Professional Documents
Culture Documents
- Mrunal - http://mrunal.org -
1. Candidate Profile
2. Education
3. Introduction
4. Electronic Vs Paper material
5. Tempo and style
6. Prelims (CSAT) General studies
7. Prelims (CSAT) Aptitude
8. Prelim accuracy
9. Mains: Compulsory language paper
10. Mains: Essay
11. General Studies (Mains) paper 1
12. General studies (Mains) paper 2
13. General studies (Mains) Paper 3
14. General Studies 4: Ethics, Integrity, aptitude
15. Mains answer-writing?
16. Public Administration Optional Subject
17. Before the interview
18. During the interview
19. CSE-2013 Marksheet
20. Career Backup
21. Insecurity about profile
22. Wisdom
Candidate Profile
Name Nima Arora
Rank in CSE-2013 50
Roll No. 85294
Age 25
Total attempts in CSE 2
Optional Subject Pub. Ad.
Medium chosen for Mains answers English
Schooling medium English
College medium English
Home town/city New Delhi
Work-experience if any Nil
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2011)
Education
Introduction
Q. Tell us something about yourself, your family, when and why did you enter in this
field of competitive exams?
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30/10/2014 Mrunal IAS Rank 50: Nima Arora shares her strategy for GS & Public Administration
I belong to a middle class family with liberal parents. Have been staying in Delhi for the past 25
years. I have 2 elder sisters and no one in government sector. It was a very new venture for me.
It was during the end of third year of my college while discussing with my friend I decided to try
for civil services. Being risky, I sat for every other gov paper which in turn boosted my confidence
level especially during the phase after failing in prelims 2012.
I guess with changing times and move towards e-services, Internet is acting as an important
resource for collecting information. I relied on electronic material more than the theoretical static
books. The following are the sites I used to visit –
1. Mrunal.org (I have read all economics articles written by you 2009 onwards.. first to last)
2. InsightsOnIndia – I used to write, practice and read the style of answer writing there.
3. Orkut and Forumias (It is a good informal platform for discussions)
4. Did not like pib. Instead I made notes from newspaper (TOI) and frontline. Did not pile up
magazines. Only wrote down imp pointers/issues.
5. As mentioned earlier, I had enrolled myself with the online module of GKT. It helped me
save time as pdfs were delivered on each topic specified in the syllabus. Used to read it once
and highlight the imp issues only for future reference.
Regarding notes, I would suggest everyone to learn the habit of reading more and writing less. It
is not necessary to prepare notes on every topic. I hardly made any notes except some current
affairs that would enrich my answers in the mains exam and notes on IR.
My style of preparation – Do not count the number of hours you study. Quality matters. Even if
you are able to devote only 4 hours per day, it is sufficient iff and only if you understand what CSE
demands. More than knowledge, it is the way you express and present your answers. If one feels
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30/10/2014 Mrunal IAS Rank 50: Nima Arora shares her strategy for GS & Public Administration
that this trait is lacking, focus more on answer writing and evaluate it yourself or from friends.
I had many ups and downs during my preparation. But unlike others, I was very active with my
college friends. Though they were not preparing with me, talking to them eased my tension to a
great extent.
Q. What went wrong in your previous attempt? What changes did you make in this
current attempt?
I was under-confident. This was the biggest reason why I failed in prelims. I got 206 and cutoff
was 209. Later, I tried taking other government exams and gained the lost confidence.
Be prepared for anything. The paper may have more Comprehensions or more maths. Just
prepare yourself for the worst. I have succumbed to failure once so am aware of the necessity of
having grip of maths, reasoning and English.
Prelim accuracy
Q1. Did you attend any ‘mock tests’? do you think they’re necessary for success?
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30/10/2014 Mrunal IAS Rank 50: Nima Arora shares her strategy for GS & Public Administration
Yes, I had enrolled to GKToday for prelims test series on GS paper 1. It helped me this time.
Mains: Essay
Q1. How did you prepare for the essay paper?
I did not try/practice any essay before Mains. I did refer InsightsOnIndia to understand the
pointers one needs to keep in mind while writing an essay. One should try and have holistic
approach wherein all dimensions – history, geography, economics, sociology and psychology
should be included in seperate paragraphs.
Q2. Which essay did you write? What key points did you include in it?
To make my essay unique, I started off with a story in the beginning. It was a small one page
conversation between mother and child. One should make sure that the beginning and the
conclusion should be very catchy.
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Mains answer-writing?
