General studies Civil service: Understanding foreign policy/relations of India

The foreign relations are an area where aspirants are often very confused. There are many aspirants who have these doubts...

Is India opportunistic?

Why India doesn’t severe ties with Israel /China/ US?

Is India a too soft state? Etc,

The list of queries and the confusion prevalent are plenty.

The primary thing to understand is “India’s foreign policy is directed at giving the best for OUR country”. The most important concern is “Benefit for OUR country “.

 In my college days i had a friend who hated Israel like anything. According to him, India should not procure any arms and shouldn’t have any business with Israel. If India’s policy is severe ties with Israel; who will be the looser? . Israel is a country with high end technology in arms and agriculture. If India has to have an edge in technology and other areas like agriculture, then a good relationship with Israel is needed. Here the emotionally charged decisions (seeing palestine’s suffering) may not be in the best interest of India.

And foreign policy is about “give and take”, it cannot always be “take, take”. If US or any country supports us in a particular area A, it doesn’t do it coz of good will. The help in any area is expected to be reciprocated in another area B. (There is no free meal, in life and in foreign relations). The bilateral relations have to be seen in its totality. That is why we see that certain nations are favoured in certain areas.

The foreign relations are long-term based and not based on knee jerk reactions.  After an incident (eg a bomb blast) people would become emotionally charged and call for war. The government at these moments do not go for it because it thinks of many things. It has to keep in mind the financial, political ties and support from other nations before going to war.

When analysing a foreign policy decision made by India, thinking of these questions will help to understand it better.

A.      Is it helping India and its people?

B.      Is the concession is a particular area helping in any other area?

C.      Is the decision made based on emotions (eg: pressure from a party to withdraw support) or is it a rational decision?

The comments in the web, media etc are sometimes one sided, its therefore our duty to look into A,B,C questions before deciding whether a policy is good or bad for us. 

Geography as civil service exam optional

Geography is a very popular optional in civil service exams. The benefits of geo are

It’s simple – land, water, plants, animals, air – aren’t we familiar will these terms?. Almost all jargons in the geo are easy. There are no tongue twisters.

The boundaries are defined. By learning a defined number of books, we can manage the subject. Even “out of syllabus” type questions can be managed. This is in contrast to subjects like psychology where only god knows where they ask the questions from?

The geo is cool subject. It helps in gen studies paper also.

There are some wonderful well written books in this subject. Majid Hussain deserves a good applause for writing books in lucid style.

There is hope for application of “theory of gasification” in this subject to some extent.

The effective presentation of geo answers can be made easily through diagrams.In case you are averse to drawing even a doodle, then geo may not work for you. In case 2D orientation (maps, diagrams) isn’t your area, then too geo won’t be a good idea for you. (There are some people who even if they try day and night won’t be able to get the 2d view. Dont worry, one of my friends who have such a problem is now working as a sugeon!).

Mr Abhiram Shanker has given a complete list of methods in his writing. Read it here (From website indianofficer). To add anything to it will be grave injustice to the subject. 

Is coaching at Delhi necessary for ias civil services exam

This question is something that somehow comes again and again in mind of aspirants. Delhi has traditionally been the hub of ias civil service exams. The story that came in mind about an ias winner a couple of years back was “Packing bags to delhi, standing like a stork to study for years, and coming out with ias”. The story doesn’t exist anymore. The trend of exam, the style of exam etc has shaken the role of delhi as the sole centre for ias exam coaching.

Still majority of good civil service coaching centres exist only in metros and certain cities. The so called “study ecosystem” for civil service largely exists in cities only. By study ecosystem i mean the fellow aspirants, availability of books and magazines easily, variety of teachers, sharing of ideas, study groups etc.

The internet has to an extent reduced this problem of information divide which students of rural area experienced in the past years. Most of books are now available now via e-commerce sites. Magazines like frontline, yojana, outlook etc are available free on internet. The quality online coaching, study materials etc are still scarce. The students rarely share good materials on internet. The end result is there is large number of leechers while no one is there to seed. This blog can be counted in the latter side.

