How do top students study?

I'll speak on behalf of a close friend of mine, who attended an unknown university from where I am from (Lima, Peru), and got accepted for a fully funded PhD to work with the world-leaders (including Nobel Laureates) at Systems Biology and Computational Biology at Harvard, UC San Francisco and Rockefeller.

I'd like to add, that he beat his competitors at interviewing for Grad School from MIT, Harvard, Caltech, Stanford, Yale, and other top institutions. It's one thing to go to get a PhD at MIT because you did your undergrad at Caltech, but its a completely different story if a kid from a developing country who went to a no-mans-land university beats you at grad school and got to work with a Nobel Laureate. This guy was the deal, and he went from zero to hero.

His success story:

1) Discipline: He had no Facebook during his undergraduate years, and probably only went online for doing homework, assignments or coordinating projects. This reduced his distraction span to zero.

2) Emotional Intelligence: He could control his emotional and sexual impulses. He was very socially intelligent around diverse groups, but he had in mind that having a girlfriend during his undergraduate years would be a major distraction. Both he and I when we were freshman knew that we wanted to go to USA for a PhD, so we were lifelong buddies who always noticed the good and bad things about each other. While I would sometime complain that he didn't go out on weekends (because he never did), he would always complain that I cared too much about appearance, partying and personal marketing. He was not socially handicapped as some people might think a 'nerd' would be, he was actually a very mature person who could talk about anything.

3) Sacrifice: We came from a place where dogs literally walked inside our classroom, and cockroaches would on occasion crawl in our backpack in class. He didn't let any of this get to him. He actually used the poor infrastructure of our engineering building as a motivation, something like "one day I'm going to get out of this hell hole, and do something great for science". He also had a great sense of patriotism.

4) Stellar passion and motivation: The first semester, I found out that he had the highest GPA of the whole class, and I immediately called him by the phone. I didn't understand a thing of what he said because the signal was low. However, the next day he seemed very depressed and told me that his grandfather had passed away. His grandfather was like his father to him and he never got the chance to tell him that he achieved first place in his engineering class. Little did we know, after a couple of weeks we realized not only was he the first in class, he was first in the entire campus achieving the highest GPA (grades in Peru are from 0 to 20, and with no curve). He graduated Summa Cum Laude 2 years ago, and got the highest GPA at our university over the last 30 years. The other person previous to him was Barton Zwiebach, a renowned Peruvian string theorist and Professor at MIT.

5) No pain, no gain: He went overkill sometimes to achieve his goal. I'm talking things like not having lunch to study an extra hour, sleep 4-5 hours a day at least 5 days a week, sleeping on the bus to get extra sleep time, and most dazzling thing of all was that most of the time he didn't go to class. He just stayed studying in the library and was at least 2 or 3 weeks ahead of the professor. Even if he did go to class, he rarely paid attention, he would go over his books to see what methods other authors would teach. He would buy and download at least 5 different books per subject and read them all to learn and to study for the test. He would go over all the proofs and learn them, study them, do them, sometimes reinvent the proofs or see if he could grasp the concept in anticipation of what the book would reveal.

6) Selecting friends: His paradigm for selecting friends (or colleagues) was impressive. He didn't care if it was me (a spoiled rich kid), or the son of a blue-collar family that was a national math Olympiad. He valued people for their ideas and it didn't matter to him where they were from, but where they were going.

7) Becoming a preacher: He was never reluctant on teaching. Whenever anyone would ask him something he would go over the concepts and explain it to him. This was really beneficial for our closed group of friends, as we each learned different concepts and he checked with us or we discussed any doubts we had.

8) Be ambitious: All of his life, he was the best at everything he did. Before enrolling at our engineering school, he was making around $3000 a month by only winning Magic The Gathering Card competitions, and he was Peru's #1 player and Ranked in the top 10 world wide. *Not bad for a 16 year old, at that time.

9) He majored in Robotics Engineering: So yes, he did learn Optimal and Digital Control, Fourier Analysis, Triple integrals, differential equations, etc.. We didn't have computers for our programming tests, they were all done on pen and paper.

10) He was incredibly humble.

