Selfstudyhistory.com’s Interview of Avdhija Gupta [Rank 43, CSE- 2024, History Optional]

Profile of the Candidate


Name	Avdhija Gupta
Rank in Civil Services Exam 2024	43
Roll Number	6616032
Age	25
Total attempts in Civil Services Examination (including present one)	4
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)	303 Paper I: 150 Paper II: 153
Home Town/ State	Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh
Any past Work-experience	No
Were you preparing full time or working and preparing?	Full Time
Your place of preparation
Details of other success and failure in competitive exams	Couldn’t clear first 3 prelims (2021, 2022 and 2023) so this was first mains and interview that I cleared.
Details of coaching/ test series/ study material of any coaching used for History Optional	self study history PYQs and solutions of self study history were immensely helpful.

Educational Background


Name of the subject in Graduation course and percentage marks	My graduation is in history
Name of college of graduation and place	Loreto College, University of Kolkata.
Passing out year	2020
Post-graduation if any	MA in history is going on.
Did your educational Background help in History Optional?	Yes

Questions Related to History Optional

Why did you choose history as your optional subject?

My graduation is also in history and MA in history is going on.

How did you prepare for Map Portion?

For maps, self study material and Rashid Yasin book was helpful.

Did you do answer writing regularly? If yes, what amount of time you devoted to it and how did it help you?

I didn’t do answer writing regularly but following mock tests in timely manner after prelims was helpful.

Did you join any test series? If yes, kindly name it? How did it benefit you?

I joined self study history and it was very good and so were the solutions.

Did you maintain self-notes? If yes, how did it help you?

Yes I maintained self notes for each and every topic of the syllabus and I think self made notes is the key to score well in history.

Have you solved previous years papers of history optional? Did it help you in the examination?

For PYQs, selfstudyhistory questions and solutions were immensely helpful. I made notes out of it.

Were you asked questions related to History in interview? If yes, kindly mention those.

Yes I was asked history questions in interview as well for instance one was on subaltern history.

How did selfstudyhistory.com benefitted you in your History Optional Preparation?

Experience with selfstudyhistory was great and I thank them for all the help these years.

Any specific thing you want to share about history optional?

I would like to add that history is a very good optional to take and is scoring also if one is thorough with syllabus, has self made notes and can comprehend the chronology well.

	Solution: Daily Prob… on Daily and Weekly Problem Pract…
	selfstudyhistory on ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY
	selfstudyhistory on UPSC Previous Years Papers
	Solution: Daily Prob… on Daily and Weekly Problem Pract…
	Tk on ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY