[Topper's Interview] Mr. Ramakant Thakur Rank-9 (Age 30) (HPAS-2015) Forestry and Geology Optionals from Daroh, Palampur, Himachal

Topper's Profile :  Ramakant Thakur

Meet a humble Person Ramakant Thakur from Palampur Vallay, Worked Hard and Cracked HPAS 2015 and got HPS Post. He is 4^th on the list of Mains marks in the Merit List. Geology and Forestry specialist.  

Name	Ramakant Thakur
Rank	9
Roll No.	201022
Age	30
Total attempts in HPAS	2
Optional Subject	Forestry  and geology
Medium chosen for Mains answers	English
Schooling medium	English
College medium	English
Home town/city/Village	Daroh (it’s a small but beautiful village in the Palampur valley)
Work-experience if any	Not that good
Details of other competitive exams, including success/failures	Wrote UPSC mains twice accidentally, actually preparing for IFoS but since when I started preparation  they merged the prelims of  IfoS and IAS .Although never got lucky to clear ifos cut-off of prelims yet always cracked IAS prelims wherein cut-off  used to be 10-15 marks lower than IAS
Details of coaching, mock tests, postal material for any competitive exam (if used)	As such no concrete coaching but did the followings:- ·         went to FRI Dehradun and Geological survey of India Dehradun for gaining fundamental knowledge of subject ·          Befriended with a student (Pradeep bhai) of  forest university Nauni ,who helped me immensely with forestry ·         Watched hundreds  of you tube videos on geology and forestry, even made some of my own video (available on my you tube channel)
Service preference	HAS, HPS,DTO,DPO,Tehsildaar, ETO, TO (got HPS)

Educational Profile : 

% in class 10	76%
% in class 12	76.2%
Schooling (Medium)	ENGLISH
Graduation course and %	62%
Name of college, city, passing out year	IEET Baddi ,Solan  passed out in 2012
Post-graduation	No
Any other professional courses	No
Hobbies & Extra curricular	Video blogging (I have my own you tube channel) Calligraphy Hiking swimming

Introduction

Question: Tell us something about yourself, your family, your place, when and why did you enter in this field of competitive exams?

Answer: My father was AAE in  HPSEB, mother is J.B.T teacher and sister  is doing M.D (medicine). I live in Daroh, where police training centre is there (the source of my inspiration). I entered into competition in the year 2013 when I decided to fight for IFoS but couldn’t clear prelims for that and after writing two stressful Mains of  IAS without any concrete preparation, i decided that why not HAS ?

Ramakant Thakur HPS

Electronic Vs Paper Material

Question: Nowadays many students rely on internet for study material, So how much do you rely on electronic material and how much on the paper material (Books, Newspapers)? If possible narrate a typical day in your study life. What is your style of preparation (e.g. I continue making notes no matter what I’m reading, I just read multiple times but don’t maintain notes, I make mindmaps on computer…etc styles or way)

Answer:  here, I think individual comfort matters but for me it was everything in electronic media ,I exhaustively used Evernote for making notes and shared them with my fellow aspirants  so that they could give their valuable inputs .

A typical day:-

• Will start at 8:00 0r 9:00 in the morning .by the time mother has left for the school so I will be alone ,which worked well in my favor ,as I believe the loneliness is the best thing during prep. So at least for 5-6 hours in solitude are desirable. hence ,from 9:00 till 3:00 I ‘ll be own my own tussling with the  books  .
• Then in the evening after  taking tea with mother I ‘ll go and play basketball as I think sweating out in the field helps me to regulate stress which usually accompany this prep.
• Then, in the night , I ll call some of my chaddypals who trusted in me like hell(These are those idiots who ‘ll finance your prep as if they are investing in their own start-up .yes, Umesh , Yogesh, Rahul ,Rohit and Ankit I am talking about you). A conversation with such people will recharge you for the next day

Tempo and Style

Question: Students know what books and syllabus points are to be prepared. But most of them lack consistency in their preparation. So, how do you keep study momentum going on? How do you fight against the mood swings and distractions?

Answer:   if you can’t change the habits then change the game .

 And how did i fight against the mood swings and distractions:-

I always recalled the  reason for which I decided to take this plunge ,which kept my dedication afresh. See, guys two kind of people crack such exams.

