Idealised are those, who are successful and at a top position in life. But what puts them at the top, is not something visually discussed or even bothered about. Talk about successful IAS toppers and candidates, it is even more prestigious to be clearing such a competitive examination, for various obvious reasons like the repute of secured position after clearing the Civil Services Exam, role & perks of the job, etc. But the real question is what were the qualities that helped aspirants top the IAS Exam? Our experts have the answer! Read on!
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1. Dedication towards set goals Toppers, who dedicatedly prepared for the exam, differed from the ones who couldn’t clear, at a point where their dedication levels were at par towards their goal which was maintained throughout the preparation journey. If you want to be a part of this leagues of IAS Exam toppers, be open & be dedicated. Open to learning new things, accepting lessons from failures, understanding the social issues in depth and looking for doable solutions and learning to accept your shortcomings to further work upon them. And be dedicated to following your study schedule, not diverting your mind to temporary lures, revise your syllabus at regular intervals, practice writing as you go with the topics and do all this, not forgetting the ultimate reason of starting this preparation journey, your Civil Services dream.
Every successful aspirant has been a dedicated student and was always clear towards their goal. It is as simple as understanding that when you leave home in the morning, you are aware where your steps must take you and what means of transport will best take you at your destination. Similarly, when you are dedicated to your goal of cracking India’s toughest Civil Services exam, you automatically move in the right direction, though an expert’s guidance is of utmost importance here.
2. Right guidance Every successful candidate agrees to this fact that Civil Services Exam preparation must be done under the guidance of an expert, as there are many people around you, who may mislead you with their own experiences and lower down your high spirits. The stealers of your dreams are always around us, so always make the right choice. Either a right IAS Academy or an experienced person who has been through the stage and knows well about the exam.
3. Disciplined and organised individual: To be dedicating oneself towards a dream as coveted as cracking the IAS Exam, toppers have always claimed discipline as their ultimate saviour. For, at this stage, you must understand the importance of time management and saving your energy for needful study routines. And discipline is the key! Where discipline will compliment your preparation, and help you sustain the competition, in the long run, organisational skills will help you plan the preparation journey, sort for relevant study material, stick to studying only what is required and guide you clear about your path to success. Better it with a strong will to achieve what you have dared to dream!
4. Up-spirited and consistent One who is persistent and up-spirited in their efforts, will be the only one to achieve their goals! So, if you see someone excel and shine at the top ranks, they sure had maintained the consistency in their regular study regime and were always very enthusiastic about their dream. To be in the list of these toppers, you must be consistent in reading your study material, as per your planned time-table, practice writing answers and revise at regular intervals.
And most importantly, all those who could successfully cleared the exam never simply jumped up to take the challenge, but enrolled for a Test Series program, attempted thousands of questions, got a fair idea of probable questions and exam pattern, got the answer evaluation and suggestions by experts, worked on their shortcomings after getting them tested through Test Series and then finally appeared for the exam. So, the story does not just end when you think that you have covered all the relevant topics and prepared well, rather the story begins from here. Because from here, your self-testing process starts which indeed makes you exam ready.
#Tip – Best motivation comes from within! If you know your path, nothing can stop you, today, or ever!
5. Reflective thinking Being a Civil Services aspirant, it is your duty to keep a forward-looking approach and make sure that your actions are in accord with benefitting people around. During the course of Civil Services Exam preparation, a dedicated student will automatically develop reflective thinking and will be able to find solutions, beforehand, to the problems and situations, also which may arise at a later stage. Thinking in an Administrators’ perspective will differentiate you from regular students and also help refine your decision-making skills, in a long run.
6. Leadership Skills An Administrator is a leader in disguise, who must lead, the part of society under his jurisdiction, effectively. The only difference, in today’s sense, is that a leader only leads but a Civil Administrator serves the society for an overall growth, development and benefit to mankind. For excelling in such a responsible role, a person must have excellent leadership qualities, which, if you talk about the IAS/IPS Exam toppers, they had beautifully crafted in their preparation period itself. Start from taking responsibilities, making wise decisions and leading the situations life puts you into, and do all this curtained behind the efforts put into serving people around you, for good. Toppers knew it well, so should you! You must be a leader who can effectively serve their people. Why not start from today?
7. Introspection skills Candidates who could top a complex exam like the Civil Services Examination, were also not born with any kind of bookish knowledge or all that they were asked in the exam. Rather they had also started preparing from the scratch and as we said above, they had maintained the consistency in preparing for the exam with full enthusiasm! Now, if they could excel, that was simply because they tried and until having achieved what they wanted, they kept trying. So basically, you must now understand that any individual can derail at first and every single topper has also had their moments failures or lows at a certain point. What helped them excel, is not the number of trials they attempted, but the efforts they put in to perfect their preparation. They were sure good at introspection! Introspection is a trait which every aspirant must have, to be able to learn from one’s own mistakes, rectify the weak areas, modify their preparation strategy accordingly and polish the preparation, well in time. This is a process, that must go on, in every phase of life. Especially, while preparing for the mother of all Indian Exams – the Civil Services Exam.
8. Confidence & Self-trust ‘One important key to success is self-confidence’. For an effective preparation and efficient performance in the actual Civil Services Exam, you must value yourself enough and lay trust in your efforts. For, your talent, knowledge and efforts will only reflect, in a true light, when you shine from within. The toppers, who successfully cracked the IAS Exam, also knew their worth and lay trust in their self-preparation.
An important key to self-confidence is preparation! Keeping into consideration the above-mentioned points, give your best efforts to preparing for the Civil Services Exam and simply put trust in you. The more you are confident about your efforts, better will you be able to perform. Remember, knowledge is power!
IAS exam is a coveted dream, every individual attempt to crack in the highest ranks. But merely following a successful candidate will never help, until you tactfully internalise their positive traits, and utilise the same in your benefit.
Always remember, ‘you are your own motivation first and everything else falls second!’
