How Tina Dabi Secured AIR 1?

Tina has mentioned that she used to study for 8 to 14 hours. This she did for five continuous years. This means that she must have dedicated 12,000-15,000 hours in that five-year time period to studies only. After knowing this, one can easily gauge that her becoming an IAS topper in her very first attempt was no accident!

She used to read newspaper purposively and there were days when she could complete newspaper in half an hour only instead of the regular two hours. This is because she would only hunt for topics which were in the UPSC CSE syllabus.

She also chose an optional (Political Science and International Relations) she knew she was very comfortable with.

In PSIR, she secured full marks in class 12th Board and also bagged Delhi university Gold medal.

She joined GS foundation courses in class 11th itself and devoted most of her time in reading IAS related material.

But this is also true that many aspirants devote more than 8,000 hours to studies and still can’t get through UPSC. The reason is they don’t devote the entire time in deliberately practicing for UPSC. We can open the book in front of us for 18 hours but how many hours do we genuinely study?!

The key lies in being conscious of one’s goal and continuously working on it.

One should focus on studying more honestly and to a certain extent more cunningly and be alert and aware of one’s weaknesses to clear the UPSC CSE Exam.