1) How Ishita Kishore (2022-23 topper) could secure an AIR-1?
Ishita Kishore, a Delhi University graduate and the daughter of an Air Force officer, secured AIR 1
in the UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE), 2022. The 26-year-old woman passed the prestigious
exam on her third attempt. She failed her preliminary exam on each of her first two attempts.
Ishita's approach to UPSC preparation was marked by a precisely organized study schedule, judicious
selection of study resources, and good time management. Her preparation strategy includes a rigorous
study, comprehensive preparation planning, and a healthy lifestyle. Ishita Kishore said that “one
has to be disciplined and sincere” in preparation to crack the civil services exam.
During her preparation, her strategy followed-
- Routine: Ishita maintained a rigid daily routine, devoting adequate time to reading and
understanding the concepts of each subject. Consistency was her key to success.
- Study Materials: For her core subjects, she focused on NCERT textbooks, while for her
optional subjects, she referred to standard books.
- Mock Tests: She practiced mock tests regularly in order to improve her speed and
accuracy.
- Current Affairs: Keeping track of daily news and making notes on current affairs played a
considerable role in her success in the IAS exam.
- Revision: She limited the study materials and revised the same multiple times.
- Balanced Lifestyle: Finally, she maintained a balanced lifestyle by incorporating regular
exercise and meditation to manage stress.
2) How Shruti Sharma (2021-22 topper) secured AIR 1 in IAS exam?
Shruti Sharma, the topper of the IAS exam, 2021 is an alumnus of St. Stephens College, Delhi, and
hails from Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. She pursued her Postgraduation from Delhi School of Economics. She
had always wanted to serve society in one way or another and saw IAS services with the most scope of
serving the underprivileged and therefore decided to pursue civil services.
She has achieved rank 1 as a result of her hard work and perseverance. Her story should serve as
motivation to anyone who has failed this exam. She also failed in her first attempt, but later came
back strong in her second attempt and secured Rank 1. In her first attempt, she had taken the mains
exam in Hindi medium and she missed the interview call by just 1 mark which served as a motivation
to work even harder. She learned from her mistakes and achieved the feat of all India topper in the
UPSC CSE 2021 exam.
During her preparation, her strategy followed-
- Focus on NCERTS: Shruti Sharma began her IAS preparation 4 years ago by reading and
understanding NCERTs.
- Strong hold on Current Affairs: Her strategy was to focus on current affairs which she
covered by reading newspapers and making her own notes.
- Answer writing practice: She gave equal importance to answer writing, which is the most
important aspect to clear the IAS exam.
- Judicious use of the Internet: She extensively used the internet to enrich her notes
while seldom using social media.
- Not limit herself with study hours: She did not believe in counting the number of hours
while studying but rather focused on the quality of her studies.
- Limited resources with multiple revisions: She stressed on having limited study
resources, maximum revision, practice tests, and solving-analyzing previous year’s question
papers.
3) How Shubham Kumar (2020-21 topper) could secure an AIR-1?
Shubham started his preparation in 2017 and secured AIR-1 in his 3rd attempt. He believes in saying
''Where there is a will, there is the way". His father and his commitment to serve people were the
source of his motivation.
During his preparation, his strategy followed-
- Working on basics.
- Batching mock tests for prelims and mains in his daily study plan.
- A wise selection of optional (scored 320/500).
- Newspaper reading for current affairs part.
- Focus on revision.
He suggests UPSC aspirants believe in themselves, make a friend circle of his/her fellow aspirants
stay motivated and for positive peer pressure, practice mock tests regularly, wise selection of
optional subject and during revision time not to read new books.
4) How Kanishak Kataria (2018-19 Topper) Could Secure an AIR-1?
Although each one of us thinks that it was his first attempt, he had already appeared in UPSC CSE
examination in 2014 and could not qualify. So, technically this was his second attempt.
What was different this time?
Earlier (2014), his dad had filled up his form without telling him and he had little motivation and
no vision for CSE. This time (2017) he himself decided to clear this exam or in other words he had
enough motivation.
Secondly, before commencing his UPSC preparation he had identified his strengths and weaknesses
beforehand so as to devise a strategy that would work for him.
He also talks about filtering out the relevant information from the ocean of data available in the
market and internet. After all, to get a top rank one must know what not to study.
If one could observe, Kanishak has scored a remarkable 360+ marks out of 500 in his Mathematics
optional alone. He chose Mathematics as his optional because it was logical, scientific, static
(with no current affairs involved) and lastly, he knew he could never get bored of Math. One can
gauge that he could secure All-India Rank 1 because he chose the right optional.
5) How Anudeep Durishetty (2017-18 Topper) Could Secure an AIR-1?
Anudeep Durishetty failed UPSC CSE 2016.
He was absolutely shattered by his marks and blamed almost everyone except himself for his defeat. He
became lethargic, timid, under confident and even dumped his books in a corner.
Who could knew, that his marks would become his only motivation that drove him to rank
1?
His marks in 2016 are as follows:
If one observes deeply, one could understand that Anudeep was nowhere near the cut off (565 marks
only).
After he bounced back (after 9 months) he observed that he was not able to complete the paper in
time. So, his focus was just on completing the paper in those 3 hours and not All-India rank 1. He
practiced and practiced hard. Slowly and gradually, he started completing the paper on time.
And in 2017, the result came out and all the hard work paid its due.
