Harkeerat Singh Randhawa has secured All India Rank 10 in the Civil Services Examination 2021 on his 6th and last attempt, and it took him 10 years to crack the UPSC exam. His journey, full of hard work, patience, consistency and perseverance is indeed an inspiration for those who complain about failing once or twice.
He failed this most challenging exam five times and then got success, no one can even imagine how he felt throughout this journey of a decade. There’s a lot to learn from him. Let’s see Harkeerat Singh Radhawa’s UPSC preparation journey, booklist, optional, marksheet, education and how he succeeded in the Civil Services examination.
Biography of Harkeerat Singh Randhawa
Harkeerat Singh Randhawa hails from Kapurthala, Punjab. His father is a retired government servant and his mother is a scientist. And his parents are his biggest motivation, and he dreamt to become an IFS (Indian Foreign Service) Officer at the age of 17 years.
He did his schooling at Sanskriti School, Delhi and then went to St. Stephen’s College to pursue graduation in History Honours. After that, he started his preparation for the Civil Services Examination and gave his first attempt in 2012 but couldn’t even qualify for the Preliminary exam.
On his second attempt, he again failed in the Prelims. Then on his third and fourth attempts, he passed the Prelims but couldn’t qualify for the Mains exam. Till now, Harkeerat Singh Randhawa was having History optional for the UPSC Civil Services Examination.
And now he changed his optional to PSIR (Political Science and International Relations) but again he failed the Prelims exam on his 5th attempt. This time his failure made Harkeerat reflect on what he was doing wrong; and he concluded that whatever strategy he was following, those all were of others.
So now Harkeerat decided to just stick to what strategy works for him, and not try to copy what other toppers are saying. This time, he literally made no notes, nor did he give any mock test or mock interview. He only focused on reading, understanding and becoming as aware as he can as per the syllabus of the Civil Services Examination. And finally, he managed to get an AIR 10 on his 6th and last attempt at UPSC CSE 2021.
He had dreamt of becoming an IFS Officer when he was 17 years, and his dream was fulfilled at the age of 32 years. Hatts of to his dedication and perseverance, he tried from 2012 to the next 10 years and he got the fruit of his hard work. Now he will very soon become an IFS officer after his training and hence he proved that every dream becomes a reality if your work hard for it.
IFS Harkeerat Singh Randhawa Optional
When he started his preparation, Harkeerat Singh Randhawa took History as optional because he has done graduation in the same subject so it felt to be a better choice for him. But after his failures in four attempts, he realised that he needs a change and then took Political Science and International Relations (PSIR) optional and got an All India Rank 10 on his 6th attempt with the same PSIR optional.
UPSC Topper Harkeerat Singh Randhawa Marksheet
IFS Harkeerat Singh Randhawa scored 1026 marks out of 2025 marks in total which comprises 831 marks in the Civil Services (Main) written exam and 195 marks in the Personality Test, also known as the interview.
Harkeerat Singh Randhawa UPSC Booklist
- Indian Polity by M. Laxmikanth
- Ancient History by RS Sharma
- Indian Economy by Nitin Singhania
- India’s Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra
- Certificate Physical and Human Geography by GC Leong
- Indian Art and Culture by Nitin Singhania
- Lexicon for Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude
- Challenges to Internal Security of India by Ashok Kumar
- NCERT Books of Class IX, X, XI, XII
These are the standard books for UPSC preparation and IFS Harkeerat Singh Randhawa has also referred to the same as every aspirant study these books for the Civil Services Examination. Apart from these books, magazines, current affairs and other study materials, answer writing is a very key skill in cracking the UPSC exam which is known as one of the toughest competitive exams.
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