Cracking UPSC is a long haul, take care of your mental health: All India No. 7’s tips for Civil Services aspirants

Rajah took a moment to process what he heard. The 26-year-old doctor from Chennai had hoped, cautiously, to see his name somewhere on the list – and a rank high enough to secure the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) had been a quiet dream.

“But a single-digit rank…,” he told The Indian Express in the evening, still sounding slightly surprised. “I had never dreamed of that.”

The first person Rajah called was his father, followed by his mother. Both his parents were at work. Soon afterward, his own phone started to ring – and would not stop.

“The result came on a Friday, and that too during the auspicious month of Ramzan… This must be a blessing,” he said.

Rajah is among 38 candidates from Jamia’s RCA who have cleared the Civil Services Examination 2025, according to the results declared on Friday. The RCA operates under the university’s Centre for Coaching and Career Planning (CCCP) and has, over the years, produced dozens of civil servants.

The doctor who wanted to be a civil servant

Rajah grew up in Chennai, the only child of two academics in Tamil Nadu’s government education service. His mother is the principal of R K Nagar Government Arts and Science College in Chennai; his father heads the Government Teachers’ Training College in Varathanadu near Thanjavur.

Rajah himself studied to be a doctor. At the Dayananda Anglo Vedic (DAV) School in Gopalapuram, he had physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics in Classes 11 and 12. Then, in 2016, he enrolled to study medicine at Government Cuddalore Medical College, formerly known as Raja Muthaiya Medical College. He graduated in 2022.

“I wasn’t a topper,” he said. “In school I was maybe third or fourth in class. In Class 12, I got 194.75, when many toppers get 200 or 199. I was maybe among the top 10 or 20 per cent.”

The turning point came during his medical internship.

Rajah’s final year coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic. In hospitals, he saw first-hand how doctors were working on the frontlines, but he also noticed the roles that the district administration and government officials were playing – coordinating oxygen supply, managing hospital infrastructure, etc.

“I saw how important the administration’s role was,” Rajah said. “As a doctor I would serve patients individually. But as a public servant, I felt I could serve a much wider section of people.”

By the time he completed his MBBS in 2022, the decision had been made. Immediately after he graduated, Rajah began preparing for the Civil Services Exam.

His first attempt did not go as planned. “I couldn’t clear the Prelims,” Rajah said.

In 2023, he moved from Chennai to Delhi and joined the Jamia RCA. The transition from the South to the North, from a medical campus to the ecosystem of intense preparation, was not easy.

“Coming from the South and getting acclimatised to North India was a bit difficult initially,” Rajah said. “But I made a lot of friends here. That helped a lot.”

As he plunged into preparations for one of the world’s most difficult competitive exams, Delhi became his base, and his visits home were rare and brief.

“Even when I went to Chennai, I would stay only two or three days,” Rajah said. “Mostly I stayed here. Preparing for the UPSC exam can feel less like studying for a test and more like committing to an uncertain multi-year expedition,” he said.

CSE 2025 was Rajah’s third attempt at cracking the exam. “And my first Mains and my first interview,” he said.

The exam is intensely demanding and failure is unforgiving. Those who are knocked out of the race in the early stages have to restart the year-long examination cycle at the beginning.

“If you fail at one stage, you have to start from scratch again. And because it’s an annual exam, you have to wait another year,” Rajah said.

He developed an approach that he believes sustained him through the process. “I tried to learn from everyone,” he said. “If it was a teacher, I would learn from them. If it was another aspirant who had cleared Prelims or Mains, I would see what had worked for them, and what mistakes they had made.”

Rather than following a rigid daily timetable, Rajah focused on targets. “The key is not a fixed schedule but fixed goals,” he said. “For example, finishing a subject in a week or a month. If you miss a day, you put in double the effort the next day and reach the target.”

Music, tennis and mental health

For all the relentless reading and note-making, Rajah insists that clearing the CSE requires more than just academic discipline. “It’s important to develop your personality during the preparation itself,” he said.

His own outlet was music. Since childhood, he had trained in Carnatic music, singing and playing the keyboard. “When I felt stressed, I sang or played (the keyboard),” he said. “It calmed my nerves.”

Occasionally, he played tennis for recreation with fellow aspirants. The friendships he formed during preparation became a crucial support system, Rajah said.

Many of his closest friends are doctors from medical colleges. Some had pursued postgraduate degrees, others were working in hospitals. “One of my friends works as a medical officer in Ooty,” Rajah said. “He would tell me about the problems patients face in rural areas. That helped me keep an ear to the ground.”

Preparing for civil services often means putting other things in life on hold. Rajah missed the weddings of friends, and family gatherings and milestones back home. “My college friends were doing their PGs, moving ahead in their careers,” he said. “Many of them have already completed their post-graduation.”

In contrast, his own path remained uncertain for years. “I sacrificed a stable lifestyle, maybe a stable path,” he reflected. “But in the end it worked out.”

Financially, he said, his family supported him, and he also received assistance through a Tamil Nadu government scholarship for civil services preparation. “That scholarship helped with things like flight tickets for the interview,” he said.

Despite the distance from home, Rajah found small ways to stay connected to the South. One of them was food.

“Whenever I missed home, I would go to Andhra Bhawan,” he said, referring to the famous government canteen that is a favourite of many Delhiites. “I would go there just for the gunpowder and ghee. That was my comfort food.”

When he returns to Chennai, he knows what he will ask his mother to cook. “Sambar and rice with brinjal poriyal. That’s the first thing.”

Despite the joy and celebration, Rajah insists that the rank itself was never the real goal.“The aim should not be just clearing the exam,” he said.

Rajah has opted for the IAS and hopes to get his home cadre of Tamil Nadu, although he says he is ready to serve anywhere in the country.

Asked what advice he would offer to future aspirants, Rajah stressed on endurance over study techniques. “First, take care of your mental health,” he said.

Also, aspirants must remember why they began preparing in the first place, he said. The UPSC journey, he said, is rarely quick. “Most people need at least two or three years. It’s like another graduation after college.” And through those years, he says, the key is to keep the original purpose alive.

“For me, it was serving the people, especially in the health sector.”

“Don’t let your goal become just clearing the exam,” he said. “Remember what you want to do after clearing it.”