‘Missed by 11 marks’: UPSC aspirant’s post after last failed attempt

Rajat Sambyal dedicated 10 years to preparing for the UPSC exam (Image credit: rajatsambyal_/Twitter)

As hundreds of candidates celebrated on cracking the civil services examination yesterday, Rajat Sambyal was forced to bid goodbye to his UPSC dream. Sambyal missed qualifying for the famously tough exam by 11 marks in his sixth and final attempt.

The UPSC aspirant from Chandigarh expressed his disappointment in a now-viral Twitter post. “10 years of hard work ended in ashes. 6 UPSC attempts over,” he wrote. “In my last attempt, yesterday I succumbed due to low score in interview. Missed by 11 marks,” he added. He did end his post on a hopeful note, borrowing the words of Maya Angelou as he wrote. “Still I rise.”

10 years of hard work ended in ashes. 6 UPSC attempts over. 3 times prelims failed. 2 times mains failed. In my last attempt, yesterday I succumbed due to low score in interview. Missed by 11 marks. #upscresult “And still I rise”. pic.twitter.com/m8FRcJGCWu

— Rajat sambyal (@rajatsambyal_) May 31, 2022

Rajat Sambyal, who completed his civil engineering from Punjab engineering college, Chandigarh, had managed to reach the interview round before his sixth attempt. He failed to qualify the prelims round three times, and twice he failed the mains.

In his sixth and final attempt (aspirants in the General category can appear for the civil services examination only six times), he had hoped to pass with flying colours. Instead, Sambyal missed by 11 marks.

He shared a picture of himself along with his marksheet on Twitter, where his post stands out from among thousands of similar posts about failed attempts. The post has collected over 32,000 ‘likes’ and hundreds of consolatory messages.

Sambyal thanked people for the show of support in a follow-up tweet.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the civil services exam to recruit candidates for top government services like Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Police Service. Tens of thousands of aspirants appear for the exam each year, of which only a handful manage to qualify. Some estimates suggest the pass percentage is as low as 0.2%.