Dear Friends, a lot of you have been inquiring \u00a0about the MGP for 2018.<\/p>\n
We will be releasing the plan in the coming days.<\/p>\n
But before you all hurry to join MGP or any other initiative by us, we want you to read this carefully.<\/p>\n
First the facts.<\/p>\n
Most of the people who join us are people who have been preparing for Civil Services for quite sometime.<\/p>\n
And most of those who joined us had done well at Prelims and Mains, and it was very shocking to meet people in the heart of Delhi – the hub of IAS preparation – being very mis-oriented and misguided – studying random things and taking random classes.<\/p>\n
We are very keen on ensuring that those who choose to join us must get optimum results. They must<\/strong><\/em> get the best results they can<\/strong><\/em> get.<\/p>\n We have been able to do very well compared to typical coaching standards, but we are honestly not satisfied with what we have been able to achieve<\/em> and not achieve.<\/em><\/p>\n This is because when we do a program, a lot of people, and some very old ForumIAS Members , they all contribute to ensure that people who trust us , get adequate guidance and support.<\/p>\n The selected candidates help us, because they got help from us before.<\/p>\n This is the reason why , old ForumIAS members who are even selected in IAS and other services come down and try to help students enrolled with us.<\/p>\n Now coming to our 2018 plan<\/strong>, we are very very keen that less number of people join us , but<\/p>\n Our experience of Mains Guidance Program ( MGP )<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n We started with almost a secret<\/em> initiative in 2016.<\/p>\n The Mains Guidance Program<\/strong>.<\/p>\n And out of the five lakh<\/em> odd users of ForumIAS, 86<\/strong> people decided to join us, most of them who knew us personally, as individuals.<\/p>\n In 2016, our goal was clear, we wanted to solve the problem of those who were consistently stuck in a loop of low Mains Score, and were unable to get an Interview call or a good rank should get an Interview call and some service. \u00a0At least<\/em>.<\/p>\n And even those who did not have good content, should have adequate structure to their answer so that their GS Marks should be within safe limits to make it to the final list.<\/em><\/p>\n ( Since we did not have a physical infrastructure in place, we were unable to provide any further support for the Interview.)<\/p>\n ( Though we did try to do some one \u2013on-one\u2019s and did an session on Interview Preparation too. A lot of people joined us including this , this this this this this this this this this this this this …… )<\/p>\n Except 13 candidates, every single candidate from MGP 2016 got an Interview call<\/strong>.<\/p>\n And 43 out of 86, were those who had never<\/em> gotten an interview call before. They were all<\/em> deserving candidates, who had messed up \/ disrupted preparation over the years, and just needed little guidance.<\/p>\n Realignment.<\/p>\n We were able to help them.<\/p>\n Consequently the lowest marks in GS for MGP Candidates was 390<\/strong> , ( with one exception ) , and the highest marks was 464*. The average was around 438, which is a little higher than the average marks of Mains 2016 \u2013 which we believe is around 400. <\/strong>Anything less than 400 is poor marks, as far as 2016 is concerned.<\/p>\n The MGP \u2013 What it did, and what it did not.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The MGP helped students do these things<\/p>\n However, we believe, blindly joining MGP or any Test Series does not help. <\/strong><\/p>\n Even with MGP, those students benefitted the most, who wrote Tests on time, and actively worked on the feedback, and\u00a0 had done some basic studies.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Also, we are more keen on solving problems for which no option is available, like improving Rank , or clearing the exam for someone who has never cleared Prelims or Mains before.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Now the big question<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Why people fail to clear Prelims and Mains despite hard work, and guidance?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There are several reasons for it. There are four kinds of students whom we met, and who were unable to perform despite writing Tests.<\/p>\n Self-study has been the best way to prepare for the Civil Services Examination.<\/p>\n We built ForumIAS as a community on the idea that people should collaborate, cooperate and prepare. It worked as every year more than 500+ selected aspirants are ForumIAS Members.<\/strong><\/p>\n ( Actuallly every single selected guy uses it. Just that they dont share their username \ud83d\ude09 )<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n However, with the onslaught of answer writing websites, including our own initiatives, it became a fashion, to just practice questions and answers.<\/p>\n And not study <\/em>as per the syllabus.<\/p>\n This leads to the next set of problem.<\/p>\n # 1 The problem of Fragmented Preparation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A large number of candidates we meet today, are hard-working, and very capable.<\/p>\n But very mis-guided<\/em>, and dis-oriented<\/em>.<\/p>\n They have done fragmented studies.<\/p>\n They followed online website and ONLY know what is a ) on the website and or \/ b) questions asked on website. They have never taken the syllabus, studied it bare bone and prepared every topic, making notes on them.<\/p>\n #2 The frog in the well syndrome<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Self-study works best when you have<\/p>\n There are two problems with being a frog in the well.<\/p>\n First<\/em>, you are a frog.<\/p>\n And second<\/em>, you have no idea of the level of competition outside the well.<\/p>\n #3 Gaping Holes in Knowledge Base<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n For example, a self-study candidate, who has not taken any coaching , knows Citizen Charter, because<\/p>\n But they do not know \u201cSevottam Model\u201d because<\/p>\n Similarly, while studying Post Independence History<\/strong>, they know Integration of Tribal States, but do not know<\/em> Tribal Panchsheel<\/strong><\/span> because<\/p>\n Take concepts like Seven Sins by Gandhi<\/strong><\/em>, Gujaral Doctrine<\/strong><\/em>, Ambedkar-Gandhi Controversy,<\/strong><\/em> or Tagore Gandhi Controversy<\/strong><\/em>. These are concepts that UPSC has asked questions on (except the last one, which is on the expected list ).