Success story of Kurma Rao – CSE 23rd
Rank, 2010
Name: Kurma Rao M
Father’s Name: Adinarayana
Mother’s Name: Rajeswari
D.O.B: 11
th
April (Year of birth not provided)
Educational Qualifications:
Exam   Year   University / Board / College                % of Marks
10
th
 1997     APRS Bobbili, Andhra Pradesh                90.6%
10+2      1999     Alfa Jr. College, Vishakhapatnam           95.0%
B.Tech  2003     GITAM College of Engineering                  87.0%
Previous Selections:
2008: Rank 388 IRS (IT)
2009 Rank: 415, IPS
CSC:  Achieving the top slot in the CS Examination is no small feat; accept our heartiest
congratulations on your splendid success.
Kurma Rao: Thanks a lot. It is indeed a great privilege to be a part of IAS and I am thankful to
my parents, teachers and friends whose support sailed me through this long journey.
CSC: You must have read IAS Toppers interviews in newspapers / magazines; what inspired
you the most? Any particular success story which influenced your journey to this result?
Kurma Rao: Many success stories inspired me. The first page I used to generally read in a
competitive magazine was toppers interview and to learn from their experiences. My
confidence rose when friends close to me got successful. I always used to keep good friends
circle who kept my motivation level up and used to have meaningful discussions with them.
In course of preparation fortunately I got association of great Gurus who supported me in all
aspects.
CSC: About Interview Boards, many candidates have set impressions. Do you consider such
thoughts  help or hinder one’s performance in Interview?
Kurma Rao: It is always better to appear before the board with an open mind and with
positive attitude. It is one’s confidence level and thinking that there’s nothing to hide in my
personality and I am ready to answer any question that brings better performance in the
interview. Certainly Bio-data should be one’s strong area and try to answer other questions
also by relating with it.
CSC: What was your approach towards General Studies and optional Subject during Prelims
preparation? How much time and effort you divided for each?Kurma Rao: Since there is change in prelims pattern now optional need not be prepared for
prelim. Now CSAT and general studies have equal weightage but depending on strong and
weak areas of each individual one has to divide time accordingly. Since General studies is
extensive and is also there for mains it can be focused more and CSAT needs to be worked
out with enough practice.
CSC: How did you manage to tackle the ‘Negative Marking’ in Prelims?
Kurma Rao:  It is to answer the question or not which is to be judged using probability and
calculated risk can be taken. But certainity of answer will come with basic understanding
and clarity of concepts and enough practice
CSC: List some of the Magazines, Newspapers, Books, etc. Which you read for ‘General
Studies’ preparation.
Kurma Rao: News Papers: The Hindu, Times of India
Magazines: Yojana, Kurukshetra, Civil Services Chronicle and Wizard in earlier stages of
preparation.
Books: India Year book, Economic Survey
NCERT books which are all linked with our syllabus like Contemporary India, Contemporary
World and Books on Geography.
Standard text books like Indian Constitution by DD Basu, India’s Freedom Struggle by Bipin
Chandra, Indian Economy by Dutt and Sundaram (limited chapters), Science and
Technology: TMH Publishers.
CSC: How did you prepare yourself for Interview? When and which Board did you face? How
did your interview go on, how much time it lasted and what were the questions asked
during the Interview?
Kurma Rao:  Preparing for interview is like introspection and delving deep into one’s self.
What is the career path till now and why you chose that and how you view future will be
questioned. In addition hobbies, own state and current issues needs to be prepared well
with courage to take stand on certain aspects and giving reasons for it.
I was fortunate to have guidance from Sriram Sir and from my friends who helped me
analyse better and build my confidence level. I attended mock interviews in Samkalp and
elsewhere to come out myself and express freely before the board.
This year I got Shri Nirbhay Sharma sir’s board which gave me an opportunity to express
myself and the questions were mainly of opinion based with great scope for analysis and
bringing out the attitude. Questions were put on my earlier work experiences, hobbies,
optional and current issues like interlinking of rivers – Do you support? Is inflation needed
for growth? Judicial review vs judicial activism etc. It lasted for about 35 minutes.
CSC: In your opinion what role do the Competition Magazines play when you are preparing
for an examination like Civil Services?
Kurma Rao:  Magazines which are highly focussed and concise aid the candidates to a great
extent, because they collect, refine and present relevant information in easy to understand
format making the task of the aspirant simple. In addition they have diverse articles for
value addition and work towards keeping the morale and motivation of the candidate. But selection of magazines and reading specific portions from them is the expertise of the
aspirant.
CSC: What is the secret of your success?
Kurma Rao: I got the rioght atmosphere and guidance in terms of teachers and friends at the
right time which helped me move towards the goal. I think the dogged approach of keep on
continuing till you get what you want as Swami Vivekananda said ‘Arise, Awake and stop not
till the goal is reached’ helped me get this success.
CSC: Any suggestion / advice you would like to give to the future aspirants.
Kurma Rao:  Have confidence in yourself and don’t worry of failures. It is not an exam of
high intelligence but certainly that tests your emotional qualities like patience and
sensitivity towards things that happen around you. When Students with Regional medium
coming from poor rural background like me are able to make it out why not you. So don’t
have second thought of whether I will be able to make it?