“Can One Prepare for UPSC/GPSC with College Studies?”
A boy residing in a village someday heard of the UPSC examination. Time passed by and he forgot about it. After a while, he came across a magazine which had interviews of some successful candidates who had just cleared UPSC examination. The boy was excited to go after that career. As he was studying in a village school and in a vernacular medium, resources and information were scarce then. But he persisted in gathering knowledge. Magazines and newspapers coming to the local library helped him. Library became his abode and books became his friendly companions.
The boy then shifted to a college for higher education, which was away from his village. He came from middle-class family and had limited financial assistance. Adding to that, the boy was stubborn in his decision to appear in the UPSC Civil Services Examination in English. That was a humongous task and everybody who knew him or had heard of his dream; laughed, smirked, jeered or taunted. He flickered occasionally amidst waves of uncertainty and tribulations, but was largely undaunted.
In his college, almost all the classmates were preparing either for going abroad or for MBA/MCA. He was alone in his hostel and in his classroom – in the preparation for and – with the dream of clearing UPSC CSE. Many in his surroundings considered him bookworm, unsocial, reserved, melancholic. He was still undaunted. He just kept doing what he could do best. He spent his time in the library for most of the times of most of the days. Canteen was a good place to be, but he was never found there as he had promises to keep. Maintaining a balance between Physics and UPSC studies was very difficult. It required painstaking efforts daily. He persisted, consistently.
As a general category candidate, he had limited attempts. As coming from village background, he had to establish himself in the city structures. As coming from Gujarati medium and as he had wished to clear the exam in English medium, he had to prepare a lot. As coming from middle-class family, he had limited and dwindling financial assistance. His distant relatives were constantly ‘motivating’ his parents to ‘guide’ the boy to take a ‘realistic’ stance and career and to ‘settle’ for what is ‘possible’. His parents – who had reached upto secondary education – were simple and sometimes gullible to the suggestions of the people saying so. That was another long-lasting battle. Moral support was like a distant mirage. The boy fought on.
To cut the long story short, finally and eventually, he made it to the list of successful candidates of UPSC CSE. UPSC journey moulded him from a boy to a man.
That was me.
There are many other boys and girls who have been doing similarly.
So, one can always prepare for UPSC Civil Services Examination while studying in college. Some of the observations from my experience are as follows:
1. Maintaing balance between college studies and UPSC studies is the main issue. But it is possible and doable.
2. It is not just the financial support that is important, moral support is equally – if not more – important. Plan your expenses meticulously. Be frugal. Save for books and reading material. If you have a selfless friend who can understand you, it is a blessing. But above all, your confidence matters.
3. Strategy helps in making the schedule and schedule helps in adhering to the strategy. Start with reading books on preparation tips. Start with reading interviews of successful candidates.
4. One must go through the syllabus of the examination first. Based on that, one must list out one’s strengths and weaknesses.
5. One should seek advice, but from the ‘right’ people and from the ‘right’ books. A wrong advice from an ill-informed or from a negative minded person can do havoc.
6. Choice of books is very important. Read less number of books, but read very excellent books only. Don’t buy anything being published or sold in the market. Be selective. Be choosy. Be smart.
7. Read books first. Don’t go after somebody’s notes or guidebooks too soon. Prepare your own points and notes. It is your journey, and you should tread it on your own feet.
8. Reading previous years’ papers will widen your horizon. That would help in focusing on crucial areas.
9. Don’t brag that you are preparing for UPSC CSE, it would take you nowhere. Perhaps bragging and showing off would take steam out of your preparation. It may happen that someone’s general knowledge or writing skills or communication skills might be poorer than you. But destiny has odd ways to deal with these attitudes. Stay humble, stay sincere, stay silent and stay earnest.
10. It’s a long journey. If anybody promises to make you successful instantly, with very little preparation, that one is a fraud.
11. Stay motivated. Steady preparation in the right direction will provide more motivation than any motivational lecture or seminar.
12. Three to four hours per day for UPSC CSE preparation during college years is sufficient.
13. During and before some days of college exams you should dedicate your total energy to college exams only. Academic results are important to have an alternate supportive career.
14. Don’t be hasty. Don’t be impatient. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the readings. Talk less and do more. Cultivate and groom your personality through the preparation. Be more process-oriented than result-oriented. Result would come if you’ve become a veritable process. Earn your resilience.
15. If you’ve got access to proper guidance, that’s good; if not, use books. You need coaching only if you feel you need coaching. Otherwise, during and through college years, you can build a hardcore hobby of reading books and that would help for the life-time.
Yes, it is possible.
Deepak Meghani, IPS
Deepak Meghani 