Dhatri Reddy

My first UPSC interview in 2019, Satyavati Ma'am as board chairman, afternoon slot.  Chairwoman (Satyavati ma'am): What is the meaning of 'Dhatri' (my name)? Do you know who in our mythology is known as the child of the Earth? What was your work in Deustche bank? Did you work on preparing prospectus? Which clients have you worked on? What kind of nukkad did you perform? Did you present solutions too? What is Clinton Global Fellowship? (mentioned in my DAF) What is the NGO you founded? Who were its members? What is NDT (in metallurgy)? M1: The US has become self-sufficient in its fuel requirements, how? What do you know about shale gas - how to extract? What materials can help in dealing with environmental degradation? Do you suggest any changes we need to make in UPSC syllabus? M2: What is the physiological process of poison? Can you say good morning in Sanskrit? What materials are used in agri sensors? Opinion on Syria issue. Should we allow

I appeared for two UPSC interviews.  First interview: 20th Feb 2019 (Afternoon).  Board - Satyavati Ma'am. Score - 176 / 275. Interview transcript 2018 Second interview: 3rd March 2020 (Afternoon).  Board - BB Vyas Sir. Score - 204 / 275. Interview transcript 2019 Some funda based on my limited experience of two interviews: When to begin? The actual and exclusive preparation can begin after Mains exam or once Mains results are declared (based on tempo levels). But one should spend good time in researching before filling DAF so as to not add any unwanted/complicated things to it.  (More on DAF in a separate blog post soon)  How to get started? Pick each key word that you mention in your DAF such as your home town, your college name, your hobby, everything. Prepare a list of potential questions from all these areas and read up as much as you can about these topics. The other area you should focus on is current affairs. Slightly different approach from mains, here you need to have

GS3 has been my favourite and I generally reserved it to study when I was bored of the remaining topics. It has many sub-parts, so I made topic wise notes and kept adding points from current affairs over time. Subject Sources My notes Economy Mrunal videos (great to start with) NCERTs Any standard book (I did Ramesh Singh, totally optional) Current Affairs Economic Survey (I looked forward to this document all year. It was my favourite read and I went overboard by making notes myself and reading past 5 years surveys. You may refer to my notes for value add points to use in mains) Budget Mrunal notes GS3 mains notes Economic Survey and Budget notes Agriculture notes Security Any standard book (I did Vajiram yellow book) Current affairs Security notes Environment Shankar IAS material Current Affairs ARC for Disaster Management (find any summary) Env and DM notes S&T Current affairs I practiced diagrams and graphs

GS 1 can be quite time consuming and exhausting because it covers many subjects that need to be studied from the basics from different standard sources. Below I list down my sources (only the ones I found useful) and also my notes. You may use the notes to get an understanding of how to make notes or even as your starting point. Subject Sources My notes Indian History Spectrum Themes NCERT Modern History Pre 1857 (Coming Soon) World History Excellent notes by Mr. Bhavesh Mishra (If you read and revise this adequately, you don’t need to waste another minute on World History) PDF World History Ancient and  Medieval History Old NCERTs Themes NCERTs (optional) Medieval notes Ancient notes Art and Culture Vajiram Notes (try to get this, extremely useful) CCRT (optional, if doing Nitin Singhania) Fine Arts NCERT (very important) CCRT notes History of Deccan History of North History of South (Notes: courtesy of Veda) Ge

Essay General Studies 1 General Studies 2 General Studies 3 General Studies 4 Some important points common across all papers Note making and Revision : I made all my notes on Evernote for easy compilation of points and revision. Apart from my main notes, I made short notes a few weeks before mains for multiple revisions. This short notes is extremely concise and often a whole GS paper short notes would be no more than 3 or 4 pages. Image below for illustration. Committee Reports : I quoted recommendations of committees in "Way Forward". You can find my compilation from current affairs here . Diagrams : Practice drawing a quick map of India and World - can be used across papers. Also develop methods to create simple line diagrams for better representation. Something as shown below. NITI Aayog Reports : I did not find them as readable as Economic Survey and were repetitive at most parts. Nevertheless, you can find my notes here . Other Value addition

