UPSC Civil Services 2016-17 : Shekhar Kumar Chaudhary

Shekhar Kumar Chaudhary AIR 624, UPSC CSE 2016-17

It was heartening to see our own Shekhar enter Dholpur House and this time not to turn around in gloom. 

He was elated - no doubt - yet was in a state of disbelief, moments after the results were declared in the evening. 

It was a privilege as well as joy to converse with Mr Chaudhary, a couple of days later. 

Excerpts are here. 

1.       When did you start preparing for Civil Services?

A:  After completing Masters in 2010… From June 2010 to be specific.

2. Please state your educational background.

A:  B.Sc(Physics) from Presidency College, Kolkata

     B.Tech in Radio Physics and Electronics from University of Calcutta

     M.Tech in Communications Engineering from IIT Delhi

3. Why did you want to become a civil servant despite so many career options and while having a degree from an IIT ? 

A:  I always wanted to be in Govt. Service and Civil service provides the best opportunity in terms of   nature of job, diversity in work profile, social prestige and continuous learning.

4. What was your optional and why?

A: Anthropology. Reasons being relevance to the overall syllabus and personal liking .

5. As we understand, you were in State Civil Services. In that context, can you elaborate your study routine? This will help other aspirants.

A:  I used to study regularly for 3-4 hrs. But took leave before the mains exam and started putting in extra hours.


6. What needs to be the style of answer writing in Mains?

A: It depends on the demand of the question. But overall, I wrote the maximum I could in point wise format.    

7. Did you practice answer writing? Did it help? Did you appear in any Test Series for Mains?

A: Yes I did answer writing practice and it is a must for mains examination. 

I sincerely thank Trademark IAS for such a wonderful Advanced Mains Test Series. 

Every time during the mock tests I felt as if I am writing the UPSC paper only. Such was the standard of questions. 

Most of the questions also got repeated in the actual UPSC examination, specially from economy and International Relations.


8. What should be the approach towards Prelims in the age of –ve marking & now with total stress back on GS I?    

      

A:  1. Practice as much MCQs as possible.

2. Be thorough with current affairs.

3. Attempt cautiously (not too many questions and not too few).

4. Revise the static topics specially polity and geography thoroughly.

9. What is your opinion regarding the change in the MAINS Syllabus as well as the Question pattern?

A:  It was a welcome step but I don’t think paper 4 of GS i.e Ethics (specially theory portion) is serving any purpose. It should be done away with.

Questions are becoming more analytical in nature with proper balance from every section of the syllabus, that’s a good thing.

10. Was going through this journey a lone fight or did you find people around you?

A:  Trademark IAS is the place where I got to know Rajarshi Mitra, Indira Mukherjee, Subham Sundar Ghosh and Kantesh Kumar Mishra. 

All of them succeeded in this exam and their success kept me motivated. And it is their well wishes and constant motivation of faculty at Trademark, that I finally got my name in that merit list.