Toppers talk

{Topper writes} Problems of Self study at home

You know the topper interviews in competitive magazines like Chronicle, Wizard and Pratiyogita. All of them follow a template, after reading four of them, you can write a fifth interview by yourself without even clearing the prelims. Same goes for all the routine motivational, self-improvement and self-help articles written by the editors of those magz. (They're generally posted just after the index page) So here comes an exception.......

KARTHIK GURUNATHAN IYER

Cleared in First attempt at the age of 21, all India rank #7 without any coaching. Time to copy paste his brilliant article on Problems related with Self study.

Karthik Wrote.....

When i say self study i presume your optionals are set, because i meet many aspirants who are in a dilemma of which optional to chose and whether their choice is correct!Please make up your mind and do not indulge in statistical wizardry as its a sheer waste of time in a rapidly changing exam.i can promise you,chose any two optionals,come in top 5 in both and irrespective of your optionals you will sail through with a modest performance in common papers.too much dithering on optionals confuses a person,and a confused person can not study.
Now that i presume the optionals are decided let me address the

Problems that come with self study

1. how to pace yourself to ensure you complete the vast portions in all papers.
2. how to check your own progress in study.
3. how to keep your head about yourself though you lag behind on both counts(which most will).

The only advice i can offer is enumerated serially:

1.     Pace is personal

lots of things determine it.your potential,time on hand to study,your grasping,reading speed,retention,choice of optionals,stage of preparation,method of study and so on.however,i presume all of you have a copy of the syllabus(right click >Save as) and some books or notes to study from.check for yourself how much time a identifiable part (but important part) of the syllabus takes to complete.i will use an analogy of history,i may check how many days it takes to complete Indian national movement,or maybe rule of the Mughals by doing it,and then see how many such parts the syllabus entails.multiply the time taken by th number of such parts that remain,and as a safety measure add one third the final figure to come up with a conservative estimate.
Repeating my example,i took say 10 days for Indian National movement,there are 20 such topics in the syllabus of history,means i will take,
20 *10= 200 days for the all the topics.since all are not uniform,as a safety valve i add 1/3*200= 70 (app) to the figure to come up with my final figure of 270 days(at current speed).
Dont be scared by the figure,the example was hypothetical,but do up your calculations to invariably find you are lagging behind the ideal speed.
Once you have figures for GS and both optionals squeeze them in the number of days at your disposal and you have a ready plan with signposts ready to follow to pace your study and complete the portion before the due time.

2.How do you check progress?

First,if you prepare the above plan you have the pre-designated portions in place so you know instantly if you are on track.also,you may join a test series.but most are only active during a certain part of the year,are expensive,ask irrelevant questions,give shaky feedback,and take a lot of time for the feedback,what do you do?
Download all the question papers you can,and make a folder.study each paper divide it into sectors of study from your syllabus.For eg In history,all questions asked on 1857 group aside,all questions on 1909 reforms group aside and so on.apply the same logic to your optional.that would mean you have prepared question banks from your syllabus on each topic from the questions asked thus far.
Once you do feel like checking yourself,ask a friend or anyone else to pick some random questions from the relevant question bank,and jot down 5-8 questions.see how you answer them,and if you are happy with the answers.that should tell you what to revise and with what attention.
3.the last of my questions was the most important of all.When you prepare on your own

#3 you are unaware of the competition

In an empty world of your own. An empty mind is the devils workshop.you begin to worry if you not joining a coaching class was wise,was it the reason you are lagging behind,of miraculous coaching given to other candidates which gibes them an edge.your friends in coaching classes brag and discuss on topics irrelevant and not likely to come at all,but not knowing that adds to your pressure.this is the time when your productive time is being eaten away by stray thoughts.
How you check that is again a personal thing.Try meditation,talking to yourself,writing a journal of record or any such thing that emphasizes the rational side of your mind.accept your situation and bring out the fighter in you.instead of worrying about the edge gained by others,study to give yourself one.as i said methods vary,but each will have to do something to keep his mind in a stable frame to maximize his output in study.
I didnt mean to scare anyone and push them to coaching classes,but to hint at what ordeals await if one takes this path.knowing in advance helps to factor in the problems and not be taken by surprise by them.these are by no means all the problems,just a small part of the common ones,and many others wait to vex your heads.after reading the problems if one feels they are too much to take,i advice them to go on and join a coaching class.what is paramount is a peaceful mind,so that it can absorb.if joining a coaching class does that for you,then by all means go ahead.
Never in the whole time doubt your ability,and gods grace for these are the two things that will pull you through eventually.
All the best and happy studying!

The alternative cycles

The whole universe seems to obey the same mystical rule,life mirrors it,and we experience it when we study alone.what?The alternating cycles of the best with the worst,the lean with the peak.just like a sine wave there seems to be no respite from this wild ride,what should we do?
First,realize this is not just our own problem,but in fact a universal phenomenon.every candidate has to go through this,self-study or coaching class.

