The Civil Services Examination(CSE) is one of the toughest exams in India. The exam is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission in three phases. Initially, candidates appear for the preliminar
The Civil Services Examination(CSE) is one of the toughest exams in India. The exam is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission in three phases. Initially, candidates appear for the preliminary round. Once they qualify, the aspirants are required to appear in the mains round and then in the personality test subsequently. Simi Karan, an IAS officer from Odisha, realized her dream of being part of the civil services at a very young age. She achieved this at the age of just 23 after getting her engineering degree earlier from IIT in the same year she cleared the UPSC exam.
Originally from Odisha, Simi Karan spent the majority of her childhood in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. According to the DNA report, Simi’s father served as an employee of the Bhilai Steel Plant while her mother was a school teacher.
Simi was an intelligent and hard-working student at school. After completing her schooling, she studied electrical engineering at IIT Bombay. While in university, she was invited to teach children living in the neighbouring slum areas, and seeing for herself the struggles those children faced, impacted her greatly and encouraged her to make an impact. This experience led her to prepare for the civil services and work towards making a real difference.
“I never focused on the hours of study, but rather set short-term goals (daily, sometimes even hourly) to focus on achieving… So, the schedule fluctuated accordingly, but on an average, I studied for 8-10 hours. I would also like to highlight that I focused on the quality of study, limited resources and made time for entertainment like jogging, watching stand-up comedy to relax my mind, Simi Karan shared thoughts on her UPSC journey.
In 2019, Simi’s dedication bore fruit when she achieved an outstanding All India Rank of 31, securing her position in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Simi secured 820 marks in the written examination, 201 marks in the personality test. Overall, she scored 1021 marks in the UPSC Civil Services(Main) Examination, 2019.
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