“Even if your UPSC journey didn’t have a good start, you will be able to clear it very easily. Remember, a setback often moves us to a road that is even worse but leads to an even better destination’ – Civilsdaily
About Anjali Shrotriya– Her UPSC journey and hobbies
| Name | Anjali Shrotriya |
| Age | 26 |
| Resident | Indore, Madhya Pradesh |
| Exam | UPSC 2021 |
| All India Rank | 44 |
| Attempts | 4th (2nd Interview) |
| Optional Subject | Geography |
| Hobbies | Gond painting and tennis |
2. Family and Education
| Father | A bank employee |
| Mother | A teacher |
| Elder sister | – |
Anjali Shrotriya hails from the cleanest city, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, and has a family of four consisting of his parents, his elder sister.
Anjali’s Educational Background:
- Primary schooling from Indore. After that, She completed his computer science engineering at the Midcap Institution of Science and Technology.
- She didn’t join any job
3. UPSC Strategy
She started her UPSC journey in 2018. In her 1st attempt, she couldn’t clear prelims. In her 3rd attempt in 2020, the first time cleared prelims. But this time, unfortunately, she wasn’t able to clear the interview.
She now again appeared for the 2021 prelims in just 15 days. This time she remained laser-sharp-focused on attaining good marks in mains so that the interview wouldn’t decide her rank or placement. And finally, she was successful in her effort.
These 3+ years’ experience and consistency helped him to formulate a better strategy. She, from the beginning, remained careful of limited resources. Her motto was ‘Fewer resources, more revisions’.
- For prelims, according to her, Revision of Prelims test series and PYQs are a must. Revision is the key to prelims. She revised all the sources at least 10 times. She prepared her handwritten notes for a greater number of revisions.
Prelims test series:
- Forum IAS
- Vision IAS
- IAS Baba
Current Affairs for Prelims:
- Newspapers
- Vision IAS monthly magazine
- For mains she would give more importance to PYQs. She solved and made frameworks and even answers in some cases for all the PYQs asked by UPSC from 2013 to 2020.
- She didn’t join any test series for mains.
- She continuously improved her speed of answer writing.
- Apart from the above points, she observed that solving PYQs helped her to map important themes and topics that UPSC is asking about these days.
- She had been more focused on preparing Introduction and conclusion, diagrams and schematics, keywords, etc crucial things for each important topic in GS papers and optional.
4. Anjali Shrotriya’s Notes & Booklist
Polity:
- M. Laxmikant (She read cover to cover)
- Class XI and XII NCERTs (She knew that UPSC has been asking the conventional questions)
Indian Economy:
- Shri Ram IAS booklet
Modern Indian History:
- A Brief History of Modern India by Spectrum (Rajiv Ahir)
- NCERTs class VI and XII (Old version)
Environment:
- Shankar IAS
Science and Tech:
- Newspaper & monthly magazine
Art & Culture:
- Indian Art and Culture by Nitin Singhania
- NCERTs of class XI and XII
Ancient India:
- RS Sharma
Ethics:
- Ethics and integrity by Subba Rao and PN Rao Chaudhary
Geography:
- Certificate Physical and human geography by GC Leong
- Indian Geography by Majid Hussain
- NCERTs Class IX to Class XII
- Challenges to Internal Security of India by Ashok Kumar
- ETC.
5. Motivation and inspiration
Anjali Shrotriya’s course to success was not smooth but quite a full of struggle. After graduation, she started preparing for civil services. She faced failure many times and fell and especially after her 3rd attempt where she made it to the interview but not beyond.
Anjali had considerable support from her sister who used to sit with her for 10 to 12 hours during her preparation. Her parents also have unwavering support, telling her to believe in her abilities to make it this far.