Civil service IAS exam preparation: How to select a coaching institute part 2

I had written about the gimmicks certain institutes (not all) employ to fool students in my earlier article. Now let me continue on how you can choose a good coaching institute. A very important thing to keep in mind is the faculty at the institute. There are certain teachers who know the in and out of the civil service exams. All of them may not be even located in metros. The best judge of a teacher is the students who have gone for classes to him. Ask the students who have attended his classes and you will know the truth. There are thousands of fooled aspirants. I wonder why no one writes in web about their failed experiences.

There may be good faculty for certain areas while not for other. See if the good faculty is teaching subjects you need. In case you need info on “Indian economy” and the institute has a real bad teacher in that topic; would it do any good?

There are many institutes which have faculty who are just hired as engineers are hired in an IT company. The motive of some of these institutes is just money making .So they employ faculty just to milk out the money. The aspirant would loose his time as well as money going to such places. Another set of institutions may employ retired professors with big long degrees at the end. The problem is that they would be knowledgeable but may not be able to adapt it to the needs of civil service. So its not big big degree tails at the end of name that is needed but a person who knows the techniques needed for civil service exam.

Also keep in mind your study style. The teaching style has to be in sync with your learning style. There are teachers who like to treat the aspirants like KG children. They would incessantly take class and be hard. If you like that style of ‘strict’ teaching then he may be your choice. There are aspirants who love friendly down to earth easy style of teaching. If you are such a kind then find such a teacher/institute. It fully depends on you. There are some students who would like the teacher to be ‘strict’ ‘tough’ and ‘punishing’. You have to be able to carefully identify the teaching style before you join.

One more thing to keep in mind is regarding study materials  Have you seen the proclamation by certain coaching institutions in ads like these ‘ 100 questions our of 120 questions in general studies was from our material’. Many times this proclamation is useless for the aspirant. I will explain why. Some institutions just print loads and loads of material and push it to students. It wont be practical to learn all this material by any human being. They do it to make sure that at the end of the period , this proclamation of great coverage can be made. It is like saying ‘100 of 120 questions was there in book store!. Here you should select coaching institutions that can guide a person to the question. See what material is being supplied. There are certain institutions which will print same notes year after year with no relevant timely changes being made. Make sure the institute is dynamic and is in tune with times.

A slew of online coaching websites have been started recently. Most of them neither publish the faculty nor method of teaching.Most of them are just taking away your money and giving you readily available stuff which would be of no use for exam. Send enquirer emails and see their response before joining.

Civil service IAS exam preparation: How to select a coaching institute

‘Mr Sasi, an engineer from Maharashtra decided that he would crack civil service this time. So he resigned his job at Infosys and packed his bags to delhi. He joined an institute that advertised itself as the bestest ever coaching institute which produced loads of civil service toppers every year. Mr Sasi was given loads of material from which no question came. Mr Sasi failed miserably. Now he is jobless and helpless. ‘ This is the story of many aspirants who jump to start the civil service preparation and waste their precious time as well as life.

The students need to understand the coaching institutes and how they work deeply if they are to select the best institute. You can see in advertisements these statements: 5 above 20 rankers from X institute, 20 winners from y institute etc. How does this work?

There are number of techniques the coaching instituted do to achieve this success rate. A prominent method is ‘free mock exam method’. Here the coaching institute conducts mock exams for free. They would collect the role number, photo and a sign during the process. When the results come, the institutes check these role numbers. In case he clears, suddenly the whole credit for his victory is taken by the institute. Marvellous right!.

Another method is ‘following the student’. The student after getting petrified by the classes might have left for another good institute. But the first institute where he/she enrolled too takes the credit. The reality is that he would never have made it if he continued there.