1.       Ek to wo jinhe swabhav hai (habbit)

2.       Dusre wo jinhe abhaav (dearth) hai.

I belonged to the second category and they always need a good reason so that they could drag them to a level to which they haven’t gone  yet . thus I always kept before me my” the reason” . so ,if you too belong to second category then make your “the reason” your motivation


If Struggle of a senior player

After 1-2 failures in any competitive exam, a phase of mental saturation comes. The person knows the booklist, he knows what is necessary to succeed. But it doesn’t yield result.

MY question are two:

Question: How did you handle the mental Stress and what are your words of wisdom to other senior players? If any specific inspirational incident(s), please share.

Answer: here, my fiancée and now wife deserves the credit she kept me
out of this with her small but incredible efforts. She will listen to my boring commentaries for hours and ‘ll always be ready for the worst while hoping for the best.

Question: What went wrong in your previous attempt? What changes did you make in this current attempt?

Answer:  In first, failed in Hindi though scored well in mains(463) and this time I nailed it with god’s grace.(520 in mains)

 “khudi ko kar buland itna ki har taqdeer se pahle khuda bande se pooche bta teri raza kya hai”

Studyplan:


Prelims: General studies (GS)

Topic	Studyplan/booklist/comment
Himachal Pradesh General Studies : History Art & Culture Geography Polity Economic & Social Development	Jagmohan Balokhra + Akash darpan Economic survey H.P ka par thoda bahut
History Ancient	R.S sharma  NCERT
History Medieval	Not studied
History Modern (Freedom Struggle)	Rajiv ahir spectrum
Culture society	Nitin singhaniya art and culture
Polity & Governance (theory + current)	M. Laxmikant
Economic & Social Development (theory + current)	Mrunal’s video and newspaper
Science (theory + Current)	Not studied
Environment & Biodiversity (theory + current)	Internet + newpaper (I heard Shankar IAS Notes are good but I didn’t study them)
Physical Geography, Indian and World Geography	NCERT
Other national/international current affairs	Newspaper , mrunal.org, khadubhai,
Schemes, Policy etc	Newspapaer, I read newspaper voraciously as it interests me.

Question: Any observation / comments / tips about GS Prelim paper?

Answer: This time pattern was quite like UPSC so focus more on current affairs and do not waste time in those areas from where one or two questions are asked (medieval India) .furthermore, don’t  be risk averse in pre. if you  know that 2 out of 4 options  are wrong then make an intelligent guess between remaining two. I never failed in prelims so assertively recommending it.

You can watch my video on how to handle prelims : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMh_TDZCxpE

Prelims: Aptitude Test (CSAT)

Topic	Studyplan/booklist/comment
English / Comprehension	I read newspaper religiously so English comprehension was never an issue
Reasoning and Analytical Ability	Not studied but R.S agarwal is good as others recommend it
Maths / Quant / Data Interpretation	Same
Interpersonal Skills including Communication	Don’t waste time on it , last time I asked Vishrut Bharti  Sir( HPAS 2014 topper) he advised me the same and I am bequeathing  on this advice on next generation of aspirants.
Decision Making and Problem Solving	No need to study remember now its just a qualifying exam.
Misc	Never studied

Question: Any observation / comments / tips about Aptitude (CSAT) paper?

Answer:  As now its qualifying paper so work on some basic areas. You‘ll easily sail through it.


Prelim Accuracy

Question: Did you attend any ‘mock tests’? Do you think they are necessary for success?

Answer: No

Question: Approximate no. of attempted answers vs. correct answers. in HPAS 2014 ?

Answer:

Papers	Attempted Questions	Marks
GS	Not able to recall	86.67
ATITUDE	-do-	116.67
TOTAL	-do-	203.34

Mains: Compulsory Language Papers

Question: How did you prepare for the Compulsory English Paper? (If then Book list and Study pan/comments/tips)

Answer: just newspaper 

Question: How did you prepare for the Compulsory Hindi Paper? (if then Book list and Studyplan/comments/tips)

Answer: internet for muhavare and other grammar questions

Mains Essay Writing

Question: How did you prepare for the essay paper?

Answer : I wrote essay on a blog and sent the link to my friends for  reviewing .Then extracted the common points from their reviews and worked on them.

