Review of MisFits and Naman Shrivastava

It was a usual Monday morning. Rubbing my eyes, I switched on my laptop and joined the online Byju’s UPSC coaching class, hoping to learn something new that day and further my understanding of our glorious Indian History. After replying to what seemed like a few hundred “Good Mornings” pouring out of the chat box, our teacher, Abhishek sir, decided to address a doubt he had received about 10 times from a student asking the same thing (including a new email reminder 5 minutes ago). The student was perplexed by the Live Lecture number not matching the Module number in the class PPTs. I watched in disbelief as Abhishek sir spent a good 5 minutes admonishing this genius student and thanked the Almighty for one thing – Thank God I had chosen an online class and not the offline coaching ones in Karol Bagh, Mukherjee Nagar, or Old Rajinder Nagar. This decision of mine had protected me from losing the brain cells I still had left after 4 years of Engineering.

I had been preparing for the UPSC CSE with online Byju’s coaching classes since June 2022, or at least I thought so at the time. I had made the now-obvious error of believing that attending classes and vaguely understanding the things there would ensure that I would be able to solve questions on it later on. This went on for around a year until July 2023. While watching some random YouTube video about UPSC (I was very guilty of this in the past), a video recommendation on the right side of my screen by a man named “Naman Shrivastava” caught my eye. I clicked, as we modern-day humans are conditioned to do.

After binge-watching a few of the videos on the channel and reading through the misfits.bet website, I realized that I had found what I wanted deep down in my consciousness. I had been learning new facts and concepts from the Byju’s classes over the past year, but I was simply filling my head up with knowledge, without an outlet for it, or a way to apply my new-found learnings. The result was that I was debating things in my own head, arguing with myself about the pros, cons, and alternative ways forward for policies I had studied about.

With this new MisFits initiative I had just discovered, I found the promise of a community of like-minded yet diverse individuals all aiming towards the same goal, to clear the UPSC CSE and serve India and its people, led and guided by a mentor who had done it all. Naman sir had the experience of studying and working at Harvard, The Fletcher School, The Tuck School, the Government of India, consulting jobs, the UN, and running his own business. Most importantly, he was committed to follow a non-conventional approach to UPSC preparation using a learning methodology that I had experienced during my years of schooling in Geneva, Ankara, and the International Baccalaureate (IB) in Paris. I was convinced – this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I had to join.

I was devastated, however, to see that there were only 2 seats remaining according to the website, and realized that I had to act fast. I would have to wait for several hours until my father got back from work, argue and convince my parents, waste more hours, and possibly let this opportunity slip out of my hands. I decided to take the other route, used the money in my account to purchase the MisFits course for around 40,000 rupees, and decided to get post facto approval instead.

After a couple of days of waiting, I finally joined my first live class. When I got the opportunity to speak, I said exactly what I was feeling, “I think that sometimes, the universe has a way of leading you to the correct doorstep.” I had knocked, and had been admitted inside.

What followed was magical. I had joined MisFits towards the end of the Modern History classes and they soon ended. However, I went back and watched all the Modern History recordings (on 2x speed), along with reading the Bipan Chandra book according to what was being taught in class, and was blown away by how much sense it all made now. I acquired a new sense of reverence and appreciation for our freedom fighters and leaders. Although I was hesitant about raising my hand in the first few classes, and my heart rate shot up whenever I did or I was cold-called, I soon rediscovered my old self, and expressing my ideas became effortless once again.

After attending all the Economics lectures at MisFits, the subject that once scared me and confused me became crystal clear. I understood all the concepts and why certain things happened a certain way (like money supply fluctuating in the economy, or exchange rates, or RBI’s actions) along with a deeper understanding of economics happening and being applied in real life, throughout history, and every day in current affairs. I also watched the pending Ancient and Medieval History lectures, which gave me a decent overview of that period of Indian History. 

The Geography lectures, although quite slow-paced at the beginning, made all my concepts crystal clear. I understood not just the geographical phenomena, but also their impacts on real life, whether on people or the economy. I switched to watching recorded lectures at 2x speed for a few weeks, but as I had trouble with a few concepts, I returned to the live classes. Naman sir’s clear way of teaching the Geography concepts, combined with the YouTube videos we watched in class cleared doubts I didn’t even know I had.

