From Dr. Gaurav Uppal ; All India Rank : Third (3) Roll No. : 145992, Civil Services Exam 2004, this talk has been delivered by him Straight from Chandigarh

The desire for a career in civil services started with the wide and challenging job profile and good social recognition and tremendous scope for a government backed authority to deliver results and possibly, on personal front, fast career advancement and good career management policies along with the opportunity to serve the society encouraged me to take up the challenges of civil services exam.

Most humbly, I wish future aspirants in this talk to focus on what are the constituents of good preparation, which finally delivers success. First of all the Preparation for the Civil services demands intelligence, strategy (a key element) and ultimately hard work, detailed planning and personal qualities like courage, determination, patience, motivation, finances, time perseverance and at times, risks. Secondly, the time period of preparation is very important. Regarding time, I would say that serious preparation of one year is mandatory so as to give a strong foundation. Thirdly, the Choice of optional is very important and the relevant criteria to decide for the optional are: interest, background knowledge, scoring trends, study material and availability of coaching material. Yet, the key criteria is interest..interest and interest. So, my sincere advice is to choose optional subjects on these criteria only. I will explain it in coming sentences to drive the point.

In my case, My optionals were Psychology & Medical Science. As it is obvious that Medicine was a natural choice & psycho seemed interesting to me and also looked scoring from past data. One of the foremost criteria for 2nd optional should be scoring-ness. Now, coming to the preparation part. I can say that the preparation starts first with a well-defined strategy for Prelims. For optional, preparation should be comprehensive and all details of concepts should be studies in depth. Only read standard text books and this fact remain true for even G.S. So, Never go for short cuts especially for psychology, I focused on reading Morgan King, Baron, Crawick and Chaplin to get clear perspective.

For General Studies it is always better if a person has already covered syllabus with mains orientation, books I read were:
· Spectrum & Bipin Chandra for History
· D D Basu for Polity
· NCERT books for Geography
· Uma kapila for Economics
· Hindu for Sc tech & Current Events
· Spectrum for Science & Tech

Magazines may be consulted according to our own choices & quality topics may be covered. Then, after doing all these things, I focused on Strategy for mains. Like, for psychology, I read the same books I mentioned for paper I, for paper2: I read Carson Butcher for 'Rehabilitation, Abnormal & Therapies'; Anastasi for individual differences and went through some coaching notes and reading editorials in newspapers relevant to the topics of paper II.
For G.S Mains, I am suggesting same books and I would like to add that aspirants may join coaching institute but it is not indispensable. Then, I thoroughly focused on the interview. The list goes like that:

· Improve your communication skills
· Develop habit of interacting with intellectuals
· Make a small group for group discussions
· Read newspapers magazines & update your self
· Give mock interviews
· Be strong in your bio-data
· Be true to the board


So, coming to the last part of the talk. I suggest to all 'Be always remain motivated, remain focused on your daily goals, follow your everyday schedule, never be distracted from your main goal, always revise your strategy from time to time, be open to constructive feedbacks, never give up, do fall in healthy competition.

Finally, Before concluding I would like to appreciate the contributions this site (Three Authors.Com) is rendering to the young aspirants and rather to the whole nation. I was touched to find how well & how comprehensively every detail for career opportunities is covered in this site.
In the end I would like to end with the saying:

"A man who controls all his fears his desires & passions & reigns within himself is more than a king". Thanks to you and all the best for your Future.

Roll No. : 145992
Name : GAURAV UPPAL

Civil Services(Main) Examination 2004
Subject		MaximumMarks	MarksObtained
Essay        (Paper III)		200	135
General Studies   (Paper-IV)		300	177
General Studies  (Paper-V)		300	184
Optional I	Paper-VI	300	173
	Paper-VII	300	162
Optional II	Paper-VIII	300	168
	Paper-IX	300	174
Penalty Marks		0	0
Written Total		2000	1173
Interview Marks		300	192
Final Total		2300	1365

Remarks: Recommended. /CANDIDATURE PROVISIONAL.