Why we thought of ForumIAS residential coaching – a personal note

Dear Friends,

We started ForumIAS in 2012, with one goal – and that be the most relevant platform for Civil Services preparation. Not the largest, not the one stop, but relevant to the exam.

Its been 11 12 13 14 years now, and before we begin with FRC, here is what happened in the last 10 years

In CSE 2013, one of the most active members of the forumias community – @crazyphoton went on to secure Rank 1.

Back then, we had high quality discussions on the forum ( it was a well moderated community for interview preparation, which may have been intimidating for a fresher ).

We celebrated the success of our members ( not students ) , and we would have 7 out of top 10 ranks from amongst active members of the forum community.

When we decided to set up an academy, we had a clear idea in mind – and that was  – we wanted to have thought leadership in the Civil Services preparation. We wanted to be the platform where people come when they have nowhere to go, and we would deliver result from a crowd that had given up hope , but still had the strength to fight.

When we launched the first MGP, we made a promise that we will ensure an Interview call to those who joined.

Surprisingly, not many people joined us. It was mostly friends who knew us. We got 86 people join us, out of which 74 people got their first Interview call.

I still remember asking a forum member – Will you do mentorship and work for Forum, if you get selected.

He replied – “I will do anything you ask if you get me an Interview call.”

Prajit got a Rank 81 that year, and I could see him wear out meeting / mentoring hundreds of students the next year.

It was only when the first batch delivered great results , did the most active community members join us, and it was followed by getting Rank 1,3,5,7,10 in the top 10.

The earliest members of forum were rockstars. Most of them would get through the prelims and make it through the Mains and also to the final list. I recall seeing 16 out of top 20 ranks in the hall of fame back then. Not academy students, but community members.

What you will become depends a lot on who you speak to, what you read / hear and who is guiding you. Sometimes, who is your role model, will determine what you will become. You idolise a topper who says I only studies 2 hours a day – chances are you will study less than 2 hours a day, and won’t be a topper either.

The credit for the immense success of forum, in some way must go to Aravindhan P. He and his roommate both cleared the IAS and IPS in their first attempt. ( IPS was Aravindhan’s 1st preference ). And the key was getting the booklist right.

Which meant that if you really want someone to clear , make him read Spectrum history, NCERT 11th Geog and Laxmikant , instead of Bipin Chandra, Savinder Singh and D D Basu. ( Please note that those were the days when the Internet was expensive and 2G was the revolutionary technology which would speed up internet forever).

Those days outside of Delhi, most people did not even have the idea of which books to read for the exam – explaining why Delhi was the goto place for Civils preparation.

In fact, 50% of the guidance was the right book, which explains the competition was among less, among the few who had the right friend circle, or guidance. This is also because if you begin with the wrong book, and you have spent 2 months on it, you have wasted not only 2 months, but an entire year!

Back then, the Civils preparation knowhow was restricted to certain hubs only. Telegram wasn’t invented ( or was in infancy) and whatsapp had not come to India. Android as an OS was newly launched by Google, blackberry phones were the things to but for the upclass, and Nokia was the largest cellphone maker in the world ) For those who are into cinema – Omkara was “the” cult film until the Gangs of Wassepur happened.

The repeated right guidance about just the books, and a large number of members clearing the exam kept the quality of discussions good, which ensured further good environment, and very good guidance for new users of the website.

When we set up the academy, we had one goal – and that was to help out people who weren’t making it.

When Anudeep secured a rank in the IAS in his 5th attempt, the first sentence which he said when he walked into forum after his selection was – Man, I never thought I will become IAS.

When we set up our offline academy in ORN, the world was beginning to change. From the age of no information, there was an information explosion.

Content terrorism had just started.

A lot of light weight guidance had set low bar for preparation – so much so that a LOT of people studying much less than what was needed were actually thinking they are studying like IAS aspirants.

The influx of edTech did no good either. One founder I spoke to ( he was a forum member and now a billionaire ) said with the clarity which every entrepreneur should have – You don’t get it neyawn. We are not looking for selections. We are offering complete Civils preparation at some Rs. 10,000 so that a student sitting in a small town who is jobless , when speaks to his parents – they should think he is anyway unemployed, at least by paying 10,000 he is will have something to study for next 1-2 years. And this is how we plan to have 10 lakh aspirants join our civil services program.

I felt that what was missing was that while such a revolution was good for general level of mass education – the country needs it, it wasnt quite what was needed for competitive exams.

And even when it comes to competitive exams, Civils exam is a little different from other exams

Unlike JEE, where if you don’t get IIT, you get NIT, if you dont get NIT, you get some top tier college, if you dont get that, you still get something in Noida which will pay a decent salary and basic skillset.

Civils is a lot different, because they are job entrance exams not college entrance exams. You don’t get through, you dont get the job. And the time that is wasted is the peak years of youth!

One of the things we did right was SFG. Since less people knew us, the SFG ensured that people who knew us cleared, and with a small student base we were able to get good number of selections.**

We started SFG because we met some smart studious kids who could work hard, but did not have the kind of discipline that was needed for the clearing the exam. We saw a few hundred people clear the prelims for the first time, and get a ranklist.

The dream from SFG was one – and that was to get Rank 1 from SFG. And Ishita this year fulfilled that dream by being a diligent follower of SFG and securing Rank 1. Please note that its not that the whole country is not doing SFG. It is still a small number of less than 1000 odd people who do this at 7AM. It is much smaller compared to the 50,000 students who study at the massive coachings in ORN.

And among the small group of 1000 students, it is not a coincidence that two of them have secured Rank 1 and 4 – top 5. It has a lot to do with the rigour of the program.

This year when the top 5 rankholders came to forum, I asked Ishita if she did SFG properly – she said – Bilkul Sir, at 7AM I was sitting in front of my computer , not missing a single test. ( The SFG was made online due to lockdown in Delhi – first because of Covid and second becuase of pollution )

But post Covid, something else was happening too. Room rents which fell in ORN and adjoining areas began to rise again.

In the post Covid world, We often saw people come to Delhi to prepare, but move to online classes because of the high rentals. Also a second thing that has happened in past few years in Delhi is that a lot of people started staying  away on the metro line for cheaper accomodation, thus adding a decent  commutation time to their day, writing an exam where time is the most useful resource.

It was then that we thought of having an academy with somewhat affordable accommodation in some part of Delhi – NCR region. And we did find one.

But with the events that unfolded in ORN in Delhi leading to the loss of innocent lives, we decided to have an integrated campus – in the NCR region, at Naugaon, Alwar with the below in mind.

1. We are able to provide ample space to students to move around amidst Nature instead of crowded and congested Old Rajinde Nagar
2. Some of the students who came to Gurugram for FRC -1 , fell sick / asthamatic given the annual pollution problem in Delhi. We wanted some place where the AQI was in the green zone.
3. We wanted green areas so that we could provide some reprieve to students on the mental health front.

This post is still under editing.

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** At the time of writing this post, Shikhar Mogha from SFG messaged saying he secured Rank 171. That means two things – he wouldn’t be writing the next SFG test, and two – the program attracts the best students. ( Shikhar is also MGP,AWFG, Ethics and PYQ module student ). He also had 444 marks in GS – which is a good score as per this year.