Today, in this article, you will be reading about such a person who stood out in this examination not once but twice. IAS Divya Shakti has qualified the UPSC exam twice. She qualified the exam in her second attempt while training to be an IPS. How intriguing is that !
IAS Divya said that staying focused and motivated is a crucial thing to qualify such an exam. So let’s dive into IAS Divya’s journey and some of her strategies to learn from her.
Biography, educational journey, family of IAS Divya Shakti
Family and hometown
Divya Shakti is a native of Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
Her father is a doctor, an ex-superintendent of the government medical college hospital (GMCH).
Her mother is a homemaker and also has an elder brother and a sister.
Educational Journey
IAS Divya Shakti did her schooling till 10th in DAV Muzaffarpur and completed her high school from DPS Bokaro.
She is an engineer too and completed her bachelor’s degree from BITS Pilani in Computer Science with 7.3 GPA.
Divya also did her post graduation in Economics.
She also qualified Forest Pre and Mains for reaching up to the interview level. After that Divya did a job in an American based investment bank from 2016 to 2018. Even after completing her MSc. Degree and doing a great job, she wasn’t totally happy, she wanted something which would challenge and inspire her everyday.
By consulting a friend of hers who was preparing for the UPSC exam, Divya decided to give the UPSC exam with full determination and no second option in an inspiration to become an IAS Officer and to make the lives of people better as quoted by herself.
The journey from cracking UPSC to becoming a successful IAS officer
Divya Shakti has an amazing educational career. Firstly, she has a B.E. in computer science. Secondly, did MSc. in economics and then secured herself with a job in an investment bank.
Divya worked in that company for two years, after that she left the job and started preparing for the UPSC examination.
She did not take any coaching for General Studies but for the mains and interview preparation, Divya joined Forum IAS which she came to know from her friend. She said that she is very thankful for joining Forum IAS as it helped a lot.
Divya gave her first attempt in the UPSC exam in 2019 and secured herself an amazing rank. Divya got AIR 79 in her first attempt in the UPSC exam.
She had been appointed as an IPS Officer and soon she went for her IPS training to Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), in Mussoorie.
But shockingly how good her results were, she was not happy. She wanted to become an IAS Officer. She prepared for the UPSC exams again while doing her IPS training and sat for the exam again.
Her determined towards her goal so worked harder than ever and this time, her hard work paid off. Divya received AIR 58 in her second attempt in the UPSC exam and became an IAS Officer. IAS Divya Shakti proved that if you are consistent towards something and work for it, you will surely achieve it.
Divya’s father was overwhelmed with joy when he heard the news and quoted that she has been brilliant in studies since her childhood. She surely is an inspiring figure for all the aspirants.
How to prepare for your Prelims and Mains
After Divya left her job, she threw herself into the books but also made her strategic preparation before her actual actual preparation. Divya devoted her first month in preparing the best base strategy for her UPSC preparation. She believed a strategic method for study is very much needed.
- For starters, Divya watched the previous toppers interviews to understand how much time they devoted on a subject and to have a better understanding in time management, which books to follow.
- Divya also read previous year’s newspapers to learn about the weightage of each of the topics to plan accordingly.
- IAS Divya suggested all the students make plans before acting upon it. To read newspapers daily and keep yourself updated with the current affairs as this part is quite unpredictable.
- As per her said it is always a better option to keep the books and sources of study limited as too many of them can be confusing.
- Reading from too many sources is not helpful but reading from particular sources and then revising it more is helpful and required.
- It is mandatory to revise thoroughly after completion of syllabus as without revision and self study, all the readings throughout the year can go in vain.
Revision and previous year questions
- So revise as much as possible and follow the time table which you have made at first to spend equal time on each subject.
- Completing the previous years question papers is a must done work while preparing for the UPSC examination as quoted by Divya Shakti.
- It clears the concept on the weightage of all topics and questions based on them. Reading previous year’s topper’s answers can also help to understand how to answer the questions in the exam.
- IAS Divya recommends a very important thing that is to give mock tests as much as possible to get a clear understanding on the question patterns and how much time to spend on each question.
Importance of mocks and classes.
- Not only this, but also giving mock tests is the best way to challenge one’s preparation and helps to enhance it.
- IAS Divya did her mains preparation based on performing model questions papers which she got from online coaching classes.
- She always took the model answer sheets along with the question paper as after writing the answers, she used to compare the answers with model answer sheets and correct her mistakes.
- This is a very intelligent method of preparation which not only helps in correcting the errors but also enhances one’s ability to self preparation.
- For the current affairs in Mains, IAS Divya followed Rajya Sabha TV and went through newspapers daily to keep herself updated.
Why choosing the appropriate optional subject is important?
For the optional subject, Divya chose Geography because it came in common with General Studies.
Her strategy for preparing the optional subject was an effective method. As it coincided with general studies which saved a lot of time in her preparation. For a strong base of both the papers, she took online coaching notes and prepared herself.
Divya was smart to take topics one by one and with the online coaching, she covered them thoroughly. It helped her two ways, one is she gained the total idea on the topics of the syllabus and secondly her wide research helped her in learning in a detailed manner.
She learnt from online notes, NCERT, Rupa Physical Geography, Geomorphology by Savindra Singh, and RD Dixit and revised them thoroughly.
Also practiced from previous year’s papers.
Divya gained enough knowledge on theories, names of geographers, and diagrams related to all the required topics, and practiced to write the answers to achieve the accuracy.
Book references by UPSC topper DIVYA SHAKTI
IAS Divya did not believe in learning from too many sources. She herself considered too many sources confuses one’s mind so she learnt from the required sources but definitely the best ones. Below is the list of IAS Divya’s recommendations.
| Ancient and Medieval History | NCERT and TN Board. |
| Modern History (Freedom Struggle) | Spectrum |
| Polity (static and current affairs) | The Hindu, Laxmi Kant and Googled the other important topics. |
| Economy (static and current affairs) | The Hindu and Mrunal, Googled the important related topics. |
| Culture | NCERT, Nitin Singhania, Buddhism and Jainism related chapters, intangible heritage, and referred to paintings. |
| Science (Static and current affairs) | The Hindu, Year review of Ministry of Science and Technology, PIB. |
| Environment (static and current affairs | Shankar IAS for static. |
| For current affairs – | the Hindu, PIB, year review of Ministry of Environment, the study of major conventions online and kept updated with newspapers like The Hindu, The Indian Express. PIB for Online topics. |
| Geography | No study in particular. |
How to prepare for your UPSC interview round, topper tips and tricks.
Just like in prelims and mains, Divya devoted some time in understanding the questions demanded of the interview. She applied the same strategy as in mains and took topic wise preparation for the interview round as well.
But soon she realized, it is not effective so she started concentrating on general awareness.
Divya prepared for interview skills by keeping focused throughout the process. Moreover, she learnt about the work and everything about the company she was working for.
Besides, she read newspapers like before and thus her DAF turned out well.
So Divya suggests the aspirants to do the same like preparing on general issues and current affairs and warns about her previous mistake.
CONCLUSION
The journey of IAS Divya Shakti shows the amount of effort she put in to reach to the place where she is now. She could have stopped herself after getting a job but she didn’t. She didn’t stop herself after being an IPS Officer.
Her motive was very clear to become an IPS Officer and thus she did not settle for anything else.
She is the true definition of unstoppable and is the epitome of inspiration.
With determination, hard work and motivation, one who is an UPSC aspirant now can become an IAS like her in the future and fulfill one’s dream.