These days another popular method is "Catching the probables". The coaching institute would offer free travel accommodation for the those who qualify for interviews. They would also provide mock interview sessions. When the results come, surely there would be some successful candidates. The credit of all these success naturally goes to the coaching institute. In fact  the institute would have neither trained nor given any substantial benefit to the student, but will show off that they got 'big result'.There would be sufficient PR acts (felicitations, talks, tv shows) to show "How the institute created magic". The students would flock in queues to these institutes just like fleas getting attracted to candles; to end up burnt and ruined. Next year same act repeats.

This does not mean that all coaching institutes are fraud. But you need to keep these things in mind when you see an ads. This will enable you to cross check the facts and separate it from the fiction many coaching institutes weave around them.

I would continue the topic in part 2 about the coaching institutes.

(*Mr Sasi is our imaginary newbie civil service aspirant and Mr Arnie the guy who cleared civils)

Are old question papers useful?

Referring old questions are important key to solving future papers. The upsc question papers should be analysed to understand the following areas-

Style of questions

Areas/coverage

Depth of subject

The above three areas will help analyse each question paper. In the recent years the questions aren’t asked directly. The application of things learned is expected from candidate. The coverage of syllabus is another thing to keep in mind. In earlier years there was an expected line of asking questions in civil service exams. Certain areas were always asked, while certain areas weren’t. In previous years GS papers the tennis cup winners were one of the most frequently asked question. Now the upsc wants to remove the predictability from the exam. So you can always expect new patterns and style. The aspirant should also note the depth of knowledge being expected. This is especially true with regard to the optional. If you see last years psychology paper or pub ad(geeks who wrote the paper say the question paper was greek!) , you will easily understand that.

There are few points aspirants that can be handy in exam:

1.       Dont panic seeing questions. Always expect some twist and turns. The twist and turns you see is experienced by all the students who take exam. Chillax and handle the questions well.

2.       There is no ideal answer. Many students waste time searching for a complete perfect answer for previous years question papers. The questions usually focus on some areas and not on any particular matter specifically. 

3.       Form an opinion. There are many areas where your opinion matters. Eg: Nuclear power or energy production etc. Here you should have an opinion of which are good and bad. And what stand you will take when asked. Here too there isn’t an ideal answer.

I feel that aspirants should review questions of last few years. There are students who refer question from times of forefathers and exclaim “OMG....UPSC asked thissss??”. That is pretty useless job.UPSC may have asked since that topic was relevant at that time. Lot of water has flown through the Ganges since then. The pattern, areas, and importance of a subject have changed. Looking papers which are very old doesn’t serve much purpose.  The new trends and ways are to be understood. 

How to write CSAT exam?

The CSAT exam is the first step towards the IAS civil services exam. This primary step is taken by lakhs of students. Around 14,000 clear this exams to move on to next step. A general knowledge, mental ability, comprehension etc are the key aspects of the CSAT game. There are many students who study but doesn’t clear, which can be due to these....

1.       Lot of students grill hours in front of books , but fail to manage questions. This is due to lack of practise in doing questions. Knowledge is important so is its application. The importance of doing practise test (at least 2 or 3) is forgotten by these students

2.       The approach during real test : Fear is a powerful emotion, when it exceeds certain limit, it will damage our capacity to do well. Lots of students fail because of fear rather than lack of knowledge.

3.       Style of writing CSAT : When Sehwag was asked “How  do you manage to get so many runs” he told “I play bal by ball”. The desperation of not getting runs in a ball doesn’t infect the next ball. In CSAT too its same way. Each ball (question) has some marks. In case you spend 10 minutes on a question and solve it, then its not worth it. The 10 minutes you spend on that single question could have been used for attempting many questions.

Many students especially in maths question has this feeling “i know to solve it..” and they spend lots of time in solving that problem. These students have won their personal battle of solving that question, but have lost the CSAT game.

4.       Taking too lightly: There are students who get into service in previous attempts but fail to clear the CSAT. These students are brilliant in CSAT game , but lost due to complacency.

