Civil Services toppers tell how they achieved glory

Deepak, who was lower down in IAS ranking in his first attempt last year, says his job left him with only two or three hours to study every day and he did not increase his study hours when his preparations were in the final stage. Instead, "I analysed my shortcomings and got more composed this time." Both times Deepak took Physics and Maths in the prelims and mains.

Tina Dua’s first attempt last year resulted in 333rd rank and entry to the Indian Economics Service; this time she has stood 174th with economics and public administration for her subjects. She echoes Tayal’s view: "Because of my job, my study hours decreased drastically from eight to nine to two to three in the second attempt. "Still I did better," she says, adding, "I believe that this time my effort was more focused, at least about a fortnight before the main exam. You need to be analytical but it’s not just intelligence; it’s overall personality which comes under sharp scrutiny in the civil services test."

Amarpreet Duggal of Ambala, a Psychology student at Punjab University who has cleared IAS in her third attempt with 179th rank, believes that she was stronger and more commanding in my expression in the main examination and interview As far as the written exam goes, she has no faith in coaching from academies because "they churn out people who can only parrot a stereotyped response however this time I took coaching to prepare for the interview.

A successful candidate in his first attempt with 206th rank, Dinesh Arora, a fresh graduate from Government Medical College, Chandigarh, grins: "Although I pursued medicine to secure my career, I was always clear about my objective in life. That’s why I had not to put in extra effort and got through civil services exam simultaneously with my MBBS internship. Dinesh Arora, son of an engineer, took up history in prelims and zooloy and medical sciences in mains. He had been among the toppers in MBBS course too.

"I strictly pursued my study schedule of nine to ten hours every day at least a month before the main exam. Group discussion on relevant topics with friends preparing for the civil services exam and regular reading of a couple of specific newspapers helped me a lot in clarifying things," reveals Ekroop Kaur, a UGC Junior Research Fellow doing PhD in psychology at PU. She has cleared the IAS exam with 274th rank in first attempt this year with Psychology and Sociology as subjects.

Sandeep Jain, a mechanical engineer from PEC, has figured in the list of successful candidates with 307th ranking in his second attempt. He feels: "I could have got a number of jobs after professional qualification in 1996 but I decided to go in for IAS and planned accordingly by taking admission in a DU department just to stay in the academic environs of the campus. Since then I have been devoting a daily minimum of eight to nine hours hours on preparations. I opted for history and maths." Jain hails from Sunam. This was his second attempt.