They made the State proud by their success, which they achieved through a planned approach, determination, and self-confidence. In the days ahead, they are expected to play lead roles in varied areas, in keeping with the tenets of the Indian Civil Services.

Dr Mannan Akhtar, and Priyanka Dhar, two successful candidates in this year’s Indian Civil Services (Main) Examination 2010 share their thoughts with the readers of The Assam Tribune.

Dr Mannan chose the IAS for he thought of it as an extension of something he liked, a service to people in need. “As a medico I was being limited to just a very few people, and it was more reactive than being proactive. Thus I shifted my focus to ICS so that I can make an impact at a larger level in people’s life”, he said.

He had done his schooling spread over Haflong, Bongaigaon and Tezpur. He studied in GMCH from 2003-09, including a one-year internship. At the end he was the overall topper in his batch .

In the IAS examination, his subjects were Medical Science and Geography. He selected Medical Science as he was always good in it and took geography as it would help him in general studies and also because it was a subject he had always found interesting.

His preparation consisted of reading newspapers, needed both for current affairs and traditional subjects for GS in both prelims and mains. Then for GS, he gave stress on the traditional subjects like modern Indian history, polity and economics. Preparation for Math’s, Aptitude and Statistics (for mains) required around a month’s time.

“I studied my optional subject topic wise finishing one topic at a time. I mixed the subjects and GS studies for prelims but for mains I studied one subject at a time as I had time for revising each before each subject’s examination.

He made special efforts in Economics, as it required hard work to understand the basics, and “I found geographical thought the toughest topic so I referred to a lot of books for its answers”.

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Courtesy: Assamtribune.com