SHREYANS KUMAT UPSC 2022-23 Rank-4

CANDIDATE PROFILE-

FAMILY AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Shreyans did Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay. From there he got a job through campus placement where he worked for two years and started understanding the UPSC CSE syllabus while working to make sure if he was able to meet the requirements of the exam or not.

Before quitting his job completely and starting preparation for UPSC, he did proper research to understand the UPSC CSE syllabus and even read a few major reference books to understand whether he was able to grasp them or not. This is very valuable advice to those aspirants who are planning to quit their job for UPSC preparation, first understand and get to know the exam properly.

WHY CIVIL SERVICES

While working as a Mechanical Engineer Shreyans was looking for a more meaningful and fulfilling life. His desire to do something big in life prompted him toward Civil Services. Also, his grandfather’s brother was an IAS officer who inspired him to go for Civil Services if he wanted a meaningful life and a job with satisfaction.

NUMBER OF ATTEMPTS

Shreyans was able to crack UPSC CSE in his very first attempt with two years of preparation before sitting for UPSC CSE in 2018.

STUDY PLAN AND SCHEDULE

Initially, Shreyans joined Vajiram and Ravi Coaching Institute which helped him understand the basic mechanism of exam and preparation. After that, he started preparing his own notes from various online sources. He thoroughly researched previous years' question papers to understand the pattern of questions asked by UPSC.

PRELIMS STRATEGY & BOOKLIST

• STRATEGY

Shreyans has suggested subject wise strategy for all subjects;

• Geography- He covered NCERTs first and prepared notes from NCERTs, for gaining more clarity on topics he took the help of group discussions with friends. For maps, he used to study maps from time to time and also solved STUDYIQ map-based questions.
• Polity- He did multiple revisions of Laxmikant and polity class notes, prepared notes for constitutional and non-constitutional bodies and paid special attention to Supreme Court and High Court judgements. For the dynamic portion, he followed current affairs magazines to stay updated.
• Economy- Watched Mrunal’s video on the economy while he was still working then he covered NCERTs and class notes to gain clarity on topics. He mostly followed only the basics of each topic without analysing anything too deeply. Previous Year Question Papers and group discussions were helpful to clear doubts.
• Modern History- Got an idea of a basic timeline with help of NCERT and an online 3 hours-long crash course on Modern History. Supplemented with Vajiram Yellow books and Vajiram's Parmar sir’s notes. Prepared list of Governors and Viceroys and all remaining topics were covered from Spectrum.
• Ancient, Medieval and Art & Culture – He did multiple revisions of Tamilnadu State Board books and Fine Art NCERT and Jain Sir Notes. He prepared a timeline of events and reigns of ancient India and analysed the previous year's question paper thoroughly to identify important topics.
• Environment and Ecology- He covered important topics from Shankar and Vajiram's notes and supplemented them with current affairs. For Reserves, National Park, etc. he tried remembering Biosphere Reserves, Ramsar Sites and a Few Major National Parks through Maps. All these really helped him in option elimination during Prelims.He also, went through the websites of UNDP, UNEP, World Bank, etc. to cover the initiatives in India.
• Science & Tech- He followed NCERT, only Applied Science chapters (at end of the book). He followed class notes by Vinoy Sir, Rahul Sir and Bindu Ma’am (Vajiram). He covered current affairs from Vision Monthly Magazine and IAS Parliament Yearly Compilation. Besides this, he also took the help of Google and YouTube videos for certain important topics.
• He followed different test series along with Vajiram and Ravi; Vision IAS from the market, 1–2 random full-length tests from Insights of ForumIAS for a change.

BOOKLIST-

MAINS STRATEGY & BOOKLIST

STRATEGY

• For mains his main focus was on answer writing and collecting fodder points for answer writing.
• For answer writing practice Shreyans puts very much stress on collecting fodder points and noting them down on an A4 size paper.
• As per him for every topic, you need a maximum of 500 words of details because you do not need to write more than that for an answer in exams.
• Moreover, having your own notes ready on different topics helps you to revise them quickly and it is also easy to recall.

BOOKLIST-

ANSWER WRITING APPROACH-

As Shreyans suggests for writing an answer you need to know a few basic things about any topic and they are, - causes/reason, - happenings and- consequences of a particular event are crucial. That will help you prepare most of your answers as well as the notes you need. Mapwork can also be easily incorporated into the answers to enhance the quality of answers.

As Shreyans suggests,

• Different parts and sub-parts of the answer must be clearly visible and readable
• Headings must be crisp and concise (preferably use same phrase as asked in the question)
• Headings can be highlighted using a box or underline
• Underlining important words as examiner generally goes through the answer vertically rather than reading every point, underlining makes his/her life easier
• Diagrams/Maps/SmartArts should be added as and when needed to break the monotony of the answer sheet and to keep it interesting
• Spacing between lines and paragraphs, alignment and indentation should be proper to make your answer look well organised.

ESSAY –

As per Shreyans, no special preparation is required for essays. The materials required to write an essay get covered while studying GS papers. He developed his essay writing skills by writing more and more essays at regular intervals.

While writing an essay, he used to take around 15 minutes to prepare a basic framework of the essay before starting to write. He suggests aspirants to use PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) approach and make their essay multidimensional.

OPTIONAL PAPERS STRATEGY & BOOKLIST-

STRATEGY

After finalizing Anthropology as his optional for Civil Services examination, he tried to cover different aspects in order to complete its preparation before Mains 2018.

• He went through thebasic books and coaching class notes to create a basic understanding of the subject
• Tried to create exhaustive question bank by combining syllabus and previous year question papers
• Created notes in the form of Question-Answers using Basic books, Coaching Notes, Websites, IGNOU Material, etc. so that maximum points can be covered
• Repeated revisions and Daily Answer Writing Practice (between Prelims and Mains) to improve time management and presentation skills
• Full length test practice to ensure proper selection in the final exam.

To begin with, he joined Vaid’s ICS (in Delhi) and got basic books in June 2017. He had planned to complete the first iteration of optional notes preparation by December 2017.60% of Anthropology syllabus was covered in class and study material was provided for the rest. A good approach he learnedthere was to break up each topic in a set of questions and write answers for them.By November 2018, he created basic notes in Q&A format and got it corrected from the institute.

BOOKLIST

INTERVIEW STAGE-

For interview round Shreyans gives equal importance to current affairs and doing a proper research on yourself also that is what you have mentioned in your DAF. Self-analysis is very helpful to answer the question why you want to become a Civil Servant. You must present your-self as you are and you must not try to pretend more than who you are.

He was asked questions about the good qualities of his best friend and how he will bring his friend into the mainstream if he joined a terrorist organisation.