Ria Dabi secured an all India rank of 15 in UPSC CSE 2020.
Her story of cracking the Civil Services Exam in her very first attempt at a young age is very inspiring.
So read on.
Introduction-
Ria Dabi was born in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and grew up in New Delhi.
Her mother, Himani Dabi belonged to the UPSC service and worked as an Indian Engineering Service officer in BSNL.
Ria Dabi’s father, Jaswant Dabi works as an Indian Telecom Service officer in the Ministry of Communications and he also belongs to the UPSC service.
Her elder sister, Tina Dabi was the all India topper of the UPSC CSE 2015.
Ria Dabi is five years younger to Tina Dabi.
Schooling–
Ria Dabi did her schooling from Convent of Jesus & Mary, Delhi.
She was very good in humanities, so her mother suggested she choose humanities in intermediate as this would later prove very useful while preparing for the Civil Services Exam.
Ria Dabi was the topper of her school in the 12th Board Exams.
College education-
In her intermediate, Ria Dabi developed a passion for political science, so she chose to graduate in political science.
She joined Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi to study B.A. in Political Science and graduated in 2019.
Ria Dabi was a very studious student and was a topper in her college.
In her college, she was active in many extracurricular activities like she served as the project head for the child development program in the National Service Scheme.
Well informed mother-
Ria Dabi’s mother belongs to Indian Engineering Services (IES) 1989 batch and when she joined the government service, she observed that the top positions in the bureaucracy were held by the IAS officers.
Himani Dabi also understood that one can serve the nation and its people in a significant way by becoming an IAS officer.
So, she decided to make both her daughters IAS officers.
Determining early on-
As a school student, Ria Dabi wanted to grow up to crack the Civil Services Exam.
Later, when her sister, Tina Dabi topped the Civil Services Exam in 2015, she became even more determined to crack the exam.
Preparation-
Ria Dabi started preparing for the Civil Services Exam while in college.
She started by regularly reading the newspapers.
Ria Dabi started seriously preparing after graduating in 2019.
In 2019, she also took coaching for the Civil Services Exam.
Later, when her coaching got affected by the COVID, Ria Dabi prepared from her home.
She also took coaching from Career Launcher for CSAT.
Studying for long hours-
Ria Dabi used to study daily for 8-10 hours and revised every topic 3-4 times.
Sometimes she used to study for a whopping 12-13 hours.
Ria Dabi read and revised the NCERT books to build her foundation.
Focusing on current affairs-
Ria Dabi used to daily read The Hindu and The Indian Express newspapers.
She used to extensively read the newspapers within a couple of hours.
Ria Dabi also referred to monthly magazines like VisionIAS Current Affairs, Yojana and Kurukshetra for current affairs.
She used to also visit the Press Information Bureau (PIB) website.
Ria Dabi chose Political Science and International Relations as her optional subject.
Practising well-
Ria Dabi practiced many mock papers.
She solved more than 80 mock papers for Prelims and many mock papers for Mains.
Ria Dabi also rigorously practised answer writing.
She discussed case studies with Tina Dabi who by then was working as a civil servant.
Gaining confidence-
Ria Dabi attended many mock interviews and this boosted her confidence.
She used to research and prepare notes and this helped her to better remember most of the points.
Ria Dabi used to also revise her notes multiple times.
Some sacrifices-
Ria Dabi made a few sacrifices while preparing for the exam and this later allowed her to get a good rank in the Civil Services Exam.
She felt social media to be a time waster and a distraction, so she abandoned it.
Also, Ria Dabi reduced interacting with her friends.
Very helpful mother–
Ria Dabi’s mother took Voluntary Retirement Scheme, Golden Handshake while working at BSNL so as to groom her daughters in studies.
During that time, Tina Dabi was studying in 7th grade and Ria Dabi was in 2nd grade.
After retiring, Himani Dabi supported and guided her daughters and thanks to this, both her daughters were able to crack the Civil Services Exam.
Stress busters during preparation-
As preparing for the Civil Services Exam is demanding, Ria Dabi used her hobbies of painting and reading as her stress busters.
She loves drawing Saura painting, Madhubani painting and landscape painting and is interested in Indian folk art.
Ria Dabi picked up the painting hobby in her school days.
She used to also work out at home regularly and used to go for walks to relieve her stress and be physically healthy.
Topping the exam-
Ria Dabi attended the Civil Services Exam in 2020.
The results for this exam were announced in 2021 and she got a rank of 15.
An interesting fact about Ria Dabi-
Ria Dabi is a left-hander whereas Tina Dabi is a right-hander.
So, how are you inspired by the success story of Ria Dabi?
Share with me in the comment section below.
About Author
Hello folks, I'm Naveen Reddy.
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