One should solve mock tests in the offline centres and not at the comfort of your home, says Arpit Kumar who is the 3rd Hindi Medium topper with AIR 136

Generally, not many students from the Hindi medium qualify this exam. What made you think that you will clear this exam?

During my graduation, as far as I can remember, the best rank of Hindi medium was somewhere around 337 or 317. This made me think that, with this rank, it is not possible to become an IAS. Then I had a dilemma as to which medium I should choose. I discussed with my parents who said that I should choose a medium where I can express myself properly in such a way that people should relate to my writing.

I was not comfortable in English then I believed that if I write in Hindi and if my content is good, then the papers will be evaluated properly and also help me get a good rank.

When you saw your name in the result, what was your reaction?

Initially, I personally could not see my name in the list because my friends had already checked it and kept me busy with celebrations. The next day, I finally saw my name in the list and felt relieved that I don’t have to give prelims again.

Can you tell me about your educational background, family background, and where you were born?

I was born in July, 2001. I belong to Chitrakoot district in Uttar Pradesh, this place is near to Bundelkhand. My school education was from Chitakoot itself, post which I came to Delhi to pursue my graduation in Political Science from Delhi University from 2018-2021. Post my graduation, I started my preparation for UPSC.

My optional was Hindi Literature.

What is the right time to start preparing for UPSC? 

I think we should enjoy till the 2nd year of our graduation and we should make friends. We should learn from our teachers and peer during that time and also participate in extra-curricular activities. These things will diversify our knowledge and develop our personality which will help in UPSC also because UPSC does not focus on study alone.

If you don’t have a good personality, you cannot become an IAS, so according to me, one should start reading the NCERTs from the end of 2nd year. But I will again emphasize on the fact that importance should be given to college and graduation should be from a good college.

How did you come to know about ForumIAS?

When someone comes to Mukherjee Nagar, they eventually come to know that ForumIAS is a good coaching and also I used to get emails from the user id ‘Neyawn’. The articles were quite motivating and I used to read those.

When I couldn’t clear my first prelims, I wanted to fix my prelims then I joined SFG. Actually I had a problem that I couldn’t wake up early. Generally, I used to wake up at 11:00 AM or 12:00 PM and I used to feel that the entire day is passed and I wasted it. So SFG really helped me to change my daily routine because the SFG tests were conducted regularly at 7:00 AM. If you went late for the exam, either your marks would be deducted or you wouldn’t get permission to give the test and this policy was maintained with great strictness.

I was also part of AWFG, MGP and IGP.

How is the performance in SFG because it has all India rank holders? How to compete with them or don’t you get demotivated while competing with them?

Actually I used to take it as challenge. I felt like if these people can get good ranks then I should also get ranks. I was already studying and I had maintained top a consistent rank either in top 50 or top 100 in SFG which helped me gain the confidence much needed for the actual prelims.

I got 112 in GS for prelims this year.

I followed the reverse engineering strategy for my preparation. I used to have weekly targets, usually it can be said that if one is studying for 60-65 hours in a week, it means that you are on the right track.

If you make daily targets and if that is not fulfilled then it will demotivate you. One should not run behind hours, you will have to finish your targets.

How many questions do you think should be attempted in the prelims? How to deal with the accuracy problem in prelims? 

Considering the pattern of this year’s paper, one should not attempt less than 85 questions. The pattern has now become a question where the statements are mentioned in pairs. Even if your questions are wrong, you will still have the scope of getting atleast 80-90 marks.

I used to attempt those questions too where I had confusion between two statements. Generally, I used to attempt 90-91 questions. When there is confusion between two statements, you have to have a gut feeling and take a calculative risk with some logical understanding.

The accuracy problem can be solved by focusing on the strong subjects. You should maintain an accuracy of 80%- 90% in the strong subjects. With this, you get a scope to make mistakes for random areas such as Environment and Art & Culture. But if you make mistakes in topics such as Governor, Inflation, RBI, etc., then your score in prelims will be less.

You cannot clear Prelims if you self-doubt because you will not be confident. You have to maintain a pace in the paper right from the beginning and start with that subject section in which you are strong.

What did you think when you couldn’t pass prelims in the first attempt?

