UPSC Strategy with Aishwarya Verma-AIR 4 UPSC CSE' 21

I will be sharing my test copies GS notes, Geography strategy and notes gradually on this channel as soon as i compile them digitally.

Here is my interview transcript for the interview day

Date and session of interview-23rd May afternoon (4th to go)
Board- M Satyavathi ma'am
Optional-Geography
Background-Electrical engineering
Hobbies-Playing chess

Your experience in interview-

Chairwomen: Read my DAF loudly and asked the pronunciation of my name.

1. What have you been doing since graduation?
2. No part time jobs-teaching mentoring?
3. Why geography despite electrical engineering background?
4. Which area of geography do you like?
5. What is Human geography?
6. Difference in delta formation of East and west flowing rivers.
7. Issues in cartographic representation of 3D model of earth.
8. Techniques to rectify the same.

Member 1-

1. What is the share of renewable energy in India?
2. Is India facing energy crisis. What are the reasons for the same?
3. What do you suggest to improve this scenario.
4. You suggest nuclear energy. What is the present share and what is the target.

Member 2-

1. What is the installed capacity of hydropower in India? - (I said not aware of exact figure)
2. You know about total installed capacity and you know the percentage share. Can't you make an estimate. (I made a rough estimate based on simple math-he started smiling)
3. What is the condition of the forex reserves in India?
4. What is the exchange rate and why is it falling?
5. You play chess. If I am a Novice, How many moves will you take to checkmate me. (I said 2 if you make a specific mistake-he seemed a bit surprised after this. He asked me about the moves)

Member 3-(Lady)

1. You are from Ujjain. Tell me the reasons why Indore is able to maintain the cleanest city status for the past 5 years.
2. What is youth's contribution in the same. (i explained this with an example)
3. International yoga day and which department handles this?
4. What are the activities done on this day?
5. Tell me about the issues related to the cyber security in India?

Member 4-

1. A long monologue-issues related to Generation transmission and distribution. Lack of coordination among them and asked me what can be done for smooth functioning.
2. Based on previous answer - what are smart meters and smart grid?
3. Why the share and participation of rooftop solar panels is still less. Do you think it will be successful.
4. Can you name a company that is involved in implementing the solar rooftop project.
5. What is power factor? And in general what is the power factor in case of a household. Is it written somewhere on the electricity bill.

Chairwomen- Thank you. Your interview is over.

Interview experience: Very cordial board. Half of the interview went in the direction started by me and taking keywords from the previous answers. Time: 25-30 min. It was difficult to maintain eye contact with all due to round table. The distance from Chairwomen was a bit long with mask on so i have to be a bit louder compared to my natural tone. Overall good experience.

Utility of mocks - gaining confidence and framing sentences. Real interview is entirely a different game

This is my scorecard. As you can see that a greater share in the GS papers with uniformity can help you get through. This is one specific area that i focussed this year compared to earlier years.

Hello everyone. This is Aishwarya Verma UPSC CSE'21 AIR 4 this year. Contrary to the common perception i am a boy😂(Sorry to those who got disappointed). Many students have asked me for the strategy, notes and experience regarding the upsc journey. As it becomes difficult to respond individually i have created this channel so that i can share the respective things and it can reach a larger pool of aspirants.