“True success is about working towards meaningful goals and dreams.’ – Civilsdaily
Prakhar was also not satisfied with the railway job. He had to fulfill his dream by becoming an IAS. After a failure in the first attempt, he increased his hard work, accepted all challenges as a working professional, and went ahead. The result of which was seen this time and he secured the 102nd rank.
About Prakhar Chandrakar- His UPSC journey and hobbies
| Name | Prakhar Chandrakar |
| Age | 26 |
| Resident | Panchavati Colony, Chhattisgarh |
| Exam | UPSC 2021 |
| All India Rank | 102 |
| Attempts | 2nd |
| Optional | Electrical Engineering |
2. Family and Education
| Father | OP Chandrakar, working in Dhamtari Collectorate |
| Mother | Champa Chandrakar, a teacher. |
Prakhar Chandrakar, a resident of Panchavati Colony, secured 102nd rank. He has done B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from NIT College Raipur. After completing B.Tech, Prakhar was posted as an engineer in NTPC for 2 years. During this time, he was selected for the post of Assistant Engineer in Railways at Sambalpur, Odisha. He chose Electrical Engineering in Mains.
3. UPSC Strategy
He started his UPSC journey in 2019. On the 1st attempt, he couldn’t come to the final merit list because of fewer marks in GS papers. In his 2nd attempt in 2021, he secured rank 102.
These 2+ years’ experience and consistency helped him to formulate a better strategy. he, from the beginning, remained careful of limited resources. His motto was ‘Improving GS marks in mains’.
- For prelims, according to him, Revision of Prelims test series and PYQs are a must. Revision is the key to prelims. he revised all the sources at least 10 times. PYQs are extremely important not only for topic identification but also for fulfilling prelims requirements
Prelims test series:
- Civilsdaily IAS
- Vision IAS
- IAS Baba
Current Affairs for Prelims:
- Civilsdaily
- For mains he again would give more importance to PYQs. he solved and made frameworks and even answers in some cases for all the PYQs asked by UPSC from 2013 to 2020.
- He joined Smash Mains Program under Sajal Sir.
- He continuously improved his speed of answer writing with Civilsdaily Mentorship Guidance.
- Apart from the above points, he observed that solving PYQs helped him to map important themes and topics that UPSC is asking about these days.
- He had been more focused on preparing Introduction and conclusion, diagrams and schematics, keywords, etc crucial things for each important topic in GS papers and optional.
4. Prakhar Chandrakar’s Notes & Booklist
Polity:
- M. Laxmikant (he read cover to cover)
- Class XI and XII NCERTs (he knew that UPSC has been asking the conventional questions)
Indian Economy:
- Shri Ram IAS booklet
Modern Indian History:
- A Brief History of Modern India by Spectrum (Rajiv Ahir)
- NCERTs class VI and XII (Old version)
Environment:
- Shankar IAS
Science and Tech:
- Newspaper & monthly magazine
Art & Culture:
- Indian Art and Culture by Nitin Singhania
- NCERTs of class XI and XII
Ancient India:
- RS Sharma
Ethics:
- Ethics and integrity by Subba Rao and PN Rao Chaudhary
Geography:
- Certificate Physical and human geography by GC Leong
- Indian Geography by Majid Hussain
- NCERTs Class IX to Class XII
- Challenges to Internal Security of India by Ashok Kumar
- ETC.
He made separate notes of Static and current affairs for Prelims and mains as well.
5. Motivation and inspiration
Prakhar’s parents told him that from the time of school he had worked as an IAS officer. He told us that support of parents is vital throughout the UPSC journey.