Question: Which among the following essay did you write? What key points did you include in it? (If you remember)

Answer:  Not able to recall exact title but it was something like –increasing education and decreasing employment

See, guys last year I scored 36 in essay which really upset me so I worked hard on this and that paid me well(60 this year). You can read essays on my blog

https://swastik1500.wordpress.com/

Main points of Essay:

I started with a quote- education is no-education if it fails to serve economic and social needs of an individual

Then talked about education is increasing but quality of education is decreasing:

• Children are forced to pursue their parents ambition
• Faulty education policy, criticized No detention policy
• Educational institutions are not integrated with industry so fails to provide what market needs
• Lack of vocational education
• Gave stats from ASER report by pratham NGO

Then talked about why unemployment

• Structural error in economy – sublimation economy as it directly jumped to tertiary sector from primary sector
• Then explained why this happened gave example of china
• Then talked about lack of FDI

Then finally gave solutions and ended with a warning- if unemployment will keep escalating the way it is ,then the boast of demographic dividend will turn into curse of demographic disaster.

General Studies (Mains) Paper

The answer for all the question in this table is given in one of the video in my channel :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6y-p9GhHNs

here I have comprehensively discussed the study material and other things .

Topic	How did you prepare?  Studyplan/booklist/comment
Indian History (Modern) (Please give details for subtopics if used various study material or reference books)
Freedom Struggle
Post-independence India
Indian Culture (Please give details for subtopics if used various study material or reference books)
Physical Geography (Please give details for subtopics if used various study material or reference books)
Indian Geography (Please give details for subtopics if used various study material or reference books)
Indian Polity (Please give details for subtopics if used various study material or reference books)
Indian Economy (Please give details for subtopics if used various study material or reference books)
Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi
Himachal Pradesh General Studies: History Art & Culture Geography Polity Economic & Social Development

Question: Any other comments, Tips or word of wisdom after going through the mains?

Answer: here “less is more”. You think yourself yaar, what is the point in garnering knowledge if you are not able to project that in paper. I have seen many knowledgeable candidates than me but they fail. You know why ?

Because they don’t plan for the those three hours when actual battle is fought .

And mark my words if you will not do that you will collapse on the D-day.

So here is, how I prepared for those three hours when we all write mains:-

First I purchased a stop watch .then I counted how many words I can write in minute then tried to improve it to the maximum. When I found that I have reached my threshold limit and  can’t write more than this much words ,then  I worked on writing best possible answer in those words . along with this, I immensely used two weapons

1. Flowcharts
2. Diagrams

This was my combat strategy for  D-day

Now coming for strategy during the peace times (more you sweat in peace less you bleed in war)

See, this entire exam is about strategy.  Here, I am going to narrate mine so that can extract the useful points out of it as syllabus has been changed now.

As per previous syllabus, optionals were very instrumental and very much in your hands. So I went for the best optionals available in the market. Then, I never studied much about G.S because here topper will have 80 marks and average candidate will have 60 so very less margin is there   and it takes hell lot of work for average candidate for reaching to 80 from 60.Furthermore, you can see that more or less, experienced and senior players are performing well in G.S that means experience plays a vital role but we don’t want to be experienced player in this race.  So I invested my energy on optionals and studied G.S with aim of 60 marks .fortunately I succeeded in that.

Then coming to essay, as my writing skills were good  but not giving me output in essay paper  so I further whetted them by writing essay on every Sunday and getting it reviewed from some of my good friend and school time seniors.
Hence, I advise you to devise your own strategy by keeping your strength, weaknesses and current pattern in mind and then blast this target.

Remember, it’s not hardwork, the key of success, it’s the planned hardwork.

Optional Subjects

Question: What were your optional subject and why did you chose it and not something else?

Answer: Geology  and forestry ,I chose them because they have the potential to incur me a selection. Frankly speaking comrades , interest ke chakkar me mat pdna  !

Question: If a new player wants to pick this subject, would you advice for it or against it?

Answer: Go and kiss any one of them

Question: First the essential book/resource list and strategy of Optional 1: (Also mention which one is the “Base book” for covering the theory? + Whatever comments you’ve for a particular book e.g. “my seniors said read xyz book but I found that ABC book was better”. “xyz topic not given properly in this book, so prepare from xyz website or book…” OR and so on.) ?

Answer: I am going to make a video on it as people are asking me a lot about these gems . so wait for it to come on my channel.

Book List: Paper 1 of Optional 1:

forestry

 Manikandan and Prabhu + internet

Book List : Paper 2 of Optional 1:

same “manikandan and prabhu” + interenet

Question: First the essential book/resource list and strategy of Optional 2 ?