A good approach in CSAT is to attempt the easy ones first, leave the harder time consuming ones for later. As in angry birds game, lets go for easy ones first, later we can try something adventurous after putting sufficient marks in our basket.

How to read newspaper for civil service ias exams?

Knowledge of happenings around us is a must for IAS exams. This knowledge needed for ias exams are often categorised into – national, international, science and technology etc.

A large number of aspirants spend hours (about 4 to 5) reading newspaper and making notes from it. This news reading consumes the early hours when mind is fresh and inquisitive. After this exercise he/she is left with very little time to cover any topic. This much time (4 to 5 hrs) is often taken since the aspirant is confused what to read?

Firstly, start with the most important pages. It is better to start with the national or international news page. Some aspirants read the local news and start thinking about it. These may never be asked. In case you want to deliver maximum in minimum time, then focus on topics that are needed.

Secondly, All editorials/articles are not needed. In newspaper there will be some writers who write on same topic again and again. You will see the same stuff packed in different packages in all articles written by them. Do scan the article before going into it. The authors often revolve their writing around the same topic. The newspapers have to fill their spaces, that doesn't mean you have to fill your time reading same stuff again and again. Take this paragraph for instance. Reading the first two lines and the next two would convey the same meaning!!. Hope you got it :-)

Thirdly, Have a balanced view. After reading certain popular papers many may get the idea than US is all evil and ‘China’ is so sweet or vice versa. The newspaper or the news is not the last word. The writer and the newspaper would have its own ideologies, strategies to keep its readers. You must not get carried away with these ideas. ‘The hindu’ is one of the most favoured newspapers by ias aspirants especially in south india. Be careful especially when it comes to international affairs. The newspaper may speak of an ideal world and all blah blah. Think about the practicality and also view other sources in case you doubt the authenticity.

Be attentive when a new discovery is made, a new government scheme comes, important personalities die, latest developments in the S&T etc.

Combine newspapers with magazine you are comfortable with. Web is a great source of news especially when you are in a remote area where neither hindu or times of India reaches on time.

How to study for ias civil service exams: What toppers don’t tell you?

The civil services exam is one of the most attended exams. Its called mother of exams by some people. Whether its called mother or father doesn't matter to a person who takes the exam. For him/her its important to clear the exam.

Here i include things which toppers don’t tell. What that comes in most interview magazines are incomplete or sometimes distorted. This was explained in her wonderful blog by the topper shubhra saxena. The majority of the aspirants take a jump to the civil service very lately. The familiarity with the environment and understanding the corridors of study is important. Or else the aspirant gets lost in the jungle of materials.

The toppers might say that they saw bbc, the ndtv and all news debates. After reading this line a newbie aspirant starts listening to all the news from the next day!. The thing is that the topper would have prioritized her time. This way she knows what to listen to and what not to. This she can skip and wasteful debate while attend a good one. On the other hand the newbie aspirant would start taking down notes of the most frivolous things and end up having some junk when nearing the exams.

Another question where the toppers are forced to lie is when they are asked about the optionals. Take the case of a person who has crossed the civil services exams due to strong marks in optional. But when asked the question: Do you think all optionals are equal in scope? , he would obviously say “yes”. Else it would show that his result is biased. So asking that question itself is useless. He would go on length that its the interest in subject that matters and not the luck. Would you expect him to say publicly that he got in because he was lucky to choose a particular subject as optional?

This series will continue in the part 2 which would be added soon. 

Soon to be added : A complete list of blogs by ias officers, toppers.

Civil service IAS exam : Common mistakes aspirants make in UPSC exams

The civil service exam is one of the most prestigious exam in India. Graduates from all subjects ranging from pali literature to philosophy to engineering degree take this exam. There is no other exam where you can see IIT’ian ,B.Arts and doctors taking the same exam. The aim of all being same – to become an ias officer. Here many aspirants make some mistakes which form the subject of this article. I have covered other areas too which can be seen in by checking out my articles.

