Every civil servant’s journey is inspiring and conveys a message. However, only a few of them acknowledge that it was a story of redemption for their own faults. Shiv Pratap’s narrative teaches every aspirant that if you want to follow a road, be sure you’re heading in the proper direction. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait a long time to reach your goals.
Shiv Pratap secured rank fourth on his sixth attempt at the UPPCS-2023 exam. He is about to become SDM. However, if he had been properly prepared, he could have made it a long time ago. From syllabus to practice test, he disregarded several essential aspects of his preparation until the final attempt.
Speaking exclusively to Indian Masterminds, Shiv Pratap narrated his journey.
JOURNEY SO FAR
He began his preparations in 2016. It was his sixth attempt and his fourth mains. In his first and second attempts in 2016 and 2017, he failed to pass the prelims. In 2018, he passed the preliminary exams but failed the mains. The same thing happened in 2019, 21, and 22. He did not give the exam in 2020 because of Covid. The constant failure attempted to break him several times, but he never gave up.
Finally, he cracked the UPPCS-2023 exam with Rank 4 and will now be SDM.
Last year, he also attempted UPSC CSE, but could not crack it.
He said, “To put it simply, it has been a very mixed experience. It has been a long journey for me. There were many failures which gave me a lot of stress. But finally if success is achieved then it is a pleasant feeling.”
BACKGROUND
Shiv is from Kishni, Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh. His father works for the government as a supply inspector, while his mother is a housewife. His grandfather was a sub-inspector in the Uttar Pradesh Police. He has a brother. His mother was always supportive of his education, especially during times of failure.
He finished 12th grade at Kishni. Following that, he graduated (BA) from Shri Jiledar Singh Smarak Degree College, Mainpuri, in 2012. He also completed his post-graduate studies in Hindi Sahitya at IGNOU in 2022.
He had already decided to become a civil servant after graduation. However, due to family issues, he was unable to begin his preparations immediately upon graduating.
UPPCS PREPARATION
He made numerous mistakes in preparing in the early years. He admits that he did not study systematically.
He did not prepare prelims and mains together until the fifth attempt. But after fixing his faults, he was able to pass the exam.
He believes that Syllabus and PYQs are critical to this exam. It will provide a straightforward exam approach. For the mains exam, he went over the entire material from scratch.
He took short notes for the prelims. For mains, he focused on mock tests, which helped him.
He studied for 10 to 13 hours a day. He also enrolled in the Sanskriti IAS mains test preparation course.
He said, “I never considered what the commission required in the exam. I always took a relaxed approach. Perhaps this is why it took me so many attempts to pass the exam. But when my seniors advised me to read the syllabus unit by unit and study only what it contained, my preparedness improved.”
INTERVIEW
He was grilled extensively, as his interview lasted approximately 41 minutes. It was based on both facts and concepts. He stated that the board is now placing a greater emphasis on the analytical approach.
He was asked about S Jaishankar’s recent book, ‘Why Bharat Matters’. A board member inquired about the books in greater detail.
Aside from that, he was asked multiple questions about gender equality and why he would support it. One person related this to ‘Treta Yuga’ and ‘God Ram’ and then offered counter-questions.
He asked several factual questions about Science. One member asked him about India’s present foreign policy and whether it is headed in the right direction.
SUGGESTIONS
Shiv advised applicants to always focus on the subject and give as many mock tests as possible. Their will be nothing from out of the syllabus in the exam. Try to prepare for the prelims and main together. Divide your study time in a 2:1 ratio for pre and mains. Never give up until you achieve your goal.
He emphasized that if one prepares properly for this exam, one can easily pass it in one or two years.
FUTURE AIM
Sharing his future goals, he stated, “Now, I will concentrate on UPSC CSE and will take the exam after thorough preparation. In the service, I intend to reach out to everyone in my work area. I will ensure that the benefits of government schemes reach the common people on time.”
