Khushhali Solanki (AIR 61, UPSC CSE 2023): Her Inspiring Journey, Public Administration Strategy

I graduated from NIT Surat with a Btech in Civil Engineering. Since I witnessed my mother working closely with DMs, attending rural visits, hearing about their experiences, etc., I have always aspired to enter the civil service. I made the decision to investigate village visits after learning about my mother’s experience. Then it started! The commitment and fervor of our DMs, their approach to conducting Jan Sunwais, and their desire to become “My Man” (my person) for those at the bottom of the social ladder motivated me.

Background and Inspiration

Given that my mother, father, and brother are all civil engineers and that you must attend the best universities when choosing a career, I decided to pursue civil engineering. For this reason, I also took the IITJEE exam, and I was lucky to receive an NIT SURAT. I suppose it was coming to me naturally, even though my dream was to attend IIT Bombay. By coincidence, NIT SURAT offers a program that allows the top five Btech candidates to pursue a Mtech in Civil Engineering in their final year at IIT Bombay. I was fortunate to place in the top five of my cohort. But by then, COVID had hit, and we were all transported home. I therefore made the decision to begin the preparations immediately at this point in my third year.

First Attempt (CSE 2021)

In 2021, two months following my final year examinations, I made my first try. I missed it by 4-5 marks since I was unable to pass the preliminary exam. Everyone attempted to reassure me that it was only their first time, so don’t worry. However, only I was aware of what I had given up for this test. However, it’s life, and I embraced it. I then worked on it after analyzing my fault lines. My biggest error in the 2021 try was not taking any practice exams. 

Read More: PRELIMS TARGET Course

Second Attempt (CSE 2022)

From my 1st mistake, I administered 100 practice exams from various institutions on my second try. I was able to determine my sweet spot for answering a lot of questions thanks to this. I never gave responses that were less than 50:50 since I would always receive a failing grade. By consistently taking the practice exams between 9:30 and 11:30 am, I was able to give my brain a realistic simulation of exam stress. By God’s grace, I was able to pass the preliminary exam in 2022 with a good grade. The Mains exam then followed. I believed that the same tactic of providing a lot of mocks would also be effective in mains. I was mistaken, though, because the Mains mock responses need to be improved and analyzed more than our last iteration. Therefore, the outcome was straightforward (even though I passed the mains, I only had a five-marks margin).

Read More: GS Mains Target Course

Third Attempt (CSE 2023): The Breakthrough

I managed to achieve a respectable score of 184. Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed when I couldn’t locate my name in the 23 May 2023 PDF. And guess what? The preliminary round for 2023 was held on May 28, which was only five days away. Although I wasn’t prepared to take the test, I did so and passed it thanks to the encouragement of my parents and friends, who helped me get over my gloomy phase. I then started my mains preparation again. 

This was the result of four years of arduous work, three attempts, two interviews, and two mains.

Sources For Public Administration

My optional is public administration, and I have scored 274 marks in the same. I would like to express my gratitude towards ASHUTOSH PANDEY Sir, who teaches on ProdEgyIAS and I have joined the public administration in between prelims and Mains so that course really helped me in value addition and quick revision. I also used to solve some PYQs during the classes, so those were of great help in understanding the demand of the question. So I would like to thank sir and express my gratitude towards the institution as a whole thank you.

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