“Do-or-Die Situation”: Fabi Rasheed Shares Her Journey To 71st Rank In UPSC (image - facebook/ mujeebrahman)
The Union Public Service Commission declared the final results of the Civil Service Examinations 2023 on Tuesday. Out of 1,016 candidates who have cracked the exam, Fabi Rasheed, 24, from Kerala has secured the 71st rank on her very first attempt. Fabi is the daughter of former Employees’ State Insurance Cooperation State Director M. Beenath and Dr Abdul Rasheed, former senior medical officer of Government Ayurveda Hospital, Alappuzha. She has completed her graduation from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Thiruvananthapuram with a BS-MS dual degree in 2022. Fabi hails from Chingolli in Kerala’s Alappuzha district.
Fabi has done her schooling at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Thiruvananthapuram. After completing her graduation, being determined to pursue a career in civil service, she joined Fortune Academy.
Timeline Interview With Fabi
Fabi in her interview with our team opened up about the preparation strategies she has followed to be one among the top 100 rank holders of last year’s civil services exam, one of the toughest in the world.
Preparation Methods
I have followed different strategies to crack the competitive exam. For the prelims examination, my main aim was to get the option right. The options are usually very confusing, and my goal was to tackle this issue to get the right answer from the provided options. Meanwhile, for the Mains, I followed writing practice to crack the examination.
In general, I usually learn by writing. Though the prelims are objective type, I used writing method to learn and hence this has helped me to crack mains by improving the time duration. In the three-hour exam, we have to cover almost 20 questions which amounts to 50 pages. My writing practice has helped me to increase my writing speed and to finish the paper on time.
The last hurdle that I had to face was the interview session. The interview round began on January 2 and mine was scheduled to be held on January 9. So I didn’t get much time to prepare for it. But the mock interviews that I attempted earlier helped me to crack the final stage too.
I followed 10 hrs studying practice on a daily basis. When it came to the Mains, it was increased to 12.
My Social Life
As I completely dedicated most of my time to preparing for the examination, I had to skip so many family functions. But this is part of it. At some point, I had to deal with anxiety and self-doubt too. The thought of “will I be able to achieve?” haunted me during those days.
I never considered the examination to be simple. It was a do-or-die situation for me. Both for me and my family, the examination was emotionally taxing. I had a strong yearning to crack the examination in the first attempt itself as several attempts may trouble me as well as my parents.
By picking on her own strategy, Fabi has become one of the top rankers in the UPSC examination. A family who stood by and a bunch of people who fueled her with firm belief that she could make it was more than enough for the young lass to thrive to victory.