Gross mismanagement of time is a major mistake students make. There are many students who don’t have time left for anything after they have completed paper reading. This is mainly because of the lack of knowledge regarding the time as well as material management.

The common dictum which newbie aspirant (we had given him name Mr Sasi in previous article) follows is : Read all editorials and articles in newspaper Hindu or Times. Mr Sasi starts his reading session early in morning reading each article meticulously and taking notes. The matter he doesn’t get to know is that many articles as well as editorials aren’t needed at all for exam preparation. That is why all aspirants need to go through syllabus thoroughly. In addition to that, he/she needs to ponder the most important issue in the topic stated in syllabus

The articles as well as the editorials need to be categorized by you as ‘needed’ or ‘not needed’ as soon as you see. This can be done by understanding the syllabus. One more thing to keep in mind is the need to know or how much you should know.

 Let me give an example. Say you come across the defects of AAkash the tablet of Indian government. The long list of data and facts would be waste if it is asked as a 2 mark question. The knowledge or thought ‘what question and of what marks can be asked from this topic’ or ‘ is it possible to frame a question from this article’ is of prime importance.

Many aspirants take optional based on hearsay. The earlier trend of getting more marks consistently in certain optionals is disappearing. You need to make a thorough consultation and keep in mind the availability, accessibility and level of competition in an optional before going in for one.

The Part 2 of this article will be published later.

A separate article: How to read Newspaper is there in the blog archive.

Video on Common mistakes by aspirants

Quote:

 The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually afraid you will make one.

-Elbert Hubbard

Upsc IAS Topper Interview Videos

A beautiful explanation on the GS Preperation by V NandaKumar IRS.He explains beautifully why students find GS very difficult.

Sheena Aggarwal's Interview (Hindi)

The interview by the topper Dr Faisal. He is a guy who became a topper without coaching.A must watch for all aspirants.He explains beautifully about the perks, myths, preparation methods and J&K.

The topper's interviews offers hints into the way you should start preparing. Always remember that this is one of the exams, and a failure in it doesn't mean the end of life.
I will try to unlock the words often repeated by toppers like - time management, comprehensice preperation, wide reading etc. The jargons used by toppers appears to be greek to many aspirants. Hope this blog converts that into language you can understand.

Why write civil service exam?

The reason why civil service is something commonly asked in civil service interview. Many a times the aspirants recite the lines they have learned over and over again. We will leave the interview for a while and reframe the question. Why do aspirants really write civil service exam?

I am listing the whole set of answers that come to my mind. When i write each pointer many faces of my fellow aspirants come to my mind.

1.       To serve the country: Yeah, the energy of youth comes out in different forms. Many aspirants feel that they can change the country by being in civil service. To thrash the corrupt politician , to remove the poor of hunger, to bring equality...the list of dreams for an aspirant are  abundant and filmy!. But rarely does all the dreams transform.

2.       To make money: I could see that many aspirants were completely frank in private conversations to declare that the only reason to write civils was to become rich. They had grown up seeing the IAS officers in their states (especially bihar, UP etc) amass huge hordes of wealth after being in civil service and “serving the nation”. So now they see the IAS study as an investment which will return them rich dividends in future. They spend lakhs of rupees in coaching centres in delhi (for accommodation and fees it will need few lakhs) with the dream of earning big.

3.       Confused: Yup, many after graduation are confused about what to do. So civil service coaching becomes a fashionable option. CAT preparation is more or less equally fashionable.

4.       To get something: The UPSC preparation makes the aspirant cover a lot of topics. The civils syllabus (prelims plus mains) prepares a candidate capable of many exams like bank, clerical posts, police, ib exams. Many aspirants see this as a way to secure ‘a job’. This is actually a very good thought. The aspirant can get a job and then jump on to the next best thing. This way of thinking of getting best and becoming better is adopted by many these days.

