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How Liza Garga Cracked UPSC with AIR 303 | IAS Success Story | Josh Talks #upscmotivation #ias #irs

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Summary of the Video (IAS Success Story: Liza Garg, Rank 303)

Liza Garg shares her UPSC Civil Services journey after multiple failures, culminating in an AIR 303 in UPSC 2025. She describes a prolonged struggle—four attempts total to clear the stage—and highlights how anxiety, poor preparation choices, and lack of structure affected her results.

Her Failures and What They Cost Her

  • She failed prelims three times before finally succeeding later, describing the emotional and mental toll of repeated cycles of: form-filling → prelims attempt → rejection

  • During this period (including the COVID years and exam disruptions), she had a multi-year unemployment/career gap, which increased stress.

  • She connects her setbacks to both:
    • Social cost: relatives/people taunting her and criticizing her parents.
    • Professional cost: the long preparation period without a job and the difficulty of re-entering the job market later.

Key Preparation Mistakes She Identifies

  1. Over-dependence on YouTube/strategy videos After watching many random strategy videos, she felt confused about what to do and how much to do.

  2. “Running after resources” She repeatedly collected books, notes, and material from different places, which she believes made her lose time and reduced the quality of her actual preparation.

How Her Strategy Changed (What Worked in the End)

After being devastated by another prelims failure in 2024, she describes a 6-month depression period marked by anxiety pills, poor sleep, and weight loss. She restarted her preparation around November 2025 with a more disciplined, “resource-optimized” approach:

  • Start again from basics instead of superficially recycling old notes.
  • Make her own short notes for every topic using:
    • the syllabus,
    • toppers’ copies for value addition (examples, courts, facts, case studies),
    • then consolidating the learning.

  • Mains answer writing practice under real time limits She stresses that exam conditions are strict (3-hour paper, no extra time), so practice must match that constraint.

  • Choose the optional strategically She argues that optional subject marks are crucial (she suggests that around 500 marks can decide selection). If someone clears prelims after many attempts and has less time to explore, they should be thorough in optional preparation.

  • Interview approach: “mains-proof” She advises interview preparation so that even if interview scores fluctuate slightly, mains scores keep the candidate in contention for merit.

Daily Routine and Study Method

  • She describes beginning with reading newspapers for holistic current affairs, rather than relying only on compilations.
  • She planned her day in time slots (roughly 3 hours optional + 3 hours GS, plus revision and adjustments), targeting 7–9 hours/day when possible—and compensating on weekends if working.

Managing Anxiety and Maintaining Motivation

She explains that anxiety stems from:

  • obsession with results,
  • fear of failure,
  • and concern about society’s opinions.

Her coping strategies include:

  • limiting social media and filtering contacts,
  • staying socially “aloof” to avoid toxic feedback,
  • meditation to improve focus,
  • reading self-help books for mindset building.

Advice for Long-Gap Aspirants and Those Without Backups

Based on her own experience—job interviews and other pathways (MBA/CAT, college interviews)—she recommends:

  • If preparation has lasted 2–3 years without success, ensure you return to a stable job (upskill, pursue public policy/masters/MBA if feasible).
  • Keep LinkedIn updated and continue job search/upskilling, so career stability doesn’t collapse if UPSC doesn’t work immediately.
  • She argues you can pursue UPSC alongside a stable career instead of disappearing from the job market.

Emotional Turning Point and Final Result Verification

  • She describes receiving “Congratulations” via telegram messages before fully confirming the result.
  • She then checks the official UPSC result PDF on the UPSC website, confirms her name, tells her family, and describes the moment as deeply emotional after years of struggle.
  • After success, she notes how people who previously taunted her became supportive—concluding that societal opinion changes repeatedly, so aspirants should stay focused and confident.

Presenters / Contributors

  • Liza Garg (UPSC AIR 303 achiever; speaker)
  • Josh Talks team (platform referenced)

Original video