Redefining success for a new generation

Every year, millions of students pour their time, energy, and hopes into exams like UPSC and CAT, chasing what is often perceived as the ultimate key to success. For context, out of 13 lakh students who appear for UPSC, only 0.2% of these students make it, leaving the vast majority with little more than wasted years and mounting frus-tration. But today, this exam fixation is increasingly going out of sync with the demands of modern careers. Employers now priori-tize adaptability, problem-solving, and creativity over rote memori-zation or academic credentials. Imagine the impact if even a frac-tion of this untapped talent were redirected toward fields like en-trepreneurship, sports, medicine, movies or technology. It is time to challenge the status quo and redefine what success looks like for the next generation. The question isn’t how to crack the next exam but how to cultivate the skills and mindset needed to thrive in a world brimming with possibilities.

The exam fixation

For decades, exams have been seen as the ticket to financial stabil-ity and social respect. Parents who grew up in a time when crack-ing an exam meant landing a government job continue to view these as the ultimate career pathway for their children. But times have changed. Today, success depends on much more than just good marks —it’s about skills and how you apply them. There are far more opportunities. Literally anything else will have a higher chance of success than preparing for these exams. And its astound-ing that coaching institutions are able to make lakhs of rupees from students for an exam which has such a high failure rate!

And the problem is not just with the exams themselves but with the way they assess students. Written tests reward memorization, speed, etc., leaving little room for reflection, creativity, or real-world problem-solving. As a result, students who excel at exams of-ten find themselves unprepared for professional life, where the ability to adapt and think critically matters far more.

And if you genuinely want to serve the country, go ahead and pre-pare for these exams. But life in bureaucracy is not for everyone. Large parts of it are fairly monotonous and requires you to be polit-ically astute. And unless you really wanted to do it, you are not go-ing to be good at it!

Why is the time spent preparing for exams non-productive

In addition to the failure rates being so high, the time students spend on memorising dates, places, and other geopolitical facts for these exams, is of very little value when they go into the industry. And this is not just limited to UPSC. Even for CAT, 3.3 lakh stu-dents take the exam every year. Only ~3000 of them are going to get into decent institutes. For CAT, students are studying concepts in Geometry, Algebra and learning spellings of complicated words instead of learning productive skills like how to solve problems, building user centricity, how to create websites and so on.

These are some of the brightest minds of the country. And they are wasting their time chasing exams when they could be doing some pathbreaking work!

Coming out of this mindless race

Build awareness on other options that exist! No matter what the unemployability numbers say, companies are desperate for good talent. They need folks who can start delivering from Day 1.

So investing your most productive years in learning in-demand skills combined with timeliness skills of problem solving, persua-sion and communication will be of much more value. There are so many ways today in which you can do this as an individual - pick up projects, get into internships, help your local businesses, build something - any and all of this will help you not just in building your skills but also build your portfolio of work which is what com-panies care for.

Larger Systemic Conversations and Solutions needed

Project-based learning and continuous assessments are a great place to start. In fact, a CBSE pilot program on project-based as-sessments found that students not only retained more information but also developed critical thinking and collaboration skills. This shift is already happening in the professional world. Companies like Google have moved away from prioritizing degrees and now fo-cus on hiring people with the skills to solve real problems. Indian startups are doing the same, looking for talent that can add value immediately rather than just holding a certificate from a prestig-ious institution.

The current obsession with exams impacts the entire economy. Im-agine if even a fraction of the 13 lakh UPSC aspirants spent their time solving real-world problems instead of memorizing facts. The loss of productivity is staggering, especially when companies across industries are crying out for skilled talent. Parents and educators have a major role here. Instead of pressuring students to chase low-probability outcomes, they must encourage them to build skills and explore their interests. The world is full of opportunities, and not clearing an exam can be a blessing in disguise.

Conclusion

For students caught up in the exam race, it’s time to take a step back and think about what really matters. A single test doesn’t de-fine your future.

What defines it is your willingness to learn, adapt, and grow.

(The author is Founder & CEO, Kraftshala)