Bhubaneswar, April 7 (LocalWire): Somalin Subhadarshini is among 16 candidates from Odisha who has cracked the UPSC civil services exam 2018.
LocalWire’s Pratika Priyadarshini spoke to her, who has been ranked 478, about her preparation and what motivated her to take the exam after the results were declared on Friday.
Here are the excerpts of the interview:
Q. What was your reaction when you first came to know about your result?
A. I couldn’t believe. I was speechless. I thought I may have wrongly seen my roll number.
So I called up three to four people to recheck and confirm it.
Q. Why did you choose civil services?
A. I wanted to do this since I was a child. This job attracted me because of the power it holds to make a difference in the lives of the people.
It gives us an opportunity to improve the living standards of people.
Q. How did you prepare for the exam?
A. The strategy is to revise again and again. Made short notes that are easy to revise later on. And hard work, consistency and perseverance are the key pillars.
Q. How many hours did you put daily for the preparation?
A. There’s no fixed hours, but on an average, I gave seven to eight hours daily.
What matters is the quality of time rather than quantity.
For time management, I used to write my daily targets on my diary.
Q. Did you attend any coaching institute?
A. Yes, I attended two coaching institutes; Aptip Academy in Odisha and Vajirao Institute in Delhi.
Q. How did your family support you?
A. My parents motivated me a lot during my preparation.
My father and mother are guiding force behind my success.
It’s a joint success of both family and me.
Q. Do you think there’s more competition today for the exam?
A. The competition is definitely increasing as it is one of the most prestigious jobs in the country.
Lakhs of students appear for the exam.
Q. Any advice to civil services aspirants?
A. Don’t take civil services simply as a profession, but contribute and help in bettering the society.
Q. Can you share a little bit about yourself?
A. I am from Tirtol in Jagatsinghpur district. My father Bipin Bihari Barik and mother Nalini Barik both are lecturers.
My parents have guided me in every step of my preparation and to meet my targets. I am the second of 3 siblings.
They all supported me a lot during my struggling days.
I have done my schooling in Anugul and graduated as an electronics & telecommunication engineer.
I worked at TCS in Bhubaneswar.
LocalWire
