Shubham Kumar: Strategy and Notes for UPSC(CSE)

2022-12-13 16:04:11 These are the guidelines shared by Kanishak Kataria Sir in 2019. I found it very useful while filing DAF. Kindly go through it. I shared this last year also


Few pointers for filling the DAF:

• Don’t fill anything you are not ready to prepare later.

• Don’t show off achievements or write false hobbies/interests. One of the biggest blunder you can commit in filling the DAF.

• Write your achievements and interests concisely instead of filling paragraphs. Interests etc. should be legible in a single glance. Board doesn’t spend too much time looking into each and every aspect of your DAF. First impression is very critical.

• Limit the hobbies to maximum 3 - more than this will dilute the points and also create headache for you later as you will have to prepare all of them.

• In case of multiple achievements only write those which are most attractive (and can beat other smaller one). Example: University topper need not write about being CBSE 10th topper

• Govt scholarships/fellowships should be written like NTSE, KVPY etc

• Clearly mention your degree like Minor and Honours component. You wouldn’t want the board to misinterpret your graduation domain and ask you irrelevant questions!

• Do not force information where it’s not applicable. It’s perfectly fine to leave some columns. For eg. if you are not into sports, do not write it.

• Write specific interest and hobbies instead of general ones. For eg. if you are into dancing, mention specific dance form instead of merely writing “Dancing” as your hobby. You will end up providing a very big spectrum to the board to ask questions from.

• Writing internship experience under the “jobs” section - completely up to you. But if you write it, you should be ready to justify it. As mentioned earlier, do not force information in the DAF.

• There is a thin line between less info and excessive info in the DAF. If you try to show off and have an information overload, believe me you will have lot of trouble preparing for the interview. Each and every word in your DAF is a loose thread which can form a potential question. Open / Comment

2022-12-13 16:02:03 This is from my DAF
I’m sharing this only for reference.

Points to keep in mind while filing DAF

1. Write maximum 2-3 hobbies. In CSE 2019 I wrote 2, in CSE 2020 I wrote only 1

2. Don’t overcrowd your DAF. Keep it simple

3. Mention those things only in which you have confidence and which you think have helped you in becoming what you are now. So basically things which have contributed positively to your personality

4. Keep the formatting simple, uniform and clean Open / Comment

2022-12-13 15:59:03 Finally the result of Mains 2022 came after so much of anticipation. It may have made some people happy and at least 4 times than that unhappy and many may start loosing hope.

First of all congratulations to those who have gotten interview call. Looking at the vacancies and number of being called for personality test, the probability of getting selected is better as compared to previous years.

To all those serious aspirants who had put lot of hard work and sweat to this examination, I would say- DON’T LOOSE HOPE. If not this year, may be stars will align for you next year.

The only thing in our control is our ability to fight back, our ability to work hard and our ability to maximise our probability for selection. No one can ever say for sure that he/she will get selected - That’s the unpredictability of UPSC exam that everyone has to go through.

After every stage of UPSC exam, some people have to decide and take a tough call- whether to stop the preparation, or continue the preparation or continue with some work. Discuss with your friends and family but this decision has to be yours, nobody knows you better than you.

Like mains, interview also demands preparation but in different way. Will be sharing some inputs soon

Best wishes !! Open / Comment

2022-12-06 15:05:16 WR-CSM-2022-061222-ENG.pdf Open / Comment

2022-12-06 15:05:15 Mains result 2022 Open / Comment

2022-09-25 19:55:01 Finally Mains 2022 is over.

Writing mains is like burning your own blood. It ages you. Each day of exam is a hurdle in itself.

It is always a relief and satisfying feeling after a long battle that mains aspirants has to go through after every Mains.

Those who have written Mains would realise how draining the exam is. Whatever the result may be, the experience of writing mains makes you more Mature and a better person- you learn to survive the pressure, fight your weakness, and also you learn to best utilise your limited knowledge !!

Take some break and have a positive mindset !! The journey of becoming a civil servant starts not after the result but from the preparation days itself !!