Q. How was your experience with the ‘fixed space’ answer sheet?
I was happy with the change of mains pattern this year. It discourages rote learning and is more
logical to attempt. The fixed space available is plenty and does not get completed mostly because
of the time constraints. I remember that I wrote at max complete 2 pages for every answer for
the sake of completing the paper rather than wasting time on introduction and conclusion (Except
GS paper 1 which came as a shocker to everyone. Attempted all Geography questions in that
paper but left almost 70 marks history questions).
Q. Did you write answers in bullet points or in paragraphs? Some players (who cleared
mains and got interview call letter) were claiming that they wrote entire paper in bullet
points, so it doesn’t matter….whether examiner is asking ‘examine, comment, discuss
or xyz’….simply write in bullets and points.
I tried to write more in point format because of the time constraints. For the questions which
according to me were vague, I tried to write in paragraphs.
No, I did not follow that format in-toto. Definitely, the starting 5 questions, I tried to write in
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30/10/2014 Mrunal IAS Rank 50: Nima Arora shares her strategy for GS & Public Administration
Q. In GS papers, Since UPSC came with those 100 and 200 words questions. What was
your approach in the exam??
1. GS I : Attempted full Questions 15 to 25. Then came to the start (my history is weak) and
tried completing as many questions I can (Total attempt: 180)
2. GS II : Attempted full paper (Polity and IR are my favourite subjects). Did not find any
problem but at max wrote 2 pages for each question
3. GS III : Attempted 210 marks paper. Left those questions for which I had no clue at all.
Could not bluff those
4. GS IV: Attempted full paper
As of now, I am not sure as to how well this approach worked. But in the end, I was satisfied.
Yes. Map of India for Shale reserves; Climate based questions I approached with the help of
diagrams.
Pen
Q8. Did you use ruler to draw the lines in diagram? Or did you just make it by hand?
Blue Pen
Vajiram Notes on Public Administration (paper 1 and 2) – These the the basics needed to
understand the subject. In my opinion, it may also suffice the demand of the examination if one
reads religiously. I had joined coaching for pub ad, so did not find any difficulty reading the hand
written class notes.
1. Mohit Bhattacharya
2. Arora and goyal
3. Super50 by Shubra Saxena
4. 2 nd ARC Report
5. Yojana.
Though I have done MA in Pub Ad from IGNOU and the material given is also very good to read, I
did not have time to go through that during the exam days.
Q2. How much of internet-research / current affairs is necessary for this optional? OR
can one simply rely on the books and be done with this subject?
One may simply rely on books but for recent examples, current affairs and yojana can be
beneficial.
Q3. How many months did it take to finish the core optional syllabus?
3 months approximately
Q4. How many days/ weeks before the exam, you started answer writing practice?
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It is continuous as I had joined test series and did some practice at home as well.
Q5. Do you maintain self-notes for revision of optional? In which format- electronic or
paper?
Did not prepare many notes. It was only for current affairs and IR + some issues with which I had
difficulty. Otherwise, I had kept one folder at my desktop which had all the pdfs I wanted to read
before examination.
Q6. Your observation about the difficultly level of 2013 mains vs previous papers.
I think that with the current pattern, the papers are easier to approach if one is analytical and not
a crammer. We must understand the concept rather than learning it.
Q7.How much did you skip OR couldn’t answer properly, in the optional paper?
Q8. would you advice any interested party (new player) to pick this optional?
Nowadays wind seems to be flowing towards sociology and political science. Some
senior players advice new players not to pick them given the scaling and odd questions.
What’s your take on this?
Take up the optional subject which you find interesting. Rest leave everything to God.
Seriously read the newspapers every day and prepared around 100 questions based on my DAF.
Added to it, tried to be slow while conversing so that I do not stammer and speak out right words.
Tried to be calm while answering. As I had completed MA in 2013, I knew I had to prepare the
practical application of Pub Ad in detail.
Q2. Did you attend any mock interviews by coaching classes? How were they similar /
different than official interview? Do you believe it is necessary to attend such mock
interviews?
I had joined a Telegram group for Interview Mentoring started by a senior IAS Officer. It really
helped me in understanding how one may answer the questions being raised. We were guided by
many civil servants in that group. It was a very interactive experience.
Also, I attended mock interviews by Samkalp and Vajiram. They were helpful in giving me
confidence while speaking.
Q4. Where did you stay for the interview? (Hotel / friend’s home …) and what
books/material did you bring for the ‘revision before interview’?
As I reside in Delhi, I stayed at my home which is around 20 mins away from UPSC.
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30/10/2014 Mrunal IAS Rank 50: Nima Arora shares her strategy for GS & Public Administration
Around 35 mins
Civil Service provides me the platform to work for the society with legal authority.
