Samarth Verma IAS Topper 2010 (69th Rank) – Shares Preparation Strategy for Mains Written of CSE

1.      When did you start preparing for the Mains examination? Was it after the results of Preliminary examination?

Not after the results of the prelims, but about a week after the day the prelims were held.

2.      What was the medium of answering the questions? English, Hindi or any other language?

English.

3.      What were your optional subjects for the Mains exam?

Geography and Public administration

4.      What was the basis for choosing optional subjects for the Mains exam?

I chose geography since I had an interest in it from school days.  I chose Public administration because it has a very short syllabus. As a combination, these two subjects gel very well with each other and are also very helpful in the GS and essay papers.

5.      Which books did you refer to for preparing for the Optional Paper-I?

Geography : NCERT class 11^th and 12^th  and a correspondence course.

6.      Which books did you refer to for preparing for the Optional Paper-II?

Public administration: Administrative Thinkers : Prasad and Prasad

7.      Any tips how to prepare for optional papers and more importantly how to choose them?

The 3 most important parameters to choose optionals, according to me, are your interest in and familiarity of the subject, the books available, and the guidance that you can get. One should keep these things in mind while choosing the optional.

 8.      What was the Indian Language you chose for the Mains exam?

Hindi

9.      Even though English and the Indian Language paper are of qualifying nature, they cannot be taken lightly. What is your advice to IAS aspirants? How should one prepare for these papers?

So true! One should look at the previous years' question papers and gauge the level of effort needed, which again varies from person to person!

10.  The overall score of top scorers in General Studies has been falling down in the past few years. Do you think that there is a need for creative approach while choosing study material, resources, and making strategies for this exam?

The GS paper is becoming very unpredictable with every passing year. In my view, sticking to the basics is the key. One should focus on the basics, rather than running after each and every source of information available. Also, being able to express those basics in the simplest of language is also equally important. One must note that most of the times, people score less not because they don't know about the topic, but they are unable to express what they already know. If you are able to score well in the questions you are familiar with, you will definitely score better than most. And since the examination is competitive, it is more than enough in my opinion.

11.  How did you plan for the General Studies in the main examination?

I had three things in mind while preparing for GS:

• The job of an administrator is to simplify what is complicated, and not vice versa...So I decided to stick to the very basics, and have a writing style to present those basics in a logical manner. I did not run after improving my vocabulary, or after creating a knowledge bank.
• An IAS officer is expected to be able to understand and appreciate a problem in a holistic manner. I worked on this by linking an issue to various others which were causally or effectively related to it.
• Towards the development of the above approach, I read basic books on every topic mentioned in the syllabus, mostly the NCERTs. Also, having Geography and Public administration as two of my optionals proved to be very useful, as they overlap with the GS syllabus.

12.  How important is time management while writing an essay?

The essay paper is of 3 hours duration and the time is more than enough. Time management is more important in the GS and optional papers, where there is a serious paucity of time!

13.  What is your advice for candidates who did not do well in Mains Exam?

Don't panic. Don't take important decisions like abandoning your optionals etc in haste, analyze where you lacked and work on it. Since it is a very situational and individual specific question, you can approach me personally, my email is samarth.verma@gmail.com

Samarth Verma IAS Topper 2010 (69th) – Shares Preparation Strategy for the Personality Test of CSE

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