Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination. Few people follow this quote to a T as most deviate after getting small destinies. But Bharti Gupta is different. She did not only mark her goal, but stuck to it until she succeeded. No matter, how many small deterrents came her way, she did not sight of the bigger goal.
Ms Gupta cracked Rajasthan Administrative Services (RAS) exam with 5th rank in her second attempt and finally got her dream job of an SDM. For this, she left 5 government jobs since 2017. She is currently working in commercial tax department in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.
Speaking with Indian Masterminds, Ms Bharti said, “Sometimes one should enjoy the path along with the destination. I did the same. Yeah, my Journey was long and challenging. That’s why sometimes i lost patience & got de-motivated yet, I remained glued to the goal.”
JOURNEY SO FAR
She started preparing for civil services in her last years of graduation in 2016. But at that time she was not even 21 – the minimum qualifying age for the RAS exam. So, she attempted Combined Graduate Level Exam conducted by Staff Selection Commission (SSC CGL) – 2016. Interestingly, she cracked SSC CGL 4 time in a row. In 2019, she got all India 140 rank in this exam.
In 2018, she gave her first RAS exam and cracked it too, but got lower rank, 371. She got posted as JCTO in commercial tax department. She again gave RAS in 2021 – which is conducted once in 3-4 years – and this time, she figured among the toppers.
BACKGROUND
She hails from Todabhim town of Karauli district in Rajasthan. Her father is retired government teacher, mother is homemaker. She has 3 siblings. She completed her education till intermediate from her home town. After that, she did B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from ‘Poornima College of Engineering’, Jaipur in 2016.
In the final year, she got placed in well-known companies like Capgemini & Infosys, but did not join them in order to fulfil her dream.
“I did not join the SSC CGL job, because of a coincidence. Every time when I got a posting, it coincided with some or the other activity of RAS exam. Since my prime goal was RAS, I let the opportunity go a begging,” Ms Bharti said on why she did not join the any job.
RAS PREPARATION
For RAS preparation, Ms Bharti believes that two most important things are to know your syllabus and previous years question papers (PYQs).
She says that anyone who wants to prepare RAS, should remember the syllabus. Because, it is very important to know what you have to read. The way the Commission mentions or defines pin pointed topics in the syllabus, from there one can get to find the direction of preparation and how deep we have to go in any topic.
Secondly, the biggest guide for RAS, according to her, is the PYQs. She paid the most attention to these two areas. She said, “In mains exam, aspirants’ copy represents them in front of the examiner. Thus, along with answer writing practice, test series are very important in Mains exam. The more test series you do, the better it is for you.”
She had decided to do one test series in a week and write answers to only two questions every day. Therefore, smart strategy should be there for this exam.
If one look at the exam pattern of RPSC, there are three types of questions, 2 marks, 5 marks and 10 marks. Bharti’s grip on 2 marks questions was good, but 5 marks and 10 marks questions which require a little elaboration were weak. That’s why she paid a lot of attention to those. Evaluated her copies, then changed the strategy.
Why did she do not well in first attempt in 2018? She replied, “I got less marks in GS Paper 1 and 2. So, I worked on my shortcoming, analyzed it and rectified my mistakes. That’s the only to do well in such exams.”
INTERVIEW
Her interview went well. She was asked questions from her engineering background, women and current issues. She was also asked some interesting questions, like, “why did you choose civil services after doing engineering? Is not wasting the government resources?”
To which, she replied, “Our engineering degree is not going waste. We learnt academic as well as non-academic things like time management, prioritising things, study of various subjects and attending large number of seminars. So, along with studies, soft skills also develop here. And for a civil servants soft skills are must, both for representing themselves and solving any problem of common people.” She was also asked that “What should be a Team Person be like?”
MESSAGE
Giving suggestion to RAS aspirants, Ms Bharti advised what she pursued in these years. She said, “Make a goal and follow it with full of passion and dedication. No matter what happen, just stick to your goal. Never let yourselves de-motivate. Make and strategy and believe it. You will get your success surely.”
FUTURE AIM
What will be her future aim now? Ms Bharti told Indian Masterminds, “My first and foremost aim is to increase women literacy. I will work on this as in my district women literacy is very low. Second, I will try to smoothen implementation of government schemes, so that they can reach to every person.”
