About Gopalakrishna Ronanki, Marks of Gopalakrishna Ronanki, UPSC 2016 Topper, UPSC IAS Topper, UPSC Preparation Strategy
Gopalakrishna Ronanki UPSC IAS Topper 2016: A Primary School Teacher to an IAS Officer
UPSC conducts various exams every year for the recruitment of various Civil Services. The examination is called Civil Services Examination. There are many young aspirants who are preparing for the exam and everyone wants to clear the exam. But it is one of the toughest exams in India, so no one can crack it without hard work.
It needs a lot of hard work and dedication to clear the exam. But anyone can clear the exam by his/her hard work and a very well planned strategy. We hope that after reading this article you will be able to prepare some strategies for your own and clear the exam.
We always try to help all the candidates who are preparing for the exam on their own. So, in this article, we are going to tell you another inspirational story of a national topper who makes everyone proud by topping the exam.
Gopal is another example of hard work. He always believed that your hard work will never cheat on you, it will worth it. He not just only cleared the exam but got 3rd rank and made his parents proud.
Our article will help you to stay motivated during your preparation.
Also read: The inspirational journey of Renu Raj: UPSC IAS topper.
About Gopal
Name : Gopalakrishna Ronanki
Mother’s Name : Rukninamma
Father’s Name: Ronanki Appa Rao
Brother’s Name: R K Konda Rao
Date of Birth: 1987
Age : 31
Hometown : Parasamba Village, Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh
Birthplace : Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh
Religion : Hinduism
CSE Rank : AIR 3
No. of Attempts : 4
Year : 2016
Roll No. : 0147866
Nationality : Indian
Also read: The details of UPSC exam.
Family Life
Gopal comes from a very poor family. He doesn’t even have electricity at his home when he was in school. He had to do a lot of struggle and hard work to clear the exam and follow his passion and dream. He does not have enough money to join any coaching institute for his preparation.
His father is a farmer. His father is not educated but his father never stops him from education. His mother is also an agricultural laborer. She has to do a lot of work to earn some amount of money. His parents educate both the children. His brother R K Konda Rao is a banker and helping his family by earning some money.
IAS is a dream of Gopal, but he never told his family and parents about his dream. He started doing his preparation but never told anyone about this. His parents were so poor and they cannot afford to send him to any private school. He started preparing for UPSC on his own.
He told a media person during his interview that “We didn’t even have electricity at home till I completed my Intermediate. All that my parents knew was that I was a teacher. I broke the news today to them that I had been selected to the IAS and would soon become a collector”.
It was a great surprise for his parents to know that now his son will be called as a District Collector. He made everyone proud of his achievement.
The director of Braintree Coaching Centre, Dr. Gopalakrishna also said: “He appeared for mock interview sessions at our institute and was very bright”.
Also see: The inspirational journey of Nidhi Gupta: UPSC IAS topper.
Educational Life
As his family was very poor so they cannot afford to send his son to the private school. But they tried their best to educate their children. He did hard work and got an admission to a government school and completed his studies.
He completed his studies from Government Junior School, Palasa, Andhra Pradesh. After completing his 10th class, he opted for science. After completing his school he did a teacher training for 2 years and selected as a government teacher. He did his training at Dubacharla, West Godavari District. He started his job as a government teacher in 2006.
He said that at that time getting a job was his first priority as he had to earn his own livelihood. When he was a school teacher he secretly appeared for his graduation.
He completed his B.Sc.(MPC) from Andhra University at Visakhapatnam. His dream was to clear the exam and become an IAS officer. He was preparing it for many years and after a lot of hard work, he finally achieved his dream.
Must read: Everything about UPSC exam from scratch.
Marks of Gopal
He secured 1101 marks out of 2025 and selected as an IAS officer. He got 3rd rank by doing hard work. His scores are given below:
Mandatory Subjects:
Essay : 154
General Studies 1 : 123
General Studies 2 : 100
General Studies 3 : 113
General Studies 4 : 124
Optional Subjects:
Optional 1 : 162
Optional 2 : 160
Written Total : 936
Personality Test : 165
Total Marks : 1101
Also read: About the journey of Anupam Shukla: UPSC IAS topper.
Strategy
As every plan has some strategy. The strategy makes a plan successful, if you will plan your strategy smartly then you can achieve your dream easily. The strategy he used to follow is discussed below:
Optional Subject
The optional subject will help you to score well in your exam. You have to choose an appropriate optional subject for you. Always choose an optional subject you are comfortable with. Never go for a subject which you don’t know.
As Gopal had done his schooling in Telugu medium so, he was very frequent with the Telugu language and he chooses Telugu Literature as his optional subject for CSE. He also said, “With the help of the Telugu interpreter, I could face the interview boldly”. His strategy helped him a lot to achieve his dream.
Learn from your Failures
As Gopal also attempted 3 times before his 4th attempt. He also had to see some failures in his life. But he never gets disheartened by his failures. He examines his first three attempts and finds out all the weaknesses. Then he worked on his weaknesses which helped him to clear the exam.
So, always learn from your mistakes or failures. Failures will tell you where you have to work and where you are strong.
Money is not a Barrier
We always say if we have money we can do this, we can do that but it is not true. All you need to achieve your dreams is your hard work. So if you don’t have money and you cannot go for any coaching classes, it doesn’t mean that you cannot prepare.
Nowadays technology is very vast. You can study anytime and anywhere. You can use the study materials which are available online. You can read newspapers, you can read NCERTs. Never treat anything as a barrier.
Also read: The books for UPSC CSE.
List of Books/ Study Materials
The books which Siddharth used in his preparation for prelims and main are discussed below.
Geography: NCERT of class 11th and 12th, Mrunal.org, Shankar IAS
Culture: Indian art and culture by Nitin Singhania
Polity: Indian polity by Laxmikanth
Environment: Shankar IAS notes
Economy: Mrunal.org, Sriram notes
Science and Technology: Shankar IAS notes, Science Monitor (An episode from Rajya Sabha TV)
Science: NCERT’s
History: NCERT of class 11th and 12th, Spectrum
Main Examination Books References
Indian History: Spectrum, Old NCERT by Bipin Chandra
World History: Vision IAS notes, NCERT
Post -Independence India: Bipin Chandra
World geophysical: NCERT, Mrunal.org, Mahesh Kumar Barnwell
Resource distribution: Mrunal.org, Mahesh Kumar Barnwell
Indian constitution: Laxmikanth, Vision IAS notes
Pressure group: Vision IAS, Mrunal.org
E-governance: Vision IAS, Mrunal.org
Role of civil service: Vision IAS, Mrunal.org
Budgeting: Gaurav Aggarwal blog, Vision IAS
Indian economy, resource mobilization: Mrunal.org
Environmental impact assessment: Shankar IAS on environment
Cybersecurity: Vision IAS
We hope that our article will tell you how to prepare for your exam and stay motivated during your preparation. You can also see some of the books we have mentioned above.
Must read: The strategy for UPSC prelims.
You can also see some of his interviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ailB86rp1bI
If you have any doubt or need guidance you can comment below, our team will try to answer it.