Mukul Gupta has secured Rank-87 in prestigious UPSC CSE-15.He has
achieved it in his 3rd attempt with his hardwork and determination.He has been
a regular follower of xamIAS and shares his detailed plan of securing 237(excellent
marks in Pub Ad) marks in Pub Ad.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Hello Friends,
I would like to share my strategy
regarding public administration optional for civil services examination in this
post. But before I start I want to share the facts based on which I chose it.
I have also given details about the
various mistakes I had committed in my Pub Ad preparation.
Why did I choose Pub Ad as my optional?
1. I
did my graduation (B.Tech in computer science) and as the subjects offered by
UPSC had no correlation with it, I chose the most famous subject (I must admit
that it was not a well thought, analyzed decision).
2. But
when I started studying Pub Ad, I found it very interesting (particularly Paper
2).
3. I
also realized the fact that it is going to help a lot in GS paper II and GS
paper IV.
My Past performance:
2013: Paper1- 55, Paper2- 86 Total- 141
Result:
Couldn’t clear Mains
2014:
Paper1- 76, Paper2- 113 Total- 189
Result:
Couldn’t get the final selection
2015:
Paper1 – 110, Paper2- 127 Total- 237
Result: AIR 87
As you can see, I got 96 marks more in
2015 compared to my 1st attempt, so I want to tell you the mistakes
I had committed in my previous 2 attempts (I think many of us commit similar
mistakes) and what I did to improve my performance.
Note:
All of us know the fact that optional
papers play the most important role in selection in CSE.I had missed selection
in CSE 2014 just by 5 marks (it became 2 marks after announcement of reserved
list) only because of very poor marks in optional paper1.
1st Attempt:
Books (Marks)
Paper1 (55)
|
Paper2 (86)
|
·
Public Administration by Laxmikanth
·
Prasad and Prasad For Thinkers
·
Previous Year Questions
|
·
Fadia and Fadia
·
Previous Year Questions
|
Reasons for low marks:
1. Studied
Pub Ad only for One and Half months.(Wasted a lot of time after prelims doing Nothing)
2. Didn’t
Attend any Test Series and Discussion.
3. My
booklist was not comprehensive.
4. Made
a huge mistake in paper 1 (didn’t
read the instruction carefully and started attempting all the
questions L
resulting into poor answer quality and left 90 marks.)
5. Many
other reasons discussed in other attempts J
2nd Attempt:
Books:
Paper1 (76)
|
Paper2 (113)
|
·
Pavan Sir’s Class Notes
·
Prasad and Prasad For Thinkers
·
Previous Year Questions
·
Economic Survey (for financial administration)
|
·
Fadia and Fadia
·
Summary of 2nd ARC Report
·
Previous Year Questions
·
Examples from Newspaper (Important Newspaper
articles given by Pavan Sir)
|
Reasons for improvement in marks:
1.
Studied class notes thoroughly.
2.
Reading Prasad and Prasad in 1st attempt was not very
helpful as thinkers are not discussed in right order (if you have not taken
coaching classes it is really difficult to understand). So I read class notes
first then read this book.
3.
Attended
Test Series and Discussion of Pavan Sir. He made the concepts very
simple and that really helped me to write answer to any question.
4.
2nd ARC – It is a must for Pub Ad. It gives a lot of
new ideas to improve your answers by giving examples and suggestions.
5.
Didn’t repeat last year’s blunder. J
Reasons for getting poor marks in Paper1:
1. One more blunder: I wrote tests for
Paper1 after attending the discussion classes (as “The Winter Had Arrived”…
courtesy Game of Thrones for the novices…see, I continued to have my share of
entertainment :D). Also I had joined the test series late and had timing
issues. It created a wrong perception in me that “ I have conquered the Paper1
fortress” (was getting very good marks J in tests)…..which proved fatal.
2. I
was not at all able to understand the very first question (same case was with
many of my friends) and lost my confidence. This resulted into poor answers for
few other questions also.
3. Didn’t
follow Pavan Sir’s advice on answer writing fully.
3rd Attempt:
Books:
Paper1 (110)
|
Paper2 (127)
|
·
Pavan Sir’s Class Notes
·
Prasad and Prasad For Thinkers
·
Previous Year Questions
·
Economic Survey (for financial administration)
·
Mohit Bhattacharya(MB) – New Horizons
·
Made Short Notes for quick revision
|
·
Fadia and Fadia
·
Summary of 2nd ARC Report
·
Previous Year Questions
·
Examples from Newspaper (Important Newspaper
articles given by Pavan Sir)
·
Magazines Yojana and kuruketra
·
Synopsis of Punchhi Commission report given by Pavan Sir
|
Reasons for improvement in marks:
1. Worked on all the mistakes
mentioned above in previous 2 attempts.