He started graduate school at 22

-Arturo Deza,Robot Ophthalmologist

What advice can you give me before starting my UPSC preparation?

 I usually avoid giving advice since generic ‘gyaan’ is not of much use, and I rarely have specific and useful things to say.

However, since you have asked this question, here is what comes to my mind:

1. Remember that the odds of getting into a top Civil Service (IAS/IPS/IFS) are probably 200–300 out of 10 lacs. While we all talk about the big successes, there are 100 times more candidates who don’t make it despite being very capable and working very hard.
1. In my own batch at IIT there was a guy much smarter than me, who was academically brilliant. He never made it even to the interview stage, if I remember correctly.
2. It does not mean that you can’t beat the odds but keep that perspective and know what you are up against.
2. Decide how many years you want to give to the exam. Even though many people have spent 3–5 years, I am reluctant to suggest that one should spend that much time. Give it a year or two, and then give it your best shot.
3. If you are writing the exam, go all out, day and night. It should be a total war, not a skirmish. You should be able to put in 10–12 hrs a day with intense focus, if not more. Though I am talking about number of hours, remember that the quality of effort is more important.
4. Hard work is not enough - you need to know how to prepare the fastest for each topic/subject. In our days at IIT Kanpur, we used to get very good info about which topic to prepare from which book from previous year’s candidates. IITK used to produce many toppers and they had figured out a lot of things over time. It made the preparation very efficient. I suspect it must be much easier now due to organized coaching etc.
5. It is a long exhausting journey. Unless you are personally super-motivated, don’t do it due to social or family pressure. At some point the only thing that will drive you is the fire burning inside you.

I will skip any specific advice on which subject to take or which study material to use. I am sure there are people much better qualified than me to do that.

All I can say is that nothing is easy, but everything is doable. Good luck.

-Rajan Singh

Sleep or Success?

My cousin and his father own a big brand of apparels—they own several showrooms, and mills.

I have never seen both of them wake up before ten am unless they have a flight to catch.

I think it's in their genes to sleep till late.

Instead of sleeping for four hours, they use their mind and manage their business well in six to seven hours a day.

My brother won't wake up at one pm if you don't force him. He cleared Bank PO, SSC (twice), ONGC, and some other papers. He didn't fail in any competitive exam he gave. Also, he was the topper of his school.

I don't know why people form this misconception about sleep and ruin their life.

Sleep is one of the most critical aspects of our life.

Without sleep, there is no strength, no intelligence, no wisdom and no joy.

Sleeplessness causes anxiety, depression, stress, drowsiness, weakness, and slows down your mind.

Sleep makes your body relaxed and improves your productivity.

After a good sleep, you understand things with clarity and faster.

Answering this question-

I completely disagree with the hypothesis that successful people sleep less, leave aside four hours.

(And please don't quote one person out of one million people)

I pray to everyone reading this, don't destroy your sleep in the hope of doing something big in life.

Instead, use the remaining time productively without procrastinating.

-Anubhav Jain

Relationship

 You are going to meet him. You are tired, still the thought of eating dinner with him cheers you up. You can’t wait to share how good the day had been. You also want to discuss about your career plan with him. You know he might be hesistant. It makes you nervous. But you are somewhat confident that you can convince him.

This is the example of a good relationship.

You are going to meet him. You feel scared. You strongly pray that he is in a good, understanding mood and dinner should end on a happy and peaceful note at least this time.

This is the example of a toxic relationship.

A healthy relationship is another source of your happiness. The person forms your support. It might not give you happiness or peace always but it gives you strength to sail through difficult times.

Toxic relationship is the sink for happiness you obtain from other sources. It makes you very weak and vulnerable. Most of your time goes in searching for happiness bubles on the surface of the ocean of bitterness with flimsier hopes.

---

So

The best way to check if the relationship works for you or not is to

Monitor how you mind and body feels when you are with your partner.

