Selfstudyhistory.com’s Interview of Aditya Kumar [Rank 861, CSE- 2023, History Optional]
Profile of the Candidate
| Name | Aditya Kumar |
| Rank in Civil Services Exam 2023 | AIR-861 |
| Roll Number | 2605832 |
| Age | 23 |
| Total attempts in Civil Services Examination (including present one) | 2 |
| Optional Subject | History |
| Medium for History Optional | English |
| Marks in History Optional in Present (if available) and Earlier Examinations (Mention marks in Paper I and II) | Paper I- 157
Paper II- 129 |
| Home town/village | Salempur, Deoria |
| Any past Work-experience | |
| Were you preparing full time or working and preparing? | Full time preparation |
| Your place of preparation | Delhi |
| Details of other success and failure in competitive exams | – |
| Details of coaching/ test series/ study material of any coaching used for History Optional | – |
| – | |
| Educational Background | – |
| Percentage marks in class X | 86% |
| Percentage marks in class XII | 88% |
| Name of the subject in Graduation course and percentage marks | BA HISTORY (HONS)
62% |
| Name of college of graduation and place | SRI VENKATESWARA COLLEGE, DU |
| Passing out year | 2021 |
| Post-graduation if any | – |
| Did your educational Background help in History Optional? | YES |
Introduction
(1) Tell us something about yourself.
Myself Aditya Kumar, I belong to Deoria district (UP), I did my Class XII from PCM from Lucknow and due to my interest in Civil Services I took BA in my graduation and having keen interest in history I took History Hons and also as my optional, and today it helped me in making a place among the selected candidates this year.
Questions Related to History Optional
(2) Why did you choose history as your optional subject?
- Due to my Interest in History
(3) Kindly mention positive and negative about the History Optional for those who what to take history optional.
- Positives- History is a static subject and have a fixed syllabus, once you are thorough with it, it will fetch you good marks
- Negatives: lengthy subject and issues comes in consolidation of sources and learning important names and dates
(4) Kindly mention booklist and sources which you followed for History Optional.
- Ancient: Upinder Singh
- Medieval: Satish chandra
- Modern: Sekhar Bandopadhyay and Bipin chandra
- World: Norman Lowe
(5) How did you prepare for Map Portion?
- Mostly from PYQ and from map book of KBC publication and from Self Study History
(6) How much time per day you used to give the history optional during your preparation (both before and after prelims)?
- 6 hrs a day for optional after prelims
(7) Did you join any test series? If yes, kindly name it? How did it benefit you?
- No
(8) Did you maintain self-notes? If yes, how did it help you?
- Yes, very concise notes i made,. and tried to shorten them with each revision
(11) Have you solved previous years papers of history optional? Did it help you in the examination?
- Yes, yes they helped in many question and often repetition is seen in PYQs
(12) In your views, how the nature of questions asked in history optional changed in recent years?
- Yes, now they are more based on analysis, which you can get mostly by reading books and notes only by coaching notes
(13) Were you asked questions related to History in interview? If yes, kindly mention those.
- Yes, mostly on IVC and Vedic civilization, and also on Aryan and Dravida debate
(14) How did selfstudyhistory.com benefitted you in your History Optional Preparation?
- Yes, it helped me in Map portion and also in note making and also in PYQ anlysis
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