IAS Rank 10 :Ujjwal Priyank, Socilogy Optional, Patna Boy, 3rd attempt, detailed strategy

 

Foreword by Neyawn

When we started the academy almost a decade ago – we started with Mains Guidance Program. I had then asked people who had never gotten an Interview call to join us. 86 people had joined in, and 74 of them got an Interview call.

I hadn’t announced I was going to be a part of it – back then, I was kinda popular and I did not want people to join the academy just by my name. I had maintained a secret identity, and did not want to blow my cover. Not that I loved the Academy less, but I loved my anonymity more.[1]

The second batch more than 300 folks joined, after this dude kinda promoted us. And our first rank 10 was this dude.

And for someone reason Rank 10 were always folks who loved Forum.

So when Priyank got Rank 10, I got a message from this dude saying It was great that Rank 10 was from Forum ( again ) and Patna Center (again).

Here is Priyank’s unfiltered journey to Rank 10.

When I last spoke to Priyank, I asked him how his Simulator Rank was. He had 300ish rank in Simulator this year. A week later, he was Rank 10 – and would never have to write – Simulators or Prelims again!

This is his story.

In his words.

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My Civil Services Preparation journey

by

UJJWAL PRIYANK

My name is Ujjwal Priyank. I have secured Rank 10 in CSE 2025. I am from Patna, Bihar. My optional is Sociology. I completed my 10th grade from Gyan Niketan, Patna, with 10 CGPA. Then, I pursued my 12th grade from St. Michael’s High School, Patna, where I achieved 96%.
I was born and raised in Patna. I come from a middle class background with no prior representation in government services.

My family

My household has been very small, consisting of just 2 members; me and my mother.
I completed B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from JECRC University, Jaipur. I cleared JEE Mains 2018, but not JEE Advanced 2018. I got 50% scholarship in my graduation based on my 12th grade marks.

I started earning in my 3rd semester as I worked as an online freelancer. It started with teaching Chemistry at Meritnation, an ed-Tech platform in 2019. In the next few months, Covid lockdown happened, which provided me the time to work and earn more. I later worked as a science scriptwriter at Embibe for almost 3 years, where my mission was to turn boring concepts into compelling animated narratives that capture a child’s imagination.
I had heard of UPSC since my school days. It was always portrayed as the most difficult examination in India, which had the potential to drastically change not only one’s own life, but also to empower others.

The JEE pain

When I couldn’t qualify in JEE Advanced (probably the second toughest), my inner self wanted to prove itself by qualifying in the toughest examination. It was a heartfelt impulse driven by emotions.

My journey began after I completed my graduation in July 2022. Prior to it, I had read a little bit of Laxmikant and Bipan Chandra in my college, but I cannot claim it as a part of my preparation .
This was my third attempt in which I secured AIR 10.

I could reach the Interview stage in my very first attempt, but couldn’t see my name in the final “holy” PDF. I hadn’t performed that well in the Mains as my written score was just 752! Certainly, my answer lagged in QUALITY CONTENT. I had tried to cover the static well, but didn’t have a stronghold on linking it to current affairs.

Could not clear prelims in second attempt

In my second attempt, I couldn’t clear prelims. That was a low moment, and I will admit that I again lagged in practising MCQs. It felt like I was anchored at the bottom of the deep sea, with the crushing pressure making escape impossible.

Patience and faith in Shri Krishna acted as my lifeline. I always manifested that one day I will get to see my name in the holy PDF. But, when I saw the final result on 06.03.2026, I couldn’t believe that my name was in 10th position. I thought I was in a dream, and felt like that “7 crore” moment at KBC. Honestly, I couldn’t sleep that night, fearing what if I get to know tomorrow that it was a dream.

This journey has taught me the essence of ‘nishkama karma’. We should perform one’s duty selflessly, without attachment to the results. Our efforts should be focused on duty rather than the “fruits” of success or failure. It will provide mental balance and also teach us humility.

The key to prelims

Prelims is becoming more difficult as the nature of questions that are being asked is evolving every year.

I believe that reading and learning the concept is one thing, while performing in the paper is a separate thing. The key to Prelims, I believe, is analysing PYQs, revising static multiple times, and then practising Mocks to develop the aptitude to solve MCQs.

I prepared entirely from my home in Patna. I was NOT enrolled in any Foundation or Optional course. I started with the static subjects, and took help from the online available resources.

My Booklist

Polity:
Started with Class 11 NCERT – Indian Constitution at Work & Political Theory (important for basics and understanding concepts asked in Pre)
Laxmikant – No notes made from it

Geography:
Class 11 NCERT – Made notes
Read Class 12 NCERT, but not in detail
Needs to be supplemented with Mapping and Places in News

History:
RS Sharma for Ancient
Satish Chandra for Medieval
Bipan Chandra for Modern
Art & Culture: Nitin Singhania
Made quick notes of imp topics for revision

Economics:
I had prior idea of the subject in class 12 as it was my optional
Nitin Singhania sir book for Economics
Current affairs need to be tracked.

Environment + S&T:
High impact of Current Affairs
Initially, I used magazines and compilations; Later on I read Indian express(IE) daily in my 3rd attempt. Also, I referred to Sarrthi IAS content.

IR:
Most interesting: No book
IE + Followed Firstpost (Palaki Sharma)

Having a stronghold on static is much required. There is almost no scope of committing mistakes in frequently repeated themes. Thus, practising more and more MOCKs is always beneficial.

Followed ForumIAS religiously

I religiously followed ForumIAS Simulator in my third attempt (2025) and analysed each of the papers. They helped me revise the topics as well as the analysis of my performance helped me identify my weakness and learn new topics (quite a few of which were reflected in actual Pre 2025).

This time when I came back home and tallied with various answer keys I was scoring 110+ in GS, and I started preparing for the Mains from the very next day without any suspicion or doubt. I don’t know my actual score till date (30.04.2026) as I have qualified for both CSE and IFoS. This I believe is a result of the rigorous practice which I did in a disciplined way with ForumIAS.

My take on CSAT & strategy

CSAT has never been a challenge for me in all my attempts. To be honest, I never read especially for CSAT. I was always confident of scoring more than 67, and was able to. So I may not be the best person to guide people on this.

My strategy was to solve an optimal 45 to 50 questions. My accuracy in Maths and Reasoning used to be >80%. I also tried to solve more and more Comprehensions to maximize my attempt. I used to go through the PYQs a few days before the exam, to get used to frequently repeated questions, and revise the method to solve them.

In the 2023 attempt, when the math questions were quite tricky, and I found it difficult to solve many, I quickly shifted to Comprehensions. That helped me maximise my attempt, and score quite well above the expected 67.

Thus, I never remained rigid in my attitude. It is just a qualifying paper. Therefore, I never got stuck on one question or took it to my EGO.

I just tried to find questions which I could solve, but never tried to ignore questions from one particular section (say Comprehension or Reasoning). It’s not a MATH paper, it’s CSAT!!

Time Management & Paper Solving Strategy

My time management evolved with each passing simulator and mocks that I appeared in.

In GS paper, I generally took 3 rounds to solve the paper. In the first round, I marked the OMR for those questions which I was sure of (45 to 50 mins). Meanwhile, I used to mark the questions where I was confused between 2 options. In the second round, I took the next 30 to 40 minutes to mark such questions on the OMR.

In the last 20 to 30 minutes, I used to take an educated guess for questions where I could eliminate only one option. This skill developed with PRACTISE, as I had always aimed to solve the maximum number of questions.

I used to skip only those questions where I was completely clueless of the topic or even the options didn’t give much clue to help me eliminate.

In my first 2 attempts, I had solved almost 85 questions. However, in my third attempt, I solved about 94 questions. I feel that this is necessary to score well above the cutoff.

Most of the time, the fear is more in our mind. If you are able to strongly figure out an option as the answer to a question, please fill the OMR. I made a mistake of not filling the OMR for 2 questions in Pre 2024 (aging population and top cocoa producer), as I feared being wrong. But later on, I found that the option which I had marked in the question paper was actually correct. Had I marked those two in the OMR, and not simply left it, I could’ve cleared Pre. Thus, taking calculated risk in Pre is necessary.

For CSAT there was no such round-wise strategy. I kept a track of time, and made sure that I am able to solve the optimal number of questions as per my target.

Using Youtube wisely

Youtube was an important part of my preparation. I subscribed to Firstpost for daily news. Watching short wildlife documentaries helped me learn about the environment.

Referred to PIB portal for collecting accurate and official data to quote in Mains.

I also utilized ChatGPT for getting a gist of pdf OR to get information on a topic in a summarised way.

Preparation for Mains – GS Papers

GS paper 1 is the most static out of the 4 GS papers. I referred to the Prelims note of History and Geography for the Mains as well. I just tried to extract and learn a few extra examples for every topic in the syllabus or asked in previous years.

I also kept a track of Current affairs to link the question to its significance in the contemporary time. For example, Harappa with NMHC in Lothal, Tsunami with recent Kamchatka peninsula, etc. Using diagrams and maps is very crucial for effective presentation.

