Kindly look at the quality of Simulator test especially CSAT. It seems they are just copied and pasted from some other sources. I can tell you one source from where questions were copied. It's SPIPA, Gujrat.
Seized of the matter. Two tests remaining. Should be sorted out. Was this the case in last csat test also - the one held last Saturday?
Kindly look at the quality of Simulator test especially CSAT. It seems they are just copied and pasted from some other sources. I can tell you one source from where questions were copied. It's SPIPA, Gujrat.
Especially CSAT - did you find this in GS ? Can you share this over email. Shared in inbox.
In GS, you may have it question from here taken there but not vice versa. Because several state administrative institutes do purchase papers from forum ( not spipa but 6-7 others in different states )
@NeyawnSir, if one is planning to enroll into AWFG ( have been selected after the entrance), then in which MGP Cohort + one should enroll and when the date for the MGP cohort that starts just after prelims will be announced?
Also had a request, the messaging (inbox) system on this platform is not working from a long time while, Please get this fixed.
@Neyawn you haven’t shared any story yet!
No, actually I am thinking about something. Generally every year what forum does is have a single strategy session / anseer writing session so that there is no confusion. Also we don't want to interview or showcase too much students who have secured ranks but are still writing the exam, given that they are still aspirants, and one gotta be in aspirant mode till one is writing the exam.
What I am seeing however is that vjrm is holding hundreds of sessions, some of them even by people who are taking next attempt. And most of the people this year are not even their students. On one hand there is an academic side which says, don't expose your students too much as long as they are writing the exam again. They gotta improve rank / score and this sonehow jinx it. There is a commercial side which says ask every selected candidate to do some talk / webinar etc. even if he is writing the exam again.. or else you will lose market share due to poor visibility and marketing. Just thinking. Any thoughts?
In my first attempt, I was unaware of Forum IAS. And some coaching taught foundation class till April along with mains answer writing tests.
It cost me an attempt. After that I randomly saw one of your video on YouTube wherein you explained the concept that- June to November/December is for mains and from December, preparation should shift from mains to prelims.
It was really helpful and gave a new direction. Especially for people who are preparing from remote locations and are not in Delhi, right guidance is needed. Because in UPSC preparation, many things are at stake in your life.
Your one session(read right guidance) can bring a change in direction for someone's preparation. Many people burn the midnight oil but the light gets flickered due to uncertainty and doubt on oneself.
PS- being a music lover, I wanna give an analogy- these days many sub standard singers get famous coz of remaking songs. BUT PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW WHO THE OG KUMAR SANU IS.
Sorry, if there is some spelling mistake. Typed it on my mobile phone.
@Neyawn
Thank you. Thats too kind of you!
No, actually I am thinking about something. Generally every year what forum does is have a single strategy session / anseer writing session so that there is no confusion. Also we don't want to interview or showcase too much students who have secured ranks but are still writing the exam, given that they are still aspirants, and one gotta be in aspirant mode till one is writing the exam.
What I am seeing however is that vjrm is holding hundreds of sessions, some of them even by people who are taking next attempt. And most of the people this year are not even their students. On one hand there is an academic side which says, don't expose your students too much as long as they are writing the exam again. They gotta improve rank / score and this sonehow jinx it. There is a commercial side which says ask every selected candidate to do some talk / webinar etc. even if he is writing the exam again.. or else you will lose market share due to poor visibility and marketing. Just thinking. Any thoughts?
I have realised not promoting or marketing self/ product (which you believe is better) is equivalent to allowing a substandard or below average product or less hardworking people to move ahead of you
This also amounts to denying the consumers a better product. Hence marketing is absolutely ethical. Rather not marketing your better product is a fraud with the consumers.
P.S: I am not endorsing XYZ coaching as a better/poor product
So I was reading this book from zero to one by Peter Thiel . The book hit me hard in one aspect which said that most tech founders / people from tech background think that if the product is good they do not need marketing and distribution channels and they dont focus on it. They always want to work in stealth mode which sometimes may be detrimental to the company. So yeah, giving a thought to that.
However when I look at people who are marketing themselves well, I only see everyone in edTech Space begin with "education should be free" ( Mind you, this is not basic education or primary education they are talking about. They are talking about competitive exam which affects a small minority of the society ) then have billionaire plans. Worse, they use investors money to subsidise their products with the hope that someday they will recover the costs after becoming a monopoly and when that day never comes they exit or go silent.
Also because they plan to teach millions , one edTech founder I met told me their classes are subscribed by 1,20,000 students. I said any selections . They are clear - selections will come another program. Now to cater to the 1,20,000 students the course quality is brought down such that it wont help you clear the exam.
It will however fix your basic school level knowledge base, if you didn study well in school.
