Ankita Mishra IAS secured AIR 105 in Civil Services Exam, 2017. What was her strategy? What is her story? What was her optional subject? Did these questions also come to your mind after knowing Ankita Mishra’s rank? Don’t worry! You are at the right place. Read this article to know how did Ankita Mishra get IAS.
Ankita Mishra Biography
Ankita Mishra was born and raised in Lucknow. She has been good at studies since her childhood. Yet it took her three attempts to clear the UPSC exam. Ankita Mishra graduated in Computer Science Engineering. After her graduation, she was going to leave for the US to go post-graduation in Artificial Intelligence (A.I). But instead, she stayed and decided to prepare for the UPSC exam.
She attempted UPSC in the year 2015 and 2016 and failed both times. Finally, her never give up attitude paid off in 2017 and she secured AIR 3. It was her father who inspired her to go for the Civil Services Exam.
Ankita Mishra Strategy
Ankita Mishra advises everyone that before you start your preparation for the UPSC exam. The first thing you should do is to prepare yourself mentally. There will be no success without failures. Along with hard work you also need to have patience. Not everyone can crack IAS on 1st attempt.
That is why having patience is important and believe that success will come if you don’t stop trying. Her optional subject was Anthropology. She emphasizes that the candidate should treat his or her options subject as equal to the compulsory subject.
Ankita Mishra Strategy for Prelims
In Ankita’s first attempt she was unable to clear the UPSC Prelims due to her lack of focus on current affairs. She recommends that candidates should not take current affairs lightly.
She made proper notes of current affairs by writing down all the important news in one book. The constant revision was also part of preparing current affairs.
Ankita Mishra’s timetable planning was not a very micro timetable like planning how many hours per day to study. Instead, she made a macro time-table like in how many days can I cover a topic.
Also Read: IAS Saumya Pandey Biography: Check-out This Inspiring Journey of UPSC Topper
Ankita Mishra Strategy for Mains
Learning from her past mistakes, for Mains Ankita used to practice writing 5 answers every day. In the 2nd UPSC attempt which was her 1st attempt in Mains due to lack of time-management in her optional subject which was Anthropology Paper-I many questions were left out. To make sure this doesn’t happen again she focused on writing 2-3 answers every day apart from daily answers writing practices for compulsory subjects.
Consistency was the key element here. There was never a day where she skipped her answer writing practice. Ankita also stresses that candidates should make consolidated notes for quick and easy revision.
Ankita says just giving test series is not enough. You also need to get your answers reviewed by the tutors. One thing Ankita did differently was making maps in Geography as well as in History which helped her fetch more marks.
Ankita Mishra Strategy for Interview
Ankita claims that she is always afraid of public speaking. She said that she was very nervous about the interview.
According to her experience, the UPSC interview is the only process where the panel doesn’t judge you for the answers you don’t know. They will judge you for answers you do know. She says, replying “I don’t know the answer” is also an answer in the interview. So don’t try to answer questions which you have no idea about.
Her suggestion is to give mock interviews but not to blindly follow what the panel is saying.
Ankita’s pointers for the interview are:
- Don’t answer the questions to panelists with arrogance. Be humble,
- Make eye contact with the panelists,
- Be confident,
- Be presentable
- Don’t be biased for anything
She makes clear that the interview is not to judge your knowledge. It is to judge your personality.
Ankita Mishra Marksheet
Here is Ankita Mishra’s Marksheet:
| Paper | Total Marks | Marks Obtained |
| Mains | 1750 | 870 |
| Interview | 275 | 179 |
| Total | 2025 | 1049 |
Also Read: IAS Junaid Ahmed Biography: Optional Subject, Marks & Everything about UPSC Topper
Conclusion
Firstly preparing yourself mentally is essential, before you start your preparation. Ankita Mishra’s strategy was to not make a micro time table. In her 1st Mains attempt, she was not able to complete her optional subject, Anthropology Paper-I due to lack of time management. She recommends practicing writing answers every day without fail. Consistency is a necessity.
Ankita Mishra also requests everyone not to follow everything she did. According to her what worked for her may not work for someone else.
Lastly, it took her three attempts to crack the IAS exam. One needs to have patience and persistence. Do you find her journey inspiring? What strategy are you following? Let us know in the comment section.
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