IPS Officer Went From 34% in School to UPSC Rank 182

A police officer in India is giving hope to struggling students everywhere after revealing he once scored just 34% in school and failed two dozen college courses before cracking one of the world's toughest exams.

IPS officer Sameer Sharma's motivational videos have racked up over 9 million views on Instagram. His message resonates because his early academic record looks nothing like what you'd expect from someone who passed the ultra-competitive UPSC Civil Services Examination.

Sharma scored 57% in Class 10, then dropped to 34% in Class 11 before recovering to 60% in Class 12. During his engineering degree, things got worse before they got better: he accumulated 24 backlogs, meaning 24 subjects he had to retake after failing them initially.

For most people, that kind of transcript would feel like a closed door to government service. Sharma saw it differently.

He committed to 18 months of focused preparation for the UPSC exam, stepping away from distractions and building a strict daily routine. He knew little about the exam when he started but stayed locked in on a single goal during that entire period.

The dedication worked. Sharma cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination with an All India Rank of 182 and joined the 2011 batch of the Indian Police Service under the AGMUT cadre, serving areas including Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories.

Since joining the force, he's served in Delhi, Lakshadweep, and Jammu and Kashmir. In 2025, he was promoted to Deputy Inspector General and posted as DIG Armed Jammu, a homecoming since he originally hails from Jammu.

Why This Inspires

Sharma doesn't just share his success story. He breaks down the mindset shifts that made it possible.

In his videos, he talks about emotional resilience, choosing consistency over perfection, and reframing setbacks as "crisis to comeback" moments rather than permanent endings. According to Sharma, learning to manage his emotions and genuinely believing he could change direction mattered more than any single study trick.

His engineering background, despite the struggles, taught him analytical thinking that now helps him approach problems in law enforcement. What looked like wasted years became useful training in disguise.

Students facing their own academic challenges see themselves in Sharma's early transcript. His story offers proof that a difficult past doesn't have to dictate where you end up, as long as you're willing to shift your discipline and direction.

The story keeps going viral because failure doesn't disappear from the narrative. It just doesn't get the final word.