I will get back on this thread over weekend as I have more time. Just few things for clarification
1. You overestimate me :-) I have just been doing what I enjoy. Not saying this to sound humble or cool. You know me because you have been on forum. College folks and 80% people writing Prelims do not know of forum. You could say that after 2-3 attempts, most people hear of forum.
2. I am not too centred about ethics. I am more like stupid things wont help in the long run. Every question is not a question of ethics. Its more like being smart or stupid. And when you are doing things that have a commercial angle, you ought not be stupid , lest hundred of people sink with you ( i mean employees/ team members ). Look, the english medium crowd was always the crowd which knew better, which was not bought by fancy advertising etc. That has however changed. At least in this part of the country - the ORN/ Karol Bagh area, people English medium crowd - which until 10 years ago was more aware - has shown to be equally befooled by fake advertising - which was only a Hindi medium coaching problem.
What I think is - a lot of people are doing things which is not right, but I am not so concerned about what is right and what is wrong - but more so about what is good in the long run. It is merely co-incidental that good business practices help in the long run.
3. This community is the biggest check against stupid things that Forum may want to do. To build a coaching with a community front face was challenging, but has helped build strong pillars that support forum in the long run.
4. As forum scales, I see investors not at all interested in results, success and outcome. They want to invest in a company that can generate revenue without results. They are more likely to find a - say a Srishti IAS better avenue to invest as its business operations is not based on learning outcomes or results. I see investors all keen on lowering the quality of courses to cater to a few million users, without which they do not value it. When it comes to Civils, if your curriculum is not as per exam, your students will end up clearing some other exam, but not upsc.
Will share some more thoughts over weekends.
Commenting here just so that those who have so passionately given some inputs here know that what they have said has not gone unnoticed.
There are two books i have felt have been very useful in building an organisation - One if Peter Theil's from Zero to One and second is what got you here won't get you there.
The challenges which one may face is beyond imagination from a common person's perspective. What is happening right now is that big players have purchased / leased nearby buildings. There are no buildings available. There is a physical barrier to running tests and classes. Most programs where a lot of energy goes such as awfg or sfg which is good for the student , may not have profitability to continue doing it. And if we are half hearted about something, it wont work out.
Hi Neyawn, I enjoy reading your posts and always wait to see them in my inbox.I have the following query... I see that you have personally mentored many toppers in person. But I assumed that while you were budding in this industry, you might have had that time to handhold them (eg: Minal Karanwal mam, etc) in their prelims and mains stage.I also assumed that you only mentor students in their interview stage currently due to paucity of your time.I consider myself unfortunate to know you when you have already reached the summit in this industry (any serious aspirant or a veteran knows or speaks about MGP, CA classes, Ethics classes, etc- I mentioned this because in one video you said that you felt bad when your old teacher visited you and told you that he took time to locate your institute from metro and you lost sleep over it because you felt that you couldn't survive in this industry and thought of advertising more or so... trust me, many of us know you and follow you and your institute very seriously), so may be I can't avail your personal mentorship.But just today when I read your post on Medha Mam, I am getting to figure out that you might have helped few aspirants in their initial stages of prep (during post 2020). You are mentioning that you could comprehend today's toppers as potential rankers in their nascent stage itself.So now Icouldn't wait to choose a place where I can write the same to you (found that you saw and mentioned about one of @Twoface questions), so I hope you get to see my question to you too...How can I reach you to get "that" personal mentorship??? (ofcourse not expecting handholding every day, but once in a while every 3 months is a good enough support we can have from an experienced mentor like you. Because you can just check a grain or 2 and decide if the rice is cooked unlike inexperienced many)You may not have time for someone like me (because there are many like me)... But may be you are missing some potential topper too...P.s. I am a hard core believer of the following quote..."Not everyone can become a great artist but a great artist can come from anywhere".I am humbly writing the above message...You said confidence is all that is needed after a point of time, so I wanted to sound like a person with self- belief in his/her own self.If you reach till here, thank you so much. Your blessings would help me, but I wish I could meet you and get your guidance as well...if it's not possible, I will surely meet you in my interview preparation.
I tried, but I could not pronounce your username. If you are in Delhi or in GGN, you can come down with bunch of your copies.
You do not really need a lot of inputs, but only the one that can set you up. Thats all.
Some students maintain a mail chain with me. It goes on for like 50 messages. This year for prelims I have 40 people with 30+ messages long chain. Just keeping in touch.
If you are busy studying , writing tests, sometimes that is all.
And when there is a moment of doubt, reach out to me.
Regarding Medha, she was in my essay classes , probably ethics too, the first batch, I dont remember. But when we met she remembered some of the things and examples I said in the class.
