Brief Introduction

Swati Sharma, who comes from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, secured AIR 17 in the UPSC CSE result announced in 2024. She graduated with a degree in political science from Jamshedpur Women’s College. After that, she started preparing for the Civil Services Examination.

Her father, Sanjay Sharma, is a former Defence Personnel, and her mother is a housewife. This was her 3rd attempt. After facing failure in her first two attempts, she relocated to Delhi for serious preparation which ultimately helped her to crack this examination with flying colors. Her optional subject was Political Science and International Relations.

Motivation and Strategy

After completing her graduation she was motivated to give this examination to do something for her country and make a positive impact in the society. For this, she was fully supported by her parents and her elder brother.

For Prelims, she referred to the basic books like NCERT and then focused on standard books as recommended by other toppers. She also used to give mock tests, but she couldn’t solve more questions, and then negative marks were also there, but eventually, she started to solve more and more questions with higher accuracy through revision and by solving many tests. She couldn’t do Prelims in her 1st two attempts because she solved fewer questions, and she also did not analyze PYQs properly.

Therefore, she joined a test series of coaching institutes to give sectional tests and analyze them and also analyzed PYQs before Prelims. On her 2nd attempt, she couldn’t qualify for the CSAT, so for this attempt, she started very early to prepare for it and solved topic-wise questions, and then she focused on improving her accuracy. She also used to make separate notes for GS papers, and one important thing she did was maintain a separate register for errors, which she made in the mock tests and wrote in pointers, which helped her very much.

For Mains, she referred to the same books that she referred to for Prelims, and apart from that, she added some extra books and some PDF notes, which she made by herself. She also wrote many tests and analyzed them. Apart from that, she made short notes for every topic, which helped her very much in the last-minute revision. She scored a total of 304 marks in her Optional subject which is highest in PSIR.

Message to Aspirants

She gave importance to recognizing the mistakes and learning from them. For students who are preparing, she emphasized giving PYQs and finding mistakes and analyzing them, which really helped her this time to crack the examination. Also, she focused on analyzing the subject in which you are getting less marks, revising it, and concentrating more on getting it better.

Apart from that, she told students to have confidence, as it is the key to any exam, and to remain calm while giving exams. She also gave importance to investing time productively if you are a part of a social media group, which will help you complete your target.

Conclusion

For her success, she thanked her parents and then her elder brother for supporting her on every step. She also thanked her friends and teachers who supported her from the beginning in the preparation. She secured the highest rank from Jharkhand, which can be taken as a role model for the students who are preparing from Jharkhand. She also wants to inspire more women to join the Civil Services. Her success is an example of how not giving up can help you achieve success.