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(Success Story) UPSC 2022 TOPPER, AIR- 14: KRITIKA GOYAL SUCCESS STORY AND TIPS

Kritika Goyal has secured the 14th rank in the IPSC UPSC Civil Services Examination, 2022. She is a native of Sonipat. She belongs to an officer's family where her brother Gautam Goyal is an IPS officer, her cousin sister and brother-in-law both became IAS officers in the 2019 batch. This was her fourth attempt. In one of her attempts, she got a rank 314 and started working as an SDM in Delhi. On her first two attempts, she couldn’t pass the preliminary stage, and on her second attempt, she had trouble with the CSAT. Finally, she cleared the exam with flying colours.

Educational background

She completed her Law degree from Gujarat Law University with Gold medal. She chose Law as her optional subject. She started her preparation when she was in her last year of college. She chose to study on her own without any coaching. At home, she worked hard on mock tests, and her IAS brother-in-law helped her in evaluating the answers. She and her cousin brother prepared together to get ready, and her brother was a big part of how well she did on the Preliminary exam. Her family as a group made her more determined.

Kritika's UPSC preparation strategy

Know the SYLLABUS: first priority of UPSC exam

The UPSC syllabus is the soul of this exam. Knowing the syllabus is the first thing to do before you go through any material or sources. After that strategy comes. Kritika said, "A vision without a strategy remains an illusion". Make a well planned and proper strategy. It will ease your preparation and make it more streamlined. With deadlines, you would work better and complete the syllabus in a better way.

Importance of Mock test series

Kritika said Mock test series are very helpful in understanding the important topics of the exam. By reviewing their performance in mock tests, aspirants can identify their strengths and weaknesses in different subjects which help them to strengthen their preparation and prepare accordingly. She also used to do this. Practicing mock tests provides aspirants with an actual exam-like experience, helping them become familiar with the pattern, format, and difficulty level of the actual UPSC exam and also helps aspirants in dealing with time management. If anyone does the regular mock test practice then it improves speed and efficiency, enabling them to complete the exam within the given time.

Don't underestimate the CSAT Paper

Kritika said; the CSAT Paper is very important, so don't underestimate it. UPSC CSAT is a qualifying paper Prelims Exam. In one of her attempts she couldn't clear the prelims just because of CSAT. However, it is important to score 66+ marks out of 200 to ensure selection in Prelims. She focused more on it by practicing many mock test papers.

At last she advised the aspirants that patience is the most important thing in this whole process of UPSC exam. Consistency is also very important for this exam because without consistency, it is hard to qualify. So it is very important to study every day, because even missing one day can slow down progress.

Be true to the game, and the game will be true to you,” said Michael Jordan, a basketball player. He is an inspiration for her. If you try to skip ahead, the game will skip ahead for you.