For Society questions, my optional helped me a lot. I tried to give a technical introduction by quoting the thinkers. Also, it is required to showcase our understanding of the topic. So I tried to quote examples from daily life, and not just generic pointers.

I read the model answers of the MGP test series a lot to extract value addition and add new data to my notes. Topper answer copies also helped me improve my structure and presentation.

My GS 3 strategy

GS paper 3 has a humungous syllabus, and overlaps with the current affairs a lot.

I had made notes for topics that are given in the syllabus. Later on, I made value addition for Economics, Agriculture and Disaster management. This was based on topics which have been in news and are related to syllabus in any way possible.

I wrote a few keywords or examples from the newspaper (Explained or Editorial page) in my notes. I always try to read any article or topic in such a way that I have to extract data that can be used in an answer. So remembering everything is not possible. I prioritised which data holds more value (if it comes from Economic survey or govt documents).

Environment and Sci&Tech are difficult sections. But, keeping a track of topics in news (like space missions, climate change initiative, COPs) are bare minimum that needs to be done. We need to practise answer writing so that we can at least learn to address random topics. Questions that are being asked in Test series give a hint of topics which need to be prepared in detail.

For Internal Security, I analyzed the PYQs of the past 10 years and made 2 pager notes for frequently related topics (like LWE, North east insurgency, etc). We need to keep the topic updated with ongoing initiatives and data.

GS Paper IV

GS 4 or Ethics has always shined as one of my strengths in the Mains exam. I have been fortunate enough to score 125+ in both my attempts.

I didn’t read any books for GS4. I picked up the syllabus, extracted the list of keywords which are provided, and made notes on A4 sheets for each keyword, including definition, examples and a few micro diagrams. This was all I did. The greater challenge was to reproduce my knowledge on paper.

I wrote answers for GS 4 and tried to remain as original and creative as possible. I gave examples from mythological stories, used inspirational figures from history, and quoted teachings from spiritual texts (which I have read or listened to). I kept my answers to the points and tried to incorporate a few micro diagrams in questions related to EI or corporate governance. Also, some examples from the current era can also be used such as sportsperson (Kohli, paralympic players, Shital Devi), leadership (Sudha Murty, Ratan Tata) and quoting stories of inspirational figures (Anand Kumar Super 30, etc).

Completing the paper is itself a challenge

Completing the paper is also a challenge as we have to read lengthy case studies before writing. So, I made ready-made frameworks for frequently repeated themes, so that I can save my time on thinking and simply write the generic points. I used to modify the example and names of the characters as per the question’s demand. This helped me complete the paper in both of my attempts.

This time, I had the notes from the previous attempt. I thought of adding quotes to each topic so that I can write an intro/ conclusion using them.

To be honest, I didn’t follow any teacher or faculty from any institution. I kept the answers logical and to the point. However, I did read a few topper’s copies to get an idea of the demand of the paper.

Balance is the key

The Mains examination requires balancing 9 different papers which consist of a variety of subjects. But, I feel that Essay and Ethics are low hanging fruits. They require less time to prepare, but give better results.

Similarly optional carries 500 marks, and it is required to score at least 270 to 280 in it, to get our name in the final PDF. So I dedicated a large portion of my day to Socio for value addition and preparing topics in detail.

My preparation of static subjects have been largely integrated for Pre and Mains. So I just used to revise through my notes before writing tests. I worked on collecting data and facts to quote in my GS answers, and stuck to the syllabus and PYQs.

I had not practised much answer writing before I cleared my first Pre in 2023. But, I was never afraid of writing, so the first thing which I did after clearing first Pre was to enroll in MGP at ForumIAS.

I identified that the three pillars of a decent answer are: Content, Structure & Presentation, Effective utilization of space and time.

MGP feedback was quite helpful

Time management was an issue for me during Mains as I wrote slowly. So in both of my Mains, I enrolled in MGP at ForumIAS. With each passing test, I worked on the feedback and integrated the learnings from my previous tests to write a better answer.

Writing offline tests is important

I sincerely wrote all the tests at the offline PATNA centre to ensure discipline and consistency. I believe that if a sportsperson has to prepare for the upcoming match, he will prefer to practise in the nets and not on the online simulator. Similarly, I wanted to write in an atmosphere which would be like an examination hall, and not in the comfort of my home.

With practice, I noticed that I was able to address the questions in a better way by identifying the subparts. I developed a better structure that helped me fill the pages effectively and complete the answers on time. I tried to by-heart hundreds of data and examples that I can use in my answers. I wrote close to 40 FLTs in the gap between Pre and Mains.

I even have saved my pen refills

The pen I used

I used Linc Ocean gel to write, and have collected all the pens which I used to write in my 2025 attempt. It is a difficult process, but that’s how we sail through.

