UPSC PRELIMS PREPARATION STRATEGY OF LAGHIMA TIWARI: AIR 19 (FIRST ATTEMPT)

There cannot be a better way to begin the wonderful story of this 2022 topper, Laghima Tiwari, than by decoding the essence of her name ‘Laghima’, which means to levitate or rise due to self-imposed weightlessness. Not surprisingly, she was asked this question related to the meaning of her unique first name in her interview by the chairman of the board. By putting in consistent efforts and following a timetable without fail for fifteen months she indeed rose to great heights.

Laghima hails from the city of Alwar in Rajasthan and completed her graduation in 2021, that is just a year before she made her first UPSC appearance. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication engineering from Delhi Technological University. What makes her story remarkably special is the fact that she secured the coveted rank of 19 in UPSC Civil Services Exam in her very first attempt. And what underlay this great achievement was nothing but a well-planned and strictly-followed preparation strategy.

Marks in the Preliminary Examination 2022

Mains Marksheet and Final Score

Before analyzing her preparation strategy, it is important to note that she did not separate her prelims preparation from mains preparation in terms of study material. But she did divide her time between UPSC General Studies and her optional subject (Anthropology) with nearly 80 percent of her time devoted to Anthropology in the beginning. Gradually, General Studies began to take a major chunk of her daily 7-8 hours.

Let’s quickly go through the salient features of her prelims-related approach

• Choosing a role model with a similar background (as going by every topper’s words may be confusing)
• Follow the time table strictly and be as consistent as possible. She has repeatedly laid emphasis on the word ‘Consistency’. 
• As she had not joined any coaching institute for classroom lectures, she made mock tests the buttress of her preparation.
• She took an integrated approach without separating prelims preparation from that of the mains.
• The last three months before the Prelims (held on June 5, 2022) were entirely earmarked for the preparation of the preliminary exam only.
• She had taken nearly 45 mock tests for prelims and not all of them were Full-length tests.
• Regarding UPSC mock tests, she has clearly said that learning from the mistakes was her main aim along with testing her accuracy level.
• As part of her UPSC prelims strategy, mock tests helped her in deciding the optimum number of questions to be attempted; which was between 80-90. In the prelims 2022, she attempted 87 questions and obtained a score of 103.
• Being an engineering student, she did not face any difficulty in tackling the CSAT paper and sailed through with a score of 115. The only thing that she had done for the sake of preparation was attempting the previous year papers of 2020 and 2021.
• Regarding the NCERT books, she said that she preferred going through the books meant for class 11th and 12th students only. However, it is an individual choice and one can start from Class 6 onwards if the need is felt.
• For notes-making, she preferred to make notes only for the less popular topics and subjects like ancient and medieval history. Reading a book repeatedly was not time-efficient. However, she repeatedly read books like Spectrum’s Modern India and Laxmikanth’s Polity and used different highlighters to mark the easy-to-forget facts.

Previous Year Questions Trend Analysis: VisionIAS – Vision IAS Research and Analysis

Having discussed the salient features, now let’s take a closer look at her subject-specific approach.

• POLITY:  She strictly referred to Laxmikanth’s Polity for the static portion and referred to current affairs monthlies for the dynamic part. 
• HISTORY: For Modern India, she referred to Spectrum’s Modern India and for ancient and medieval she referred to the Old NCERT books. 
• ART & CULTURE: She referred to basic standard material and selectively the book authored by Nitin Singhania as the book is bulky and the entire content is not required to be covered.
• GEOGRAPHY: For Geography, she chose the Class 11 and 12 NCERT books and very selectively referred to G.C Leong’s Physical Geography.
• ENVIRONMENT: She referred to basic material for the static part and for current affairs-related topics she referred to the VisionIAS Monthly Magazine. 
• ECONOMICS: to build a good foundation, she read the NCERT Macroeconomics book and then referred to basic reference material.
• For International Relations, she referred to monthly current affairs magazines of VisionIAS. 
• For Science & Technology, she didn’t refer to any specific book. She just took the help of the mock test questions and their explanations to revise. Her advice to the aspirants, especially from the non-science background was to focus on recurring topics with a high output-input ratio like biotechnology and information technology.

Quick Revision Materials: VisionIAS – Quick Revision Material

If we summarize the essential elements of her preparation strategy and pick the keywords from her Topper’s talk, then aspirants can pay attention to the following pieces of advice

• Choosing one’s role model (any previous topper) with similar (preferably) backgrounds
• Designing a practicable time table and consistently following it
• Pursue one hobby which can vent the built-up stress
• Taking mock tests and learning from one’s mistakes
• Strengthening one’s command over the static portions without fail
• Not to give up before making one’s serious attempt 

All in all, Laghima has proven that with strong willpower, consistency and a foolproof strategy any aspirant can succeed. Her story is indeed inspiring for the lakhs of aspirants who are dreaming it big. 

Remember, the UPSC journey is long and challenging, but as the going gets tough, the tough get going!

Toppers’ Talk by Laghima Tiwari, AIR 19, UPSC Civil Services 2022