Muskan Jindal- AIR-87: “Limited sources & multiple revision- The Mantra of Success in first attempt”

UPSC Civil Services Examination is an examination which has become a kind of hegemony among young crowd in the Indian Society. Whenever the result comes, a kind of buzz gets rippled among aspirants.

For the last few years, a trend has been set up in the country with regard to UPSC Toppers. This trend is because of young Rankers who crack the Civil Services Exam at a very young age in first attempt. Such Rankers are widely seen as “Rankers among the Rankers”. Infact, the fear of putting many productive years in multiple attempts is one of the major deterrence which bars many talented students to avoid this exam. Hence, one of the much asked questions is how to crack UPSC in first attempt?

This year All India Rank- 87, Miss Muskaan Jindal is one of such Rankers, who is a Topper with interesting profile. Muskan stands tall because she holds the unique distinction of cracking the exam at young age of 22. Interestingly, she couldn’t appear in UPSC 2018 because she could not fulfil the age criteria of 21. She is perhaps the youngest topper who is all set to enter the prestigious LBSNAA.

Muskan belongs to Baddi, a town in Himachal Pradesh. She completed her Schooling from VR Senior Secondary School, Baddi. Muskan has been a bright student since her school days. She had scored 96 per cent marks in Class XII. After 12th, she completed B.Com from SD College, Chandigarh, in 2018. She had also secured the fifth rank in the merit list in Panjab University, Chandigarh. She started her preparation right in the final year of graduation. Muskan says that becoming IAS Officer was her childhood dream and she would say it to everyone since childhood. She nurtured this dream for long and achieved it one fine day.

In her interaction with Team of GS SCORE, Muskan reveals her mantra for success. After a very open and frank discussion, we can decode following strategy of Muskan in her grand success:-

1. College is the right time to start the preparation. It’s that time when we can atleast build our foundation to crack Exam in first attempt. If we have to give exclusive time after college then we can build atleast a solid bed rock by reading basic books like NCERTs.
2. Aspirants should “run their own race”. It is the best way to improve ourselves and deal with the intense heat of psychological fear of competition. Competing with self and breaking our own records in perhaps the biggest accomplishment of our life.
3. Limited standard books and confined sources are best way to handle the bulky and vast syllabus of UPSC. It should be coupled by regular and efficient revision. This is the best way to reproduce such diverse subjects in the paper. One of the best ways for revision is regular attempt of questions. It serve the dual purpose of revision and external audit.
4. Now a days, many substitutes are there in the market for newspapers. Most of the replacements are like important news, editorial analysis, key facts, etc. But the raw newspaper is non-negotiable and it cannot be substituted by any other stuffs. If aspirants are not comfortable with The Hindu, they can start with some other light newspapers and can switch back to The Hindu after some time. Notes making from the newspaper can be highly tedious job and hence it should be done with word of caution and attention.
5. Integrated cum segregated preparation is highly suggested. Students should handle all the three stages simultaneously but just before a specific stage exclusive focus should be on that particular stage. For example, few months before the Prelims should be exclusively for Prelims and time after Mains should be exclusively for Mains.
6. In this exam, self study plays an important role but self study must be open to some external evaluation and hence Test Series is must for both Prelims and Mains examination. It enhances our examination temperament and brings us at par with the bar of competition.
7. Answer writing skills cannot be developed overnight. It needs a holistic approach and discipline with defined time frame. The people who are totally fresh in answer writing can adopt the strategy of writing rough answers or skimming points before writing an actual fair answer. The skill develops with time. Joining some Test Series is highly recommended.
8. The purpose of Notes Making should be very clear. The purpose of Notes making is to create a handy tool of quick revision. And so if your notes is bulky then it defeats the very purpose. Hence, notes should be crisp, short and handy. It should never be compiled in first reading but in subsequent readings only. Notes making should be supplemented by the use of highlighters in the books itself.
9. Selection of optional is a vital part of success. Syncing optional with the subject of our graduation makes the job little easy and this suggestion is more relevant for the freshers aiming to succeed in the first attempt.
10. If you are weak in any areas then do not commit the mistake of neglecting it entirely but just cover it by some concise and smart sources.
11. In the digital era, we have plethora of materials available in the market. There are thousands of books. So the best way to select a book is to go for self evaluation like sectional tests after the initial readings of any book. Our performance in tests is directly proportional to the quality of materials, conditioned we read it with quality and sincerity.
12. UPSC demands a very high level of dedication but it doesn’t mean complete isolation from the society. We just need to have a fine balance among various horizons of life. Distraction and demotivation are part of regular affairs and to deal with these undesirable stuffs, we need to divert our minds to the things we love to do. It can be our hobby or little socialisation with family and friends. At the end of day, our priorities should be in right direction.
13. Aspirants should enjoy the process of journey. Focus should be more on the journey rather than the result. Focus and consistency is key to success.

We are proud that Muskan Jindal has chosen GS SCORE in the journey of IAS preparation. GS SCORE has continued the legacy of producing IAS TOPPERS every year.

GS SCORE  ( iasscore.in) is a teaching platform for Civil Services Examination, both in classroom and online. Learning in GS SCORE is driven by two predominant objectives- excellence and empowerment. For us, excellence is a drive to challenge yourself to be better. Empowerment for us does not mean only stuffing your mind with facts and information but to ignite your mind for imagination and creativity to respond to all kinds of challenges with wisdom and confidence.

For Full Interview of Muskan Jindal- https://youtu.be/i6cDGjCtMig

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