The story of Veena S Suthan is an example for all aspirants who wish to crack the Civil Services Exam but struggle to maintain consistency and discipline during their preparation. She is a native of Kayamkulam, located in the Alappuzha district of Kerala. She did most of her schooling from army schools and did BTech in Civil Engineering from TKM College, Kollam. She started her UPSC journey right after completing her graduation. In an exclusive interview to Indian Masterminds, she shared some insights of her UPSC journey.
ON DISCIPLINE
According to Veena, maintaining consistency is difficult, but it is crucial. She somehow managed to keep herself disciplined throughout her preparation and used to study consistently every day without any gap. She said, “If you wish to clear civil services exam, first you must select a particular time slot for your study, then select a part of the syllabus on a daily basis and cover it part by part. By following this simple approach without making any excuses, the chances of clearing the exam definitely improve.”
ON STRATEGY
Veena did most of her preparation for the preliminary exam on her own. She watched the interviews of many previous year toppers and made her own strategy to crack the exam. About her strategy, she said that she went through the syllabus thoroughly and studied basic books like NCERT first. She completed her optional subject even before writing the prelims. “After the prelims, my complete focus was on answer writing practice and attempting test series questions. I followed a simple approach and did not try to do anything fancy. I kept the material minimum and worked on it consistently. I did not go through too many books, nor did I allow myself to get distracted with too much material. I worked consistently, maintaining discipline, which worked well and gave me good results.”
ON OPTIONAL
Veena believes that aspirants should select their optional carefully and should revise wisely. She said, “I picked Geography as my optional subject because UPSC ask very straightforward questions and the coaching material on Geography is very easily available. It also overlaps with some part of General Studies.”
ON SERVICE
She is of the view that aspirants should not blindly follow the herd at any point during their preparation. And when they get selected, they should fill the choice of service carefully. “First know what you want to become, read about all the important services like IAS, IPS, IFS and always question yourself where you can do your best. Initially, I wanted to be an IAS officer but when I read about IFS, I decided to become an IFS officer.”
