It normally takes a lot of years for the students to prepare for the UPSC Civil Services Exam. While some take up coaching classes, others prefer self-study. In this story, we will see how Rukmani Riar, a resident of Gurdaspur in Punjab, without any support of the coaching class, made it to the number two rank in the country on her first attempt as IAS officer.
Rukmani Riar was a not so great student who even failed in the sixth grade. She was too embarrassed to confront her family and teachers because she dreaded how people would speak ill of her. This made her suffer much more. But she finally gathered some courage to counter her fear within a few months of time and used it for motivation.
Rukmani was schooled up to third grade at Gurdaspur and then afterwards, she attended Sacred Heart School at Dalhousie from fourth grade onwards. She has obtained a Social Science degree from Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. She also has done Master of Social Science in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai - a gold medallist.
After completing her graduation, she worked as an intern with some NGOs like Ashodaya in Mysore and Annapurna Mahila Mandal in Mumbai while working with the Planning Commission. Rukmani became interested in civil services and thought of giving the UPSC exam a try.
Rukmani too began her preparations immediately after she completed her internships and has emerged successful in one go. She appeared for UPSC only once without seeking any aid of coaching classes. She became All India Rank 2 in 2011 and achieved her dream of becoming an IAS officer.
For the preparation of the interview, Rukmini has studied NCERT textbooks from grades 6-12 and has inculcated the habit of reading newspapers and magazines daily so that she would remain updated during the interview. She had also attempted many mock tests so that she could reduce her errors and had solved previous years' question papers as part of her preparation strategy.