5.       Status and Power: There are some guys who are filthy rich in our country. All they lack is power and status. So they would sent their kids with loads of money to study for civils. A majority of these aspirants after having glorious life in city returns to ‘dad’s ways’ to secure a good happy living.

6.       Unknown reason: Hehe! There are many aspirants who are yet to have a reason. The reason can be simple as defeating boredom after being fired from a IT company or just the excitement to know a new field. There aspirants join and start coaching but leave it for good very early.

What ever be the reason, in case you have made your mind ready for civils, then jump into it fully. You will need to immerse in the exam process for atleast 5 months.

Very useful blogs for UPSC civil services exam

I list some of the cool blogs/websites for the ias exam preparation. These have plenty of free matierial for you to read.

Mrunal

His blog is really cool and famous. He explains things in very very lucid interesting way. Sarcastic jokes combined with serious matters. His style of writing is superb. I recommend this blog for all the aspirants.

Hyd n spook

He is a officer in indian civil service. He writes about ias exam, he also covers some topics. A lovely blog. But i do not know if he will be able to update the blog along with his work.

IAS Topper's blogs

Here i list some of the cool blogs by IAS toppers.

Shubra saxena's blog 

she speaks on her views regarding institutions, magazines etc.

Gokul's blog

Gokul won the exam without coaching..

Garima mittal's blog   ( a good useful blog )

she has posted her scanned copy of answers. She has done a good work in her blog.

The list of blogs will continue in the next posts...

Are old question papers useful?

Referring old questions are important key to solving future papers. The upsc question papers should be analysed to understand the following areas-

• Style of questions
• Areas/coverage
• Depth of subject

The above three areas will help analyse each question paper. In the recent years the questions aren’t asked directly. The application of things learned is expected from candidate. The coverage of syllabus is another thing to keep in mind. In earlier years there was an expected line of asking questions. Certain areas were always asked, while certain areas weren’t. In previous years GS papers the tennis cup winners were one of the most frequently asked question. Now the upsc wants to remove the predictability from the exam. So you can always expect new patterns and style. The aspirant should also note the depth of knowledge being expected. This is especially true with regard to the optional. If you note last years psychology paper , you will easily understand that.

There are few points aspirants have to keep in mind:

• 1.       Dont panic seeing questions. Always expect some twist and turns. The twist and turns you see is experienced by all the students who take exam. Be relaxed and handle the questions well.
• 2.       There is no ideal answer. Many students waste time searching for a complete answer for previous years question papers. The questions usually focus on some areas and not on any particular matter specifically.
• 3.       Form an opinion. There are many areas where your opinion matters. Eg: Nuclear power or energy production etc. Here you should have an opinion about the matter being asked. And what stand you will take when asked. 

I feel that aspirants should review questions of last few years. Looking papers which are very old doesn’t serve much purpose. The new trends and ways should be grasped. 

What is UPSC civil service exams?

The exam conducted yearly by UPSC to recommend candidates for appointment to some of the best nation building services are called civil service exams. The IAS, IPS and IFS are seen as most prestigious posts in these exams.

Who can write civil service exam?
Any graduate can write this exam

What is the structure of the civil service exam?
There are 3 steps

Step 1: Preliminary exam
Step 2: Mains exam
Step 3:Interview

Which is the most important step?
The prelimns is a screening test. The mains and interview has marks. The mark of mains is most vital.(Interview carries only 275 marks).So if asked which is the single most important step the answer would be mains. But you need to read for interview too as if has marks.

How many people take this exam?
Lakhs of students apply for this exam. Only around 14000 or less are shortlisted for mains. Only around 3000 will be going for interview of which only around 1000 will get service.

How many vacancies are there for a year?
The number of vacancies are around 1000. A main list is published by UPSC, a reserve list will also be published by UPSC from which some would secure job.

Why is civil service so much in news?
No one knows the exact reason!

Should I attempt civil service exam?
Hopefully this blog will help you discover that. In case it doesnt plz forgive..:-)

I would attempt to cover info about all the three parts in detail. If time permits specific posts by toppers would be included.