Thus, we must get out of the Inertia of writing. Once we cover the syllabus of any of the subjects, we should start practising answer writing. I feel that the first few would not be good at all, but we should read topper copies and learn how they have structured their answers. After writing a few more, we should get it evaluated by someone who we believe in, whether our mentors, faculty, etc. I think that whether we write rubbish or pearls, we must write. Practice and consistency is the key to writing a better answer.

Analysing the answers that we wrote, then reading model answers, and finally getting the value addition on topics which were asked, is sine qua none.

298 in Sociology 
I scored 156 in Socio Paper 1 and 142 in Socio Paper 2 in my third attempt. This time I scored a total of 298 as against 253 in my first attempt. Socio has a huge role in my rank.

1. I tried to be well versed with topics in the syllabus. Eg – prepare proper intro/ definition of key terms first. I had a PYQ book on socio. Refer to last 8-9 years question. This will let you know which topics are more important and repetitive.

2. I quoted valid thinker names in definition or intro. Such as Sorokin for Social mobility.

3. I never overloaded my arguments with thinkers which are not necessary. I kept 2-3 thinkers in an answer if I knew. Otherwise in certain questions even if you write 1 genuine argument, it is fine.

4. I referred to IGNOU socio notes for value addition. Sometimes used ChatGPT for extracting some unique perspective which is not given in Nitin Sangwan sir book. Try to find 1-2 in every topic.

5. I enrolled in ATS Socio at ForumIAS and used the model answers for value addition. I extracted a few new perspectives and added it to my notes.

Note: You cannot remember everything. Just pick up things which are interesting for you, and you can relate with.

1. Finally, reading Topper Answers is necessary – anyone whose writing style you can relate to. That helped me structure my answers.

I was lucky to come to know about ForumIAS in my early attempt

I came to know about MGP from the UPSC 2022 toppers’ interview. Most of them recommended MGP for Mains, and so I joined MGP after clearing Pre in June 2023. I was enrolled in Mains Guidance Programme (MGP) 2023 and 2025
ATS Sociology 2023 and 2025
PTS simulator 2025

The guidance programs were quite rich in content as well as the questions were in sync with the demand of the actual exam. Many themes from the simulator got reflected in the pre 2025. The Simulators helped me develop the aptitude for solving the paper with higher accuracy on the actual day. As my performance improved with every test, it also gave me confidence.

One stop solution for Mains

For Mains, MGP was a one stop solution. The standard of questions was close to actual paper, and the model answers acted as a source of value addition for me. It helped me complete the paper on time with a well structured answer. The fact that I completed all the papers on time in both my attempts was a result of rigorous practice which I did at Forum IAS. The constructive feedback and mentorship sessions helped me improve a lot.

A note of thanks to Neyawn

I used to read emails received from Neyawn. The real life stories of perseverance and determination which he used to share, gave me confidence that the journey may be difficult, but patience and consistency will definitely help me excel in life.

It echoed the lines from Rashmirathi which is very close to my heart:

“वर्षों तक वन में घूम घूम, बाधा विघ्नों को चूम चूम
सह धूप घाम पानी पत्थर, पांडव आये कुछ और निखर
सौभाग्य न सब दिन होता है, देखें आगे क्या होता है ”

Mistakes to avoid

I will definitely not commit the mistake of starting answer writing late. I will suggest everyone to practise as much as you can because hard work definitely helps you achieve better.

Also, current affairs is necessary, but we should avoid running before materials. If I were to relive my preparation, I would keep myself stuck to basic and static. Everything else is icing on the cake.

The person who contributed the most to my success is my mother, who stood with me in all situations. Apart from her, my best friend is definitely my lord Dwarkadhish, on whom I have complete faith.

Role of positive mindset

The most important thing in addition to hard work and proper strategy is having a positive mindset. The journey will be full of lows and highs, and there can be moments where we may doubt our decision to prepare for CSE. But always keep the motive in front of your eyes, as it will help you sail through.

Be ready for some surprises in the Pre. Hold your horses in the examination hall. If it’s tough, it’s tough for all. Don’t simply give up, use common sense and logic to solve as many questions as you can. It is necessary to have a strong belief that whatever may be the outcome, we will do something great in our life.

Just keep waiting for the right time to arrive, till then have patience and continue taking small steps towards your goal.

मनुज बलि नहीं होत है – होत समय बलवान ! भिल्लन लूटी गोपिका – वही अर्जुन वही बाण !

Signing off

Ujjwal Priyank, IAS (P)
AIR 10, CSE 2025

 

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[1] Brutus once said, Not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more.

[2]