Hi Neyawn, I enjoy reading your posts and always wait to see them in my inbox.I have the following query... I see that you have personally mentored many toppers in person. But I assumed that while you were budding in this industry, you might have had that time to handhold them (eg: Minal Karanwal mam, etc) in their prelims and mains stage.I also assumed that you only mentor students in their interview stage currently due to paucity of your time.I consider myself unfortunate to know you when you have already reached the summit in this industry (any serious aspirant or a veteran knows or speaks about MGP, CA classes, Ethics classes, etc- I mentioned this because in one video you said that you felt bad when your old teacher visited you and told you that he took time to locate your institute from metro and you lost sleep over it because you felt that you couldn't survive in this industry and thought of advertising more or so... trust me, many of us know you and follow you and your institute very seriously), so may be I can't avail your personal mentorship.But just today when I read your post on Medha Mam, I am getting to figure out that you might have helped few aspirants in their initial stages of prep (during post 2020). You are mentioning that you could comprehend today's toppers as potential rankers in their nascent stage itself.So now Icouldn't wait to choose a place where I can write the same to you (found that you saw and mentioned about one of @Twoface questions), so I hope you get to see my question to you too...How can I reach you to get "that" personal mentorship??? (ofcourse not expecting handholding every day, but once in a while every 3 months is a good enough support we can have from an experienced mentor like you. Because you can just check a grain or 2 and decide if the rice is cooked unlike inexperienced many)You may not have time for someone like me (because there are many like me)... But may be you are missing some potential topper too...P.s. I am a hard core believer of the following quote..."Not everyone can become a great artist but a great artist can come from anywhere".I am humbly writing the above message...You said confidence is all that is needed after a point of time, so I wanted to sound like a person with self- belief in his/her own self.If you reach till here, thank you so much. Your blessings would help me, but I wish I could meet you and get your guidance as well...if it's not possible, I will surely meet you in my interview preparation.
Also I feel embarrassed as I am not used to so much bhav. I don't think of myself exactly as a winner here. It may look from far as if I hangout with bunch of successful candidates with top ranks, but I see myself as someone struggling - much like the people who look like successful toppers when results come - and the struggle is the same as they had when they were preparing.
Hi Neyawn, I enjoy reading your posts and always wait to see them in my inbox.I have the following query... I see that you have personally mentored many toppers in person. But I assumed that while you were budding in this industry, you might have had that time to handhold them (eg: Minal Karanwal mam, etc) in their prelims and mains stage.I also assumed that you only mentor students in their interview stage currently due to paucity of your time.I consider myself unfortunate to know you when you have already reached the summit in this industry (any serious aspirant or a veteran knows or speaks about MGP, CA classes, Ethics classes, etc- I mentioned this because in one video you said that you felt bad when your old teacher visited you and told you that he took time to locate your institute from metro and you lost sleep over it because you felt that you couldn't survive in this industry and thought of advertising more or so... trust me, many of us know you and follow you and your institute very seriously), so may be I can't avail your personal mentorship.But just today when I read your post on Medha Mam, I am getting to figure out that you might have helped few aspirants in their initial stages of prep (during post 2020). You are mentioning that you could comprehend today's toppers as potential rankers in their nascent stage itself.So now Icouldn't wait to choose a place where I can write the same to you (found that you saw and mentioned about one of @Twoface questions), so I hope you get to see my question to you too...How can I reach you to get "that" personal mentorship??? (ofcourse not expecting handholding every day, but once in a while every 3 months is a good enough support we can have from an experienced mentor like you. Because you can just check a grain or 2 and decide if the rice is cooked unlike inexperienced many)You may not have time for someone like me (because there are many like me)... But may be you are missing some potential topper too...P.s. I am a hard core believer of the following quote..."Not everyone can become a great artist but a great artist can come from anywhere".I am humbly writing the above message...You said confidence is all that is needed after a point of time, so I wanted to sound like a person with self- belief in his/her own self.If you reach till here, thank you so much. Your blessings would help me, but I wish I could meet you and get your guidance as well...if it's not possible, I will surely meet you in my interview preparation.
I tried, but I could not pronounce your username. If you are in Delhi or in GGN, you can come down with bunch of your copies.
You do not really need a lot of inputs, but only the one that can set you up. Thats all.
Some students maintain a mail chain with me. It goes on for like 50 messages. This year for prelims I have 40 people with 30+ messages long chain. Just keeping in touch.
If you are busy studying , writing tests, sometimes that is all.
And when there is a moment of doubt, reach out to me.
Regarding Medha, she was in my essay classes , probably ethics too, the first batch, I dont remember. But when we met she remembered some of the things and examples I said in the class.
Thank you so much for your reply@Neyawn :)
Ilive in Vijayawada, AP. So I could never drop in your office. I will definitely see how to reach you with my work.