How to start studying for civil service exams?

After hearing all about the civil services, a question remains in the mind of aspirants. How to study for civil services?. The long list of books and magazines are not useful for a humble beginner. I would elucidate some steps which might be of help

Step1 : First see the syllabus. Dont panic and don’t worry. Just see it as you are watching a art film. Do not be excited or desperate seeing the jargons. It is to make you aware of what is actually civil services.

Step2: Start reading newspaper. The newspaper is something in which the happenings of past things occur. For the ultimate newbie, start with the headlines. At first even headlines can be heavy. Just see it. You don’t need to read all headlines. Start reading national, international headlines. Don’t read all the local politics, or the fashion page; the upsc isn’t interested in knowing if bebo is size zero or johny has 6 packs.

Step3: Start with ncert books. The ncert publishes books which are easy to read and these books do not cause indigestion even for the ultimate newbie. Start with the ncert books of geography, civics, etc from standard of ninth. If the single letter class text make you feel silly, then go for the tenth standard books.

The above three steps are the first steps for creating a big stairway. When an aspirant asks – how do i start – the answer is slowly. Start slowly, start with headlines (national, international headlines), ncert books, and seeing syllabus (without fear).

Many aspirants keep on asking, how to start a thousand times. Instead of keeping on asking, go and start. See if its for you. If its not, there is nothing to be worried. There are unlimited number of jobs and options in life. Don’t start with dialogues like , “ i will do this or die”. Those are for loosers. Start with “ I would try this, see if it suits me; else bye bye”.

If you have found the toddler steps 1, 2 ,3 interesting then you have passed the KG section in UPSC. Game abhi bhi baaki hai dosth.

Now you can move on to the next step. Which i will cover in another post.2

Top Mistakes Made by UPSC Aspirants

1. Wrong time management: The upsc has gifted quite a large syllabus to the aspirants. It would take eternity to finish fully all the subjects.You gotta fix this by allotting time based on needs.

2 Wrong advices: The only thing that is free is advice. And the advice that is very freely available is wrong advice. Take your time and analyse what you can do rather than believing the advices given.

3 Wrong books: “You went to buy books and you brought the whole book store”. This is what most mothers say to their son who studies for IAS. In few months after you start preparation she would shoot another punch dialogue “There is not place for anything in this house except for your books!”. To avoid these dialogues choose your book carefully. Its more important to thoroughly read a book and use others for small references. There is no need for buying a whole book store. Also an innovation called photocopying would help reduce the effort.

4. Wrong coaching: Why do people run coaching institutes?. For the staff in the coaching institutes to have daily bread and butter. They aren’t bound to tell you all truth about their institutes especially if the truth hurts. Its for you to discover which coaching institute to select . Surely i am writing 2 or 3 articles on that topic, which would help you understand some of the cool marketing techniques used by coaching institutions so that they can have chicken along with bread and butter.

5.Wrong optional selection: the common dialogue when a topper is aked “Why you selected Subject X while you graduated in Subject Y ?” is “I was deeply interested in it and the knowledge is needed for nation building!!!. The simple answer is, He or she wanted to score maximum marks. So when you go after love ( i mean love for a subject), see that it scores. As far as love in IAS exam is concerned, if you love subject that scores then its better. If you love physics but cant understand the intricacies of the subject, then better find another love. And once you start loving(scorability+interest+availability) a subject don’t shift to another. There are lot of aspirants who after 3 attempts have changed 4 optionals. This isn’t a welcome move.

Best optional for civil service exam

The question of which subject to choose for civil service as optional is something that keep the aspirant thinking for hours. The upsc has given away this worry to an extent by reducing the marks for civil service considerably. Even then to come top in the list and secure an IAS rank the options are important.

The most popular options in previous years used to be

1)      Public administration: Relatively similar to the general studies especially the paper 2. Availability of coaching centres. Used to derive constant marks,’minimum guarantee’  in aspirants jargon.

