Date of interview: 21/04/2021
Board: M. Sathiyavathy Ma’am
Optional: History
Home State: Madhya Pradesh
College: PGDAV college
Hobbies: Playing cricket, Singing and composing songs, acting and cooking.

Chairman

Your experience in interview- None

Utility of mocks (if any)- Gave 6 mocks, and they mostly suggested that I need to study my home city(Bhopal) and home state( MP ) as I had a knowledge gap in that regard. Interestingly, almost 75% of the questions came from Bhopal and MP. So I would say their assesment was quite bang on. Mocks also helped me to get into habit of speaking and reduced hesitancy.

Member 1

1. Read my DAF aloud.
2. What have you been doing since graduation?
3. Why didn’t you pursue post graduation? (I mentioned that my backup plan is to be an entrepreneur)
4. Specific questions regarding my entrepreneur plans followed.
5. Why didn’t you choose cricket as your career?
6. What kind of songs do you compose?

Member 2

1. What has MP govt done to avoid a tragedy like bhopal gas tragedy in MP. What can you do as a collector, what learning did you get from bhopal gas tragedy?
2. What are the famous crops of MP? (I mentioned sharbati wheat)
3. What are its qualities?
4. Which protein makes it sweet?
5. Compare protein amount of wheat and rice and give protein amount in each.
6. How do you compose songs?
7. Can different music be applied to same lyrics?

Member 3

1. What is the stray cattle issue, what can be done?
2. Problems of Bhopal?

Member 4

1. Where is Mandu situated?
2. Which airport can I take to reach Mandu?
3. Why is Mahakaleshwar famous, where is it situated?
4. Where is Bateshwar temple located?
5. What is the law and order situation in Bhopal?
6. Tell me which section covers murders?
7. When was MP split?
8. What is the naxal situation after split of MP, is their any improvement?

Member 5

1. Tell me about freedom struggle of MP?
2. Name the princely states in MP, who ruled them, tell me about their contribution to freedom struggle.

Overview:

I might be forgetting a couple of questions, the interview lasted around 25 minutes, but for me it felt that the interview was over in a flash.

Mock interviews are good for practice and give you an idea of topics to cover. But don’t overdo them, take time to be able to implement the feedback given in mocks. The interview board was mixed, chairman mam was cordial and supportive, 2 members seemed slightly disinterested, 2 member seemed to test my patience by making me repeat things etc. Overall I felt the questions were mostly MP based and could have been more multi dimensional, but the pro was that the questions were relatively easy and relevant to my DAF. My only advice would be to stay calm and confident and believe in yourself throughout the duration of interview. One more advice, try to find atleast 5 minutes where you settle yourself before the interview, I didn’t have that luxury as I was almost instantly called up after doing my document verification. All the very best!!

Source: Forum IAS