Role of coaching in my journey
Surbhi Goyal AIR 78 UPSC CSE 2021
In short: I did self study throughout my journey and relied on coaching’s test series for all stages.
At length:
GS -
1. I had joined Vajiram and Ravi classes in 2018, but after attending their classes for a week, I realised it won’t help me much as these things can be studied on our own better. Their pace was slow and subject distribution random. I like studying one subject at a time, so I stopped attending them soon after. I did self study for my entire journey.
2. Vision IAS -
2.1 I joined Vision prelims test series for all my attempts. I found them helpful as compared to others in the market and comparatively closer to actual examination.
2.2 I also joined their mains test series (sectional + full length) for my 3rd attempt in October, after I didn’t clear prelims in 2nd attempt.
2.3 I joined their essay test series after I cleared prelims in 3rd attempt. It had 3 tests. I liked the questions and evaluation provided by the tests and questions were also helpful.
3. IAS Network - I joined them in my 3rd attempt for daily answer writing/ tests evaluation and essay checking. Their daily checking helped me in analysing my performance. I used pyqs for daily writing. Most of the evaluations were helpful.
4. Only IAS - I watched their daily editorial discussion to find out which editorials to select and read. Also, during prelims time, I watched their map series as it helped me in revision and was comprehensive.
5. Unacademy - I attended Mrunal sir’s videos on Economics for my first attempt and later revisions sir published for my later attempts. It was my only source of economics for prelims and it was very helpful in my opinion.
Anthropology -
1. Joined Vajiram, but same; stopped attending after a week. The teacher wasn’t helpful in my opinion. I did self study for anthropology also.
2. L2A - I joined sectional test series in my 2nd attempt and 2 full length test series in 3rd attempt after prelims result. It was very helpful for me as sir gave useful remarks and scores given were motivating to me. Though sometimes it took time, sir helped me whenever I asked him any doubts.
Interview - As I had interview on first day, I had time for giving only few mocks.
1. KSG - I gave my first mock here, and later had one on one session with Khan sir. The interview was helpful in highlighting my mistakes and motivating me. Khan sir is a very positive person and he motivated me a lot to perform better.
2. Vajirao & Reddy - Gave another mock here. My mock was the worst here because I was extremely nervous, but the mock helped me in correcting some fundamental issues.
3. Vision IAS - I gave the bureaucrat one mock here (not the faculty one). It was a very good experience; I tried to eliminate most of my earlier mistakes and the board was very encouraging to me.
4. Next IAS - I gave my last mock here. In this, I was most confident and it went very smoothly. The board was very helpful and encouraged me a lot again. I also joined them for the engineering material, which I found useful.
I hope this helps the students who had doubts about where I attended coaching or which test series I joined. If any institution shows my name, then also, you’ll know which ones actually helped me. A little piece of advice in the end: You can do this on your own, through self study, and refine your preparation by using tests series.