It is difficult to clear even one competitive exam, whereas Rae Bareli boy Arnav Mishra managed to clear two such exams around the same time. He went on to clear the toughest of all, UPSC CSE in 2021, entering his name in the reserve list with AIR 42. And, just nine days after this result, his name featured in yet another competitive exam, the state UPPSC, where he got the top rank 16.
Indian Masterminds got in touch with Mr. Arnav Mishra to know his success mantra – the one he religiously followed to clear one competitive exam after the other.
BACKGROUND
Hailing from Raebareli district of Uttar Pradesh, Arnav Mishra completed his schooling from his home town only, and thereafter prepared for IIT-JEE and managed to clear it. This was the beginning of a successful competitive exams journey. He completed his four years of B.Tech from IIT Jodhpur and worked for nearly a year in Bangalore. However, he soon left his job and started preparing for the UPSC civil services examination.
He cleared the exam in his second attempt. Although his name was not on the first list, when the reserve list as out, it was there. And, after nine days of the reserve list result, the UPPSC examination results also came out and he cleared the exam with rank 16. He joined the state service and currently holds the post of a Deputy Collector. However, as he has been allocated IAS after making it to the reserve list of UPSC CSE 2021, he said he will join his IAS training from next year.
WHY CIVIL SERVICES?
He said that during his college days many of his seniors who are in civil services came to take seminars in his college, and from that time onwards, his orientation towards civil services started. “Apart from this, I took sociology as my optional subject in engineering, so my orientation towards civil services built up. I also drew inspiration from my sister, IFS officer Arushi Mishra, who was always a factor of motivation for me.”
PREPARATION
He could not do well in his first attempt as he was still getting to know things and the syllabus was huge. Therefore, he was barely able to complete the syllabus. However, in his second attempt, he tried to plug in all the loopholes in his strategy.
“For prelims, one has to do multiple revisions, so as to retain everything. One has to give multiple revision tests, so that they can actually get a feel of how the actual exam is and how you will be able to predict the answer, either to eliminate the option or to locate the answer,” he shared.
He further said that in the mains examination, a lot of answer writing practice is needed as it is a game of answer writing. Therefore, he practiced a lot of model tests papers to improve the quality.
As for his interview, he said that it went for around 30 minutes, where they asked questions mostly related to politics and few other questions were factual. “Apart from this, some questions were analytical and philosophical. I was asked about my choice regarding ethical dilemma,” he said.
INSPIRATION FROM BHAGWAT GITA
He also mentioned that it was Bhagwat Gita that inspired him a lot during his preparation. He read the book multiple times as it was very helpful for him. According to him, it’s not just a religious book, “but to a certain extent, it’s so much of a philosophical book and has life messages. This book has really inspired me a lot.”
Explaining further, he said that an aspirant is very similar to a yogi. He has to maintain calm and stability in times of happiness, sadness, victory or defeat. He has to maintain that stability in his mindset, then only he will be able to scale all the big challenges.
Quoting a shloka from Bhagwat Gita, he said, “Whenever there is lot of darkness in us or in society, then there is a rise of a power or positivity in ourselves as well as society, which is able to cope up with that negativity, and, ultimately, the rule of law and positivity gets established.”
MESSAGE TO ASPIRANTS
To build up a positive attitude, he used to read a lot of autobiographies and historical books. He also focussed on physical fitness as it effects mental health, as well. “I preferred meditation and yoga for physical and mental health as it helps a lot.”
Advising the aspirants, he said that any journey has a lot of ups and downs, so one has to keep their physical as well as their mental health in a positive direction, as it is a long journey where they will get stressed out and may even get demotivated.
