Hyderabad: UPSC toppers from the city have varying mantras for their respective successes, ranging from keeping it simple to making answers more visible. However, a common refrain was putting in long hours.
Sanjana Simha, 27, from Hyderabad, bagged an excellent all India rank (AIR) of 37. She had qualified for IRS, Income Tax last year too and is currently undergoing training as an assistant commissioner of Income Tax. She had mentorship from Harsha, her husband and a mentor at a UPSC training institute.
Speaking on her preparation, she said, “I made a few changes in my technique. I had easily cleared prelims. In mains, I made my answers more legible, by using the right keywords, underlining them, drawing a lot of diagrams, using a lot of statistics, so I ensured that answers were specific.”
Gaddam Sudheer Kumar Reddy from Nandyal district got a 69 rank in his fourth attempt.
This time, Sudheer said that he had ensured top marks in every paper. As for his long-term ambition, Sudheer wants to replicate the career of strategic affairs expert Dr K. Subrahmanyam (father of incumbent external affairs minister S. Jaishankar).
Hyderabad’s Bachu Smaran Raj cleared the exam in his first attempt, and got a rank of 676. His right half of the body is paralysed, and being a right hander, he could not take notes during classes. But he did not let that hamper him. He required a scribe to write the exams, and that was none other than his mother Bachu Nagarani.
Buddi Akhil’s deceptively simple mantra for success is to keep calm, and keep it simple. Having bagged an AIR of 566, his advice to other aspirants is incisive
“Don’t worry about your background and academic credentials, and don’t ignore previous years’ questions.”
It was third time lucky for 574-ranked Ranjit Kumar Parvathi, though it was more to do with his consistent preparation of 7-8 hours per day for the past two years rather than luck. He worked as a business analyst for two years before starting his preparation for the exams.
