UPSC Topper 2022: AIR 14 Kritika Goyal Shares Strategy for IAS Preparation

After completing her law degree Kritika Goyal started preparing for UPSC Civil Services Exam in 2019. Read her preparation strategy

Kritika Goyal a Law graduate from Gujarat National Law University has cracked the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2022 and has secured Rank 14 in the examination. Kritika, who is currently undergoing training for DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Civil Service), for which she was selected last year shares her preparation strategy for the UPSC IAS Examination.

Q. Tell something about yourself, and your educational background?
Kritika: I come from a Law background and I did my graduation from Gujarat National Law University as I passed out in the year 2019. After completing my law degree I started preparing for UPSC Civil Services Exam.

Q. What attracted you to the civil services as you completed your graduation in Law?
Kritika: Law is applicable in any field, be it Civil Services or legal field, as anything and everything requires law, so after completing my graduation I decided to prepare for Civil Services.
Another important reason was my siblings, who are also civil servants and when I look at them, the way they work motivated me to prepare for the UPSC. My brother and my sister were selected in the year 2019.

Q. Was this your first attempt? How many attempts do you take?
Kritika: This was my fourth attempt. In the first two attempts, I could not clear the prelims. In my third attempt, I was selected for DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Civil Service), and currently I am undergoing training in that.

Q. What was the learning from previous attempts?
Kritika: After my first attempt I realized that I lacked practice as I did not give enough mock tests, for my second attempt I did practice a lot of mock tests but I missed out on CSAT by one mark. The third time when I cleared prelims, I did prepare for both papers CSAT. However, when I look at my Mains marks I realized that it was not up to the mark and I again lacked practice there.

This time I realized that this was an amalgamation of everything and for prelims, I prepared for both the papers and also did a lot of practice.

Q. Tell something about your preparation strategy?
Kritika: For my prelims, I practices a lot of mock tests, so I gave around 50-60 mock tests before the actual exam. The same goes for Mains as well, after doing the basic study work, taking a lot of practice work, same goes for Law paper. For an interview, I gave fewer mock tests, around three to four. A few days before the actual interview I started sitting in front of the mirror and speaking to myself.
Making notes is also important and going through them again and again.

Q. What challenges you had to face while preparing for one of the toughest competitive exams?
Kritika: The major setback came when I was not able to clear my prelims by one mark after my second attempt and get that consistency back. I remember the results came in October 2020 and I was so shaken by it that till December 2020 I could not pick up my books. Then again in 2021, I started picking up my books. So, I think consistency is important if you want to achieve a goal.

Q. What subjects you chose for the Mains exam, what is the reason behind selecting those subjects?
Kritika: I come from a Law background so I picked up Law as my optional subject. I also spoke to some of my seniors and they guided me on the preparation strategy.

Q. Did you give special emphasis to some particular sections or equal emphasis on all sections?
Kritika: I gave equal emphasis as you cannot miss out on anything so I thoroughly covered all the sections. Apart from that mock tests, I focused a lot on mock tests. It is important to focus on mock tests as it really pays off.

Q. How important is the UPSC Interview part? How were you able to crack it?
Kritika: The UPSC Interview is also very important as last time I got 179 and this time I got 204. So for the interview, I restricted myself to four to five mocks and I decided that 20 days before the interview I will stop mocks. I started sitting in front of the mirror and practising myself.

Q. How important are mock test series at different stages of this examination? How did you prepare for it?
Kritika: Mock tests are very important as the moment you enter the examination hall you know that you have practised so much that whatever may come, you will be able to handle them, as mock tests have different types of situations put up before you.

Q. What should be the approach to Mains Answer Writing/ How did you practice the Answer writing for Mains?
Kritika: I used to sit in a controlled environment like it is in an examination hall, so I would in two cycles 9 AM-12 AM and 2 PM-5 PM and give mock tests.

Q. How one should prepare the Current Affairs and the Role of the Newspaper in its preparation?
Kritika: Newspapers play a very important role, whether it is prelims, Mains or Interviews. So while reading it is also important to note what is important to read and what is to be left out. Current affairs are also to backed up with any monthly current affairs magazine.

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