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From the desk of P.S. Ravindran, Director |
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Dear Student, Greetings to you. It appears that the Civil Services
Examination is in a state of transition.
The Union Government has approved a proposal made by the Union Public
Service Commission (UPSC) to introduce a new Civil Services Aptitude Test
(CSAT) in place of the Preliminary Test from the year 2011. The UPSC has also announced that changes in
the pattern of the Main Examination may be introduced in due course, after an
Expert Committee, to be appointed by the UPSC, makes necessary
recommendations in this regard. It
seems that changes, if any, in the Main Examination, may take place not
earlier than 2013 examination. IAS
aspirants, therefore, will have to continue to appear in Compulsory
English, one Indian Language paper,
apart from appearing in General Studies and in two Optional Subjects, till
the changes are introduced in the Main Examination. The UPSC must be fully engaged at present
in formulating the new pattern of the CSAT.
The UPSC has announced that the optional subject paper at the
Preliminary Test stage will be abolished.
In its place an aptitude test, aimed to test the moral and ethical
values of the candidates and their suitability to Civil Services will be included. Thus, both the General Studies papers,
called CSAT, will be common to all the candidates. However it’s not clear
whether the CSAT will include quantitative aptitude, test of reasoning,
word-association and data interpretation tests. One has to wait till the UPSC announces the
details of the CSAT. What we propose to do? VAJIRAM & RAVI, on its part conveys
to the student community that its core competency will ever remain
strong. We see the proposed changes in
the examination pattern as a new opportunity to maximise our service to the
student community. We have already started the process of developing the base
to face the challenges and preparing lessons on all the afore-said types of
aptitude tests. Our commitment to
“EXCEL” will ever remain strong. New Strategy Now, what strategy should you adopt while
preparing for the 2011 Civil Services Examination? Earlier, we advised
students to prepare the second optional subject first(which one opted for the
Main Examination only) from June to September, and thereafter, the
preparation of General Studies and the first optional subject for both the
Preliminary Test and the Main
Examination from October to May. But
in the changed pattern of the examination, with the abolition of the optional
subject in the Preliminary Test and the introduction of an aptitude test, the
importance of General Studies at Preliminary Test stage has doubled. We, therefore, suggest a revised strategy
where you should start preparing from
now onwards for the Main Examination in which there will be no changes for
the next couple of years. There is no point worrying over the CSAT at
this stage when even the basic structure of CSAT has not been made public by
the UPSC. Instead concentrate on Main Exam preparation, where there will be no
changes. Give greater attention to the preparation of the two optional
subjects from June to September 2010.
If you intend to take coaching for one or both the optional subjects,
then you may join a coaching institute from June 2010 to September 2010. Prepare
well and fully, the two optional subjects by the end of September 2010, so
that you can concentrate totally on the preparation of General Studies from
October 2010 to May 2011. Since General Studies in the CSAT will
have two papers, you cannot afford to club the preparation of one optional
subject with that of the General Studies from October 2010 to May 2011. Those
eight months shall be completely devoted to the preparation of the General
Studies papers. We have already devised a plan on how to teach General
Studies from October 2010 for the 2011 examination. We won’t be surprised if
the CSAT is held in the month of June 2011 and not in May 2011. Since both
the General Studies papers of the CSAT will be common for all the candidates,
the UPSC will be in a position to announce CSAT results in just about a month
after the CSAT examination is held rather than taking more than 10 weeks, as
the UPSC does in announcing the Preliminary Test results at present. We are getting ready. We expect you
to do the same. We are aware that, “All growth depends upon activity”. And
that’s what we have been proving by having produced All India First Ranking
candidates for ten years in succession from 1999 to 2008. We are committed to
continue with this tradition, whatever be the changes that may be introduced
in the Civil Services Examination. We
pledge our cooperation and wish you good luck in your endeavour. THINGS TO DO:
General Studies 1.
Our
Constitution by Dr. Subhash Kashyap
2.
Certificate
Course in Geography by Goh Cheng
Leong 3.
NCERT
Books on Geography from IX standard
to XII standard 4.
Indian
Economy by Rudra Dutt and Sundaram
or Mishra & Puri 5.
Pratiyogita
Darpan (for Indian Economy) 6.
Economic
Dictionary by Penguin or Collins 7.
India
Year Book published by Government
of India 8.
NCERT
Books on Biology, Physics and Chemistry, Standard IX & X 9.
NCERT
Books on Indian History, IX, X, XI and XII Standard 10.
The
Hindu or the Times of 11.
Manorama
Year Book 12.
Yojana
Magazine Sociology 1.
Sociology
by Horolombas (New Edition) 2.
Contemporary
3.
Capitalism
and Modern Social Theories by
Anthony Giddens or Sociological Theories by George Ritzer Public Administration 1.
New
Horizons of Public Administration by
Mohit Bhattacharya 2.
Administrative
Thinkers by Prasad and Prasad 3.
Indian
Administration by Rajni Goel 4.
Public
Administration and Public Affairs by
Nicholar Henry Geography 1.
Certificate
Course in Geography by Goh Cheng
Leong 2.
NCERT
Books on Geography, from IX to XII standard Psychology 1.
NCERT
Books on Psychology, Standard XI and XII. 2.
Psychology
by Baron Commerce 1.
Financial
Management by RP. Rustagi (Paper-I) 2.
Organisation
Theory by BP Singh and TN Chhabra (Paper-II) 3.
Organisational
Behaviour by LM Prasad (Paper-II) Political Science 1.
NCERT
BOOKS & National Book Trust on Indian Politics 2.
Political
Theory by Rajeev Barghav 3.
Indian
Foreign Policy by Rajeev Sikri Philosophy as an optional subject: Paper I : 1.
W.T.
Stace: A Critical History of Greek Philosophy ( for Plato and Aristotle). 2.
Garrett
Thomson: An Intoduction to Modern Philosophy ( for Descartes-Kant ). 3.
Copelston
:A History of Philosophy ( relevant chapters from volume1,4,5,6,7,8,9
&11) 4.
Datta
& Chatterjee: An Introduction to Indian Philosophy. 5.
C.D.
Sharma: A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy. 6.
R.Puligandla:
Fundamentals of Indian Philosophy. Paper II: 1.
Ashirvatham:
Political Theory 2.
O.P.Gauba:
Social & Political Philosophy. 3.
John
Hick: Philosophy of Religion 4.
George
Galloway: The Philosophy of Religion ( relevant sections ) |