Answer: Geology

Book List : Paper 1 of Optional 2:

K.M bangar – Principle of engineering geolgy

G.B mahapatra – GEOLOGY fundamentals

Parbin singh- Engineering Geolgy

Here I used internet exhaustively

Book List : Paper 2 of Optional 2 :

Same as above

Question: How much of internet-research / current affairs is necessary for this optional? OR can one simply rely on the books and be done with this subject?

Answer: Thodi bahut internet research for current, na bhi karo to bhi chalega.

Question: How many months did it take to finish the core optional syllabus?

Answer:- 5-6 months

Question: How much writing practice you did for Optionals?

Answer: very much, I bought a white board and kept making flowcharts and diagrams  for every topic till the time I acquired the required expertise .

Question: Do you maintain self-notes for revision of optional? Or you simply rely on reference books?

Answer: - I made them but most of the time I read books over and over because I found that every time I read the book I acquired a new perspective.

Question: What do you think about the Importance of Optionals in HPAS in existing pattern?

Answer: - in the new pattern, it has been substantially reduced but still one can’t take risk by choosing a bad one.as you know it’s not child’s play to score much in general studies paper hence margin will be less between topper and average candidate so I can sense that optional will again be crucial in this battle.

Question: What you will suggest to the young aspirants about how to choose the Optional Subjects?

Answer: Trend analysis, and choose the fruit of the season;

Mains Answer Writing

Question: What style you follow like “introduction-body-conclusion” format or -just simply write down what comes in mind first or any other style?

Answer: well, my optionals were science optionals so I gave to the point answers with loads of diagrams , examples and  wherever required used flowcharts as well.

Question: Did you write answers in bullet points or in paragraphs or any other style?

Answer: both , as per the requirement.

Question: What was your approach in the exam writing questions in fixed word limits?

Answer: -I focused more on making my point clear and was least bothered about word limit .Yaar, likho aisa ki saamne wale a padne ka man kare, then it rarely matters  whether  you are adhering to word limit of surpassing it.


Interview

Question: How did you prepare for the interview?

Answer:-With my friend Jai  (he is a CAT topper and had done  MBA from a reputed B-school) and I saying so because you must learn that whom to talk or whom not during preparation phase. I never talked to relatives but chatted a lot with the men of quality and expertise. If you ‘ll talk to those who can’t give you motivation and add value to your opinion then you are insidiously losing the battle.

Question: Did you attend any mock interviews by coaching classes?

Answer: No.

Question: How long was the interview?

Answer: 30-35 minutes.

Question: Please narrate your entire interview- what questions did they ask and what did you reply and other pleasant or uncomfortable experiences during the interview. (Or you can simply tell about the questions asked in the interview, but it will be better if you try to narrate in question-answer pattern).

Answer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_8qxW9DYqw

Watch it. But I can tell you my interview score won’t be good as I am 4^th in mains marks (520) but rank is seven in general . So, learn from my mistakes as this is the only part of my prep where my strategy didn’t deliver the intended outcome.

Question: Was your interview on the expected lines of what you had prepared or did they ask you totally unexpected questions?  Was it a stress interview, did they ask any uncomfortable questions? If yes, how did you handle it?

Answer: - more or less it was on expected lines.

Insecurity about Profile

Question: Many candidates prepare sincerely but constantly live under fear about ‘profile insecurity’. I’m not from a big college, I’m not from English medium, and I don’t have work-experience. What if they ask some stressful questions in the interview about this? What is your message to these candidates?

Answer: - I guess that hardly matters.

Mark Sheet

Please provide your marks when they will reveal the marks it will help future aspirants.

Essay - 60

General Studies - 59

Geology 1 - 108

Geology 2 - 114

Forestry 1 - 80

Forestry 2 - 99
__________________

Total  - 520

Career Backup

Question: If you were not selected, what was your career backup plan?

Answer: - I was executing my backup plan .as I was targeting for ifos and HAS was  my back-up plan.

Question: When were you going to “execute” that backup plan? (e.g. after __ failed attempts/ after I cross __ age/after dad retires/ etc.)

Answer:- I executed it well


Views on HPAS Reforms

Question: Optional subjects should be removed altogether or not? Does Present pattern seems biased these days when importance is being given to GS more? What is you take on this?

