Yellow brick road to "Success": A step by step approach to UPSC India, Civil Sevices, Part-I

Everyone says that preparing for civil services is laborious. Traditionally, since the time civil services was started by Lord Cornwallis in 1853, everyone believed and still believes that hard work is key to success in Administrative Services examinations for IAS, IPS, IRS etc. I tend to deviate from the tradition, I believe that a perfect blend of hard work, smart work (sometimes both of these are not too different) and quick wit (presence of mind) is the key. However,  it is easier to preach than to follow. Throughout this year, I'll show how I came up with that perfect blend and hope you find yours in the due course of time.

I aspired to become an IAS officer, after witnessing the actions of then collector of my district, Sumita Dawra (Author of book "Poor but Spirited in Karimnagar"). She came to my school for Republic Day, saw an under-aged child working for mic setup, and immediately took action against the owner. Then she went on to implement strict laws against child labour in the district. Her actions, triggered a mixture of emotions in me. The humanitarian vigor, sense of justice, quest for betterment and overall the power she wielded to implement the right thing, made me aspire a future in administration.

So at the onset of my research,  I was riddled with a lot of questions after understanding, how UPSC conducts it, what the syllabus is, how long does it take and a lot of other things.  Questions like, "Where should I start?" "What is the pattern?" "What are the books?" "What should be my optional?" "Is the optional I took right for me?"  "Why are the questions in the exams different from what we are taught in coaching centres? ""What attitude should i maintain?". I'm pretty sure that a lot of UPSC exams related websites will give you a lot of answers to these questions. Here I'm going to add a little bit more.

First question I'm going to take up is "Where should I start?" 

Start by understanding the time it takes for an average person to prepare for the exam. It is normally 1-2 years. Then decide the year of your examination. That is the first step. Then choose your optional, this is first hurdle in your path. I would like to caution you about the people who suggest you to opt for "scoring subjects", do not follow the herd. Remember that even though a certain subject is mark fetching for a lot, that does not mean it will fetch marks to you too and do not forget that you have to master that subject and it takes hours of work, understanding and interest towards it. My suggestion would be, start with reading NCERT text books of class IX, X, XI, XII classes, of all the subjects which are your probable optionals. Subjects like, History, Geography, Economics, Political Science, Sociology and Psychology. If you can't understand the NCERT books of XI and XII of a particular subject, that is definitely not an option for you. If you don't understand any of the subjects, choose the one you understand, and enjoy reading the most.This process normally takes almost a month for a person. Even if you are decided on your optional, I suggest you to read these books, because comprehensive knowledge of all these subjects is a must for Civil Services exam. 

Next comes, Deciding if you need coaching or not. The answer to this question is biased in almost all the websites. The websites tend to prefer coaching. Though I joined a coaching centre, I do not say it is a necessary condition, there are a lot of success stories of people who have not gone coaching centres. My favourite teacher in school, Mr. Shareesh kumar, who is in service now, never took coaching, and another interesting thing about him is, he never took same set of optionals twice in his four attempts. So, neither taking coaching nor sticking to same optional is necessary. People who are working, or people cannot afford them need not feel left out. If you have right attitude and an infallible plan, you are at a good start. 

Now for people who want to go to coaching centre.  There are a lot of renowned institutes around, though they are famous that does not imply that they are best for you. Deciding the suitable Coaching centre for you depends on a few things and remember choosing a wrong one can demotivate certain people. The checkpoints for deciding are:

•  Is the pace of course right for you?
• Is the peer group comfortable?
• Is the coaching centre well established and organised?
• Is the fees in your budget?

There are some low impact checkpoints too, which vary from person to person.

I'm going to give some basic information about coaching fees, cost of living in renowned areas for good coaching centres, like Rajendra Nagar and Mukherjee nagar in Delhi. Normally Institutes charge 75k-1 Lakh for GS Mains+ CSAT for 4-6 months. Optional is charged around 30-40k for 3-4 months. Cost of living in Mukherjee Nagar is 12k and Rajendra Nagar is 15k. One can squeeze it a little if they are ready to travel to get to coaching centres.

With this I conclude first part of the journey, hope you find the information and suggestions informative. In next part I'm going to talk about the physical and psychological conditions good for maintaining the zeal in the long run, and some of the books, magazines and news papers relevant for the preparation.