Manpreet Singh, AIR-616 CSE-22 Journey, Prelims & Mains

Hi All,

This is the 30th Topper Journey & Strategy post from the Batch of 2023. Manpreet Singh, who cracked CSE-22 with AIR-616 has shared his Journey and Prelims-Mains Strategies & Booklist here.

Introduction

Hi I am Manpreet singh ,from a small village Bajak in Bathinda district (Punjab). I started my journey in mid 2019. CSE 2020 was my first attempt, it was delayed due to covid 19, i failed to clear prelims and i was 25 marks behind cutoff.

Again after prelims in 2020 I started preparation. This time I also purchased a course for mains test series. But after two months I started prelims preparation again. Again this time prelims which was scheduled to be in may june delayed to October. It was difficult for me to sustain my strategies for so long. There were courses with prelims cum mains preparation. I gave prelims with full confidence but i missed it by approx 2 marks. Results came in October and next prelims 2022 was scheduled to be in June.

So, just after 1 month I again started prelims preparation. From January onwards I started solving MCQs and FLTs. In my third attempt in 2022 I cleared prelims with 107 marks in GS and 84 marks in CSAT. After prelims result I was confident of writing mains with free mindset as I had no past failure in mains (or even in test series, as I didnt attempt much). I bought a test series for mains. I attempted Mains tests regularly and got evaluated copies within time. I made my own plans along with my optional (Literature of Punjabi Language). On dec 6 2022 , UPSC announced mains result, I cleared my first mains. Interviews were started from 30 January. I got the 10th may date in third phase of interview. I got average marks in interview. On May 23, 2023, Final result came & I secured AIR 616

Prelims & Mains Booklist

Polity- Laxmikant
Modern History- Spectrum AMC- Vision class notes+ TN history For culture – Nitin Singhania sir’s book
World History- Vision Class notes
Geography- PMF IAS + ncert
Economy- Mrunal sir old videos on YouTube, classroom notes
Environment- PMF IAS book
Ethics- Vision class notes + Decode Ethics + value addition from toppers notes
IR- PT 365 Vision
Internal Security- Vision classroom notes
Society – Vision classroom notes
Governance – Vision classroom notes

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

Apart from booklist for pre and mains which are mostly common I will give some points, that were part of my strategy:

For prelims I completed static portion from vision class notes, standard books. And practiced Mocks and FLTs in abundance. It helped me in developing question solving tendency.
In mains I stuck with my simple plans to write more, completing paper on time, reading same books for mains and mains 365 for value addition. I had watched Mudit Jain sir’s video on YouTube about Answer Writing, Sir provided a new way to structure answers, increasing points, diagrams addition that can help in improving quality & quantity of answers.
For mains, live answer writing sessions helped me in breaking the inertia. It helped in building answer writing tendency.
Doing current affairs on a daily basis is very important otherwise it becomes extremely difficult to complete left out current affairs.
For current affairs, I relied heavily on daily current affairs of insights ias + Vision Magzines (Soft Copy) for having a more comprehensive approach. Minimize resources, avoid purchasing and referring to every other new material in the market.
Revision is very important for prelims because it is difficult to sync a lot of knowledge. Revision along with mcqs helps in reverse learning. Learning new things every time. For Mains, revision has a role but more important is structure, presentation,value addition along with backing of static knowledge. I haven’t made any special notes for mains, just picked small notes and compilation from toppers group and improvised them .

It was a good journey, still miles to go, looking forward for new achievements. This exam is now becoming very uncertain, sometimes with all the hard work people are not able to get past the line. One can’t do anything about it. The only thing that we have is to keep working hard, have faith in one’s ability, have faith in yourself, the universe will find ways to reward us in any way. It is a long journey some get the achievements some didn’t. Main thing is sustaining yourself for time it takes to cross threshold.

CSE-22 Topper Strategies:

1) Dwij Goel AIR-71 Journey & GS-2 124 Marks & His Anthropology Strategy 315 Marks

2) Gautam Vivekanandan AIR-211 Essay Topper 149 Marks

3) Khushboo Oberoi AIR-139 Prelims, Ethics & Public Administration 294 Marks

4) Aaditya Sharma AIR-70 Prelims, Mains & Medical Science

5) Abhishek Dawachya AIR-610 Prelims, Mains (GS-1 Topper) & Sociology

6) Avinash Kumar AIR-17 Philosophy Topper 319 Marks

7) Virendra Kumar Meena AIR-883 Hindi Medium Cleared Prelims Thrice

8) Jatin Jain AIR-91 Prelims, Mains & Sociology

9) Kasturi Panda AIR-67 Prelims, Mains & Interview

10) Laxmipriya Upadhyaya AIR-176 Prelims, Mains & Agriculture

11) Nidhi Goyal AIR-202 GS-3 Topper 107 Marks