Junaid Ahmad IAS

"If you know the 'why' you will never cry"

Every year millions of candidates are appearing for the UPSC exam and among those only few are selected and Junaid Ahmad is one of them.
This post is for all the aspiring UPSC CSE candidates who get demotivated after 1st and 2nd attempt.
In this post, you will get an answer to who is Junaid Ahmad (though he doesn't need an introduction), what is the correct way to prepare for India's one of the hardest exam i.e UPSC CSE, what mistakes an aspirant must avoid, and a lot of motivation.

About Junaid Ahmad

Junaid Ahmad successfully secured all India rank 3 in civil services examination.
He is from Uttar Pradesh (more specifically to know from Bijnor district).
Junaid Ahmad says his family was very supportive. Let us put some light on their family members Junaid's father is a lawyer and his mother is a housewife.
During his college period, he took science stream and got graduation in Electrical Engineering from Aligarh Muslim University.
Currently, Junaid Ahmad is 28 years old.

Junaid happily claims that he was an average student during his schooling and college times.
In UPSC CSE he chose his Optional Subject as Geography.
Junaid Ahmad was provided coaching from Jamia Residential Coaching Academy which is part of Jamia Milia Islamia (New Delhi) at free of cost.
Junaid Ahmad was preparing for civil services from 2014 since then he gave 5 attempts. In the 4th attempt, he got selected for IRS - rank 352 (Indian Revenue Services) and in 5th Attempt IAS rank 3 (Indian Administrative Service).

Junaid Ahmad suggests every aspirant start his Prelims preparations from March till June.
According to him continuous revision of the same topic is helpful.
To sail through prelims he says one must focus more on factual information.
Junaid says mock tests for prelims helped him very much.
In the real exam, Junaid says one would be able to solve 30-40 questions correctly and other questions would be guesswork (via elimination technique).

Junaid insists UPSC aspirants that after giving prelims take rest for a few days and start practising answer writing for upcoming mains.
He says that he failed in his previous attempts because he didn't make notes for mains revision.
He says while making notes one must link it with current affairs and latest data to quote in answers and all the notes should be short notes (in bullets).
For mains also Junaid Ahmad gave various mock tests.
He says the more one practices answers writing the better will be scored.

Junaid Ahmad strictly points out that the essay paper is not to be taken lightly, it has an equal part to play among other papers.
According to him completing an essay paper in a given time is a real hardship.
His essay structure consisted of an introduction at the beginning then body paragraphs with a good flow and a good conclusion at the end.
He says that any essay you choose in the examination should cover the basic political, economical, ethical, environmental, etc. aspects of the given topic.

Junaid Ahmad says that his reasons for failure in past 4 attempts where he didn't know why he was preparing, he was like 1/3 guys who don't know why they are choosing IAS as their career.

Junaid Ahmad overcome these 5 mistakes from his previous attempts:-

He got the answer for 'why' was he preparing
In his earlier attempts, he forced himself to Study 10-12 hours which didn't suit him.
After understanding the demand of the exam and making the right strategy he easily cut his study time by 5-6 hours.
According to him, there is no need to study for long hours.
What he read was completely according to the syllabus and previous years paper.

Junaid Ahmad says that perseverance is the key to sail through UPSC.
Junaid Ahmad asks everyone to start with NCERT (which helps to build a good foundation).
According to Junaid Ahmad, "a candidate has to thoroughly prepare for a continuous 2 year to crack in 1st attempt".

Following is Junaid Ahmad's mark sheet for 2018 attempt.

Total of Junaid Ahmad comes to 1077

Junaid Ahmad being an average student during his school and college time breaks the myth that only scholars can crack it.
It took him full 6 years to make it to rank 3, so one must learn from his failures.
But a thing here to note is what work for him might not work for you so don't just blindly copy his strategy try the one which suits you the best and completely discard others.