Samyak S Jain has secured the 7th rank in UPSC Civil Services Examination 2021 despite being visually impaired. He is a native of Delhi. At the age of 18, he got diagnosed with serious problem in his eyes and by the age of 21 he lost his ability to read and write. Despite these difficulties he cleared the Civil Services Exam in his second attempt and secured AIR 7th. His mother became a writer to write his exams. During an interview by DNA INDIA he said, 

"I enjoyed my journey. I am very happy with my result. Today, when I look back, I feel that every single moment of my preparation was as much fun as I am getting today after achieving this grand success. I never expected such a good rank. I'm very thankful to my parents, friends especially my mother who was there with me all throughout this journey".

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND AND HIS UPSC JOURNEY

He completed his graduation with BA in English (Hons) from Delhi. After that he did a PG diploma in English Journalism from Indian Institute of Mass Communication. He completed his master's in International Relation from JNU. He kept International Relation as his optional subject.

He started his preparation during lockdown phase in March 2020. During that time he got a lot of time to prepare for the exam due to home isolation.

SAMYAK JAIN’S UPSC PREPARATION STRATEGY

ONLINE CLASSES PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN HIS JOURNEY

He took the online classes for the preparation of UPSC exam. He is visually impaired so he started his preparation digitally. He used to read the books in digital format. He said online sources helped a lot in his preparation.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY 

Samyak believes that the key to crack the UPSC exam is Consistency. No matter how hardworking you are, how talented you are, if there is no consistency in your preparation for this UPSC exam you will either fail or unnecessarily prolong this journey making it stressful and frustrating. Consistency is very crucial and eventually it will lead you to success.

SELF ASSESSMENT

Samyak said that self assessment is very important for this exam; always be evaluating yourself. For instance, once the aspirants finish a test, they check their answers with the answer key. Now, divide the questions into various sections, and analyse it. Now based on their analysis aspirants can focus more on their weak areas. Samyak said he also used to evaluating himself with the help of mock tests.

HOW WORTH IS TO TOTAL CUT-OFF FROM THE SOCIETY DURING THE PREPARATION OF UPSC?

Samyak believes that it is not necessary to take a total cut-off from the outer world such as friends, social media etc. It is required at some level. There should be a balanced and mature approach towards interaction with outer world. 

At last Samyak said that no matter what kind of challenges, difficulties or painful situations you go through in your life. These problems are like iron. Either you can melt that iron and make a shield for yourself, hide behind it or you can melt that iron and make your own sword that you can fight with. There is same iron, same problem, and it is with everyone. We all have something deep within us that we can reach down and find the inner strength to get through them. So, always be remaining positive and be confident.