Myself V. P. Gautam and I secured 138th rank in civil service exam. I hail from a small town called Oddanchatram in central Tamil Nadu. But, I managed to get good quality education, thanks to my parents and my school (Christian Matriculation school, Oddanchatram). My father V.Palanichamy is an advocate and my mother R.Kasthuri is a teacher in a government school. It was just awesome to be with family when I first came to know that I would be getting IAS. My father was the one who inspired me to take up the civil services. He gave me immense liberty, which allowed me to develop as a free thinker and an independent individual. My dad is my friend, philosopher and guide. My mother was the one who backed me during setbacks.

I started fully fledged preparations after finishing my U.G. in 2012. Though I attended coaching at the Shankar IAS academy, I never preferred handmade coaching class notes (neither from my academy nor from Delhi). I just listened to the classes and made my own notes and value added to them. I preferred original sources and standard books, both for my GS and optional. But the classes helped me in giving valuable info and also initiated good chains of thought through classroom interactions.

My best all-in-all source for GS was ‘The Hindu’. There is nothing in the world like a newspaper, as it throws light on multiple subjects simultaneously, which allows inter-subject connection in the mindmap. Newspapers are a treasury of information. Reading them helped me garner many ‘fodder points’ which I could use for any question in the examination. This made me confident in GS and I had the mentality to face any question. I feel being accomplished in newspaper reading was a great boon to me and that alone resulted in my high GS scores. I, for one, used to spend 3-4 hours for newspaper reading alone.

While reading newspaper, try to connect it with the conventional areas. For economics and international affairs, ‘The Hindu’ was my most important source. I tried reading 2-3 newspapers (like Indian express, Times of India, in addition to ‘The Hindu’) but I found this to be a futile exercise and hence stuck with ‘The Hindu’.

I prefer conventional books, original conventional books are more readable and they help you in shaping opinions on your own. In this information era, the most difficult thing is to pick out the necessary information from the huge chunk of data available. It is better to restrict your time on the internet. Stick to a few sites like mrunal.org, prs, idsa. I would suggest not to spend more than 1-2 hours on the internet, on a daily basis. An internet is an ocean where you can get lost.

I would suggest preparing your own notes from the Hindu. Surf the net only in those areas where you need more background information about a news item. The students should make sure that they should maintain the minimum required tempo(at least put in 4-5 hours of work ; do the minimum necessary things like reading newspaper, etc.) even during the worst phases. Any person might feel stress and pressure during the course of preparation. Even when you are fully equipped to face the exam, you may feel short on confidence and self doubts may appear. If we are able to cross these momentary stints of self doubts, then success is not far off.

For me, the best way to fight bad moods was to write CSAT(paper-II) mock tests(during my prelims preparation) and to read current affairs(during mains prep) and i suggest taking up a subject which you really love.

I wrote quite a few essays from previous year CSE question papers for practice. This helped in making sure that we are able to write at least 15 pages on a given topic. This practice is essential to ensure that you don’t run out of points during the exam.

I wrote mostly in paragraphs. For a very few questions, I wrote in bullets. I’d suggest following an appropriate format based on the nature and type of the question. I followed the “introduction-body-conclusion” format for most questions. I had the habit of writing that way and hence followed the same in the exams.

Immediately after my prelims, I started writing answer. We had a team and we used to write answers for at least 2 questions everyday and discuss the points among ourselves. The writing practice is essential to summon whatever you know at the right time and right place.

I attended quite a few interviews. Some mock interviews were similar to the official while some were not. Mock interviews can help you face unexpected situations and serve as an indicator to what type of questions might be asked to you, especially in the bio-data area. The mock interview with Mr.Shylendra Babu IPS(ADGP Coast Guard, Tamil Nadu) really helped, both during my IFS and Civil services interviews.

I entered this field because i think work is not merely for monetary purposes. As Marx says, work is an important avenue for expression of one’s personality. I feel that IAS can offer me that chance to express my personality. Moreover, unlike several jobs, I, as an IAS, will clearly know for what and for whom I work. The private sector doesn’t give me enough power (ability to influence people’s lives) as the civil service. The amplification factor is high in civil services and my good work will be reflected in a positive way in the lives of thousands of people.

Given that I believe in my talent, I’d like to use it where it matters the most. 80% of my interview was based on my profile; I was the students’ President in my college (College of Engineering Guindy); So, most questions were based on my presidency, student politics, student elections, etc. Initially, I felt that the members were not allowing me to complete my answer. So, I continued to talk despite the chair saying ‘ok’ implying me to stop; then he explicitly pronounced a ‘stop’; This was an unpleasant experience, but fortunately it did not affect me psychologically. I thereon started answering in a short and concise manner.

The members were all enthusiastic and it seemed to me that they were impressed with what I delivered. But the chair was expressionless, did not ask a lot of questions and so I did not know if he really liked my performance. Overall, I felt I did okay. I could’ve done much better. I also found the interview to be very profile based, and it did not have much diversity of questions like my IFS interview.