Few days ago, I requested everyone to share some pictures/videos to showcase the struggle faced by every aspirant. Team AAROH (Official band of LBSNAA) has come up with the music video titled ‘UMMEED’ - Dedicated to all aapirants !! Enjoy the song





Description of the song:

"This song represents the struggle and sacrifice made by each Aspirant for her / his dream, a dream to Serve”

It's not always possible to succeed; however, it's important that we all TRIED, it's important that we all DREAMT and HOPED.

अच्छा एक इनसान बनने की उम्मीद..
कभी हार ना मानने की उम्मीद..
एक नए सुबह एक नए सूरज कि उम्मीद..
उम्मीदवारों की उम्मीद

Enjoy the Journey!!

Best wishes Open / Comment

2022-09-25 15:45:09 Anthro paper2 Open / Comment

2022-09-25 10:01:10 Anthropology Optional Paper 1 Open / Comment

2022-09-19 12:17:57 Optional Strategy

I’m sharing what I followed in these 5 days which one gets after GS papers

1) Studying for 10-12 hours: at this point more hard-work/revision is directly proportional to marks.

2) Revising Optional thrice - 1st revision in 3 days, 2nd revision next 2 days, 3rd revision after language paper

3) Writing 3 hours test: Write test (any paper- paper 1 or paper 2) on 2nd or 3rd day.

I wrote 2018 PYQ paper (during 2020 attempt) of Anthropology paper 1 on 3rd day. Till this time I was able to revise whole paper 1 and half paper 2 (1st revision). I would suggest you to write 2020 paper for 2022 mains.

It serves 2 purpose-

a) Generally we get out of touch with optional due to minimum 12-15 days of only GS studies. Writing tests boost confidence and prepare us well for real exam

b) Increases your efficiency of revision - generally we become complacent and revise optional in very relax way for first 2 days and then realise that crucial time could have been better utilised (I realised this during 2019 mains)

4) Don’t study anything new (topics that you had left or any new examples/thinkers)

Even if you study now, you won’t be able to write in exam. Instead focus on their topics where return is maximum.

[In 2019 mains, I devoted 1 entire day to read archeology, thinking that I will write something in real exam. In real exam I was not able to attempt any single question from archeology (I was lucky no compulsory questions were asked from this topic). I had basic knowledge to cover for some compulsory questions from this topic.]

Best wishes for remaining mains papers !!

Shubham Kumar
-Views are personal Open / Comment

2022-09-19 11:45:13 I hope that those who are writing this year’s mains are preparing well for their optional and language paper.

Going through papers I realised that GS 4 was extremely lengthy and overall the questions are becoming more and more analytical-
1) many questions were asked directly from syllabus
2) few from current affairs
3) some very rare topics from syllabus
4) some factual and random questions. (Only this part is not under your control)

You should realise that performance in Essay and GS is very relative. If the questions were tough or paper was lengthy then it was for everyone. So always your relative performance matters and not the absolute

In 2020 mains, after GS papers, I actually was not satisfied with my performance as I knew that I won’t be able to improve marks in GS + Essay combined as compared to 2019 attempt (and it did came true 2019 I had got 560 and in 2020 attempt 558)

After GS 4 exam I felt that this attempt has gone waste as I was not able to deliver better as compared to 2019 attempt

After some crying after GS 4 exam that evening I realised that if I’m able to score well in optional and interview combined then there is decent probability to get into top 70. (I almost improved 90 marks in this)

Some insights and suggestions

1) Forget about what has happened in GS and Essay. It will unnecessarily impact your performance in optional.

For GS, If you have prepared well, practiced answer writing and attempted almost all questions in real exam, you can get minimum 115+ in essay and 360+ in GS.

From here, If you are able to score 270+ in optional and 180+ in interview, there is enough probability that you will get into the list. So entire focus of yours should shift towards optional

2) Utilise these 5 days well. After a certain point, performance in optional defends upon how well you are able to reproduce facts/data/thinkers in exam. This depends upon how well you have revised and revision requires time (More on this later)

3) Language paper: don’t ignore it. Every year many people are not able to clear it. So go through PYQ papers if you haven’t till now, see model answers of last 2 years minimum, see the types of questions being asked, rote learn few things like opposite words, idioms, writing essays on common topics etc

Best wishes !!

Shubham Kumar
views are personal Open / Comment