mine since school days.

That was the beginning of my UPSC journey. Though I had covered a few of the basic books like NCERTs, Laxmikant during my 5th year (2019-2020) in College, I started proper preparation after COVID lockdown (April 2020) using online sources, YouTube etc. I did extensive research on planning for strategy by  going through multiple Toppers’ Videos and Blogs like these.

I gave my first attempt in October 2020, with less than a year of preparation. However, I cleared Prelims and was unprepared for Mains, so failure in Mains was clear. Meanwhile I was also looking for Plan B from starting due to fear of uncertainty of the UPSC Exam process. The Odisha PSC exam process was parallel to UPSC, with an additional Optional to cover. This impacted my performance in the 2nd attempt as well. I was unable to give 100% time for UPSC. The summary was that I failed two UPSC CSE Mains consecutively.

However, my Plan B worked and I qualified OPSC CSE twice. In first attempt, I got Odisha Revenue Service (Group B) where I joined as a trainee in February 2022 and in the second attempt, I got Odisha Administrative Service (Group A), which I joined in January 2023.

So, my 3rd and 4th attempts were with jobs. In the 3rd attempt, I attempted Mains with Job, qualified Mains this time and got Interview call. But missed the final cut-off by a few marks. As I was confident of getting into the list this time, the result was shocking and shattering for me. But I had less than 7 days to appear for the next prelims. I was planning to skip this attempt, as I stopped prelims preparation after my Interview. I also consulted seniors, and few advised me to skip and take a one-year break.

However, I listened to my conscience and decided to go for this attempt as my last attempt. I appeared for prelims by giving just a few mock tests. After the Prelims results, I decided to give my 100% for this Mains. I took leave on private ground for around 100 days and tried to do as much as possible for this attempt.

Finally, the results came on 16th April 2024 when I felt the culmination of all my efforts, decisions and sacrifices of the last 4 years. Where the journey of an Aspirant comes to a meaningful end, another journey of Life begins.

How and When to Start Preparation

The ideal time to start preparation would be during your graduation. Before graduation, one should try to complete the basics like 11th-12th NCERTs. This will provide an edge by making a strong foundation before full fledged preparation begins after graduation. The few steps of preparation should be like-

• Complete basic syllabus of GS and Optional first. More focus on conceptual understanding.
• Start solving MCQs and practice answer writing as soon as a substantial amount of syllabus is done.
• Complete focus on content enrichment and improving quality of answers.
• Full length tests in exam-like conditions. The more the better.

Timetable?

I did not have such a daily timetable. But I had monthly, weekly and daily targets to be completed. So on the last day of a month, I used to plan for the next month. I used to make detailed daily targets in one A4 sheet for a month. I used to keep it in front of me on the study table. Completing the daily targets used to give me satisfaction as well as helped me keep myself motivated. At the end of the month, I used to assess my targets, and did modifications in plans.

Preparation with Job?

My last two attempts were with job. I used to get very less time in the evening to study. That made me focus only on the important things. Also the foundation I made during the earlier attempts helped me clear prelims without much effort in these attempts. So my whole focus was on Mains, that too on content enrichment, improving quality of answers and increasing my writing speed. However, in the 4th attempt I took 3 months leave to give my 100% for Mains, as it was practically my last attempt.

Geography Optional Strategy

First of all, Geography optional should be taken only by means of your own Interest in the subject and not due to other factors. It requires great conceptual clarity to get good marks in this subject.

• First, foundation classes should be done from a good institute. Some topics like Geomorphology, Climatology, Perspectives in Geography, Models in Geography require proper conceptual understanding.
• Then I would recommend taking 500+ classes by Himanshu Sir once you  are done with your foundation. This will fill up the gaps and help in framing good answers. This also helped me to learn the art of linking concepts of Paper 1 in Paper 2, which is necessary to write optional-worthy answers to GS-like questions.
• Then practise as much answer writing as possible with multiple revision of class notes of foundation/500+ Classes.
• Give Full Length Tests in exam-like conditions. Get answers evaluated. Work upon the suggestions.
• Between pre and Mains, one must make summarised short notes of 1-2 pages for one topic. So the entire Geography Optional syllabus should be within 20 pages. This will be the most-effective tool for last minute revision.

Apart from these, one must go through Toppers’ answer copies of the last 4-5 years to have a better idea about the kind of content we need to produce in the exam to get good marks in Geography Optional.

Note Making or Not

• I was not a Note-Making person. First thing is I feel more confident reading from printed texts than my handwritten notes. Second, It takes a lot of time to make notes which I didn't have due to my job.
• I used to study directly from books with highlighting important points and try to store the frameworks of answers in my mind so that answer writing will be a natural process without much stress on the brain.
• I made notes in a few subjects where direct sources are not available like Indian Society, which I shared in my Telegram channel.

Role of PYQs in Prelims-Mains

PYQs and Syllabus are two guiding lights in the journey of UPSC preparation. So these must be practised for prelims as well as Mains.

I used to keep the PYQs of Mains on my table whenever I used to read something so that I could think in the line of PYQs.

Essay Strategy

• For Essays, one can go through the book ‘Fundamentals of Essay and Answer Writing’ by Anudeep Durishetty Sir.
• To go through the Toppers’ copies.
• Make one’s own framework like ‘Past-Present-Future’, ‘PESTEL’, ‘Individual-Family-Society-Nation-World’ etc and think of content from GS on that line. Then write the essay with proper flow.
• Try to differentiate it from GS answers by adding more philosophical or ethical arguments. (GS4 can help)

Last But Not the Least

“Never run behind perfection. There are no perfect books to read, no perfect notes that one can make, no perfect strategy one can follow.”

Toppers didn’t know till one day before the results whether their approach was right or wrong. Same applies for me. So it is better to learn from Toppers’ videos and blogs, but at the same time one should understand the process and devise one’s own plan and strategy based on one’s own strength and weaknesses to clear this exam.

Thank You and All The Best.