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Journalism of Courage
“The drive to serve the country, constant hard work and patience fulfilled my dream,” this was how 2017 IAS topper Anudeep Durishetty summed up his journey to success. It was his fifth attempt, but his unwavering determination and tireless effort to see himself as a bureaucrat has finally paid him rich dividends.
One of the primary requisite to crack the civil service examination is to update yourself with current facts, in-depth knowledge of recent topics, and constant practice.
How the topper cracked the preliminary examination
The Preliminary examination or the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) consists of two papers of two hundred marks. Paper one deals with general studies while paper two is about logical reasoning and aptitude. The prelims paper mainly consist of multiple choice questions.
Preparation strategy
Shedding some light on his preparation strategy, the 27-year-old said he relied on mock tests apart from reading newspapers. “Apart from the day to day study, I watched the news and read newspapers like The Indian Express, The Hindu, and also read magazines. The online mock tests helped me a lot, as they also contained answers. I never got stressed and studied with patience and concentration,” Durishetty said.
Read | Meet last four years’ UPSC toppers
Books the topper followed
Politics- Indian Polity (M Laxmikanth)
History- NCERT books
Geography- Certificate Physics and Human Geography by Goh Cheng Leong
Art and Culture- Books, specifically Internet and newspapers- The Indian Express, The Hindu
Science and Tech- Newspapers and Internet
Current Affairs- Magazines, TV News, Newspapers, Internet
Economics- Newspaper, Economic survey by Government of India for Mains (Economics)
Analysing Prelims question papers 2017: From topper’s mouth
“Last year, the three topics that were mainly focused on were Government schemes, Current affairs and Environment. The questions were moderate in past years,” Durishetty said.
Mains Examination
The UPSC mains examination was the toughest to crack, Durishetty said, adding that the aspirants had to concentrate on the writing part as they had to complete 20 subjective question within a span of three hours.
“Apart from paper wise study, writing is the part you have to focus. To attempt 20 questions of 200 words in a time span of three hours is a herculean job,” said the topper.
Regarding his optional paper, the topper said, “Though I studied Engineering, I was quite fascinated with topics like Human Evaluation, Genetics from my childhood. That led me to take Anthropology.”
He considers each paper equally tough and important. “There are some thoughts that subjects like Anthropolgy, Latin, or other non-mainstream subjects are easy to score. There is nothing called ‘easy to score’, each and every paper is equally tough and important,” Durishetty said while encouraging IAS aspirants to go for the subjects in which they have in-depth knowledge.
What steps you follow to crack Mains examination?
“As Mains is the most crucial part of UPSC and it is subjective papers. Every day, I studied a chapter, analysed the 10 years’ questions and practised writing with time. It’s really tough to complete the paper having 20 questions of 200 to 300 words each on time. Apart from it, I practised some offline test series, provided by Forum IAS, Delhi,” he elaborated.
Interview round
According to the topper, in UPSC, it’s not an interview, but more of a personality test.
Tips to crack interview: 2017 topper’s suggestion
“Your biodata is quite important, don’t put anything which you are not aware of. For example, people write stamp collection, maintaining a diary or others as a hobby. If you really do it, then its fine, otherwise the interviewers can make you into trouble,” he said, adding that being confident shows your personality and that’s what interviewers look for.
‘The topper, a former Google employee loves football and a fan of Barcelona’
‘Engineering- Google- IRS- IAS’: Topper’s journey
After completing Engineering from BITS Pilani with Electronics and Instrumentation in 2011, Durishetty landed a job in Google India as product quality analyst, and worked there for a year. He cracked the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) at the second attempt, and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) at his fifth attempt. “Passion to be a part of country’s development process drives me here,” he says. He is currently working as an Assistant Commissioner (Central GST) in Jeedimetla division of Medchal Commissionerate in Hyderabad.
‘Credit goes to my parents, teacher’
Additional Assistant Engineer with electricity board of Telangana, Durishetty credited his parents, especially his father, for his success. “I also want to thank my teacher, Surekha Bhanot, HOD, Instrumentation Engineering, BITS Pilani who inspired me a lot, and my institute over all which gave me life lessons,” he said.
Durishetty’s father is a retired Additional Assistant Engineer with electricity board of Telangana. He belongs from Metpally in Telangana’s Karimnagar district.