<\/p>\n But most candidates are<\/p>\n Some people try to solve this problem by writing 3-4 Mains over the years, and adding content each year. <\/strong><\/p>\n This is however, not the best way to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n #4 The more success eludes you, the more chances of false notions and beliefs you are likely to have.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The more success eludes you, the more chances of false notions and beliefs you are likely to have. Seriously.<\/p>\n The No-Notes-No-Study-Plan-No-Peer-Group and did-not-clear-prelims syndrome.<\/p>\n The phenomenon of candidates who have not been able to clear prelims in their second, third, fourth attempt happens because not clearing Prelims is a self-perpetuating phenomenon.<\/p>\n You may not clear Prelims 2018, because you did not clear it in 2017.Here is how it works.<\/p>\n STEP 1:<\/strong> <\/span>You did not clear prelims. Immediately you lose all friends that cleared Prelims and are writing Mains. Thus a good peer is lost. ( We know the pain )<\/p>\n STEP 2:<\/span><\/strong> You immediate promise yourself that you will not only crack Prelims next year, but also top the exam.<\/p>\n STEP 3:<\/strong><\/span> You do not exactly plan what you will do round the year, thus have passion, but no plan.<\/p>\n STEP 4 :<\/strong><\/span> You study religiously for Prelims immediately after the Prelims Results and exhaust and peak in the three months of September-Oct-Nov.<\/p>\n STEP 5:<\/strong><\/span> You are bored and tired, and by December-January, you start studying Optionals, which goes on till Feb<\/p>\n STEP 6:<\/strong><\/span> You realize Prelims is close, and you have only two months. You do your best ( or give up ) , but you have already missed the bus.<\/p>\n STEP 7 :<\/strong> <\/span>You repeat STEP 1, with more promises, and lesser enthusiasm. And you change the calendar on the wall.<\/p>\n #5 Breaking the vicious cycle.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n To break this vicious cycle, you need<\/em> to know when<\/em> to prepare for Mains, and when<\/em> to prepare for Prelims.<\/p>\n You also need to ensure that you peak at the right time<\/em>. For example, answer writing for Mains should not peak before the Mains exam.<\/p>\n Similarly, the habit of solving MCQs also should not peak this year itself. You must peak at the right time.<\/p>\n We are coming up with a plan to break this vicious cycle, provided you are determined enough to work hard.<\/p>\n Or at least be sincere in whatever you do. Since Prajit<\/a> was practising Mains Marathon in 2016 and secured a rank 87, you must not repeat what he did.<\/p>\n You need to build<\/em>\u00a0an adequate knowledge base first.<\/p>\n And much like<\/em> building Rome, It does not happen in a day<\/em>. It takes time, but if you work hard enough<\/em>, with some consistency, you will get there.<\/p>\n #7 But I know everything<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI have been preparing for UPSC for past 3 years, and I know everything. I have made my own notes, read every book, and have taken so many classes.\u201d<\/p>\n First<\/strong>, None of us can claim to know everything.<\/p>\n Second,<\/strong> you do not need to know everything<\/em>.<\/p>\n Third<\/strong>, you have no way of knowing what you do not know, unless you write the exam.<\/p>\n Because if you knew what you do not know, you would study that topic and know it.<\/p>\n #8 But isn\u2019t the UPSC syllabus infinite? How am I supposed to know everything?<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Again we have two things to tell you.<\/p>\n First<\/strong><\/em>, there is a locus<\/span> to the UPSC Syllabus. By which we mean there is a minimum outer boundary to the syllabus.<\/p>\n Second<\/strong><\/em>, the UPSC syllabus is not infinite<\/em>. It is merely porous<\/em>.\u00a0There is a difference.<\/p>\n And you must prepare for it according to the syllabus.<\/p>\n You need not know everything, but you do need to have a solid knowledge base.\u00a0We\u2019ll help you build that for 2018 that will help sale through both prelims and mains.<\/p>\n #9 Why it becomes difficult to break the vicious cycle as your number of attempts increase?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We at ForumIAS Offline, \u00a0had almost every single student who had faced some failure in their previous attempts.<\/p>\n The problem with failure is that, it reinforces wrong notions more deeply in your mind.<\/p>\n For example,<\/p>\n Candidates with high number of attempts( 2+), usually face the below problems.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n What we plan to do for 2018 \u00a0to solve this problem ?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There are two components of Civil Services preparation<\/p>\n While the MGP provides the near-perfect solution for developing answer writing Skills ; and the Prelims Test Series helps develop problem solving skills, we plan to expand the scope of our Guidance Program to do develope the Knowledge Base too.<\/em><\/p>\n We have spoken to a lot of our former and existing students, and we will come up with the full plan in the next 2-3 days.<\/p>\n Rest assured that the plan will be aimed to ensure more predictable results and will be a gold standard in IAS preparation.<\/p>\n ( We will soon release some casual videos of our Students \/ Community members ) We did not release it after Prelims because then too many people would join MGP, – even those people who dont even need<\/em> MGP, or those people whom we cannot really help.<\/p>\n Feel free to come up with suggestions \u00a0or you can always write to us ravi@forumias.com<\/p>\n We’ll get back to you with more details in the next 48 hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Friends, a lot of you have been inquiring \u00a0about the MGP for 2018. We will be releasing the plan in the coming days. But before you all hurry to join MGP or any other initiative by us, we want you to read this carefully. First the facts. Most of the people who join us… Continue reading CSE 2018 : ForumIAS Offline Initiative – Important<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":1651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,33,9],"tags":[56,74],"class_list":["post-7734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","category-featured","category-public","tag-forumias-academy","tag-forumias-offline","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/modern-classroom-clear-white.jpg?fit=1000%2C385&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704755024},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n#6 Building the Knowledge Base<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n
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