Cricket is said to be a game of glorious uncertainties- and so can be the often exasperating route to clear UPSC.
While preparing for civil services, aspirants often undergo many rounds of emotional turmoil. The phase of preparation phase can be full of uncertainties. Actually, the story of every aspirant who eventually cracks this prestigious exam is very different. Some taste success in their very first attempt, while others manage it at the very end, right when they are on the point of losing all hope. Sometimes an aspirant couldn’t even crack the pre stage two three times and then end up getting top ranks in their next attempt.
The here is the story of UPSC topper Ms Gunjan Dwivedi. She sailed through 2018 batch, which was her third attempt. From not even been able to crack preliminary round in two attempts, Ms. Diwedi succeeded with flying colours- scoring an all India rank 9!
It was a Childhood dream
Hailing from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Ms. Dwivedi is the daughter of retired IPS officer Mr. Ashok Kumar Dwivedi. Her sister Umang Dwivedi is also a civil servant posted as commercial tax officer. In an online interview she said, “There was always an environment for civil service in my house, because of my father. Then my sister also got into it. I used to get inspired by their lives and after I finished my class 12 th boards, I decided to get into civil services, no matter what it takes.”
Ms Gunjan Diwedi completed her graduation in Political Science from Daulat Ram College, Delhi University. After that she started her preparation for UPSC with full focus and gave her first attempt in 2016, and then again in 2017. However, she could not clear the pre stage in both the attempts. This was little disheartening for her but she didn’t lose hope.
As she said, “If you even clear the prelim, it gives you lot of confidence to prepare more for the next attempt. I consecutively failed in two attempts early on, and this did demotivate me for a while. Then, I started watching the video of toppers specially Megha Arora (a Foreign Service Officer). Like me, she also didn’t clear the prelims two times but made it into UPSC in her third attempt. I used to see her videos and had connected with her. Her journey inspired me a lot.’’
Don’t repeat your mistakes
After the two failed attempts, Ms Gunjan became convinced of prelims posing main challenge to her. And therefore she started focusing on this aspect of the UPSC. “I solved 40-50 mock papers and revised them multiple times. Generally, a person could only be confident about solving 50-60 questions. Rest all depends on your calculated guess work. Solving the papers, I also trained my ability for better guess work.” said Ms. Dwivedi.
She also emphasized on multiple revision of all the basic concepts, personal notes and practice papers . Apart from this, Ms Gunjan also said that aspirant should never lose hope because it’s just a matter of time to eventually become successful. “Give your 100% effort, but never cheat yourself when it comes to preparation. Only you know how much you have prepared so don’t lie to yourself,’’ she maintains.
Currently posted as Joint Magistrate in Deoria, Ms Gunjan Dwivedi aspires to bring “substantial changes’’ in the society through her work.
