(Success Story) The Journey of Arushi Mishra (AIR 229) Cracking Every Exam in The Path to UPSC

Settling down for a penny less than what you think you deserve isn’t something Arushi Mishra believes in. In her quest to ace the Civil Services, Arushi has successfully secured rank 16 in Uttar Pradesh PSC Exam in 2017, as well as an all India rank of 2 in India Forest Service(IFoS) in 2019. But she never stopped. She never settled down for either achievement. She kept on pursuing her UPSC goals. In fact, she used each success as fuel to power her through to her ultimate goal. 

The Journey :

Hailing from Raebareli, Arushi has done her complete schooling in this small town of Uttar Pradesh. Thereon, having prepared well for her IIT-JEE, she got admission in IIT Roorkee. After completing her graduation, she immediately wanted to start preparing for her Civil Services dreams. Arushi says that although her ultimate goal was acing UPSC Civil Services, she always had other examinations along her journey to ensure she had more than one option open. She strongly suggests all aspirants keep their options open as well.

Arushi’s first UPSC attempt was in 2015. However, she does not consider it to be a serious attempt. At that point, she was just testing the waters. Result is a process, not a product – Arushi says. So, through 5 years, she put in her heart and soul to cracking this exam. And on the way picked up similar results.

At each stage, despite coming up on top of lakhs of aspirants, whether it was in UPPSC of IfoS, Arushi never thought of letting go of her UPSC dreams. And yes, those were some very respectable services as well, and she would have been equally proud to join the ranks, but her heart was set on UPSC. And she had to keep working hard till she hit the end goal.

Bettering Yourself One Step at a Time :

Arushi urges aspirants to learn from her mistakes. 2019 was the first time she cracked UPSC CSE Mains and went through to interviews. Due to her prior experience in acing both UPPSC and IfoS interviews, she was confident that she was doing justice to her talents in the UPSC interview as well. She was never worried about that. Her main worry remained her mains exams.

Arushi had long cultivated the art of answer writing. She used to collect stories from her day to day life, as well as news articles she read every day, to use as case studies in her answers. She strongly believed that it is those little personal touches that help an answer stand out than using examples from textbooks that are just so common among all aspirants. She is also a great supporter of online education and has used online answer writing programs to assess her skills. She mentions how writing an answer and just noting the marks aren’t good enough. Until and unless one reads and analyzes the reviews, and uses those reviews to better their skills, they will not improve.

Despite the effort, the UPSC mains examination was proving to be an impossible hurdle for Arushi. It is at this point where she started reading UPSC topper’s answers. And Arushi says, this made all the difference and catapulted her writing skills so that she could finally break through to the interview stage, and finally to the final merit list. She says one may think they are writing a decent answer, but it is only when they compare their answers to the best, that they learn where they are truly lacking. There is a lot to learn from people who have scaled this mountain before, and it is unwise not to use the vast resources at hand to do so.

Message to IAS Aspirants :

Arushi Mishra UPSC Topper's Strategy & Interview

Sincerity and the perseverance of a positive attitude are what helps an aspirant succeed in UPSC. A sincere aspirant will always have the backing of their friends and family. Hard work shows and garners respect. An exam such as UPSC is a long-term game, and the highs and lows of preparation will get to you. Only by understanding that you cannot be at your best at every step of the way, accepting that it is okay to fail, and still trying to stay happy with your overall life and not just the career you have chosen, can one achieve the right attitude to bell this cat. Arushi’s 5-year long journey is a prime example of what sincerity, combined with the right attitude can achieve.

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