UPSC: THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

UPSC: THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

Every year millions of students spread across the spectrum from North to South and East to West of the country aspire to become civil servants. Probably, clearing the UPSC has been the dream of every youth who was in search of recognition in society. The dream of UPSC though is not restricted to youth from the rural areas, it has largely attracted more youth from the rural areas than the metro Centers. The youth of urban India do not look at UPSC with the same vigor as their rural counterparts do, may be due to other avenues of employment.

The journey of UPSC is not a short journey, it is a journey filled with unmatched dedication to the dream once lived, the agony of staying away from their parents and family, adjusting to the urban culture, learning to adjust in urban landscaping with cramped up space for living. A student undergoes all this pain, for the sake of that dream of making it big.

With the changing times, the UPSC pattern of examination has also undergone tremendous change tilting more towards analytical testing of a student rather than just the ability to remember volumes of information.

With the pattern changing, the strategy for preparation also underwent immediate change with most of the institutions realigning their teaching strategies. However, one must acknowledge that, in the present scheme of things, the contribution of a student’s hard work to the success story is more profound than the role of the institution.

The elevated standards of questions in the CSAT paper in Prelims is a direct indication of UPSC seeking students with higher analytical skills. One must co-opt this requirement in the strategy during the initial stages of preparation itself, especially so for the students from the Arts background.

One must not miss the eye on Mains preparation as this is the main battle ground. Developing writing skills is intrinsic to UPSC. Most of the students suffer in this dimensional learning. While the preparation for Prelims can be finished in a short span, the ability to write opinionated answers effectively takes time. As it is a skill to be acquired, a student must be trained under a mentor to develop the right perspective of answer writing.

The introduction of ethics as a full-fledged paper has also brought in an element of moral compass in choosing the leaders of tomorrow. The design of the personality test is also aimed at judging the students from the perspective of social acceptance of their personalities and their ability to connect with the masses and be a ray of hope for the millions of citizens who look up to them in dire circumstances.