Navneet Mann, primarily residing in Amritsar, achieved a top position in the 2019 UPSC CSE exam, securing a rank of 33 on her second attempt. Let’s learn about her preparation strategy from Navneet herself.
Success Story of IAS Topper Navneet Mann: Navneet Mann is one of those candidates who initially did not intend to pursue a career in civil services. She decided to take the UPSC exam in her final year of graduation and succeeded on her first attempt. However, she was not satisfied with her rank and the position she received, so she took the exam again while still in training. On her second attempt, Navneet achieved satisfactory success, securing the 33rd rank in the UPSC CSE exam. In an interview with Delhi Knowledge Track, Navneet shared key points of her strategy. Let’s explore them in detail.
Engineer Navneet: Navneet’s father is an inspector in the Delhi Police. Despite not having any family members in public service, Navneet decided to pursue engineering after the twelfth grade. He was selected and completed his graduation in computer engineering in Delhi. Originally from Amritsar, Punjab, Navneet’s education took place in Delhi due to his father’s job. Inspired by his father, Navneet turned his focus toward civil service. After a few months of contemplation, he decided to take the UPSC CSE exam and began preparing in his third year of graduation.
Selected in the first attempt – After completing graduation, Navneet prepared for a year and made her first attempt in 2018. She was selected in the first attempt and secured a rank of 501. With this rank, Navneet was allotted the Defense Account Service. Although she joined, she was not happy because she wanted to become an IAS. While on training, Navneet made a second attempt and achieved the desired rank and position in the 2019 exam. Navneet considers her father as a source of inspiration, who not only motivated her to enter this field but also kept motivating her from time to time.
Source Limited – Navneet says that it is especially important for candidates to keep their sources limited for preparing for the mains examination. Do not gather so many books that you cannot revise. Read fewer books repeatedly, to the extent that when asked to write an answer in the exam, you do not face any trouble thinking, framing, and writing the answer within a limited time. She says that during the main exam, there is so little time that if you spend a lot of time thinking, you will not have time left to write.
Navneet further says that while it is necessary to keep limited books, there are also some subjects whose books are not available even after searching. For this, you will have to rely on the UPSC syllabus. Keep it in front of you and see which keywords UPSC has used for it. By using them, you can search for these topics on the internet. Along with this, information about them can also be found from toppers’ copies, videos, etc. Do not waste time searching for books for them. If you want, you can also take some notes from the coaching. Prepare notes according to the syllabus.
Go for time-tested environment tests – Navneet says that giving test series is not only necessary for practice, but also teaches you to write your point within time. She says that if you are preparing on a topic from five or six sources and the same question comes, then you need to jot down all those sources in one place, and that too within time and under exam pressure. Here, test series helps you. You learn to write better answers within the time limit under the same pressure. Another important thing Navneet believes in is notes. She says that revising with notes is easy. She also acknowledges that her mistake in the first attempt was not revising in the end. Therefore, make sure to make notes and keep them concise so that you can revise easily. Revision is very important to succeed in this exam.
