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.