After a very good initial response to this initiative and a few dedicated aspirants writing answers now, we thought of revamping our Mains answer review programme in order to give more time to aspirants for preparation and better competition with many more people participating in the initiative.
Core Objective?
Give you few but high quality questions backed up with practical and actionable insights so that you retain the information right till you write your IAS Mains
What is the change?
- 10 +2 Questions Test (Every Sunday)
- Model Answers to be Published (Next Sunday)
- Best answers (plural) will be reviewed by our mentors. This means you will have to be good with your attempt and keep improving on them
- Time Duration (1.5 hours)
- Focus of the programme will not be on the quantity but quality of questions and model answers
From when do we change the structure of the programme?
Starting 27th August
Structure of 10 Questions
- 10 Questions on Weekly Current affairs (most important themes of the week) ( Hindu, IE, PIB, EPW, Livemint, Economic Times)
- 2 Ethics Questions ( 1 case study + 1 theory question)
Additional Components
- Weekly Video lecture (How to approach the Questions) To be uploaded on next Sunday
- The video lecture will also contain in-depth analysis of issues/themes on which questions were asked in the test (Current affairs part).
- Our mentor will explain how to approach the questions asked in the test.
- We will also share the best answer and explain how that answer can be improved further.
Why are we moving towards weekly test series?
-To focus on Quality rather than Quantity.
-Every Week we only have 10-12 important themes which are relevant to UPSC. When we give you a daily test there are 2 consequences in long run:
(1) The quality of question/theme and model answer is diluted because of lack of time and lack of themes. As it is impossible to get 3-4 UPSC mains relevant themes every day.
(2) Questions on repetitive themes are asked coz everyday
For example, on a well known website, 11 times question has been asked on farm loan waiver in last 2 months. While 9 times Question has been asked on No detention policy in last 1.5 months. We want to avoid that as if we will continue with daily answer writing programme this thing will bound to happen in future.
Let us further illustrate our point on NDP with an example:
1. When did this news break out?
The cabinet took decision to scrap No detention policy on 3rd August
http://www.hindustantimes.com/education/failing-in-class-5-and-8-could-be-back-as-cabinet-agrees-to-scrap-no-detention-policy/story-opE0qzA3M7wDpL3FG9wOAO.html
Op-eds we curated on this issue
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/right-to-education-act-no-detention-policy-ndp-school-students-4785429/
http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/mVZ1aJ6jGe3zUTHa8gND6O/RTEs-heart-is-in-the-right-placebut-not-its-head.html
Op-eds we ignored
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/skill-dont-detain-on-scrapping-no-detention-policy/article19439937.ece
http://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/government-does-well-to-repeal-the-no-detention-policy-for-school-students/793380/
Reason? Both op-eds did not have any major new angle on the NDP
Superfluous Questions from a well known website
Q.) Considering socioeconomic factors and the state’s limitations in providing education, especially for the weaker sections, do you think government’s decision to scrap no-detention policy under RTE is warranted? Critically comment.
Q. Critically comment on the decision of the Union Cabinet to scrap the no-detention policy at the elementary level, and introduce detention of students who fail a designated test in Class 5 or 6.
Q.) In the light of government’s decision to scrap no-detention policy, critically analyse success and failures of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or the Right to Education Act (RTE).
Our Selected Question?
Q.) The government move to scrap no-detention policy shows inability to analyse what went wrong. In the light of above statement critically discuss whether no detention policy should be scrapped?
Why is the transition from everyday question to weekly tests better?
Generally, whenever an important (UPSC relevant) event takes place, there is no point on asking question on it on the same day because we have lack of content (Since no op-eds have been written on it).
However when we will conduct a test weekly it will give us ample content on the question so that we can frame a quality question on it and since lot of content is available for aspirants it will easier for them to write quality answer.
If we will continue this exercise till the next mains than most likely we would have covered almost all-important themes relevant for mains 2018.
You would have written answers on most important themes (Feeling super-confident for mains 2018) and plus you will have model answers on almost all-important mains relevant themes of the year (feeling super-super confident for mains 2018).
What will you gain From this exercise?
If you will continuously attempt our weekly current affairs and ethics test for the whole year than by the next mains You would have written answers on almost all important UPSC relevant themes/issues + you would also have model answers on all the themes.
Thus by September 2018, you will feel damn confident and with continuous mentoring, your answer writing skills would have reached to a next level.
How do you register for it?
- This is a free initiative to begin with and you are all registered by default
- As per the announcement, questions will be up every Sunday (starting 27th) and will be available on the front page of CD. Archives can be found by clicking here
- We will be maintaining an internal record of students who are sincere/ frequency of attempts/ quality of attempts etc. and we will take selected few for a PAID course so that they have more 1 on 1 overlaps with our mentors. Details later.
Wish you best of luck.