I enjoyed writing essays and found them to be a good break from all the studying. However, a little work to build some value addition material can be very helpful to finish 2 quality essays within the given time. Value addition to essays Quotes : the simplest and oft used way to begin or end essays. Create a quote bank for yourself made up of all your favourite quotes. This is going to be helpful even in GS4. Books : We can put to use excerpts from good books such as Dr. Kalam's autobiography, Sapiens, Argumentative Indian etc. were my favourites. Next time you read a book, highlight the thesis that you can quote in your essays. Simple ideas, nothing fancy. (To understand how to use it in essay, you can refer to my mocks below)   Scholars/Thinkers' opinions : Especially if you have studied them in your optional. Don't overdo them but can definitely use 1-2.  Practice anecdotes : I find it hard to come up with impressive anecdotes in the exam hall. Suggest you pu

PRELIMS - Enough can't be said about this stage of the exam. For some it is a cakewalk and for others it turns into the bane of their lives. I myself faced a hiccup here that was deeply demotivating. But post that, I did spend an insane amount of time making sure prelims wouldn't be a hindrance. Also, a huge disclaimer before I share my approach - you don't need to do all of this. In fact, I know people who have cleared prelims without having done a fraction of this. But if you are not a 100% sure that you can get past prelims easily, then I suggest you work on it till you feel confident enough. Because a year wasted due to failure in prelims is just the worst thing that can happen to you in this exam (majorly because of the psychological effect that it can have). My exhaustive approach: Reading list : First off, finish up the must read standard books such as Laxmikant, NCERTs, Spectrum, Shankar IAS. Make notes wherever necessary. Test series : I gave close to 80 te

For ethics my approach was simple. I started by reading Lexicon (pick any standard book), then I tried to understand the meaning of every term mentioned in the syllabus. I tried to incorporate examples, case studies, ARC recommendations and comments in my answers. Sources Lexicon - should be a good starting point, also only a quick read Vajiram Notes - mainly for philosophy part  Google - followed this widely suggested approach and put together definitions topic wise and also read up on philosophy part Applied ethics - This here is a great website to cover applied part. Alternatively, you can find summaries of the same in my notes linked below. Examples and Anecdotes - came up myself for some and took them from a brilliant compilation by Mr. Abhishek Surana Sir whose blog you can find here . MY COMPLETE ETHICS NOTES Case Studies I followed certain frameworks that helped me quickly start writing after having read and understood the case.  Introduction variations -

I made elaborate notes for GS2 mainly while reading current affairs. Right before mains I also made short notes to quickly revise important articles, judgments and other facts useful in answers. Please find links to my notes and sources below. Subject Sources My notes Polity Laxmikant (my amazing friend Veda had the rare art of making short notes. Her notes of Laxmikant enabled me to revise it countless times) Current Affairs Vajiram Notes (optional, basic stuff) Sample of Veda’s notes Polity notes Governance Vision IAS material International Relations Current Affairs - I made notes for each country / region separately IR notes Apart from this, my friend Dhiman and I made short notes of Vision IAS Mains 365 - just to be able to revise it quickly before mains. It was useful but also time consuming. You can find our notes here . GS2 Test Copy 1 GS2 Test Copy 2 Governance Test Copy

I am Dhatri Reddy. I am AIR 233 of UPSC CSE 2018 and got allotted to the IPS. I am a graduate of IIT Kharagpur. I worked with Deutsche Bank in their Corporate Finance and Investment Banking Division before deciding to quit and prepare for the Civil Services Examination. I managed to clear the exam in my second attempt and first mains. You can find my marksheet here . I hail from Hyderabad and prepared for the exam from the comfort of my home (except for the brief period where I took coaching in Delhi). I followed the blogs of several previous toppers during my preparation and found them useful as I took notes, guidance and even motivation from those blogs during my times of solitude. I decided to put together this blog after some aspirants reached out to me regarding my notes and approach. I also hope to share my experiences during training and later work through this medium. To make a candid confession, I expected a better rank (much better, if you will) than what I have. However