As UPSC announced the results of CSE 2021 on Monday, like every year, they changed the destiny of the successful candidates who faced struggles and challenges on their journey till here. Among the 685 who got selected this year, a farmer’s son from a small village called Alehdadpur Kalan in the Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh made it to the toppers list by securing AIR 6.
Yaksh Chaudhary, the younger son of Nonihal Singh who is a farmer by profession, made his village and the whole state proud by emerging as one of the toppers in this year’s civil services exam. With a zeal to contribute to public service, Yaksh made through CSE in his third attempt to pursue his dream of becoming an IAS officer.
In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, he spoke about his UPSC journey, especially his strategy to crack the tough exam.
INCLINATION TOWARDS PUBLIC SERVICE
Growing up in a small village in Uttar Pradesh, Yaksh completed his schooling from Amroha district with phenomenal marks after which he started preparing for the IIT JEE exam. He even joined a coaching institute and got admission in IIT Guwahati in civil engineering.
Speaking to Indian Masterminds, he said “While living in Amroha, I engaged with the administration often and after joining IIT Guwahati, I became a member of the youth empowerment club and soon became the secretary of the club. We used to conduct a lot of activities for people who belonged to the marginalised section of society and worked for their welfare. During that time, while working in the club, I got an inspiration to work in the administration and contribute my part for the people of this country.”
Yaksh wasn’t that much aware of the UPSC CSE exam during his engineering days, but gradually started looking at the syllabus and pattern of the exam.
A LEARNING PROCESS
It was in 2018 that he started his serious preparation for the UPSC exam and even joined a coaching centre in Delhi for the same. He followed a simple strategy of getting practical knowledge about what he was studying and sat for the exam for the first time in 2019. He failed to clear the preliminary exam but was okay about the result as he loved studying for it.
He refocused strongly on areas where he felt he needed improvement and again sat for the exam in 2020. He cleared the prelims and moved on to the mains stage. He said, “I improved my answer writing in the mains exam by substantiating the answers and presenting it with diagrams, etc., for better clarity. I lacked in my optional subject in the UPSC 2020 exam due to which I could not clear it.”
Yaksh reached the interview stage in both civil services and forest service exam. However, he failed to clear both the interviews. He said, “I could not improve my interview performance this year as I scored only 154 marks, just eight marks more than last year.”
However, Yaksh performed phenomenally in the optional subject as he achieved the second highest marks among all the candidates.
He says, “UPSC preparation was like a learning process for me as I learnt a lot during its preparation, and the motivation came from within, due to which I received such good marks.”
STRATEGY AND TIPS FOR ASPIRANTS
About the strategy he applied, he said, “The strategy was not that different, but I had my way of learning and understanding things. I believe that one should focus on the practical application of the subject and relate how it is used practically in society. When one gets a proper understanding of the subject of a particular theory, they will be able to answer it very easily. Another very helpful resource for me was the newspaper, which helped me more than the books I read for the preparation. It helped me mainly in the mains exam among all the stages of the exam.”
He recommends aspirants to have a great understanding of what they are studying and not become a ritualist who finishes a book in two days. He says, “There is a significance of what we are studying for the exam as it will be used when we will become a civil servant one day.”
Another thing he focuses on is the motivation towards the exam. He told Indian Masterminds, “The motivation should come from within, if it comes from some external source, it will last for a short duration of time. The inner motivation is the only thing which will sustain a person till the end of the UPSC journey.”
He added that now that he has reached his UPSC goal and is about to start on another journey, he would primarily like to focus on the health and the education sector as an IAS officer.
