Meet woman, an IIT graduate who cracked UPSC in first attempt with 4 months of self-study, became IAS at 22 with AIR...

An IIT graduate who cracked UPSC in the first attempt, this is a powerful introduction to any person and signifies sheer brilliance. We are talking about the inspiring success story of IAS officer Simi Karan. 

She hails from Odisha and did her schooling in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. Her father worked at Bhilai Steel Plant, while her mother was a teacher. 

Thereafter, she studied at IIT Bombay to pursue electrical engineering. There she also taught children in slums during her college days. While witnessing their adverse conditions, she got motivated to do something for the society and humanity. Thereafter, she made her mind to prepare for civil service.

Simi started preparations by analysing top UPSC candidates' interviews. She also divided the UPSC Syllabus into small parts. She finally cracked UPSC in her first attempt with an All India Rank of 31 in the UPSC in 2019 with just 4 months of preparation. She become an IAS officer at the age of 22.

While talking about her strategy for cracking UPSC, Simi said in an interview. "I never focused on the hours of study but rather set short-term goals (daily, sometimes even hourly) to focus on completion... Hence, the schedule fluctuated accordingly but on average, I studied for 8-10 hours. I also want to highlight that I focused on the quality of studies, limited resources, and took out time for recreation like jogging, watching stand-up comedy to relax my mind."