I was overconfident in my first attempt and took CSAT very lightly. I had a feeling that I know Mathematics so I can manage CSAT. There was also a build up of fake confidence in me when I got good marks in few mock tests but later I understood that those tests lacked proper quality.

What was your strategy for CSAT?

The strategy is a 3-point one. One should take classes from a good coaching institute, post which you have to analyze the PYQ topic wise and then solve mock tests. One should solve mock tests in the offline centres and not at the comfort of your home because it is very important to understand the pressure and stress level which shall help you attain 67 marks.

Comprehension has also become tough from this year. How good were you in Reading comprehension and what strategy did you follow.

Reading comprehension is good but Hindi medium has problems because it it is a translated version so when it is difficult to find the answers in the original format, it becomes a little difficult to find the answer of translated format.

My advice would be that one should solve 4-5 questions from the Mathematics part of the Reasoning part and then attempt 2-3 passage based questions. Try to attempt those passages which is small or has two questions. I did not attempt passages which were philosophical because it was difficult for me to understand Philosophy.

One should develop her/his own pattern os solving comprehensions, by practicing tests.

Coming on note-making, were you a regular note-maker? Did you used to make notes or read from the book?

My first two readings were from the books itself, post that I used to make notes. But before making notes, I used to analyze the PYQs to understand the important sections, for example, if I am reading Ramesh Singh for Economy, I would surely make notes for ‘Inflation’, ‘RBI’, etc. If I am reading Spectrum for Modern History, I would make notes for the ‘British Settlements in India’, ‘Cripps Mission’, ‘Cabinet Mission’, etc.

Notes will help you in your revision right before you go for actual prelims examination and it also boost your confidence.

I used to make notes using loose sheets and it would be brief. Keywords are important and not the entire sentence. Moreover, notes should be in such a manner that you can revise it easily before the examination.

Why is reading newspapers considered important in this preparation?

There are lots of advantages of reading a newspaper. Firstly, the command over the language becomes better, secondly, comprehension skills improve and thirdly, it gives you a holistic way in understanding a certain event. You will get different opinions which is very useful for Mains answer writing.

What is the difference between the approach of Prelims and Mains?

For prelims, you need to remember information related to the subject and then you have to choose the best suitable option from the 4 given choices but for mains, you need to analyze to get good marks.

If you start your preparation keeping in mind the Mains, then it is easier to clear prelims but if you start your preparation with prelims, then you cannot clear mains.

What was your strategy for answer writing?

I used to focus more on analysis and not increasing pointers by writing irrelevant things, for example, if you have written 8 points then they should be analytical. And also, questions should be broken into parts so that the answers can be multi-dimensional.

I used to put sub-headings and then write in points. I had good handwriting.

I got 814 marks in Mains.

To get good marks, you need to practice a lot.

Content, presentation and language skills is important to write Mains answers.

Conclusion should be futuristic and it should not be a kind of summary. It should be on a positive note.

What role has mentorship played in your journey for Mains preparation? 

Mentorship played a very important role because I used to study alone and I had less friends. So when you are preparing, you need someone who can guide you and tell you what is right and what is wrong.

Until and unless you understand where you are wrong, you cannot be on the right track. Mentors give you the energy to sustain this journey. You should not lock yourself in the room, you should have someone to talk to.

During the Personality test, what does the panel look for?

During the personality test, the panel looks for honesty and do you have the spirit to serve the nation or not. The opinion based views should be balanced and not biased.

You need to have a thorough understanding of your DAFs and Current Affairs.

Why do you think that there are less students qualifying this exam from the Hindi medium?

There are many problems as to why there are less rank holders from Hindi medium. Firstly, we are not much professional in this medium and sometimes it becomes difficult to choose what to study and what to leave.

Secondly, you should be confident when you are in the crowd of English medium aspirants.

There is a lot of guidance which becomes difficult to choose as to which is real and which is fake.

What would be your advice to the aspirants who are given prelims this year?

Firstly, do not get demotivated if you are getting less marks in your mock tests. Find out the sections where you are losing marks. Try to revise again and prepare short notes

Secondly, stick to your revision plan.

Thirdly, do not take CSAT lightly seeing the low cut off marks. Atleast spend 2/ 2:30 hours for CSAT on a daily basis.

Read – Biography, Testimonials and Answer copies of Other toppers