Panda, a 29-year-old engineer from Chandikhol in Jajpur district, said he did not take the help of any coaching center to crack OCSE. “I never thought that I would top the exam. I am very happy that I have achieved this feat in my very first attempt without taking coaching from any institute.
He said that candidates should not depend only on any coaching institute. “Relying too much on a coaching center can hamper the eligibility of a candidate for civil services. Preparing for this prestigious exam is like self-discovery for a candidate. Self-study and self-assessment will help the candidates to get more success in these exams,” he said.
Before this civil services exam, Panda had applied for the job of an Assistant Section Officer (ASO). “But I did not get the job because of 0.5 marks shortfall for the selection mark. Later I started preparing for OCSE from September 2019. Our initial was in March 2020.
He has completed his schooling from Jan Kalyan High School near his native place and Plus II from Renshaw University. After doing B.Tech from a private college in Berhampur, he got a job in Delhi. “After working there for three years, I quit my job and started preparing for ASO and OCSE. I will also try to crack the civil services exam conducted by UPSC. I am preparing for it,” he said.
Women candidates have secured three positions in the top 10 list of OCSE. Rashmirekha Patra, Ayushi Pati and Nivedita Nayak secured 3rd, 9th and 10th ranks respectively. OPSC sources said that out of 153 candidates, one belongs to the disabled category.
Out of 47,719 candidates who applied for OCSE-2019, 25,780 had appeared for the preliminary exam held on March 15 last year. Of these, 1610 had given the main examination held in December last year, but 307 were called for the interview held between September 22 and October 5. OPSC said that Covid-19 has adversely affected the exam schedule.
There were 30 vacancies in Odisha Administrative Service (OAS), nine posts in OFS and seven in OPS.
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