2. Joined test series just
after prelims.
3. Wrote
answers in examination kind of situation at home also.
4. Listened to Pavan Sir’s
advice very carefully and tried to follow each and every
word.
5. Attended
seminar at Pavan Sir’s coaching taken by Mr. Prabhat Malik Sir, AIR 68, CSE
2014.He suggested to use Constitution
Articles everywhere and it is possible along with many more
guidelines.
6. Met
a very nice Pub AD guy and became friends with him. We discussed a lot about
Pub Ad and other papers, made new strategies, discussed our mistakes, did lot
of discussion for Personality Test and finally both of us got into the “divine” final pdf. J
7. Reading
Mohit Bhattacharya (MB) helped me to get better conceptual
clarity and also provided “Beautiful Lines” to improve my answers.
Lesson Learnt from Two failures and One grand
success J (though this success is
momentary since a lot remains to be achieved J)
1. We
must believe in our guide/mentors. (Pavan sir in my case – Failure in 2nd
attempt made me realize it)
2. Choosing
an optional is the most important decision for CSE, so “choose wisely”. Spend ample amount of
time, discuss with your mentor, seniors and most importantly analyze your own
strengths and weaknesses.
3. Use
of current examples is must for getting good marks
in all the papers.
“Hope you guys are not yet Bored” :D
The secret of success for writing good answers in Public
Administration lies in understanding the
questions. Most of us fail to write good answers simply because of our
failure to understand the questions. In the last three years, UPSC has
deliberately increased the difficulty levels of question paper as they are more
interested in those students who have conceptual clarity and ability to
write those concepts in a simple manner.
So as far as Public Administration is concerned, the following steps can be followed by
candidates:
Ø In recent times, UPSC has
increased the difficulty levels of paper one. Scoring well in paper one has
become highly unpredictable and any amount of preparation cannot guarantee safe
score. One must concentrate more on
Indian Administration to get good score in Public Administration.
Ø Indian Administration also
helps us in our Polity & Governance Paper in General Studies. I focused more on Indian Administration
and it helped me a lot in overall score in Public Administration.
Ø I shall provide you (in my next
article) some tips for Indian Administration. I have already provided the list
of books and other material.
Answer Writing Techniques: I would like to share here some of
the tips regarding answer writing in Public Administration which I successfully
used in General Studies also:
1. There is always
confusion among the candidates regarding whether they should write in point format or in paragraphs. I followed both formats based on the requirement
of question.
2. Write answers in as simple a manner as possible. You can
check some of the answers written by me. You may find them ridiculously simple
and think that they don’t deserve marks at all. But this is how you should be
writing answers. There is no point in using difficult language and complicated
jargons as it becomes difficult for the examiner to understand what you are
writing.
3. Remember the golden
principle about writing. Whatever you
write, it should be understood by even a tenth class student. Your answers
should be so simple that anyone with absolutely no background in Public
Administration should be able to understand what you are writing.
4. Another important
aspect about answer writing is your ability to interlink the concepts. If we take a closer look at
the questions that were asked in the previous two years, one thing is very much
clear, UPSC wants us to have conceptual
clarity and more importantly, have in
depth knowledge about inter-linkages among the theories and thinkers.
5. Always start with the ‘WHY’ aspect of the question. We must try to go into examiner’s mind
and then write the answer. Also we should give 1 or 2 suggestions if possible
as conclusion.
6. Next comes is the ability of the candidate to link concepts in Paper – I with the
examples from Indian Administration.
7. Similarly while
writing answers in Indian Administration,
you are expected to relate them to
thinkers in Paper – I.
8. As far as examples are concerned, you will find
them in newspapers and more importantly in Second
Administrative Reforms Commission Reports and Punchhi Commission and other government documents.
9. One must have good writing speed as you can get marks
only when you write answers to questions (so you must practice a lot in
examination kind of situation).
10. I strongly suggest making
short notes for Pub Ad, particularly
for paper1. I had made short notes
and would soon be uploading the scanned copies for your reference but I think you
must do it on your own for maximum benefit.
I sincerely hope that the above information should help the
candidates regarding preparation for Public Administration and am more than
willing to help those candidates who have doubts regarding their preparation.
To augment supplies and keep prices under check, it
was decided to allow wheat import at zero per cent duty on private account.
