Laxmipriya Upadhyaya AIR-176 CSE-22 Prelims, Mains & Agriculture

Hi All,

This is the 10th Topper Journey & Strategy post from the Batch of 2023. In this post Laxmipriya Upadhyaya AIR-176 CSE-22 has detailed her Prelims, Mains & Agriculture optional sources & strategies.

Introduction

I am Laxmipriya Upadhyaya. I belong to Puri district of Odisha. Currently I am working as Assistant Conservator of Forest, Odisha Forest Service. This year I have secured AIR 176 in UPSC CSE (2022). This was my fourth attempt, second mains, second interview.

Educational background – I graduated from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhawanipatna with B.Sc. (Agriculture Hons.) and then completed my masters and Ph.D. from Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi as a UGC JRF fellow.

You can contact Laxmipriya on her Telegram ID @Aspirant8800 and her Facebook profile

UPSC Journey

I started my UPSC preparation during my second year of PhD in 2019 February. That year, I appeared for prelims and could only secure 67 marks in GS 1.

The second attempt was during the pandemic from home and I was not able to clear Prelims. But I had a great improvement. I was scoring around 88 marks, the cutoff being 92 that year.

For the third attempt, I made my mind to study for mains and keep the optional ready as I had faith to clear prelims. I cleared prelims and mains but could not get a rank. I was around 26 marks away, the cutoff being 953 that year. This is my fourth attempt when I could clear the exam.

Coaching

I did not take any coaching. My optional was agriculture which was my graduation subject. For GS, I found it very easy to read by myself and also there is abundant guidance available nowadays. A few names to mention here are Mudit Jain sir’s telegram guidance, Only IAS YouTube channel and telegram channel & materials of coaching institutes.

Mock Test

For prelims: Vision IAS (full length only) in 2021, I could not find time in 2022. I practiced PYQs extensively.
For Mains: I have never taken any mock. Rather I relied on PYQs solving and answer writing practice by myself.
For Optional: Thorun Sir from Insight IAS, Jorben J. (IARI).

Time Table

I never made a strict time table, rather I followed task based approach. On daily basis I used to complete my targets and weekly monitor them. In my opinion, 5-6 hours a day would suffice.

Book List

A) History

Ancient History – R S Sharma, themes NCERT
Mediaeval history- Satish Chandra/ themes/ TN board book. Pick any one from it.
Art and culture – Book by Nitin Singhania or his notes. Did the book selectively, NCERT fine arts.
Modern history- Spectrum did it thoroughly, Bipin Chandra read it like a novel
Post independence history – Bipin Chandra gist/ booklets of coaching institutes
World history – Mudit Jain Sir’s book

B) Geography

NCERT 11th, PMF IAS booklet (very bulky but helped me)
GC Leong only climatic regions of world
Did browsing on specific topics like minerals and location of industries

C) Polity

Laxmikanth
IR – News paper

D) Economy

Booklet of Sriram IAS very thoroughly
Selective study of concepts from investopedia, YouTube etc

E) Science and Technology

News paper and Google

F) Society- Concepts and terminology from the internet, booklets of coaching and news paper

G) Ethics- Subba Rao, Mudit Jain sir’s book specifically to see how to structure answers and approach case study

H) Essay- Editorial readings, practice essays of various topics (philosophical, technical etc.)

I) Current affairs- Hindu with notes, prelim booster news discussion of ONLY IAS, insights/ vision.

General Do’s and Don’ts

1. See cost and benefits before doing any book. Don’t follow multiple books for the same topic.

For example I did too much of history just because I liked it. It was a waste of time which I realised later.

2. Be mains ready- at least 50 percent before sitting for prelims.

3. Optional, essay and ethics holds the key to rank. Give them more time.

4. Don’t over burden yourself with studies. Take time out.

5. Practice writing only after you have some content ready. Don’t do it from day one.

6. Keep it very simple and pragmatic. Don’t be an idealist. Not reading the newspaper a day doesn’t affect your preparation as such, but next day do it.

7. Keep a back up if possible.

8. Listen to toppers but understand all are different. Be your own strategist.

9. Keep it concise. Read less, revise more.

10. Value individual guidance more than coaching.

Join here for free guidance from Mudit Jain, IRS CSE-17 (IPS CSE-14 & 15), Author of Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode GS2, Decode Ethics 4.0 & Decode History Books

Ethics book referred by CSE 22 Toppers: AIR –76, 91, 176, 189, 249, 288, 297, 299, 326, 356, 476, 541, 611, 616, 700, 737, 739, 746 & others

History book referred by CSE 21 Toppers: AIR – 44, 212, 572, 653 & others

Sample PDFs of Books: Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode Ethics 4th Edition, Decode GS2 & Decode History

Slideshow of References from Decode Ethics 4th Edition of 9 out of 13 Section-A Questions of 2023 CSE Ethics Paper:

Agriculture Optional Strategy

I am a graduate of agriculture. I have taken agriculture as an optional mainly due to three reasons:

It was my graduation subject and I was good at it.
It was consistent in performance. Questions were mostly from reference material and the score was never too low.
I was in a job. I had very little time to read anything new. So preferred to build on whatever I had already known.

Paper-1 Booklist:

Ecology & Climate change: SR Reddy, Internet, evolution notes
Agronomy: SR Reddy/ Reddy & Reddy, Rajendra Prasad, Selective ANGRAU Notes
Forestry: Manikandan
Weed: TK Das, evolution notes
Soil Science: DK Das, ANGRAU & TNAU notes
Agriculture Economics: ANGRAU notes
Agricultural Extension: GL Ray/ANGRAU Notes

Paper-2 Booklist:

Genetics: Genetics by BD Singh
Plant Breeding: Plant Breeding by BD Singh
Seed science: RL Agrawal, evolution notes (botany part)
Crop Physiology: VK Jain, evolution notes
Biotechnology: BD Singh + notes
Horticulture: UG notes & ANGRAU notes
Biochemistry: VK Jain + Internet, evolution notes
Plant pathology: ANGRAU notes
Food security & related issues: Internet

Tips:

Read PYQs and summarise them- I analysed PYQ from the year 2000 and segregated them into subject wise taken from syllabus.
Give a direction to your notes- you will understand what is important and what’s not by analysing PYQs. While reading a chapter, give more focus to the area from where questions came before. As I highlighted before, in agriculture optional questions generally repeat from important areas. Advice is not to ignore other areas but to focus more on the important areas. Follow the 80- 20 rule.Make notes after reading books many times. Add on to your notes from various sources. For example- I had added various new research findings in plant breeding and crop science.
In paper 1, add some current affairs related to it or some data as it is broad in nature.
You have to be very accurate in definitions especially in paper 2. Try to stick to scientific words and terms and do not write general statements.
Revise frequently. The reference books are bulky and more in number. So repeated revision is needed.
Go for one standard book and add information to it from other sources as per your time and need.
I relied mostly on reference books and used coaching materials and the internet very selectively.
I took help from J Jorben’s (IARI) daily answer writing in his telegram channel and wrote Thorun Sir’s (Insights IAS) mock. It helped me to add value.