Meet Sanjita Mohapatra, An IAS Officer Who Faced Four Failed Attempts Before Cracking The UPSC With An Impressive AIR 10

UPSC Topper: Sanjita Mohapatra excelled academically and completed Mechanical Engineering at CET Bhubaneswar. Sanjita always dreamed of becoming an IAS officer and a collector. After completing her degree, she worked as a Trainee (Technical) at SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant, until 2018 when she resigned to focus on the civil services exam.

Success Story: Today, we're going to talk about Sanjita Mohapatra, who achieved the 10th rank in the UPSC CSE 2019 exam. Success requires consistency, especially when attempting one of India's toughest exams. Often, it takes multiple failures before achieving success. The key to success is perseverance and not giving up on your goals. Sanjita Mohapatra's success story is similar in that she achieved her life goals despite the obstacles.

Sanjita Mohapatra - Background

Sanjita was born in Sundargarh and raised in Rourkela. She excelled academically and completed Mechanical Engineering at CET Bhubaneswar. Sanjita always dreamed of becoming an IAS officer and a collector. After completing her degree, she worked as a Trainee (Technical) at SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant, until 2018 when she resigned to focus on the civil services exam. Sanjita married Biswaranjan Mundari, a manager at RBI in Mumbai, in 2017 and moved to Mumbai after leaving her job.

High Time In Life

Sanjita also passed the Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) exam and ranked second in the state of Odisha. She also qualified for the Odisha Public Service Commission but did not accept the job offer to concentrate on her UPSC preparation. Sanjita's family supported her during her UPSC preparation, and that motivated her to keep trying even after failing several times.

Setbacks In Life

Success is not just about achieving results; it's about the journey that leads to your goal. Sanjita worked as a junior manager at SAIL RSP when she was 22. Her job included field maintenance, managing people twice her age, and working in shifts. Sanjita resigned in 2018 to prepare for the civil services exam. Sanjita's preparation for the UPSC exam began while she was in college. She failed the preliminary exam in her first three attempts due to a lack of preparation and revision. In her fourth attempt, she resigned from her job but could not pass the mains exam.

Sanjita Mohapatra: Success Story

Sanjita passed the UPSC CSE exam on her fifth attempt. She attributes her success to self-study, a weekly schedule, and achieving targets on time. Sanjita chose Sociology as her optional subject and took a three-month crash course to master it. She made notes from NCERT books and short key points and relied on newspapers for current affairs. Sanjita did not follow a daily timetable but set monthly targets for all subjects and evaluated her progress every night. She believes in quality study time, not the number of hours spent studying. Sanjita wants to contribute to the development of the KBK region and tribal hinterlands.