2)      Geography: Lot of coaching centres, easy material availability. The option is light, which means its easy for people to understand. Anyway students know water, land , food etc and so can easily pick up the subject

The other popular options used to be sociology, languages , psychology etc.

The idea of popular option has been dealt a serious blow in recent years. The public administration has become Greek in last few years. The minimum guarantee theory has been severely damaged by the students getting crushed.

The new pattern leaves less time to worry about options since mark has been reduced. The allocation for options is paltry as compared to the general studies. So the easy way out is to get a subject that doesn’t eat time and is simple. The earlier trend to fully depend on option has now vanished. So the civil service has changed all together in the last few years.

The best bet for many aspirants will be to stick to the graduation subject rather than jump to something completely anonymous.

The ias exam is still a much sought out exam and so students go punishing themselves for long hours of study to get into it. The new pattern will provide room for more thought and communication among the students. The rush to delhi to select an option from the best teacher there might see a slow down.

Topper UPSC IAS civils exams views on taking exam in Indian language

Here the topper shares his views on attempting exams in the mother tongue and non-english language.He is of the view that writing in English isn't necessary for IAS exams. He also explains the concern of non-availability of quality material in Indian languages.His views on coaching centres are also expressed.

Most common mistakes made by UPSC IAS Civils aspirants

The upsc exam winner here explains the common mistakes students make. She makes a near complete list of mistakes students make. Her advice regarding books and optional selection needs to be listen over and over again.Also listen to her advice on the aspirants who take repeated attempts but fail.

"Process of self correction" that's the golden words in her tips.

Another video where subbulaxmi explains her views on essays and interview

She points out clearly on selection on the essay topic. She also talks on which essays "to write" and "not to write" and "how to write".

Video Upsc toppers tips

C Shylendra Babu is an IPS officer in Tamil Nadu, he explains how to prepare for ias ips civil service exams. The last step can be a cutting edge which pushes you to the top of the list. There are many aspirants who lose out due to a bad interview. He covers all aspects of interview in a concise manner in this video.

Download All NCERT Books

The NCERT books are available completely free for download and use. The move by NCERT is a welcome initiative to promote education and also to prevent piracy.

DOWNLOAD ALL NCERT BOOKS FOR FREE CLICK HERE

The selection has to be done in sequence of tabs starting from the left side.

There are many sites which sell these ebooks at a cost. NCERT books are absolutely free and you dont need to pay. 

About Indian Civil Service Exams

Some common doubts

Is knowledge of English necessary in civil service exam?

We live in a country where English is a foreign language but  a language that is very much used. Civil service is not different. For a good score in civil service a good handling (basic knowledge) of English is necessary. It enables to express ideas clearly and also helps the aspirant in wider reading. The availability of good books is plenty in English. So its always desirable to have a good knowledge in English. Since we live in democracy it may be hard for the leaders to accept the importance of English in public. But as an aspirant you would need English.

My score in school board exams and graduation is low. Can i clear civil service ias exams?

The answer can be ‘yes’ and ‘no’. The past is past and you can always begin a new take at life with renewed energy. But you can measure this energy from your past experience.

I would explain with an example

Say you were a lovely child who would spend 10
hours reading a day in 5^th class  and 10th and was getting just 50 percent marks at all times. Then it shows you had put maximum effort in past but output is very less. If this had been the case then the answer is ‘NO’

Say you were happily dating and boozing in college life and got only 50 percent while you had got 90 percent in cbse12th. Then this shows you are capable but didn’t put your effort in the last few years. The level of output you can give is really high. So the answer is ‘YES’

What characteristics would you need to beat the IAS exam? To clear civil services?

Consistency: The exam procedure is a very long process; it would require nerves to keep on going till the end.

Average intelligence: This isn’t an exam to test you IQ. So a very high processor isn’t necessary. That’s evident from me clearing civils.But surely brighter kids would need fewer attempts. They can grasp things faster.