Pradeep Singh is a famous IAS officer.
He cracked the Civil Services Exam despite being born into a very poor family.
And this makes Pradeep Singh’s life story very inspiring.
So read on.
Introduction-
Pradeep Singh was born on 17 December 1996 in Gopalganj, Bihar.
Later, he and his family shifted to live in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
Pradeep Singh’s father, Manoj Singh used to work as a service man at the Diamond Petrol Pump in Niranjanpur, Dewas Nagar Indore.
He worked as a service man for 22 long years.
Pradeep Singh’s mother is a housewife.
His elder brother works in the private sector.
Knowing early-
While he was studying 8th class, Pradeep Singh decided to grow up to become an IAS officer.
During that time, his elder brother guided him about the Civil Services Exam and he also started reading the magazines of the competitive exams.
While in his 9th class, Pradeep Singh developed an interest for the humanities subjects like social science, history, civics and current affairs.
Choosing science-
Even though Pradeep Singh was very interested in choosing the arts stream in his 11th grade, he was forced to choose the science stream as there wasn’t an option of choosing arts in his school.
College education-
After completing the intermediate, Pradeep Singh joined IIPS DAVV college in Indore to study for a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours).
Here, he started seriously preparing for the Civil Services Exam.
Pradeep Singh used to prepare for the exam in his college library and his home.
As he was very interested in history, he used to read many history books.
Extracurricular activities-
While studying in the college, Pradeep Singh was very active in co-curricular activities.
He was involved in student activism and participated in literary events and also conducted them.
Pradeep Singh participated in debates, elocutions and panel discussions.
He also founded the Indore Quiz Club.
Moving to Delhi-
After graduating, as Pradeep Singh found the atmosphere near his home in Indore to be distracting, he moved to Delhi in June 2017 to prepare for the Civil Services Exam.
He joined the Vajiram & Ravi IAS Coaching in June 2017.
An interesting fact-
Navjot Simi and Safin Hasan also took coaching from Vajiram & Ravi in Delhi.
Financial struggles-
During that time, the fees at Vajiram & Ravi was around ₹1.5 lakh excluding Pradeep Singh’s accomodation and travel expenses.
So, to afford these expenses his father sold his property in Indore.
Later, Manoj Singh also sold his ancestral land in Gopalganj, Bihar.
All these sacrifices strengthened Pradeep Singh’s desire to crack the Civil Services Exam.
Even during those difficult times, all his family members supported him.
His book list-
Pradeep Singh didn’t follow others’ book lists, instead he formulated his own book list.
For ancient history, he read Indian Art and Culture for Civil Services and other Competitive Examinations book by Nitin Singhania.
Pradeep Singh also read the Class XI NCERT book by the name, An introduction to Indian Art and Ancient India NCERT History Textbook By RS Sharma.
He also referred to the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) notes for ancient history.
For the Mains, Pradeep Singh read the India’s Struggle for Independence book by Bipan Chandra and he also read Bipan Chandra’s Class XII NCERT book and A Brief History of Modern India by Spectrum Books.
He read newspapers and Mains 365 – Vision IAS for international relations.
Pradeep Singh also read M. Laxmikanth’s and Lucent’s books.
He followed the Science Monitor program of Rajya Sabha TV and followed the PRS website for recent legislations.
Preparing notes-
Pradeep Singh prepared notes out of the A Brief History of Modern India book.
He also prepared notes for society, geography and polity.
Pradeep Singh followed the PIB website from October to March and prepared notes out of it.
Revisions and test series-
Pradeep Singh revised every book for around 25-30 times.
And in the last couple of months, he solved around 120-130 test series of various coaching institutes.
For the Main exam, Pradeep Singh didn’t enroll into any test series but he solved the test series by staying in his room only.
Answer writing-
Pradeep Singh observed the copies of previous years’ toppers to understand how they wrote the answers.
Then, he started practising answer writing for around 8-9 hours per day.
This practise helped Pradeep Singh to attempt all questions in the Main exam.
Optional subject-
Pradeep Singh chose sociology as his optional subject.
He started preparing for the optional subject after writing the Prelims exam.
Pradeep Singh took coaching for sociology from Vikash Ranjan and watched his pre-recorded video lectures and completed the coaching in just 1.5 months.
Vikash Ranjan also mentored Pradeep Singh for the Main exam.
No social media-
While preparing for the Civil Services, Pradeep Singh deleted his WhatsApp account and logged out from his Instagram account and deleted the Instagram app from his mobile.
He also deactivated his Facebook account.
Pradeep Singh started using social media only after around 1.5 years after he passed in the Civil Services (Main) Examination.
Maintaining his motivation-
Pradeep Singh used to maintain his motivation during preparation by visiting the temple and talking with his parents.
Also, as he liked poetry, he used to motivate himself by reciting poems.
His daily routine-
Pradeep Singh followed the following daily routine and this helped him to clear the Civil Services Exam in his first attempt.
He used to wake up at 6 AM and start studying from 7 AM to 11.30 AM.
Pradeep Singh used to take a break between 11.30 AM to 12 PM.
From 12 PM to 5 PM, he used to study and in between these hours, he used to take a power nap.
Pradeep Singh used to study once again from 5 PM to 9 PM and have his dinner in between 9 PM to 10 PM.
Then, he used to start studying from 10 PM to 1 AM.
Pradeep Singh followed this daily routine religiously.
Cracking CSE-
Pradeep Singh cracked the UPSC CSE 2018 in his first attempt and secured a rank of 93.
At that time, he was just 22.
As Pradeep Singh got a rank of 93, he doubted whether or not he would be allocated IAS, so he continued his preparation.
Later, he also wrote the Prelims exam and got selected into it.
Getting IRS-
Thanks to his 93rd rank, Pradeep Singh was allotted Indian Revenue Service (IRS).
Unfortunately, the IAS allocation got closed at the 92nd rank, so he missed the IAS with just one rank.
Even while working in the IRS, Pradeep Singh continued preparing for the next year’s Civil Services Exam with an aim of becoming an IAS officer.
In IRS, he was an Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax under training.
Pradeep Singh took leave from the services just before the interview of his second attempt to prepare for the exam.
Working harder & becoming an IAS-
As Pradeep Singh had to improve his rank in his second attempt, he worked harder than the last time.
He wrote the UPSC CSE 2019 and secured a rank of 26.
Thanks to this rank, Pradeep Singh has been able to become an IAS officer.
In 2020, he was allotted the Bihar Cadre and was made the Assistant Collector of Patna.
So, how are you inspired by the success story of Pradeep Singh?
Share with me in the comment section below.
About Author
Hello folks, I'm Naveen Reddy.
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