Answer:
New system(with one optional) is fine, as removing optional altogether will be in favor of students belonging to arts background quite like C-SAT ,which was in favor of science background students. Because general studies is studied by arts student in their degree times but not by science students  and science optional usually score well thus current pattern levels up everything.

Question: What are your thoughts on the Aptitude test (CSAT)? (Honest Views) It should be only Qualifying in nature or not?

Answer:- I have a prejudiced view in favor of C-SAT so no comments as it may give rise to controversy and then khadu bhai ,your comment section will be inundated with diverse views and some of them may be radical.

Question:  HPPSC have amended the Mains Pattern & Syllabus and scraped one optional subject and 3 General Studies papers have been added, what do you think about these changes how they will affect the preparations of HPAS overall?

Answer:-it’s good. Now a level playing field will be there.So no more optional issue’ll be there but I doubt it will be in favor of those who could afford to pay hefty fees of coaching institutes. Let’s see how it fares.

Question: What other reforms you would like to see in HPAS?

Answer:- upper ceiling and lower ceiling for interview marks should be defined ,then outsider should not be butchered stealthily in interview rather design your syllabus in favor of himachali candidates .


Inspiration & Wisdom

Question: Through this struggle and success, what have your learned? What is the wisdom of life and competition? What is your message to the new aspirants?

 Answer: Disclaimer:-views are very personal hence readers’ discretion is advised before working on below suggestions

See aspirants  , this is  a competition thus  you ought to have aggressive mindset while fighting it . A casual approach will not work .if your strategy is not working be quick to change it rather than  blaming the system. This exam is not about acquiring above average knowledge in any subject rather finding ways of getting in the top  rankers. So be dynamic .

•             If you discovers that your optional is not rewarding you well, change it  .

•             If your essay is not scoring well for you write essay on every Sunday and get it reviewed from your friends .

       analyze the pattern and then find out the ways of  cracking it in shortest possible time period .And yes , one thing more , don’t  think that if you are preparing for UPSC then HAS will automatically be cracked because that is absolutely misperceived notion (even after the syllabus of  HAS is changed )  .I am saying so because I have written UPSC mains twice and has also analyzed the HAS sample papers of  new pattern  and I can see  hell and heaven difference between the two . In UPSC every question is opinion based, as after every question they will ask you to comment, evaluate, critically analyses etc. etc. But HAS has no such tail words in its questions .They will simply ask you straight questions. Hence , either UPSC or HAS  because both will be quite tiresome , burdensome  as well as worrisome unless and until you are not a prodigy .so learn to distinguish between desire and deserve if you strongly believe that you can crack UPSC with all the restraints  only then go for it otherwise better prepare for HAS, crack it. and then think of UPSC ,because after two consecutive failure in this exam the social ,economic , psychological pressure rises exponentially.


Question: Many hardworking candidates have failed in Mains/Interview of HPAS-2014. They’re feeling dejected- what is your message to them?

Answer: - “ Girte hain shahsawar hi maidaan-e-jung mei ,Woh tifl kya girenge jo ghutno ke bal chale”

So don’t be afraid of failures because they are like those bravery marks about them you ‘ll boast once you succeed. So dare again and tussle with this exam once  more .you may consider some of my suggestions given in previous answer.

 “if then also you fail to succeed then I tell you one thing the experience you get during these years is the best asset for rest of the life”

Question: How did you kept motivating yourself in these years for this journey? Or form where you got the inspiration? Please share.

Answer:  whenever I was at the nadir of my morale I recalled “the reason”  for which I decided to go for it . I think when you think of  that  reason then your dedication revive and you again get back to your dream


Credit: Family/ Friends/Tutors

Question: Behind every topper are many people who stood by during those uncertain times when he/she was merely an ‘aspirant’. Would you like to tell the world, who was those people in your case? Any specific incidence that you would like to share with the readers?

Answer: - There are many khadu bhai but few are special and worth mentioning. The credit goes to my mother for believing in me more than I believed and always kept my financial muscle strong. Then ,my sister (Dr. saab) for always telling me through her actions.(all india M.D exam rank 411) that getting a rank in top is tough but not impossible and finally, to my then fiancée and now wife ,for listening to my boring commentaries and teaching me totally strange subject- “geology”.


Khadubhai : Thanks Ramakant Thakur for the valuable Knowledge and Experiences you shared with our readers, hope that it will inspire youth more and more and you will become a great source of inspiration. Wishing you all the best for the Great Job.