Gagan narang despite years of practice peaked in CWG and dipped in ASIAD didnt he?
Its wrong to expect the cycles not to alternate because we are only human,and stressed out at that.then it is futile to imagine the cycling can be avoided.
But,what is achievable is reduction in the Lean time and increase of the peak time.
How you do that is again a personal affair,but here are my tips-
Understand yourself-know what works best on you..In times of lean focus,do things you know will relax you..carefully observe your peak period and make a journal writing what all you did,read,studied and how you felt and so on..in lean times read the previous entries and try to emulate.if you notice,the oldest entries on this blog are of that type.it helps at time to recreate a burst or two of sustained focus.
Also know how you get rid of stress the best,and do it in lean times.Use the lean period constructively and de-stress and re-motivate yourself.
Personally i use the guilt-shock treatment..i leave my studies completely and indulge in a long time wish-watching a movie,going out to play a match,reading a novel,or just anything that tempted me earlier but i put it on hold.
I keep my books and scheduler both on the table,and at times open...i have learnt by experience that barely a day or two into the lean period guilt mounts...i drive that guilt higher.
At the same time i read interviews by toppers and other sites and blogs on civil services preparation online.Seeing these adds to my guilt and a feeling of being left out in the rat race.
I let both of the feelings grow till my tipping point is reached and its back to the books with a bang!

As i said the method may vary,but here you are no different from an out of form cricketer trying to regain his touch.its often said the best way to do that is spend time in the middle,and maybe for some thats the best way to maintain consistency.as i said,the cycles will come and go,but your goal and mind need both be steady and resolute,and the rest can be managed by self-understanding!

{Strategy & determination} Safi got Rank 55 without coaching or leaving the job on his first trial

Top of Form

Myth#1- you can’t get selected on your first trial

Myth#2- you can’t get selected without going to some big coaching classes @ Delhi

Myth#3- you must quit your job to concentrate for this exam

Myth#4- Management is an unpopular and non-scoring optional subject

And finally we have the man who broke all these myths.

I had the opportunity to get in touch with topper Mr. Safi (he got 55^th rank in 2009’s CSE in his 1^st attempt without leaving his job). I had emailed him some question and here are the replies.

Here I’m quoting his reply. (take note friends, this is no “usual topper interview that we read in magazines every month’ because  he is talking about the ‘real business- to the point’)

Introduction

I am Mohammed Y Safirulla (Roll No: 080934) and I have got Rank 55 in Civil Services Exam-2009. I am writing this on the request of Mrunal to describe my preparation strategy. I would be happy if this is of some help to Civil Service aspirants.

About me: I completed my Engineering from ‘PSG College of Technology’ in 2003. I then worked in TCS for 2 years. After writing CAT in 2005 I secured admission in T.A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) for PGDM. I completed PGDM in 2007. Since then, I am working with IBM as SAP Consultant.

General Studies

1. How did you deal with general studies + Essay in mains ?

Ans:

News Paper: I referred 'The Hindu' News paper during the last 2 years. I used to take notes for any analysis in this paper. Any center page article which appears to be important I used to cut that and document in a file.

Magazine: Competition Chronicle.

TV: DD News and Lok Sabha Channel (‘Public Form’ – The New Analysis show from 11 to 12 PM every night)

Constitution and Freedom Movement: Referred Prelims Xerox of Brilliant Tutorials

Aptitude: R.S Agarwal

I tried to focus less on data intensive areas and focused on my strengths i.e. Economics, Aptitude and Current affairs. I relied more on Internet to collect data for GS.

Preparation for Options

Sociology

Ans: My Optional for Prelims was Sociology. For Mains it was Sociology and Management. For Sociology I got guidance from Mrs. Ananya Sharma, who had written the Mains earlier. My Friend and I took guidance from her. Further, I analyzed previous 15 years QPs for Prelims and Mains. I made notes after analyzing them. Source was mainly Internet and the book by C/N Shankar Rao.

Management

For Management I referred my Books (from PGDM days). Here too, I prepared notes.

For 2010 Exam (which I did not take) General Studies preparation, I attended the free GS test series conducted by Namma IAS in Bangalore. I wanted to attend the test series so that I could meet other aspirants and to identify the benchmarks.

For both GS and Optionals I prepared lot of notes from Internet. I believe this gave maximum returns. It is possible to revise notes in short duration (Eg: 2 hours gap between Paper 1 and Paper 2 for Optional in Mains). We can also keep adding points to the topics subsequently.

Essay

3. How did you deal with the essay?

Ans:

No special preparation for essay.

