Presenting Pride of KGP : Pourush Sood

Isn’t that what they say when I is replaced with WE, Illness becomes Wellness.This is what we believe in our KGP family, part of which is Mr. Pourush Sood.He is an alumnus of the department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,IIT Kharagpur of the 2020 batch, He has secured all India rank of 29 in the most prestigious examination of our country UPSC CSE while working with Texas instrumentsInvolvements. We at Public Policy and Governance Society, IIT Kharagpur bring you a wonderful Interview that outlines crucial phases of his preparation, helpful strategies for aspiring students and his experience at IIT Kharagpur.

Q. When did you consider a career in civil services and what was your motivation for this Exam ?

Honestly speaking, I had no plans for pursuing myself a career in Civil Services while I was is in KGP, it was only in the last semester that I stumbled upon the life and essence of foreign diplomats, their niceties and the chance to represent the nation at international forum is something that intrigued me to consider it as a career option. Thus, it was after I had passed out from KGP that I began planning my Civil Services preparation.

Q.What are your views on taking coaching for preparation?

Being a studious student at college and having cleared JEE, boosted my morale to go for a technical optional-Mathematics in my case. Also, as an Engineer I have a technical footing-a luxury very few can enjoy that too from an IIT. Moreover, a candidate from a humanities background is bound to over score me when it comes to an optional in his domain. Mathematics, like other engineering optional offers no room for subjectivity at the same time it is very static and hence can be scoring for Engineering Graduates. The thing is even after receiving such a quality education from KGP, if I do not take up an optional subject in my domain, then who would. P.S.: All these are my takeaways and judgments that I considered while exercising the choice for choosing an optional. I do not want to encourage anyone from choosing or not choosing a particular subject. At the end the call is always yours, what worked for me might not work for you or so.

Q. Did you directly start with standard books or first read the NCERT’s and what are the main aspects of current affairs one must focus on?

During the JEE days and even after coming to KGP I was mostly away from the mainstream happenings around the world and subsequently lacked basic awareness in Geography, Economy, etc. Hence, reading the NCERTs first provides a base on which we can build upon. Thereafter, we can move to the standard sources. As for current affairs, newspaper reading is the basic prerequisite and there are no two opinions for that. Initially it is a bit time consuming and requires patience when you start with it. In my case, there were days when I could read newspapers and days when I just couldn’t spare my time for it as I was engaged in my Job as well. In that case, I would suggest one can go for these monthly magazines that coaching institutes release that contain a compilation of all the recent happenings.

Q.What do you think of the candidate’s attitude towards UPSC ?

I think the most important thing for a candidate is his/her mental health so a candidate should not feel disheartened while preparing for the civil services examination. What I want to tell other aspirants is that they should feel confident that they can do it. Even if you fail to clear UPSC there are many options in life where you get many opportunities to represent the country.

Q. Is there any advantage of being an iitian during preparation and interview?

The most important thing is you have that confidence that if you have cleared JEE you can also clear UPSC otherwise as an IITian you can get a job in any other companies. The advantage of being an engineer or an IITian is there are many subjects like science and technology, environmental science etc where you get an upper edge over other students Where you can perform better. Also taking an technical subject as a optional will assist you in your preparation In interview I don’t think there is any advantage of being an IITian as there are many IITians giving interviews.

Q. What challenges did you face in your journey?

While preparing for the civil services examination the very first challenge I faced is not having any friends who are also preparing for UPSC. Secondly, it is difficult to set target’s and beat them. It is difficult to prepare everything alongside your job.

Q. What value did IIT Kharagpur play in your preparation?

As a Kgpian it makes me more technically advanced which helped me in choosing my optional subject. Also, it exposes me to a diverse exposure of different people and culture.

Q. What are the mistakes to avoid during preparation ?

One mistake that I had committed while I was preparing for UPSC is that my answer writing practice was not going well as it should be.Also, I would say candidates should not leave their optional subject for last time preparation. The optional subject should be done before prelims so that you get time for revision for your mains examination.

Q. What type of questions were asked in the Interview?

The questions were not from the CV provided to them but rather general and covering almost all topics from terrorism, encounter killings, current affairs of history to mythology, ethics, politics and personal incidents as well. At last, they gave me the opportunity to express my thoughts and tell them about myself.

Q. What qualities helped you to stay motivated after IIT and Job?

The support from my family definitely played a major role. I had faith in myself and also had a plan-B which propelled me and helped to maintain my mental health, plan B is quite necessary in my opinion. Also, a suggestion to KGP Family of reducing your exposure to social media until it’s important for future aspects.” We have set a goal which is not immediate, so have faith that you will get there eventually”.

Q. What would you suggest on keeping a job as a primary or backup option?

As the CDC Internship is in third year UPSC preparation is not that hectic, so you can try to get internship as it will give you a new experience and financial freedom as well and same goes with placements, if you can manage both then its well and good but take it with a pinch of salt as my journey of UPSC started after KGP so I have not been through it.

Q. What was your schedule in KGP?

I used to attend all classes even if I slept late and that also helped me in my courses as well and apart from that it’s the same as yours in general case.

Q. How was your experience in College societies like Encore and TTG?

I had to juggle it sometimes, I could not give as much time and effort as I could have but I think that’s how it was, I had taken too much to be balanced.

Q. What were your marks in UPSC and also your marks in optional subjects?

My prelims marks this year was 104 and when I calculated it earlier from coaching institutes answer keys it was around 112–115, so you can see how much difference is there between their expected marks and actual that can give an idea that even prelims have some subjective part rather than only factual knowledge. Also last year my prelims marks were 84 and 87 being the cut-off. In optionals my marks were 300, 133 in first and 167 in second paper respectively.

Q. What kept you motivated after being so close to cut-off?

I had joined a test series, I had a goal set and I wanted to improve my marks in those tests and tried to improve my rank there and as such I didn’t feel too bad after the prelims

Q. How much time is needed to clear UPSC?

That depends on you, people tend to clear it in their very first attempt and others in successive years and also luck factor also plays a role and also I don’t know if I can give a number of hours to crack UPSC.

Q. What is your advice for final year students should they go all in for their first attempt or take a job and prepare along?

First few weeks of job are training periods which are not overloaded and prelims will be over by time(May/June) and also if you want to prepare for Mains(probably ) exam solely you can just ask them to postpone your joining if possible also you can drop the idea of job if you clear prelims.

Q. What are your views on optional subjects with less syllabus like ecology and sociology?

I do believe these subjects can be finished in 6 months or so but in your second or third year you have plenty of time, also math syllabus is static and you have an edge over it. I would not choose them because I would not be able to compete with people having it as their majors. But if you lag time ,if you think you are good at writing answers then do choose them.