Many UPSC toppers have been busting the myth that only the brightest of students can crack the Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC. Of late there have been many examples of candidates who didn’t score good marks in their intermediate and graduate exams or even failing, becoming toppers in CSE. One of them is Mr. Junaid Ahmed who cleared CSE in his fifth attempt but secured a place in the top three with AIR 3.
The officer who is currently posted as the Joint Commissioner, Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, says that it’s his ability to persevere and learn from mistakes that brought him this grand success in the end.
NEVER CRACKED ANY EXAMS BEFORE
Mr. Ahmed, who belongs to Bijnor, UP, completed his 12th from Aligarh Muslim University. He wanted to get into IIT and prepared for it but couldn’t get through. Similarly, he wanted to go abroad for higher studies but couldn’t clear the exam.
In a video interview to media, he says, “I was an average or you can say a below average student. Starting from my school to college, I only scored around 60 %. I wanted to get into a government college for engineering but ended up in a private institute. I completed my electronics engineering degree from Sharada University and thereafter tried to go abroad for higher study but failed.”
Finally, he started to prepare for UPSC CSE which was one of his childhood dreams and, after years of efforts, he cracked it! He couldn’t reach Mains in his early attempts but after analyzing his mistakes, in his 4th attempt, he got into IRS.And in 2018, he was selected for IAS after coming in the top three.
FOUND MY WAY
Mr. Ahmed believes that no matter what your goal is, you can only be successful if you know why you want to go for it. “Everybody see us (successful UPSC aspirants) as winners, but I was a failure all my life. I never cracked any big exam before CSE. Now, I know the reason. Be it engineering or studies abroad, I failed because I didn’t know the answer of why I was doing it. This wasn’t the case with my CSE preparation. Knowing the ‘why’ helped to stay motivated throughout the journey. I believe that if we find the ‘why’ behind anything, we will definitely find the ways to do it,” he said in the interview.
FAILURE REFINES PERSONALITY
According to Mr. Ahmed, failures actually refine your personality. Nobody in this world tasted success before going through some tough phases of failures. “The only difference between an unsuccessful and successful person is very small. At some point, the unsuccessful one gave up, but the latter didn’t. If you learn to handle pressures and never give up, no one can stop you,” said the UPSC topper.
He himself committed a lot of mistakes in his preparation days which resulted in number of attempts. “In the beginning, I didn’t see the Pre, Mains and Interview as an integrated form which divided my attention. At some point, I also didn’t prioritize making notes.This also costed me. My only advise to aspirants is to find out their mistakes and correct them. And always believe you can do it!.”
