Lakhs of students appear for the Civil Services examinations each year, and only a few make it to the top positions. Divya Shakti is one such entity from Bihar who cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination on her second attempt in 2019. IAS Divya Shakti secured a rank of 79, with the position of IPS (Indian Police Service) and secured a position amongst the meritorious students.
This blog will navigate you through IAS Divya Shakti’s biography in a concise form and share her strategy, vision, posting, and the choice of optional subjects. Divya believed that staying motivated, focussed, and dedication is essential for those who wish to clear the civil services examination. She too took one complete year, leaving her other chores behind, to prepare and appear for the UPSC examination.
IAS Divya Shakti Wiki – UPSC Dream of Divya Shakti
Divya was amongst those aspirants whose childhood dream had not been to clear the UPSC examination. In fact, she realized at a much later stage that she wanted to go for the civil services examination. IAS Divya Shakti completed her bachelor’s degree in engineering from BITS, and then further pursued her master’s degree in Economics. After that, she worked in an American based company for 2 years.
She was content with her professional life but was still striving for more. She was intrigued by seeing her seniors prepare for the UPSC civil services examinations and also got to know about many others who had already cleared it. This is where the idea originated in her mind to give a shot.
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IAS Divya Shakti Strategy
Divya devoted her sole time to preparing for UPSC after her job. She did not create any plan B and was aiming to appear for the second time if she could not clear by any chance. She did her complete preparation for General Studies by herself and did not opt for any training or coaching.
Divya focussed on the fundamentals and believed that it is important to go through the syllabus by heart. She covered every topic from the prescribed syllabus and paid special emphasis to NCERT books. She also consolidated general current affairs related to the syllabus and prepared notes for the mains exam.
Preliminary Exam Strategy
Divya Shakti spent almost 1 month preparing a base strategy for the exams. She listened to numerous topper talks to understand the common denominator among all topics. This was followed by reading newspapers and understanding what are the topics are to be read from them. She did this by going through previous year’s newspapers and analyzing the related topics.
For all aspirants, she recommends keeping the resources limited. All books and materials are available online and are basic, but require multiple revisions. She also recommends being thorough with the current affairs as that part is quite unpredictable. The other recommended point is to attempt multiple mock tests for satisfactory preparation.
Mains Exam Strategy
Her mains exam strategy was based on performing model questions papers made available from online coaching classes. She used to get model answer sheets along with the question paper, and then compare her written answers with the model answers to check on the points which were missed. This gave her the provision of self-checking and evaluation and improving wherever necessary.
Preparing for current affairs for Mains is important too, and she followed Rajya Sabha TV for multiple perspectives and continued reading newspapers. She chose Geography as her optional subject since it overlapped with the General Studies paper.
Interview Strategy
Divya spent a lot of time understanding the demand of the interview. The result was delayed till January, and her posting was being inclined towards Forest services, one month still being left for the interview. So she started preparing topics in an overall manner just like the mains exam, i.e. knowledge of many topics at once. When this strategy did not work out, she planned another way to prepare.
She shifted her focus towards general issues and awareness, as the interview tends to be more about the things happening around. She continued reading newspapers and went well through her DAF. She also studied the current situation, work, and position of the company she was working in.
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Divya Shakti Wiki – Optional Subject Preparation
Divya chose Geography as her optional subject and used certain strategies to prepare herself for the same. She referred to the basic online coaching notes for both paper 1 and 2 just for a solid base. She picked topics from the syllabus and kept on covering them one by one. Divya used the internet exhaustively to prepare notes and to gather any relevant information for the topics from the syllabus.
She also made sure to learn about the theories, names of geographers, and diagrams related to all possible topics, and learned about contemporary examples to explain the answers better. She referred to online notes, NCERT, Rupa Physical Geography, Geomorphology by Savindra Singh, and RD Dixit. Divya also revised previous year’s papers to strengthen her optional subject knowledge.
Optional Subject Preparation Strategy
Following is the study material she used for the various subjects for IAS preparation:
| Topic | Study Material |
| Ancient and Medieval History | NCERT and TN Board |
| Modern History (Freedom Struggle) | Spectrum |
| Polity (static and current affairs) | The Hindu and Laxmikant, Google search for other important topics |
| Economy (static and current affairs) | The Hindu and Mrunal, Google search for important related topics |
| Culture | NCERT, Nitin Singhania, Buddhism and Jainism related chapters, intangible heritage, and 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 |
| Current affairs | Constantly updated with newspapers like The Hindu, The Indian Express. PIB for Online topics |
| Geography | No specific study for GS |
Divya Shakti Posting and Vision
Divya Shakti secured an All India Rank of 79, in the civil services examination 2019, and was appointed with the position of IPS (Indian Police Service). She went for her IPS training to Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), in Mussoorie. Divya is awaiting her posting as her result was declared in August 2020, and she has been a part of the training program after that.
During her entire journey for UPSC, she saw many ups and downs, as she had completely left her job and totally devoted herself to the civil services exam preparation. It took one year to prepare and another year of examinations to finally make it through. She always stayed consistent and dedicated towards her aim, and passed the exam with flying colours.
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Conclusion
This blog gave you a biography glimpse of the journey and strategy of IAS Divya Shakti, her rank, optional subject, and posting. This story serves as a motivation and guide for all those aspirants who are still thinking of making careers in civil services. The journey of IAS Divya Shakti showcases that even a simple and dedicated approach can get you closer to your dream of clearing UPSC, all it takes is consistent effort and the will to succeed.
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What an inspiring journey, this has definitely provided me the motivation to prepare for UPSC. Looking forward to more each other.