IAS Coaching Centers: General Studies

As I wrote in earlier posts, coaching for GS is absolute waste of money and precious time. I told this to my friends and some others when they asked me to suggest some good coaching centers. But they didn't listen to me and joined Vajiram which is quite famous in Delhi.

What I want to say is that even if many advice the beginners not to join any coaching center for GS, they join them. I am familiar with some coaching centers in Delhi, I will give comparative analysis of some coaching centers with the help of the views current among the IAS aspirants in Delhi.

Rau's, Chanakya are the two names which many IAS aspirants would be familiar with even before they come to Delhi because of the advertisements in various magazines. Avoid these two at any cost. Two persons whom I personally know joined there when they came to Delhi and they still regret a lot.

Vajiram, Sriram in Delhi are two names in this field which are famous. Both are located in Old Rajendra Nagar.  Vajiram takes thousands of students into several batches. Sriram admits 100 or 200 mostly those who dont get admission in Vajiram. So teacher-student interaction is lot better in Sriram. In the class one may ask any doubts, after the lecture one can go to the teachers and ask any doubts.

Vajiram dedicates more time teaching biology, other sciences, ancient and medieval history, some useless things in economy, things from Manorama and shit which are quite useless from prelims point of view. Sriram doesn't waste much time on these useless things(except ancient and medieval history).

Polity is taught equally well in Vajiram and Sriram but I would prefer Sriram over Vajiram. Economy is taught very well in Sriram, badly in Vajiram. Geography is taught well Vajiram but no questions come from their teaching. S&T is not taught well in Sriram but the notes they give for S&T more than makes up for any deficiencies which is not the case with Vajiram.

On the whole I have to say Vajiram teaches well conventional part of the syllabus and ignores the non-conventional current affairs part. Vajiram is not keeping up with changing times. Sriram is a lot better in this regard. That is why Vajiram students regret a lot, after the giving prelims, after realizing the reality.

In Vajiram, notes is dictated instead of giving printed notes like in Sriram. This is because Vajiram is too lazy to update the printed material which renders it's printed material useless. Sriram updates the printed notes regularly and distributes the notes in the class. This saves a lot of time in Sriram classes.

Coming to the notes given by the coaching centers, there is consensus among the student community in Delhi that Sriram's notes is excellent, whether it is polity, economy, current affairs, social issues, international affairs, India and the World, S&T or anything. Same can not be said about the notes provided by Vajiram. Don't ever read the printed current affairs booklets provided by Vajiram. Even class notes is not upto the mark.

Enough of Vajiram and Sriram. there is one more famous coaching center, ALS in Mukherjee Nagar. It is more on the lines of Vajiram, focus is more on the conventional part.

I will add more later.

IAS Coaching Centers (Cont)

In the case of the static subjects the personality factors like ability to work hard, ability to understand the things, one's memory power, quality of one's peer group, quality of the guidance one can get etc comes into play.

One has to remember that everything that is taught in the coaching centers of static subjects is readily available in the text books. If the text books are not sufficient, notes of the coaching centers is readily available in the market.

One has to also remember that in coaching centers everything is taught superficially. This shallow knowledge is unhelpful in answering the questions in the exam which are being asked now a days. This is particularly true in case of subjects with huge syllabus like History, Geography etc. So after listening to the lecture, one has to study the textbooks to get a deep picture of the things. Coaching in this case only familiarizes the subject to the beginners. So what is the use of coaching then?

If one is patient enough and works hard, the necessity of the coaching centers can be eliminated. But if one has a starting problem in reading an entirely unfamiliar subject, he may join the coaching center for that static subject.

Some persons may remember the things by just reading the topics of the subject a few times. But to many persons listening to some topics is sometimes helps them more in memorizing the things than just reading them. Here coaching definitely helps. As the coaching centers only teaches superficially, this advantage of coaching is some what neutralized. But I have to admit that the basic structure of the subject sticks in the mind.

Some subjects require proper understanding of the subject unlike some subjects which require lesser understanding and more memory power. Philosophy comes under former category, History comes under later category. Obviously in this case coaching actually helps. Literature subjects like Pali too require coaching which makes life easy.

In my opinion, if there is someone who can guide you well, tell you what to read and where to read them from, clarify your doubts, then there is absolutely no need of any coaching for any subject. I will elaborate on this now.

Even in coaching centers, many times they tell the students to read from their notes and not from any textbooks. It is suicidal to follow this as their notes are ill-organised and written badly in most of the cases, not comprehensive in all the cases. Reading only their notes wont help you in answering most of the questions which are asked now a days. Reading from textbooks is must. Now, there may many textbooks for a subject, and not every thing is given at one place in a text book. Also, not everything given in the textbooks is useful. If there is someone to guide and tell you what to read and where to read from, your time wont be wasted. Coaching centers definitely don't do this.

