Last Updated on August 7, 2023 by Vishnu Nambiar
Civil Service exam’s top two rank holders are from Kerala this time. First ranker is Haritha Kumar and Sriram V is second. Recently, they shared their ‘secret of success’ with a regional magazine in Kerala. Some tips are really impressive, Sriram’s tip to improve fluency in English language in particular. So, I decided to put up an article related to it.
Haritha’s success is a result of persistence, time management and wise choice of optional subjects.
Haritha always wanted to be an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer. She made it to the top after 4 attempts. Earlier, she got selected for IRS (Indian Revenue Service) last time and was even undergoing training for it when the results came this time! But she knew that she wanted to be an IAS officer and never compromised with her dreams. According to her, persistence is the key!
She also said that the selection of optional subjects is also very important. She selected Malayalam, which is her mother tongue and economics and sought its coaching under a good tutor. She believes that economics will always come handy to analyze, understand and solve various problems and crisis that India is facing.
Sriram V attributes his success to a ‘good group of like-minded friends’, group preparation, listening to others’ advice and boosting self confidence.
Sriram is of the opinion that the Civil Services exam is such an exam that you can’t prepare for it all alone. You will need to form a group of friends, who are like-minded and share the same aim. His group consisted of such friends. They used to share knowledge, notes and study materials and used to clear each other’s doubts.
He has used an interesting method to sharpen his fluency in English. He and his friend would often go for jogging every morning. While jogging, they used to carry newspaper, read the top headlines and used to discuss those topics among themselves in English. So, this enabled them to jog , improve their fluency in English and thus improve their confidence! He spoke in English during the interviews.
Also read: Board exam preparation tips
List of Civil Services in India
Sriram had medical science and zoology as optional subjects. He is a doctor and thus very familiar with medical sciences. His father advised him to take zoology since his father was familiar with the subject and knew it could be mastered easily by his son with some effort.
I am Vishnu Nambiar a career and educational blogger from India. I am also a full time educational consultant having more than 12 years of experience in the educational sector.
I share articles related to courses, colleges, careers, exam tips and more here.