The Civil Services Exam conducted by the UPSC needs a lot of perseverance, determination, and years of preparation to crack. Thousands of aspirants spend lakhs of rupees for coaching in the best and most popular coaching institutes to emerge successful in the coveted exam.
Several students fail to crack the Civil Services Exam even after preparing for years and attending coaching institutes. However, Odisha's IAS Kasturi Panda cracked the prestigious exam without any coaching. She secured an outstanding AIR-67 and brought laurels to the state.
After completing her B.Tech in computer from NIT Rourkela, she decided to prepare for UPSC. In a suggestion for aspirants, Kasturi believes the UPSC Curriculum should be covered using the smart study methodology.
She advises the aspirants to thoroughly study the fundamentals from Class IX to Class XII. She studied at home and focused more on self-study, writing, and practicing every day. Her strategy was to finish 90-94 questions in two hours for a score of 100 or above.
With her hard work and determination, Kasturi scored 67th on the 2022 UPSC Civil Services Exam (UPSC, CSE). She received a total score of 1006 points, 822 in the written exam and made it to the IAS officer position without any coaching.