If there is a quality peer group, your work is simplified, as through discussion your understanding improves. Shelf-life of the subject, in the mind improves. Coaching center's need will be reduced.

So I would say, analyse the subject and your personality from the above mentioned angles and assess the need of coaching yourself.

IAS Coaching Centers

Is it necessary to join any coaching center? If it is, then which coaching center? These are the two questions which inevitably come to a beginners mind.

The 'necessity' of joining any coaching center depends on the subject, the person's ability to work hard, ability to understand the things, his memory power, quality of his peer group, quality of the guidance he can get etc.

I call a subject static if the content of the subject isn't dependent on the current events. I call it dynamic if the content of the subject is dependent on the current events. In a dynamic subject, the questions asked in the exam 'may' be based on the current events. So are the answers to that questions. One needs to read the newspapers for the current events which are related to the subject and constantly update his knowledge about the subject. Needless to say, static subjects don't need all this.

General Studies, Public Administration, Political Science, Sociology, Economics etc come under the category of dynamic subjects.

Sciences and engineering subjects, History, literature subjects, Philosophy etc come under static subjects' category. Content is not at all dependent on the current events.

Geography, Psychology etc should ideally be put under the category of static subjects even though few things are current affairs related.

What is the use of this distinction?

With years of teaching same things again and again (as the content is static), teachers of static subjects are better than those who teach dynamic subjects. Even in dynamic subjects, there are some things which are static which are taught well by some teachers.

Problem arises when the content is dynamic. Most of the teachers are lazy to update their notes, relate the current affairs with the subject, read the government reports (as in the case of public administration). They just teach the static part of the subject and leave the dynamic part to the student himself. In the beginning, students may find that coaching is actually helping them but as the course progresses they realize that they have wasted their money. They feel that they could have easily learnt whatever they are taught by studying the textbooks themselves.

As the students realized this deficiency in them, now a days the teachers are trying hard to rectify it. But things more or less remain the same as of now. Because of few years of experience I have, with conviction I can say that students themselves can do far better job than the teachers. They just have to prepare notes of those things.

General Studies is the most dynamic of all the subjects. Most of the questions are based on the current events. Needless to say, coaching is least effective in it's case. Self-study is the best in this case.

Public Administration is equally dynamic. One can actually call the 2 papers of Public Administration as GS Paper 1 and GS paper 2. There are numerous coaching centers in Delhi which teach the subject, most of them are fraud.

So my concluding suggestion is don't join any coaching center for the dynamic subjects. That stands irrespective of the various personal abilities I mentioned above in 2nd para. I will deal with the static subjects in the next post.

Playing Against India

Before the series with India, the last time he made a test century was 2 years back on Pakistan. After that his form dipped. He played 16 tests since that match till the series with India. he played against New Zealand, Pakistan, India, England, Sri Lanka, South Africa, again New Zealand.

He made only 6 half centuries in those 16 tests. 3 against India in 4 innings. After those 3 fifties it appeared to many as though Ricky Ponting got back his form. But no, he had to wait for another India series. Meanwhile axe was dangling on his neck. If India series didnt happen he sure would have been shown the exit.

Before the India series, when Rahul Dravid was talking about Ponting's form, I had a hunch that Ponting would get his form back in this series. I had in my mind many instances of cricketers gaining their form by scoring against India, nameless cricketers becoming overnight stars by performing against India. Remember Henry Olongo, Douglas Marillier, Matthew Hayden, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Graham Gooch, Sanath Jayasuriya, Jayawardena etc, who were only a few of them.

I was right on spot!! He scored 2 centuries including a double century, 3 half centuries in 6 innings!!

I bet, every out-of-form batsmen would long to play against India and fancy their chances.

Dhoni Should Retire From Tests

In my opinion Dhoni is the most overrated captain ever. He was only lucky to get breaks even with his stupid decisions. When the team was performing well everyone used to unduly praise him. Now that he lost his midas touch and the team is losing many are criticizing him and showing him his right place.

Going by his form in the last year in tests, he doesn't deserve a place in the test team at all. Even before that, he always performed in fits and starts. He was lucky to captain a good team with all the batsmen in their prime. That made people not to talk about his failures as batsman.

When there were news reports which mentioned that he is planning to retire from tests (which he didnt directly say), I was happy. But going by the latest reports he has no such plans. My happiness is preempted.

Honestly speaking he should go and pass captaincy to Sehwag or Gambhir.