The UPSC coaching industry has thrived in India generating Billions of dollars in revenue. In recent years, many businesses in the industry have seen the rapid infusion of venture capital. This capital investment implies that companies must generate revenue at a certain pace to satisfy their investors and to do that, they must rely on marketing and advertisement to attract customers.
Recently, the government penalized various coaching institutes for false advertising. The issue came to light when multiple coaching institutes in their ads, all claimed the same toppers as their protégés.
Why did this happen and is this the extent of the coaching institutes’ alleged malpractices? What else should aspirants need to know before joining one?
Firstly, we must admit that all humans are fallible and the people running coaching institutes are humans, susceptible to pressure, greed, and temptation in order to survive, or thrive, in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Human nature combined with the pressures of a competitive environment would make for the ideal conditions for a bit of false advertising in any industry, let alone the education industry.
Once you appreciate the above, the next obvious question is what you need to know to navigate the industry smartly?
Here is what you need to know-
- Success-ratio of a UPSC coaching institute is much more important than the Total number of selected candidates– This is because the law of averages applies in all large populations i.e., if a coaching institute coaches a few thousand people each year, it is a necessity of statistics (law of averages) that a few students will inevitably clear the exam.
On the other hand, if you think about success ratio, you can get a clearer picture of the effectiveness of that institute in comparison to the overall pass percentage of the exam. This makes for a great marketing strategy for an institute- more advertisement begets more enrolments. The more the enrolments the higher the probability that a few students will be successful. Successful coaching institutes have relied on this strategy year after year.
2. The success ration will not be easy to find since no one would prefer to reveal it voluntarily. My conjecture is that the if the success ratio is analyzed, it will show no clear correlation between the coaching institutes success ratio vis-à-vis the overall pass percentage. This would mean that the coaching institutes could be contributing MUCH less towards success than you thought they did.
https://becomingias.com/should-you-join-ias-coaching-institutes/
3. Correlation is not causation-Just because some selected candidates attended a coaching institute, does not necessarily mean that the institute was the primary cause of their selection. The Advertisements of coaching institutes seem to portray the institutes as the primary cause of the student’s success and does not seem to give any obvious weightage to the individual efforts of successful aspirants.
In other words, It does not matter if successful students attended a coaching institute, what matter is HOW much the institute contributed to their success- and this is very hard to determine since it is a subjective question with no metrics available to measure it.
4. Start by asking if you even need UPSC coaching– Our knee-jerk reaction whenever we walk into unchartered territory is to seek the assistance of experts, and that is a healthy reaction to have. But there is something called due diligence which befalls upon us alone. This means that you must proactively seek to understand what the UPSC exam requires.
The best way to do this to go straight to the source- analyze the previous year question papers, analyze where the questions are being asked from, what all would you need to know in order to answer them etc. Reverse engineer the question paper until a set of tasks appears in front of you. Most people shy away from this effort, but this is precisely what differentiates the grain from the chaff.
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FREE MENTORSHIP PROGRAM for UPSC preparation by RAVI KAPOOR IRS
5. Know the difference between content vs mentorship– Most coaching institutes excel at providing good content. Most of the big institutes have good educators and good study material. Most institutes tend to impart good education. But is it content or information that you need? Or is it the psychological support of a mentor who can keep you on track and disciplined?
Content and mentorship are two entirely different things – content includes subjects such as history, geography, economics whereas mentorship entails discipline, time-management, accountability, mindset, mind-training, feedback etc.
While content can be found for free most of the times, proper mentorship is rarely found. Most guidance programs in the market calling themselves “mentorship” are devoid of substance, have little or no expertise in psychology and are under-qualified to dispense it.
6. Be clear about your needs wrt UPSC coaching- You may want to be taught in a classroom setting by a subject expert, if that is your preferred style of learning. If this is the case then joining coaching institutes might be a good idea. This is because, if it is content you want, you will probably not be disappointed.
If, on the other hand, you want to be kept on track, disciplined and accountable to your goals, then seek professional and expert mentorship from someone who is authoritative on psychology and has a track record of achievements indicating a disciplined personality. If you want to learn how to win, learn it from winners.
7. The self-driven people are the cause, not the effect– The self-motivated people are the ones qualifying the exam year after year, despite the coaching institutes that they may or may not have joined. Success in the UPSC exam is mostly due to your individual efforts. Coaching institutes are merely support systems in your journey, not your saviors or caregivers.
The efforts, motivation and dedication towards the goal must arise from you alone. You must take complete ownership of your preparation and seek to achieve your goals by yourself with UPSC coaching institutes as SUPPLEMENTS to your efforts.
You should be conscious of the above while taking a decision about joining coaching institutes.
I hope this lends you the correct perspective to think about coaching institutes, and a practical way to navigate around it.
Tc and all the best.
Ravi Kapoor IRS
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1. If admitted, you will get a confirmation email along with details of the program. This may take upto 24 hours.
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