If you feel nervous, scared, uncomfortable or traumatic, it is high time you need to consider whether you want to go ahead with the relationship or not

If someone claims to love you, but walks away and ghosts you, I think one or more of the following applies:

1. They do not actually love you.
2. They use the word “love” too loosely.
3. They mistake shallow, positive feelings that they feel for a short time for love.
4. They wanted to have sex with you and described that to you as love.
5. They have a personality disorder and “split” —shifted from seeing you as all-good to all-bad—because something you said or did triggered them.
6. They lied when they said they loved you and knew they were lying.
7. They told you they loved you in response to you saying it to them and they felt obligated to say it back in return.

Punchline: Unfortunately, the word “love” is used for many different things. People say that they love ice cream, a particular book, the way a haircut looks, and their spouse. If someone says “I love you” and is able to walk away and ghost you, whatever they meant by love is different than the deep, stable, caring positive feelings that most people seek from a mate.

Elinor Greenberg, PhD, CGP

In private practice and the author of the book: Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations.

www.elinorgreenberg.com

Experience of Joining a PSU

 It was superb!

I was an Engineering Officer (EO) posted at Indian Oil Corporation Marketing HO, Mumbai. I got into IOC through Gate 2018. Indian Oil inducts Grade ‘A’ officers from Gate exam, college placements, NET exam, etc.

Training is, no doubt, one of the best parts of any induction into an organisation in which you get a lot of exposure & learning with the least liabilities. I’ll touch upon the highlights of it.

Accommodation-

We were accommodated for almost two months in Radisson Blu Hotel, Dwarka sector 13, New Delhi during our training period for two and a half months, which is a 5 Star hotel. We got superior rooms/ business class rooms. By the time I left, I knew every nook & corner of that hotel. For joining our training, we got 2nd AC train tickets/equivalent amount for Air travel, from our hometown to Delhi.

For our stay in Jalandhar, we were accommodated in country Inn & Suites by Radisson. Likewise, in Amritsar, there was comfort Inn hotel.

• Radisson Blu Dwarka New Delhi

• Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Jalandhar

• Comfort Inn Alstonia, Amritsar

Food-

Restaurants like Rice, Spring, etc. provided a wide variety of cuisines from Italian to American favorites. Even after two months of my stay, we couldn’t taste everything! The food was never a problem at every place we visited. There was a special class on dining etiquette also as part of our training module.

Training modules-

We were inducted into Common Corporate Induction Module (CCIM) after joining, in which a mixed group of Probationary Officers (POs) from every department like engineering, MBA, BSc/MSc, etc., was formed. This module involves ice breaking and team activities, mostly engaging every one of us in some part, which helped in getting to know each others better and encouraging team spirit. It also involves morning compulsory yoga sessions, personality development classes and various leadership & managerial sessions.

At the end of 8–9 days of CCIM, POs are divided for three different departments of Indian Oil i.e. Marketing, Pipeline and Refineries. The officer once inducted in anyone of them will remain in that department only for their remaining service. Who will get which department is dependent on a number of factors like interview remarks, experience, positions taken in school/college and CCIM reviews. I got marketing, so we went through Marketing induction module (MIM) following CCIM.

Marketing department in IOCL is a vast department which further divides into Aviation, Retail sales, LPG sales, Engineering, Terminals, LPG Bottling plants, Lube sales, etc. Likewise, the officers posted will be called Aviation officers, sales officers, engineering officers, operations officers and so on.

MIM consists of both theoretical and field training parts. Field training is the much-awaited part of any training as you visit a lot of places and have a hands-on experience on a lot of things. It is a comprehensive training where 1 week is given to each department of marketing. We first went to Jalandhar city for 2 weeks to visit the Oil Terminal and LPG Bottling plant (Pictures attached).

Indian Oil Jalandhar terminal

Indane bottling plant (Picture of Jalandhar’s plant is not available)

Then we were taken to Amritsar AFS to introduce us to the aviation department and their workings.

…taking a small food break ;)

We went to COCO (Company owned Company operated) pumps, which are Indian Oil owned pumps and franchise owned pumps, in Delhi, for understanding the basic functioning of petrol pumps and various schemes related to them. This part and the following part of LPG distribution involved major public interactions.

As a part of understanding LPG distribution system, we went to different Indane distributors and visited households of the area to interact with them, tell them about the basic safety measures, aware them about their rights as a customer, note down the complaints, if any. Also, we did random inspection on LPG cylinder trucks, distributor’s Indane godown of cylinders and on the spot checking of cylinders carried by delivery personnel.

