We are living in the world of social media. All kinds of content is going viral. Even for UPSC, unknown to many till few years back, there is too much content is available online. Social media is flooded with reels of aspirants, coaching classes and ‘mock interviews. Some aspirants watch these clips for preparation strategy or seek motivation from them. However, here is a UPSC CSE topper who warns to stay clear of them. Mr. Aaditya Pandey who cleared the UPSC CSE 2023 exam with AIR 48, says that mock interviews conducted by most of coaching institutes with exception of just couple of them, are nowhere close the real interview taken by the UPSC.
Mr. Pandey, who has been allotted IAS and has completed the ‘Bharat Darshan’ as part of the training, told Indian Masterminds, “I don’t think most of them are competent enough to conduct the interview. No one in the real UPSC interview board will ask you to propose a ‘glass’ in any situation.”
A B. Tech. from Lovely Profession University (LPU), Punjab, Mr. Pandey never thought of appearing for the UPSC CSE till his second year of college. However, few things turned around which took him to this path and he left the job in 2020 and started preparing. After two failed attempts, he cleared the exam in 2022. The topper says, “I didn’t study for 18 hours. Many times, I felt that UPSC is not my cup of tea. Yet, when I did it, I realized that anybody with focus and mindful preparation can crack this exam.
MISCHIEVOUS CHILD
Mr. Pandey did his initial schooling from Kendriya Vidalaya Kankarbagh. He was not very studious growing up. Youngest in two sisters & two brothers, Mr. Pandey was very mischievous. So much that his parents had to send him away from Patna to Jamnagar to focus on studies. He scored very poor marks in class 7th but this step by his parents helped and he topped in class 8th & 9th. However, in 10thhe again scored less marks and had to go back to Patna.
There he took admission in Patna University for English (Hons), although, his father wanted him to be an engineer. So, he took a year gap and came to LPU. After completing the graduation and MBA from IIT Roorkee, he was working in a private bank which he quit in Jan 2020.
Mr. Pandey said, “My senior Bharat Kumar who was in Indian Engineering Services (IES), inspired me for UPSC CSE. I left my job and started preparing. I failed in the first attempt in Prelims itself and then again in second.”
SELF DOUBTS
He was in self-doubt when just before his second attempt he found that he was short of the cut off by mere 25 marks. “My Parents motivated me for second attempt saying I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I failed in second attempt TOO but my family always supported me. Just before my third attempt, result of prelims for UPSC CSE 2021 came. I was short of 2.5 marks. I got motivation in that failure too, which pushed me to clear my exam next year”, said Mr. Pandey.
HAVE TO DEFEND YOUR IDEA
Prelims was a major obstacle in his path to success. He was well-prepared for Mains. During his preparation days his friend Shalini Tiwari always stood up for him. She helped him in revision & current affair. With all her support, Mr. Pandey scored good marks in Mains, now the time was for Interview. Almost everyone was saying that his personality is very loud and outrageous. He needs to tone it down if he wants to make it. All these feedbacks were affecting him but then his mentor supported him. “He always told me that no matter how outrageous the idea is as long as long I defend it on logical, moral & ethical grounds, I shouldn’t change it. I kept it in my mind and went for the interview”, Mr. Pandey added.
The mentor was right and he scored 190 in the interview. This helped him securing AIR 48 in UPSC CSE 2022.
ACCEPT YOUR SELF
The topper advises all the aspirants appearing in interview to just relax and go through the DAF properly. He also says that one should never hesitate to accept & express himself, truly with authenticity.
Mr. Pandey mentioned in his DAF that he loves to hear Ram Charit Manas and watching Korean drama. These two had no-correlations. Yet, it was part of his personality which the interview board found to be very interesting. “Questions started with the difference between society during Ram Yug & the present Korea. They gradually veered todays the Korean war and Ukraine war. It was more of conversational and opinion sharing. So, I don’t think there is anything to worry if you decide to accept yourself and express properly” says the topper. He also said that whenever he was in doubt or had frustration, he listened to Ramcharitmanas. Lord Rama was like a pillar of self-motivation for him.
FOREVER GRATEFUL TO PARENTS
Mr. Pandey is also grateful to his parents for having faith in him & providing the best. His parents are not well-read and his father had to struggle a lot in providing for the family. He worked in a bank as Record Keeper but never backed out when it came to support him or his other siblings. Mr. Pandey claims it was their faith & support which made him an IAS officer today.
