Yaswanth Kumar Reddy has secured the 15th rank in the UPSC Civil Services Examination, 2021. He is a native of Andhra Pradesh. He had also qualified the UPSC examination, 2020 and he was already a trainee IPS Officer. Again, he appeared in the UPSC Exam, 2021 and secured All India Rank 15th in his third attempt. 

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND AND HIS UPSC JOURNEY

He has completed his graduation in Computer Science Engineering from JNTU Kakinada. While doing graduation, he also prepared for the GATE. He got admission in M.Tech in IIT, Delhi. Within a month of taking admission in M.Tech, he got a job as an Information Systems Officer in Indian Oil Corporation. After that he left the M.Tech. Basically, he had started his career in IOCL, but he didn't satisfy with it. He started preparing for the competitive exams with job. His UPSC journey started in 2016. In 2019, he secured the 3rd position in Group-A conducted by APPSC. He worked as an Assistant Commissioner of State Tax in Government of Andhra Pradesh. After that he secured 93rd rank in Civil Services Examination, 2020. Finally in 2021, he topped UPSC exam with AIR 15th. 

YASWANT REDDY'S UPSC PREPARATION STRATEGY

READING NCERT BOOKS IS MUST

Yaswanth said that NCERT books are very essential for preparation of UPSC exam. It is an integral part of the UPSC syllabus. Basically, NCERT books helps in building a strong foundation. 

FOR PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION HE IS RELYING ON ONLINE STUDY MATERIAL

For Preliminary examination, he relied on online study materials. Before the preliminary examination, he solved few mock test series and practices the PYQS. He analyse the results in the mock tests and work on his weak areas accordingly. It helped him a lot in UPSC prelims exam. 

STRATEGY FOR CURRENT AFFAIRS

Yaswanth used to follow the newspaper regularly. He believed that newspapers are an utmost important resource for the preparation of current affairs. In mains examination especially for the Ethics paper, the newspaper provides many case studies and many real-life relevant examples which can be quoted in the case studies as well as in the normal ethics questions. If you read the current affairs daily it covers a major portion of GS Paper 2 and 3. Yaswanth advised the aspirants to maintain regularity in daily newspaper reading. This will help you in linking various events.

STRATEGY FOR MAINS EXAMINATION

Yaswanth said UPSC mains examination is the most crucial phase of our preparation journey. Mains exam scores will be extremely crucial in determining our selection as well as rank. Yaswanth advised the aspirants that since the mains paper is descriptive in nature, it is important that aspirants give enough time to answer writing in their UPSC mains preparation strategy. After reading any topic, try to summarise in your own words at the end of the day. 

Get your answers evaluated by your mentors or seniors to get a bit of idea of where you stand. Don’t panic about writing bad answers in the beginning. Practice does make one perfect, hence it is important that practice answer writing as much as you can. Give the mock tests regularly and solve the PYQS of UPSC mains examination. 

CONSOLIDATE YOUR STUDY MATERIAL

Most important thing consolidates your study material and revises them again and again. At the end of the day what you read it is not important, what you remember it is important. Just focus on limited content from limited resources.

 At last Yaswanth said, aspirants can prepare for the UPSC exam while working also. It can be said that Civil Services Preparation along with a job may seem challenging, but it is possible. If you stay disciplined, calm and focused, you can achieve this goal of yours.

Yaswanth wishes you all the best.

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