Table of Contents

Brief Introduction

Ritika Verma was born in Patna, Bihar. She has done her B.Sc Hons. In Mathematics from Miranda House, Delhi University in 2020. After that, she started preparing for this examination. This was her 4th attempt and she got AIR 25.

Her father has a transferable job, so she has been to different places at different times, but her preparation journey has been from her home; it’s just her home shifted every two years. Her Optional subject was Mathematics.

Strategy

During her preparation, she was totally cut off from social media; her only source of inspiration and entertainment was her parents and brother. She prepared for this examination by staying at home. She did not take any coaching for GS.

For Prelims, she created a unique strategy for how many questions to attempt in the exam. She did this practice before 3-4 months of prelims which helped her immensely to clear the cut-off every time she gave prelims. She also did multiple revisions of every topic she read. Apart from that she made notes of her mistakes which she did in her test series and improved it gradually by revising again and again.

For CSAT, she focused on previous year question papers. And she also gave importance to looking into coaching materials for it and practicing as many questions as possible to improve the accuracy.

She used standard textbooks for every subject, and YouTube videos also helped her a lot to prepare for it and helped her to make short notes. For current affairs, she only relied on PT365. She also emphasized not going after multiple sources, having limited resources, and revising it multiple times.

For Mains, she made an analysis by focusing on the trends on which UPSC is asking every year. And instead of giving more focus on making notes she focused more on covering a theme in the proper manner. Also, she emphasized on consolidating notes before examination to revise in a short span of time. She also updated the data in her notes with every revision, all which helped her to write very good answers.

For Interview, she read a lot of articles on current affairs topics which helped her to improve her analytical skills and personal development.

Marksheet

She got a total of 1024 marks, out of which she got 837 marks in the written part and 187 marks in the Interview part.

S.No.	Subject	Marks
1.	Written Total Marks	837
2.	Interview/ Personality Marks	187
3.	Total	1024

Hobbies

Ritika has hobbies of reading fiction, poetry writing, and also reflective journaling.

Message to Aspirants

Ritika said if you step back from hard work then your name will not come in the list because it is a necessary condition. Also, luck is a big factor but it is created when you do the basic minimum of hard work. Apart from that, prepare for it with your own strategy and stay positive and have faith in yourself. Also, for good mental health talk to your closed ones and do not go in isolation.

Conclusion

Ritika is very thankful for all the wishes she received, and she thanked her parents, who supported her during this long journey. She is also looking forward to working with full dedication to improve the condition of society and do something better for the underprivileged.

Her success is an example of how not giving up on your dream can really become true if you give your everything to it with hard work, persistence, dedication, and perseverance. Youths of our country should take it as a motivation to achieve their goals and do something good for society.