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Mr. Sorabh Babu Maheshwari (23)
achieved 1st position among the
successful candidates of the Civil Services Examination, 1999-2000. He
has done B.E. (Mech.)
" Planned Studies,
Hard Work and INNER motivation are the Keys to Success "
We publish below an
exclusive interview he gave to Competition Success Review.
CSR: What is the secret of your success in the Civil Services
Examination?
Sorabh Babu
Maheshwari : There are myriad of factors responsible; to sum up God's
grace, family's support and encouragement, planned studies, hard work,
inner motivation can be cited as the main factors.
Q. How much time do
you think one requires for serious preparation for this examination ?
A. Atleast one year
of serious dedicated preparation.
Q. Which journals and
newspapers have you been reading for the General Knowledge and other
papers ?
A. Competition
Success Review, General Knowledge Today, The Hindu, The Hindustan Times,
Frontline and a regular reader of India Today
Q.What is your
impression of the Interview Board ?
A, Questions posed
before a candidate are very well framed and answers to them should be
made taking into consideration all possible views and a balanced
approach is expected from a candidate.
Q. What is your
advice to the future aspirants ?
A. The path towards
this coveted service passes through many ups and downs. To carry oneself
along these pulls and pushes requires strong inner motivation and
decision to aspire for Civil Services should come from within.
Q . Competition
Success Review, the largest selling youth magazine in English, has been
extremely helpful because...
A. ...it helped in
providing ready, easy-to-use material thus saving time. Topics, which
are unique to this magazine e.g.,IAS Topper Talks To You, Essays,
Personality. Tests proved extremely helpful while preparing as they give
good insight into these issues.
Q. What prompted you
to choose Civil Services as your career?
A. the unique blend
of service opportunities which Civil Services offers. Diversity of job,
being a party in policy implementation, bigger responsibilities, social
esteem and to do good to common masses were some factors which made me
to go in for Civil Services.
Q. How did your
parents, family and friends contribute to your success ?
A. A larger part of
success is attributable to them. Without the constant support,
encouragement and boost up by family members and friends at times, this
day was not possible.
Q. Had you not been
selected in the Civil Services Examination, what would have been your
reaction ? Which other service career would you have gone in-opted for?
A.This year. I did well in Written Exam
,and Interview and was confident of getting good rank. In adverse
situation of not getting selected, though sad I would have gone for
another attempt after finding out my lacunae.
Q. How would you
visualise your success ?
A. Combined effort of
everything went in my favour. I dedicate my success to my parents and
elder brother and now find myself at a platform with even bigger
responsibilities and challenges as never before.
Q Whom do you
attribute your success to ?
A. To my eldest
brother especially who has been a constant source of motivation
throughout my life span. Without whose support, I could not have
achieved this.
Q. What Were your
Optionals for the Civil Services Examination ?
A. Mathematics for
Prelims; Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering for Mains.
Q. What was your
criterion for the selection of Optional subjects ?
A. Having studied
Mechanical Engg. in my graduation for 4 years, I found it a natural
choice and I felt quite comfortable with Mathematics.
Q. How did you
prepare for your Compulsory papers?
A. I made a list of
topics to be read, then gave them a priority based on their importance
and started from the top giving due time to each of them. This approach
was mandatorv for me as I am already in job and did not have ample time.
Q. Competition
Success Review is the largest read youth magazine in English. How do you
visualise the role of this magazine in moulding the careers of the youth
?
A. Since my
childhood, Civil Services ,specific issues particularly the column of
'IAS Toppers Talk To You' inspired me a lot to go for Civil Services as
my career.
Q. How did
Competition Succeess Review help you in your preparation for
the interview?
A. Supplements like
'My Personality Test', 'Facing The Interview Board', 'Improve Your
Personality' and 'Group Discussion' give quite an original view of the
personality test and help us in assessing our deficiencies beforehand
and taking corrective measures.
Q. What is your
opinion about Competition Success Review?
A. Competition
Success Review is indispensable for aspirants to Civil Services and
other competitive exams. It is helping, candidates a lot. It is a part
of study material.
Q. What is your
opinion about General Knowledge Today?
A. More information '
i less space is the buzzword for General Know1odge Today. It provides
quite handy, ready-to-use facts, database and information and as such is
quite useful during revision hours.
Q. What do you think
is the better way of preparation between selective, intensive study and
wide, extensive study ?
A. Wide extensive
study should be followed by selective intensive study.
Q. Is the pattern of
the examination appropriate for selection ? Would you recommend any
improvement?
A. By and large, the
pattern of examination is good. Efforts, however, should be
made to reduce the shell time of the whole process in line with other
exams.
Q. Do you feel that
there should be no restriction on the number of attempts ?
A. Current policy of
restricting attempts checks non-serious candidates and prevents flooding
up of the exam. This should continue. ,
Q. With the
resumption of Essay paper in UPSC examinations, we are giving four
senior essays every month. Is this focusoriented, analytical, feature
helpful for the TAS aspirants ?
A. Definitely yes.
Best way to prepare for Essay paper is through careful reading of these
well-crafted essays by top slot authors. It sharpens the writing ability
and boosts confidence.
Q. How do you think
Competition Success Review could be more useful to the candidates
appearing in the Civil Services and various other competitive
examinations ?
A. At present, it
focusses only on General Studies aspects. Recent trends and practices in
various Optionals should be published to make candidates more aware.
Some more model question papers should also be given.
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AKHAND PRATAP SINGH
