Cities like Delhi and Allahabad have become the coaching hubs of UPSC Civil Services. Once you start your preparation, many people will guide you to move to one of these cities and join one of the institutes that offer UPSC coaching.
It is a common belief among aspiring civil servants that if they do not take coaching classes, their chances of being selected for the IAS exam are very slim. Nidhi Siwach broke through these myths and became an IAS officer in 2018. She did not go to Delhi or Allahabad and did not take any coaching classes. Let’s know their success story.
In an interview, Nidhi talked about how people manipulate candidates about coaching classes and force them to join for fear of failing.
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He said it is not mandatory to join a coaching institute. Even if there is no one to guide you at home, there is enough material on the internet to crack the official exam.
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Nidhi Siwach is a native of Gurugram. She is an engineer specializing in mechanical engineering. She was a design engineer at Tech Mahindra before starting to prepare for the civil service exam. During her college days, Nidhi wanted to join the Indian Air Force.
He took the FCAT exam and passed the first two stages. During his SSB interview, the interviewer convinced him to prepare for UPSC. This was a pivotal moment in Nidhi’s life. He took advice and began to prepare for the civil service.
After this interview, Nidhi made her first attempt. Although he did not prepare much, he scored better than many other candidates.
After some time, Nidhi did not want to give up her job at Tech Mahindra and prepared to do so. On the second attempt, she couldn’t even finish her syllabus. She failed again in the preliminaries, but she did not lose hope. By this time, her family started looking for boys to marry her.
Nidhi didn’t want to get married so soon, she convinced her father to give her one last chance for UPSC. “The paper was not difficult on both previous attempts, I failed because I didn’t prepare properly,” Nidhi says.
Her father gave her the last chance on one condition, if she failed, she would have no problem marrying the person chosen for her. Nidhi accepted this condition and returned home to begin preparations again.
Nidhi moved back from Hyderabad to Gurugram in November 2017. His biggest struggle was when he had to choose his elective. Nidhi knew that the elective course played a major role in preparing for her official exam.
After analyzing the questions from the past 5 years, they selected four elective courses, Public Administration, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering and History. He discovered that mechanical engineering is an alternative. So he decided to go.
Nidhi said in an interview that she would not see the main entrance to her house for the next six months. She studied, ate, and slept in just one room for the next six months.
He started with NCERT and Basic books. She asks the candidates not to run after the means. Nidhi Siwach concentrated on clearing the preliminaries first. Based on this goal, he made his CSE strategy. He cleaned up the preliminaries, after which he started preparing for the main course.
For Mains, Nidhi solved as many numerical problems as possible. Later, he started writing answers, concentrating on his speed and accuracy while writing. Nidhi Siwach tells the candidates in an interview that it is not necessary to practice writing answers all year round. After appearing for the prelims, the preparation can begin.
Nidhi studied one book per subject and did an extensive study of current affairs. He thought from the point of view of the copy control that helped him write unique answers.
Nidhi Siwach got good grades in UPSC Mains that year, she obtained the 83rd rank in Civil Services exam 2018. Before the interview, she asks the candidates to keep calm during the process. Nidhi guides the candidates to study continuously and not to run behind the means. Their preparation strategy is a lesson to all aspiring civil servants.