Working professional and time  Management  

4. How did you manage it despite being a working professional? The whole time Management aspect? Because everyone doing some job is confused about this.

Ans:

Few things that I did,

-          Motto of studying for at least 4 hours every working day. Sleep only after study of 4 hours is complete. Absolutely no compromise on this.

-          The study time does not include the time spent for watching News or Browsing on Internet (for whatever).

-          During weekends, study for at least 7 hours each day

-          Alternate days in weekdays for Optional and GS. Both Optional and GS during Weekends.

-          Maintain a chart which indicates the effort in Hours for Optional/GS. In my calendar I have entries which indicate how many hours I spent each day from Jan 2009 to October 22^nd  2009 for Optional and GS

-          As far as possible I avoided Social gatherings like Friends get together, Attending Marriages etc…  In short, save every possible minute that you can.

-          I kept the only few close friends and relatives updated about my Civil Service aspiration and progress in the exam.

Motivation -maintaining the rhythm

5.How did you maintain the motivation, rhythm and pace in studies, because most of us go through mood swings like for 10 days "high motivation and working hard" then for next 10 days "no motivation or mood to study anything" and finally month before the exam  doing the fire-fighting, trying to cover everything up in short time.

Ans:

I also experienced this problem. There were days when there was intense self doubt! During those days I tried not to push myself too much. I focused on reading News Papers and economics during those days.

Interview

6. Your interview.

The following are the questions asked in my Interview. The order and words in questions are not the same. I tried to recollect as far as I could.

Chairman:

1. You are Mohammed Y Safirulla…. How can I call you. ?
2. You are working in SAP. Is it not something that integrates Human resources, Finance etc... Can you explain what the work you do?
3. You are already in IT sector which is challenging. Why do you want to get into Civil services?

Member 1:

1. You have done a lot of work in corporate sector. There is lot of hierarchy in Public services. You will not get the kind of freedom that you used to get in Private sector. Do you think you will fit in the Government setting?
2. There might be no rewards even when you perform well. What is reward for you? Is it Power, Authority, Public Service or Money?
3. About the Shoaib and Sania Marriage in Hyderabad, What is Nikkahnama? Can marriages in Islam happen over phone?
4. If you were in the position of Police Commissioner of Hyderabad would you take the Passport of Shoaib? Do you think it was correct?
5. What is the difference between Administration and Management?
6. Have you ever got into a fight with your Boss? Explain what happened?
7. If your peon takes money (corruption) of Rs. 5 (say), What action would you take against him?
8. What were the options available to you after you completed your MBA in Finance? Why you got into IT then?

Member 2:

1. Is PDGM and MBA the same?
2. Why do you want to get into Civil services from Corporate Sector?
3. Based on the explanation of the difference between Administration and Management (which I answered to Member 1) what is the role of a District Collector? Does he perform ‘Administration’ or ‘Management’ role?
4. How will your knowledge of Engineering and Management be useful for you in Civil Services?
5. Are the same principles of success valid in corporate sector relevant in Government Services as well?
6. You have spent a long time in Corporate sector (I have spent 5 years). I think you will not fit in Government Services.
7. What are the fundamentals of India’s Foreign Policy?
8. But Panchsheel is also present in UN Charter right? Where is it present? (I explained about Panchsheel in the earlier question).

Member 3:

1. What is the famous PSU in Salem?
2. What is Namakkal famous for ? (It is a district near Salem, TN)
3. Religious places in Namakkal.
4. About Coimbatore. What is it called as? What is it famous for?
5. What are the reasons for development of Software sector in India?
6. Reasons for Financial Crisis in 2008-09. What are your views on it?
7. Is Ethics taught in Management Schools? The excess greed of Management graduates is also a reason for Financial Crisis. Your views.
8. What is the reason for Cost and Time Overrun in ‘Mega Projects’? How can those be addressed?

Member 4:

1. You mentioned about ‘Profit Maximization’ objective of corporate sector? Talking about Derivatives, do you think they should be banned?
2. You did your engineering then worked for 2 years. Again you did PGDM and then again into IT sector. Now you want to get into Civil Services. I think you are a confused person.
3. You have studied ‘Electronics’ in Engineering. What do you know about ‘Electronics’ Industry in India?
4. You talked about SAP (ERP). Can such models be used to determine unforeseen situations? Eg: Monsoon failures etc... What is the relevance of such models then?

Chairman:

1. Assume you are in a foreign country. Now give me a plan to promote tourism in Tamilnadu. (my home state).
2. Have you filled for any other service apart from IAS? If selected will you join other services?

Ok. Thank you. Your interview is over.

I would like to convey to aspirants that is it possible to clear Civil Services exam without attending big coaching institutes and while working. Many have cleared in the past and many will continue to do. Please have confidence in your efforts.

Wish you all the best.

Safi (Mohammed Y Safirulla)