Shubham Chaudhary, an Assistant Professor at Delhi University cracked the Civil Services Examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission and secured the All India Rank 11th in 2013. Shubham Chaudhary said, “I am glad that I got the opportunity to undergo IPS training before I got into IAS. It was a thoroughly enriching experience.”
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Educational Background
Shubham Chaudhary did her schooling till class 10 from DPS Vasant Kunj and after class 10 she did International Baccalaureate (11th, 12th grade) from the American School of Warsaw, Poland. She studied over there because her father was on deputation over there. After that, she did her BA (Hons) in Economics from St. Stephen’s college. At last Shubham Chaudhary got into Delhi School of Economics and completed MA in Economics.
When Shubham Chaudhary was pursuing her MA in Economics, from Citibank she got a pre placement offer. She worked at Citibank for one year, and then she joined as an Assistant Professor at Delhi University. While teaching Shubham Chaudhary started preparing for UPSC Exam.
When Shubham Chaudhary was in 11th grade and while studying Development Economics she decided that she would make her own contribution to the development of India, but at that time she was not sure what precise path she would take.
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Optional Paper
Shubham Chaudhary opted for Economics and Public Administration as her optional subject. Before the Preliminary Exam, she spent around 2-3 months for revising GS, including current affairs. Shubham Chaudhary focused on updating current affairs, and revising the optional after the Preliminary Exam. She read daily newspaper and a couple of magazines regularly.
Attempts
In her first attempt only Shubham Chaudhary made her name through the reserve list. She got IPS, in her second attempt and joined National Police Academy in December 2013. Finally Shubham Chaudhary got IAS which was her first service preference in her third attempt.
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Preparation Strategy of Shubham Chaudhary
Before Prelims Shubham Chaudhary tried to revise General Studies 3 to 4 times. With the optional she was extremely thorough, and usually she used to update the core topics in that. Writing practice of some answers and mock tests also helped in qualifying.
For Preliminary Exam
The core areas of History, Geography and Polity were focused and also read the NCERT books and Wizard series for all three subjects. On her optional subject Shubham Chaudhary did not focus much on Economics and she was more comfortable with it. She read magazines like Frontline and Wizard and The Hindu, the editorial of Economic Times for current affairs. As for CSAT, subjects like Mathematics and English she was comfortable with both, and did not feel to focus too much on these subjects. However, for practicing CSAT-related questions, past years’ questions papers and test series available in the market helped a lot.
For Mains Exam
Shubham Chaudhary preferred to revise core subjects from the same books as for the Preliminary exam. She felt that not to get engaged with multiple sources, so it was better to read and re-read the same books. For Economics, she kept updated herself using Economic Survey and Economic Times and read the standard Honors level textbooks. Shubham Chaudhary kept updating herself and must not be ignored at any cost she felt.
For Interview
While Shubham Chaudhary was at National Police Academy in those days so she did not get much time to prepare. She could barely glance at the newspaper, or not get the chance at all while those days. Then she installed some news application (APPs) on her phone, whereby she got intermittent updates, and she also read some online portals, especially for current affairs related to Economics. It was enough and her interview went quite well.
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Message for UPSC Aspirants
- One will clear the exam if one reads a good series of books for core areas (especially NCERT study material) and a couple of good newspapers/magazines for GS, and is thorough with the optional.
- Try to revise General Studies 3 to 4 times from the same books if possible.
- Be extremely thorough with the optional subject, and update the important topics, if not all topics in the optional using newspapers/magazines/surveys/internet.
- Some answer writing practice also helps.
Three Agenda
Food security will be her first agenda. The figures for malnourished, underweight and anemic children are shocking, and behind each figure lie millions of faces. Shubham Chaudhary think hunger is the most demeaning, inhuman experience. It is only when we get rid of this problem that we can think of investment in human capital in any meaningful way. You cannot educate a child who is hungry.
Health will be her second agenda, which includes public health facilities, sanitation as well as drinking water. It is inextricably linked to education too. And third agenda will be education (both in terms of quantity and quality), particularly at primary and secondary level. Thereby, we can build a healthy, trained, educated labor force, and make use of the window of opportunity accorded to us by demographic transition.
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