Door to door interaction with Indane customer

Safety clinic, LPG awareness program

Roadside random checking of Indane cylinders

Checking of LPG cylinders at distributor’s end

Indian Oil also has a Lube brand, called Servo. We went to a lube blending plant at Asaoti, Haryana.

Over this entire two & a half months training, everything including accommodation, inter-state and intrastate travel by road/rail/air, food is covered by Indian Oil. In between our training we visited local places like Golden temple, Wagah-Attari border, Jalliawala bagh, local market & Chandigarh too. In addition to this, Full salary (as applicable) was paid to us. Additional perks like phone & laptop reimbursement is applicable from day 1. After joining, furniture, mobile bill reimbursement, suitcase reimbursement, etc., are applicable. Also Loans for four-wheeler/two-wheeler can be applied for. It has one of the best medical facilities in the country.

Indian Oil has almost everything that an employee wants to lead a decent life. The initial 3 months, after job posting, are part of On Job Training (OJT). I enjoyed each and every moment I spent in Indian Oil, during my training as well as during my service. It is a Fortune Global 500 company which is not only working in upstream & downstream but also coming in midstream market. It has long term sustainable goals with state-of-the-art R&D facilities located in Faridabad, Haryana which is working on renewable Fuels.

This was my CCIM batch photograph.

& That’s me on the second day of training…

Thank you… :)

References: -

Benguluru Indane bottling plant-Buy Bengaluru LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation where Emergency response drill was conducted at Devanagonthi in Bengaluru on Oct 22 2019 Photo IANS Pictures, Images, Photos By IANS - Others pictures

Indian Oil Petrol pump image- https://www.jakson.com/case-studies-details/more-than-100-iocl-fuel-pumps-powered-by-jakson-solar-power-packs

Before appearing for any exam, we must first................

 Before appearing for any exam, we must first understand what it demands. Each exam is unique and hence asks for a specialized approach. Same goes for RBI Grade B exam. The exam is quite straightforward but seats being so less ( Seats in Generalist UR category were a mere 64 in 2018) makes the exam one of the toughest in India. Also by cracking it you get a opportunity of working in the Central Bank of the nation. That itself is a strong motivating factor.

 

The path of education can be so beautiful

 I am 29 years old from Rural Odisha, India. Here is my story of life, which may inspire you. You will not feel regret after reading it.

I come from a very poor background and lower class in society. People generally didn’t give that much attention to my family and parents. We are three brothers, and my parents live in a small village in Odisha. I started my schooling in 1998. When I was conscious and knew about the world, I realized that my father does labour work. My mother was a housewife.

Let me tell you about my father. My father is the elder child of my grandparents. At that time, due to family pressure and poverty, he could not attend school. Near my village is a railway station colony where 20 families stay. During those days (1995- 2000s), my father used to supply water to those families for their daily use as there was no water supply. He used to wake up at 4 a.m. He used to supply water from a tube well in two buckets. He used to lift the weight with the help of a bamboo lathi. He used to get 4 to 5000 rupees per month. In those 5000 rupees, our family used to maintain. Later on, the Railway colony was connected to the 24*7 water supply. Eventually, my father lost that work and started working as a laborer on a railway track. I must say that was tough because you have to work hard in sun all days and you must realize how much the temperature will be near the railway track. Do you know how much he used to get per day? It was 120 rupees. This work continued till 2013 when he got to experience, and the contractor engaged him as a supervisor on the site to maintain the labor force. Today he earns 400 rupees per day which are around 12000 per month.

Let me tell you about my mom. Her life is pathetic and spent in struggle. She lost her mom early, so she didn’t get a chance to study higher; she attended till class 10th. She got posted as an Assistant Anganwadi worker in an interior village which is 5 km away from my home. She used to walk ten km to attend to her regular duty. Later on, my mom cleared the 10th exam in open schooling and became an Anganwadi teacher in 2015. She used to earn 3-5000 rupees per month.