Thanks again…
Regarding embarrassment, I am so sorry. I thought you would be happy to hear that someone from South India also follows many of your courses. :)
And about only mentoring toppers. Actually
This year I thought of doing something different.
Finding people who had failed, given up, with like 3-4-5 attempts with zero succes in Prelims
I got bunch of such kids, made them study.
Here are the results.
So from December 2023 we were busy working with a bunch of people who had NEVER cleared Prelims before, to make them them clear Prelims.
So we got about 100 people to join us. It was not an easy task. There were lot of hiccups.
Everyone said you dont need to do this. You already have good candidates and toppers. Even senior faculty thought I would lose focus from good students to work with studens who have not performed in past 3-4 and some in past 6-7 years.
We expected 30-40% people to clear the exam, and we reached close. The game is that the ones who did not - will clear it next year- ( about 20-30% ) . But they should not lose faith in themselves.
Here is what happened.
@Neyawn sir is there any way to meet you. Cleared prelims, need your guidance for mains
AT KB center 4PM Friday
My prelims story till now-My scores were 86.67, 61.96, 88 to 92 in 2022, 2023, 2024 respectively. I have cleared CSAT in all 3. I have dedicated 5-6 months for prelims in all three attempts.In 1st attempt, I followed 1 test series with a few open tests, PYQs but not in-depth, and did my basic books.In my 2nd attempt, I did in-depth PYQs. Along with that, I was too enthusiastic about other UPSC exam papers ie. CDS, CAPF, Geoscientist. In 2nd attempt, I compromised on mocks, [also a bit misguidance from YouTube on this aspect]. Also, my marks as per my markings on the question paper should have been 70, but I got 61.96. I have probably made a few bubbling mistakes there [However, I used to mark on OMR along with solving every single question]In my 3rd attempt, I buckled up to solve daily mocks, which I did. I solved around 78-80 mocks with analysis.I have not read Spectrum and Lakshmikant. Rather I chose Subhash Kashyap for polity [also helping in my optional PSIR], and Bipan Chandra NCERT and new NCERTs for Modern history. However, my polity performance in prelims was fine except for 2023 when I couldn't solve the legal questions. Also, for current affairs I read newspaper The Hindu and make my own notes. I haven't read Pt365. In current affairs also I have scored well. The problem mostly lies in ancient and medieval [for which I devoted 50% of total revision time - from NCERTs], and 5-6 silly mistakes where I couldn't recall or made reading errors [even after so many mocks]. I do realize intense revision should help.My mains story till now-I did my optional notes and 1 round of revision before my 1st attempt. I have written mocks for GS, PSIR, and essays.So, after 1st prelims failure, I completed my optional short notes, GS 2, ethics value addition.After the 2nd prelims failure, I revised optional, worked on GS notes.What should be my way forward? My parents are suggesting I should take up a foundation course since I haven't taken any. Any mentor I talk to, suggests me to work on optional, ethics, essay or very mains specific things till November. I have done much of it in the last 3 years.My mental state nowIn my first attempt I analysed PYQs and traced them to source. Based on which I selected my booklist and decided not to rely on Pt365. I was quick in my decision-making and took bold steps like reading Subhash Kashyap over Lakshmikant. However, with each attempt my confidence has been going down. My strategy in 2023, 2024 was all wrong and for that only I am to blame. This time I am unable to take any decision whatsoever. Should I move to Delhi, should I take up some foundation course, should I do prelims from now only, should I go for conventional mains till Nov dec.
There are few things you may have missed. People like you who come very close to cut off, but just miss it generally have one issue. And that is of resilience. Soe for instance someone getting 30 marks in Prelims is easy to train to clear the prelims ( obviously because he hasnt studies, and one he does, he clears! ), but people within 5-7 marks gap may have too many varied reasons for their inability to clear it.
One of them is resilience issues. Which means when the pressure comes, they crumble. So every time you have to worry about such candidates because they may have studied and all, but will underperform under pressure.
And let those failures accumulate for a few years and you have major issues of baggage with them. In short, they fail because they failed.
There are few things I will suggest you
One is to do mocks in coaching institutes in offline mode. It is not the paper that matters , but sitting with people around and being outside your comfort zone.
I had a bright kid, predictably not clearing the prelims thihs year. because the person was too smart. So if you ask them did you write sims? They will say yes but at home. Did you write abhyas, they will says , yes but i did it at home?
WHy?
You cant handle the pressure of sitting with hundreds others and being jduged in two hours. You want to sit on bed, put a pillow and put a laptop on top of it, and whole family is providing auxiliary services like food and water ( which will not be the case in actual exam ). YOu have to step out of that. Write tests offline. Attend open mocks. One paid test series and one from market.
Also take a look at SFG. If thats been done, you need some serious push, and may explore FRC 5.
People around you study so hard, they may sure you perform.