Q4. Please narrate your entire interview- what questions did they ask and what did
you reply and other pleasant or uncomfortable experiences during the interview.
I will try and write in detail about my interview experience soon. Right now, I only have the sets
of questions raised by the panel members. These are as follows:
Questions were all related to DAF and my subsequent answers. Board was very cordial and it was
a comfortable session.
Chairman: Why a shift from engg to Pub ad? (I told that it was in 4th year that I decided to go for
civil services) Was it a planned decision? (Yes.. and then I added about my gold medal) What is
public administration? (state and society work in tandem to achieve societal goals) More questions
on community involvement, constitutional mandate regarding community models (PRIs and
ULBs), How to make it effective (I included ICT, creating awareness and efficient communication
here), more talks on how to get the people involved. Questions based on teaching and my
volunteering in Bal Sahyog. Do you still teach and whom?
M1: How to improve health facilities in urban area say Delhi? Sewage treatment? How polio is
spread (instead of faecal matter I said Foetus.. then corrected myself) Difference between IPV and
OPV? A few more questions were there.. I answered them.
M2 (lady): You talked of sustainable development. What is it? (I told that there is a difference
between need and greed.. Gave example of air conditioners we use and how the energy can be
saved there) Any other example from Delhi? (I could not think of any.. I said I can recall SEWA
model from Gujarat and explained SHGs and people participation) But there are many loopholes in
that model, are you aware of that? (No ma’am)
M3: (I did not give appropriate answers to his questions) Questions on Lokpal, CBI, CVC ( I said
CVC heads CBI and that was wrong) Questions on Badminton and lack of sports in our country
(Answered these but overall was not satisfied) M4: You talked about people being happy and
content, can you name the country which focuses on happiness index? (Bhutan) What can India
learn from it? (Environmental protection, added Kerala Model and how tree plantation per person a
day is important for future sustainability) Delhi Nirbhaya case and present situation? How as the
head of police in district you would have handled it? (Talked about raising women force) Do you
know the state where women police are more? (No Sir) I guess it is Tamil Nadu.. Another member
added Kerala too. I thanked both of them.
Then in the end, Chairman asked me one final question. You talked about RWAs in Bhagidari
Model but you see people are less concerned to get involved and we blame the authorities. Can
you suggest me a way to solve the problem? (Yes Sir. The simplest and cost effective way –
Ethical Hoardings stating what a resident should do as an aware citizen)
Interview Over. I thanked everyone. I was satisfied when I moved out and was happy how the
last question ended.
Q5. Was your interview on the expected lines of what you had prepared or did they ask
you totally unexpected questions? Was it a stress interview, did they ask any
uncomfortable questions? If yes, how did you handle it?
My interview was totally based on my DAF and the answers I gave. So it was not a stress
interview. The panel members were very cordial. I was cheerful, pleasant and composed.
Q6. Any side details about technicalities like “make sure you bring xyz document or do
xyz thing, or you’ll face problem”?
Nothing to be afraid of. It is a normal routine check up. Those with eye nos. should come up
with prescription on that day.
CSE-2013 Marksheet
Essay 130
GS1 55
GS2 67
GS3 88
GS4 112
Pub.Ad Paper 1 110
Pub.Ad Paper 2 86
Written Total 648
Interview 206
Final total 854
Rank 50
Mrunal : three digit score in any paper of Public Administration equals *RESPECT*.
Career Backup
Q1. If you were not selected, what was your career backup plan?
Since it was my second attempt, I would have definitely joined a government job and tried to take
another attempt while working.
It was because of my lack of confidence in myself that I was not able to qualify prelims exam in
2012. I tried to overcome this by appearing in many other exams. It really helped me in this
attempt.
Wisdom
Q. Through this struggle and success, what have your learned? What is the wisdom of
life and competition? What is Your message to the new aspirants?
Message to new aspirants – Work on your dreams but do not get attached to them. Becoming
an IAS is not the end of the world, many other opportunities knock our doors. One should
welcome those as well.
Q. You are well aware of the sacred rule – the last question must be about self-
marketing. So, Did you use Mrunal.org for your preparation and if yes, how did it help
you? And you can even reply “No”. I’ll still publish your answer without tempering,
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30/10/2014 Mrunal IAS Rank 50: Nima Arora shares her strategy for GS & Public Administration
Yes. Your site has helped me immensely. I have subscribed to it and am a regular visitor. You’re
are doing a wonderful job.
Mrunal: Thanks a lot Ms. Nima for your sharing your journey and success with us. We wish you
the best for your service allocation and state cadre allocation. Keep in touch.
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