Meet IAS officer Aparna Ramesh, who secured AIR 35 in UPSC exam with a full-time job

The Civil Services Examination, formally known as the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam is considered to be one of the most prestigious examinations in the country. While some aspirants succeed on the very first attempt, others taste success after a few attempts. Today, we are going to talk about Karnataka's Aparna Ramesh, who cleared the UPSC exam while being in a full-time job.

According to Aparna Ramesh, 28, it was not easy for her to balance her job and academics. Time management was a challenge. Aparna said that she had very little time left after her job, so she studied topics that were relevant to the exam. At the same time, she did not allow herself to be distracted by the huge syllabus of civil services exam. Her main goal was to study as much as possible.

Aparna used to study from 4 am to 7 am before office hours. After that, she used to go to the office. Even after returning home from office, she studied for two to three hours. She also studied for 8 to 9 hours on weekly offs.

However, she did not succeed her first time but achieved this the second time. The 2020 Civil Services Exam was her was the last attempt and if she hadn't passed the exam, she would have worked as an architect cum urban planner. 

For history, geography and economics, Aparna studied only from NCERT books of class XI and XII. For politics, she read M. Laxmikant's books and for current affairs, she read VisionIAS notes and referred to daily news. She also made notes on a daily basis while watching TV or reading newspapers to monitor the latest events.

Aparna has scored 825 out of 1004 marks in the written examination and 171 on the personality test. She secured 35th rank in the UPSC exam.