UPSC IAS Topper 2020 Pratibha Verma shares her IAS preparation strategy
Indian Administrative Services 2025 ( IAS )
UPSC IAS Topper Pratibha Verma All India Rank 3 shares her experience and life journey. Read below for details.
Pratibha Verma has secured the all India rank 3 in the Civil Services Exam 2019. The UPSC has released the IAS result on August 4, 2020 and she became the topper among the girls' category. She hails from Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
She is an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi alumni. He has got a BTech degree in Engineering Physics and this was her reason for opting Physics as her optional subject. She worked in Vodafone for two years and after that, she came to Delhi for the IAS preparation. Her friends helped her in starting the preparation for IAS.
She started her preparation in 2016. She consulted her friends and seniors who were doing the IAS preparation. She also joined coaching for her optional subject Physics. She got 489th rank in the IAS exam 2018 and joined the IRS. The IAS toppers had a clear strategy to clear the IAS exam. Her first aim was to prepare the optional subject.
See here: IAS Toppers 2020 Success Stories
She could not clear the IAS prelims exam in her first attempt. In the second attempt, she covered all the static general studies books and besides that; she prepared the current affairs of two years for the IAS prelims exam because she said Current affairs is not limited to the current events; it requires knowledge and understanding of the background of the current event.
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This preparation had helped her in writing the answer in the IAS main exam. But in the second attempt, she focussed more on the optional subject and somehow gave less time to the general studies and essay paper.
See Here: IAS Exam Pattern
In her third attempt, she gave equal priority to preparing the general studies and essay paper. She prepared notes for the general studies topics. She thoroughly read and studied her notes and revised them periodically. She took guidance for the essay paper and wrote two essays every fortnight.
For the optional subject also, she took guidance and prepared the notes. These notes immensely helped her in the IAS preparation. Besides that, she prepared the answer to the previous year's question papers. Answer writing for the optional subject was one of the important components of the IAS main preparation.
See here: IAS Syllabus 2020
She said I was confident about the IAS personality test because I score 173 marks in the IAS interview in the second attempt. But in the third attempt, she wanted to improve the depth of IAS preparation and the current issues. She also revised the notes prepared for the IAS main (written) exam before the interview.
IAS topper suggested that all the phases of the IAS exam should be prepared in continuity because everything is interlinked. The preparation in one stage will help in the successive stage. Her family and the city is proud of her.
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 10 hours ago
The Union Public Service Commission will conduct the UPSC Civil Service (prelims) exam on May 24, 2026. The exam will be conducted in two sessions and the General Studies Paper 2 will be qualifying only.
M
Beginner-Level 5
Answered 2 weeks ago
The Union Public Service Commission will release the UPSC IAS 2026 notification on January 14 on its official website - upsc.gov.in. The Commission will also activate the UPSC CSE (IAS) 2026 online application link on its website. The last date for the UPSC IAS application form is February 3, 2026.
Contributor-Level 9
Answered 2 weeks ago
The candidates should analyse the UPSC CSE previous year question papers to know the trend of the most asked topics. The Commission releases the UPSC question paper on its official website - upsc.gov.in. The candidates can get the UPSC question paper of previous year here. The candidates can downloa
N
Beginner-Level 5
Answered a month ago
The Union Public Service Commission will release the UPSC Civil Service (IAS) notification on January 14, 2026. With the release of official notification, the UPSC IAS Application form 2026 will also be activated for the candidates. The last date to apply online for the UPSC CSE (IAS) exam 2026 wil
M
Beginner-Level 5
Answered a month ago
The Union Public Service Commission released the UPSC CSE notification 2025 on January 22, 2025. In the official notification, the Commission notified 979 vacancies for the UPSC CSE 2025 exam. But this is a tentative number and the final number of vacancies will be mentioned in the final Result of
N
Beginner-Level 5
Answered a month ago
The Union Public Service Commission will conduct the UPSC CSE (IAS) Main exam (written) from August 22 to 31, 2025. The Commission will conduct the UPSC IAS main exam in offline mode at the designated exam centres. The candidates are informed about their exam centre through their UPSC admit card.
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S
Beginner-Level 5
Answered a month ago
Yes, the Union Public Service Commission has released the UPSC CSE (IAS) Main exam admit card 2025 on its official website - upsc.gov.in. The candidates are required to log in with their UPSC OTR and password. The UPSC CSE admit card will inform the candidate about their UPSC exam centre.
The UPSC IA
R
Beginner-Level 5
Answered a month ago
The Union Public Service Commission has released the UPSC CSE (IAS) main admit card 2025 on its official website - upsc.gov.in. The Commission released the admit card for the candidates to download. The candidates are required to download the admit card from the official website by logging in with t
Contributor-Level 9
Answered a month ago
The Union Public Service Commission released the UPSC CSE (IAS) Prelims cutoff 2024 after the declaration of final result. The candidates can see below the UPSC IAS Prelims Cutoff 2024
Category | IAS Prelims Cut off 2024 |
|---|---|
General | 87.98 |
EWS | 85.92 |
OBC | 87.28 |
SC | 79.03 |
ST | 74.23 |
PwBD1 | 69.42 |
PwBD2 | 65.30 |
PwBD3 | 40.56 |
PwBD5 | 40.56 |
Shiksha.com had predicted the UPSC CSE cutoff most accurately in some cases.
V
Beginner-Level 5
Answered a month ago
The UPSC CSE (IAS) exam result 2024-25 was released on June 11. The Commission released the final UPSC CSE (IAS) 2024 cutoff for all the categories and stages of exam. The Commission released the UPSC Cutoff 2025 for all the stages of exam as given below:
| Category | CS (Prelim)* | CS (Main)# | CS (Final) |
|---|---|---|---|
| General | 87.98 | 729 | 947 |
| EWS | 85.92 | 696 | 917 |
| OBC | 87.28 | 702 | 910 |
| SC | 79.03 | 685 | 880 |
| ST | 74.23 | 684 | 884 |
| PwBD-1 | 69.42 | 663 | 876 |
| PwBD-2 | 65.30 | 696 | 913 |
| PwBD-3 | 40.56 | 307 | 701 |
| PwBD-5 | 40.56 | 361 | 461 |
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Beginner-Level 5