(My mom, cousin sister and Dad in 2020)

When I was a child, my mom used to prepare garlands for buses. The buses passing near my village used to buy them for morning puja. I used to sell flower garlands to the public buses standing on the road, and I used to get 40-50 rupees daily. These earnings were used to maintain our daily vegetables and groceries.

Let me tell you about my home. It was a Kacha house with straws on the roof and no electricity. During the rainy season, leaks in the top made it hard to sleep. The rooms were small and congested. But one thing I must say is that we never felt sad and bad about my home. It was heaven for me, one of the best places where I feel good and comfortable. As we didn’t had electricity, we studied a major part of education in the lamp.

( My home before 2020)

There were few officers in the railway colony who used to give their childrens' old clothes, which were like new clothes for us. We were happy to wear them. We used to get new clothes only in Durga puja. My father used to provide the same garments (color and design) for my brothers and me.

Let me tell now my journey from this setup. I started my schooling at a local govt school in vernacular medium. I completed my schooling at the local govt school itself. During my childhood, my parents were not educated but encouraged me to participate in different extracurricular activities. They sent us to private tution as well. I have more than 50 winning certificates from various competitions like essay, debate, quiz , painting , monoacting etc. I got an award during the Independence Day celebration as the best student in my high school days, which recognized my parents in the entire Grampanchayt. The event's chief guest, CDMO (Chief District Medical Officer), impressed on me, and he had gifted books, stationaries and two pairs of uniforms at that time which was like blessing and motivational factor for me.

After my School few months I had worked as sales man in a medicine store and during college days I used to do data entry works as part time work.

I was selected for the science stream in a good college, but due to family financial conditions, I choosed Humanities as subject and I have completed my Graduation in Economics Honors and secured first class with distinction. I was the first person in my family to be a graduate.

During my college days, my leadership quality evolved, and I was elected as General Secretary. In 2013, I had an opportunity to share the dais with the Governor of Odisha at annual function in my college. That was a proud moment for me.

( with His Excellency Former Governor and Education Minister of Odisha in 2012)

Later on, I completed my B.Ed. Degree from Regional Institute of Education Bhubaneswar Under NCERT, New Delhi in 2015. I have completed my Masters's degree in Applied Economics from Pondicherry Central University in 2017.

Now I am going to finish my PhD in Economics at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal next month. I am doing research on farmers behavior towards adoption of new technology of Climate Smart Agriculture and its impact on their Income and welfare. I do research and also have given training to more than 500 tribal farmers to upgrade themselves to do sustainable agriculture practises.

( My Research and Trainning activities with the Rural Traibal Farmers of Odisha in 2022)

My career has been first class throughout except in class 10th (2nd division).

This month I have been selected as an Assistant Professor in Economics through Odisha Public Service Commission. My parents are thrilled to see their kid as a Group A Officer in the Odisha government. My villagers and my district people are proud of my parents and me.

My brothers are also struggled a lot. They have followed my path to do something remarkable in life.

My second brother cracked the Delhi university Law Entrance test 2022, and he is doing LLB from the prestigious law school of India, Faculty of LAW, Delhi University. My Youngest brother is doing a diploma in a Government College. I feel proud for my younger brothers as well.

(Assitant Professor Interview, June 2022)

One thing I must say is that my parents are God for me. Although they are not highly educated, their dedication to making us educated and successful is remarkable. They didn’t spend a single penny of their hard-earned money on themselves; all the money they earned was dedicated to my brothers and me. There are no savings, and there is no jewellery for my mom. In 2000s nobody had given attention and respect to my parents in the society. But in 2022 My parents are familiar faces for many not only in my village but also in block level. That is the power of Education and Investment on Education. Now they are getting respect from all which is the ultimate happiness for me.

In 2020 I constructed a home from PhD stipend and bought a scooter for them, which was my first gift for them.

One thing I feel sad and devastated about looking at them, they are getting older. They have spent their entire life to make our life beautiful. I want them in each birth of my life.

All these things motivates me to work hard and study. This is not the end I want to achieve more and more in life. Definitely we three brothers will make our parents proud.

Hope you liked my life story 😊 Thank You 🙏

-Purna Chandra Tanti Senior Research Fellow / Selected as An Assistant Professor