UPSC Topper 2021 Gamini Singla Preparation Strategy, Book list and Tips

Gamini Singla has bagged All India Rank 3. Read further to know more about her Strategy,Tips,Booklist, Family Background.

Gamini Singla has secured All India Rank 3 in the UPSC CSE 2021 exam. Gamini Singla is an alumnus of Punjab Engineering College (PEC) Chandigarh. She cleared the UPSC exam on her second attempt but the UPSC Mains 2021 on the very first attempt.

UPSC Topper Gamini Singla Journey

She said it was her childhood dream to become an IAS officer and she started preparing for the UPSC exam from home in 2019. She relied completely on self-study. She said her family, especially her father has helped her a lot emotionally and in her studies as well. She said that her father used to read the newspaper to her. "He would read the newspaper and mark things for me so that I could save my time. He made sure I wouldn’t miss any important point for the prelims or Mains," she said. “I used to study for 9-10 hours a day. I took coaching from Vinod sir in Patiala. Mostly I did self-study preparing for the examination, and finally, I got through, “ she said

She took Sociology as an optional subject. Singla passed out from Punjab Engineering College (PEC) in 2019 after completing her BTech in Computer Science Engineering (CSE).

UPSC Preparation Strategies of Gamini Singla

Cracking UPSC Mains on the first attempt requires a lot of patience and good strategy. Check out the tips shared by her that her to clear the exam:

• NCERTs Books from Classes 6 to 12 helped her to clear the concepts and build a strong base
• Newspapers and current affairs magazines for all the three stages of the exam, Prelims, Mains and the Interview
• She made a timetable and studied consistently for 9-10 hours every day
• She solved many mock tests to help her get enough practice before the actual exams
• She solved previous years’ UPSC prelims question papers to get an idea about the nature of the questions asked in the UPSC prelims examination
• For Mains preparation, her focus was to do the writing practice
• She also used the internet to understand various topics that she could not find in standard books. 

UPSC Topper 2021: List of Books used by Gamini Singla to clear UPSC 

 Apart from reading the Hindu Newspaper daily, check out the list of books she relied on to clear the UPSC Exam 2023:

• Polity: Laxmikanth and bare Act of the constitution as a supplementary resource
• Magazines: Monthly revision of Vision's monthly current affairs and final revision of PT 365
• PRS India as reference material for the latest legislative developments
• Environment: Sankar IAS book, PMF IAS material 
• History:  Spectrum for Modern History, old NCERTs (essentially books by RS Sharma and Satish Chandra) for ancient and medieval.
• Art and culture: Selective reading of Nitin Singhania’s book. Early chapters are more important than later ones.
• Economics: Shankar Ganesh’s book on Indian economy basics, and basic NCERTs (class 10, Macroeconomics, Indian economy).
• Geography:  GC Leong and basic NCERTs (class 10, Indian Geography, World Geography, Human geography). PMF IAS geography material.
• Ethics: Lexicon for Ethics, Mock tests, online ethics notes, Rau’s Mains compass for Ethics, etc.

UPSC Topper 2021 Gamini Singla's Tips for aspirants

‘Along with your hard work, strategy also plays an important role. So, reflect on your mistakes, as to why you have failed in the previous attempts. Carve out a unique strategy. You need not follow someone, just have a unique strategy and work hard. Because there is no substitute for hard work in this examination,” she said.

UPSC Topper 2021 Gamini Singla's: Family Background

Both of her parents are doctors. Her father Dr. Alok Singla and Dr. Neeraj Singla are medical officers in the Himachal Pradesh government. Her brother has graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.

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