As the pressure of clearing the most prestigious and difficult examination of UPSC – CSE – builds up over time, many aspirants get demotivated and quit. But Divyank Gupta from Kanpur, whose mental health suffered during Prelims and Mains, fought hard to overcome it and cracked UPSC CSE 2022 with All India Rank 357.
“It was a surreal feeling,” he said, while speaking with Indian Masterminds.
FROM IIT KANPUR TO UPSC
Born and brought up in Kanpur, Divyank Gupta is a graduate in B.Tech from IIT-Kanpur. Soon after completing his graduation, he decided not to sit for placement and instead start preparing for UPSC CSE. His father is a businessman who runs a general store and mother is a homemaker.
This was Divyank’s third attempt. In his previous two attempts, he couldn’t clear. In 2020, he reached till the interview round but couldn’t make it to the final list. In 2021, he couldn’t clear Prelims, but, finally, in the CSE 2022, he managed to clear the exam with rank 357.
However, this is not the end of his UPSC journey as he has also given UPSC CSE 2023 prelims examination. “I’ve given the exam for rank improvement and am quite sure that I’ll make it,” he told Indian Masterminds.
WHERE HE DREW INSPIRATION FROM
On being asked what inspired him to go for CSE, he shared that the nature of the job fascinated and motivated him a lot. He interacted with his college seniors who are in the service. “I wasn’t looking for any desk job which pays you much but there is no job satisfaction as such. So, I decided to move towards CSE, where the impact which you can make is very high,” he said.
The thought, ‘Why you started this preparation’, was always at the back of his mind and motivated him a lot. “My family, especially my brother, has been a strong support all through this journey,” he said, adding that whenever he was demoralized, demotivated and stressed, his brother stood by him and helped him to come back on track and start afresh.
STRONG PREPARATION WITH MATHS AS OPTIONAL
Divyank’s strategy was to firstly understand the syllabus and store it in his mind. Simultaneously, he looked at the previous year question papers which helped him to predict questions up to a certain extent. “I was prepared for those questions beforehand,” he said.
A lot of practice went into achieving this rank. For Prelims, he solved around 10,000 questions, for Mains, he wrote 25 tests for GS alone. And, for optional, he wrote 40 tests which helped him immensely.
He further shared that in the interview round, he scored the highest mark in the board he was assigned. For the interview, he practiced and gave 70-80 mocks with one of his friends. “I practiced to such an extent that the questions which were asked in the interview were actually from those sessions which we did,” he said.
With the right kind of attitude and mental alertness, Divyank managed to jump from score 151 to 201 in the interview this time round.
His optional subject was Mathematics for which he got the right guidance from his seniors and a lot of resource materials. “I chose the subject as I was always good in Maths and it’s a scoring subject as well,” he added. A couple of mistakes notwithstanding, Divyank could score 265 in his optional subject.