I had already studied Polity in detail before and revised it in January 2023, so when Polity classes began at MisFits, I watched the recordings on 2x speed as I was already very clear with the basics. I would often smile, laugh, or respond to the questions being asked in class even while watching the Polity class recordings and marvelled at how logical Polity was made by Naman sir and how he linked it to contemporary political happenings. I rejoined the live classes towards the end of Polity when most of the basics were finished.

For Environment & Ecology classes by Shatakshi ma’am, I attended all the live classes and revised the lectures from the PPTs and consequently from the PMF IAS book, which made the conceptual parts of this subject and its applicability to real life situations very clear. However, due to the nature of the Environment & Ecology Prelims questions in recent years, I had to read quite a lot of extra things from the PMF IAS and from Google.

I only watched recordings of the MisFits Science and Technology classes by Shatakshi ma’am since I had studied it for UPSC thoroughly already, along with studying Higher Level Physics and Chemistry in the IB in high school and 4 years of Chemical Engineering in college. However, I realized that these lectures only skimmed the surface & basics of several topics, which was not enough to solve Prelims questions for even a Science & Engineering student like me. These lectures definitely aren’t enough to solve Science & Technology questions for non-Science background students. I decide to rely on UnderStand UPSC’s lectures and videos for my Science & Technology Prelims preparation and revision.

Attending all the MisFits classes cleared my concepts and solidified my knowledge for most (not all) of the subjects, but most importantly, it taught me how to interconnect all of the topics I was studying and apply them to real-life situations. Naman sir’s teaching methodology ensured that I was constantly making conjectures, thinking of improvements, solutions, and ways to apply what I was learning when I become an administrator and a diplomat for my country. He often put us in the shoes of an officer or a leader, and constantly reminded us to think like officers, the future problem-solvers of India.

Naman sir’s emphasis on staying calm and the regular sessions before Prelims helped me maintain my composure and perform well in the 2024 UPSC CSE Prelims. I cleared the 2024 UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination held on 16 June, 2024 and was fortunate enough to find myself amongst the top 14,627 candidates in India who were selected to write the 2024 CSE Mains.

Let me make it clear though that I didn’t clear Prelims solely because of MisFits lectures and Naman Sir. I cleared it because of the cumulative combination of the following – the basic foundations for some subjects that I learned from Byju’s coaching classes, MisFits lectures & Naman sir’s guidance, UnderStand UPSC lectures, resources, & guidance by Satyam Jain Sir, being thorough with the static parts of almost all the subjects, the solving & revising the official CSE PYQs multiple times, following advice, strategies, and resources selectively and adapting them to my needs, strengths/weaknesses, and the requirements of the CSE, 2 years of my hard work, implementing all my knowledge and learnings under pressure in the exam hall, and due to some good luck.

Tomorrow, even if I forget all the academic syllabus-related things I learnt at MisFits from Naman sir, a few things that existed somewhere vaguely in my consciousness have become so explicitly and deeply ingrained in me thanks to him that I’ll never forget them:

1. To be a 3rd, even 4th order thinker. While most people only think about and consider the immediate future and immediate consequences, I will always think many steps ahead and consider the multi-dimensional implications of everything I learn about or do. India needs more men and women who think beyond immediate gratification and events.
2. No matter what, always think for and work for the benefit of India. I will always do what is necessary for the welfare of India and Indians and try to make our country better in whatever way I can.
3. To be rational, resilient, ethical, and logic-driven, not impulsive humans.
4. To acknowledge the flaws and problems in anything rather than paper over the cracks and act as if everything is fine.

I have talked about how to integrate the MisFits class recordings with the overall UPSC CSE Prelims and Mains preparation and the extent of their usefulness in my YouTube videos giving guidance & summarizing my learnings & experiences: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh3_H704SeprZws3iCG3QL5t36SjbtTKJ&feature=shared

P.S. I have recently given the 2024 UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination held from 20 September, 2024 to 29 September, 2024 & I’m awaiting my results.