St Stephen’s alumnus Shruti Sharma was confident of qualifying in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2021, but she did not expect to emerge as the topper.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) announced the results of the Civil Services Examination 2021 on Monday in which three women -- Shruti Sharma, Ankita Agarwal and Gamini Singla -- secured the first, second and third ranks, respectively.

“I didn’t expect rank 1. I was very anxious, but it was a pleasant surprise,” Sharma said in an interview with a TV channel.

She wants to join the Indian Administration Services (IAS) and work to uplift the underprivileged in the country.

Delhi days

Sharma hails from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, but did her education in Delhi. She went to Cambridge Primary School in Delhi till Class 5 and later completed her secondary education from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya.

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She graduated from St Stephens College of Delhi University and enrolled in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to do her post-graduation in History. However, she did not complete her Masters. She registered for post-graduation in Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, which she will have to stop midway now, she said.

Preparing for civil services

Sharma has been preparing for the civil services exam for the last four years at the Jamia Millia Islamia Residential Coaching Academy (RCA). She is among the 23 candidates who qualified the Civil Services exam from Jamia RCA.

She cracked the highly competitive UPSC exam in her second attempt. Sharma had to take her main exam in Hindi due to some issues with the medium of instruction. “I missed my interview call by one mark," Hindustan Times quoted her as saying.

While preparing for the exams, Sharma did not depend much on notes from coaching centres but relied on NCERT books and made her own notes from newspapers regularly, Sharma told NDTV.

"Setting targets for yourself, limiting your sources, making your own notes are some things that worked for me,” she said, adding that it was also important to be consistent and manage time to crack the UPSC examination. During her preparations, Sharma also looked at previous years' question papers.

“I think all of them together helped me clear the exams," she said.

Her "extremely supportive" parents and friends gave her the strength and support in preparing for the exam, she said.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)