Clear Goals and determination are key to success: Chhavi Bansal

Priya Jindal

Chhavi Bansal - who has secured Rank 2 in Delhi Judicial service Exam 2018 -  shared her strategy with readers of Employment News.  Delhi Judicial Service Exam is conducted by Delhi High Court. Chhavi has achieved this feat in her first attempt. In this interview we have tried to cover her strategy, exam pattern and other topics that could be very useful to the aspirants preparing for Judicial Services Exam in general and Delhi Judicial Service Exam in particular.

Welcome Chhavi! First of all, many congratulations to you for your success. Please tell us something about yourself. 

1. Were you confident of your success with top rank and how did you react to this news?

Chhavi: Due to the very nature of competitive exams, the result was a little unexpected, but it was a very pleasant surprise. It was more so in my case because it was my first attempt, and I felt that I did not get a lot of time to prepare for the exam.

1. How did you enter the world of law, who inspired you to go for judicial services?

Chhavi: I got admission in law right after my school (5 year course from IP University, Delhi). During the tenure, I had the opportunity to visit courts many times, and to interact with judicial officers. Meeting them motivated me to be a part of this esteemed service.

1. When did you start your preparations for judicial services and Delhi Judicial Service? What was your overall preparation strategy? Did you take any help from coaching?

Chhavi: I did not take any coaching. Since I had a family background in law, my parents were my guides. My preparation for DJS specifically began in November 2018. The overall strategy was to clear one obstacle at a time- prelims, then mains, then interview. For prelims, my focus was on attaining conceptual clarity of the law by studying the Bare Acts in detail. I solved and studied the past year papers and other MCQs for the preparation of the prelims. For the mains, I studied law topic-wise and subject-wise. Bare Acts, standard text books and my college notes was what I based most of my preparation on in respect of the mains. For some subjects, I took help of compilations available in the market. For the interview, I brushed up on the Bare Acts and kept myself aware of the legal developments around me.

1. Could you please elaborate more on subject wise strategy like IPC, CrPC, CPC, Evidence Act? Please also tell us about the books that you referred to.

Chhavi: IPC in my opinion was a little easy to prepare, because the crux of it lies in knowing the ingredients of offences, supplemented by landmark case laws. I studied IPC from my notes based on Pillai and AK Jain.

For CrPC, I referred to portions of Kelkar and AK Jain. For CPC, I read Takwani and AK Jain. For Evidence, I read Avtar Singh and AK Jain.

For the procedural laws, I was slightly selective with my topics as I did not have a lot of time between the prelims and mains. Thus, for mains, I skipped the topics which were directly based off the Bare Act (eg- procedure of trial in different courts).

1. Which subject is most difficult from your point of view as far as DJS exam is concerned and which are the important topics?

Chhavi: for me, Paper 3 of DJS Mains (Civil Law 1) was the most tedious because its syllabus consisted of 8 laws to be covered. This made the preparation for this paper very strenuous. I studied most of them from the bare Act directly, supplemented by AK Jain.

In order to gauge the importance of topics, a study of the past year papers can be done by the candidates. The exercise will show which topics are more important than the others.

1. Could you tell us about the magazines, newspaper or any other online resources that you referred to during the preparation?

Chhavi: for the GK portion of both Prelims and Mains, I referred to Pratyogita Darpan magazines. I also read Drishti Current Affairs magazine for the Mains. In addition to it, I browsed through the daily current affairs at insightson india.com whenever I used to get time. Further, for the English paper, I googled topics on which potential essays could be written.

1. What was the strategy you adopted for Prelims and Mains?

Chhavi: (discussed above)

1. How did you prepare for the Interview? Did you also opt for Mock Interviews?

Chhavi: I kept myself updated on the current affairs by reading newspapers. In addition to them, I brushed up on my Bare Acts before the interview. I did not take any mock interviews.

1. Time Management is a key factor for any exam. What was your strategy for time management while you were preparing and during the exam?

Chhavi: I had a target of spending a maximum of such minutes on a question as the number of marks it was worth. For instance, I decided to not spend more than 5 minutes on a 5 marker. The law papers were for 200 marks each, meant to be attempted in 3 hours. This strategy gave me a rough idea about my speed throughout the paper.

1. Were you preparing for other career opportunities as well while preparing for your ultimate goal i.e., Career in Judiciary?

Chhavi: I was practising part time as an advocate.

1. What is the secret of your success as you cleared DJS in your 1st attempt?

Chhavi: in my opinion, I don't think I did anything special that the other candidates do not usually do. However, I can say that I did not compromise on the presentation of my answers in the mains. I preferred writing in points, and giving my answers a structured look: introduction-body-conclusion format. I think this might have helped me in my answers.

1. Any suggestion/ advice you would like to give to the future aspirants.

Chhavi: the best time to begin preparation for this examination is to start on the very day you decide to take such examination in future. Nothing is too early, nothing is too late. For students specially, utilise the time in college by preparing notes. My notes helped me extensively during my preparation.

Thank you very much and wishing you all the best for your future endeavors.

(The author is founder Director of knowledge start up 'Delhi Knowledge Track'. She can be reached at priyarjindal@ gmail.com.)

Views expressed are personal.