My Insights Experience
Keerthishri S
Rank – 380, CSE – 2015
Disclaimer: This article is not an advertisement of our classes. We provided same tests FREE of cost online and we intend to do the same this year. Moreover, we take very few serious aspirants and try to provide them with good environment for their preparation. Moving ahead, we intend to make this program free for all deserving candidates. This article is a testimony and a genuine expression by our student who benefited from the program. We in fact suggest you to study from your location by making use of resources that are made available online. All you need is a small group of serious aspirants for peer review and discussion. As question papers would be freely available, anyone can create their own serious group and prepare productively for this exam from wherever you are.
One of the best things in Insights offline series was getting out of the room and meeting aspirants every day. This helped me to stay motivated and work a little more than I thought I could. We had a place where we could sit and study, discuss answers and ask faculty to review them whenever we wanted to. This was possible due to small number of students in class.
Peer learning and support was immense at Insights. I am really thankful to Insights for creating such an environment. My friends Naresh, Himanshu, Pramod , Kavya, Ravi ,Narasimha, Anand and many more were very encouraging. (I had already attended two interviews by then and had just managed to get into reserve list. So there were moments of doubt.) They were reviewing my ethics case studies or GS answers or simply say positive things about the exam which was needed most at that point of time.
Also, after every test a small group of us used to sit with the question paper and discuss answers. These discussions helped in pooling points and then know various perspectives about the issue concerned.
Once I started writing tests, I realized I could write really fast and this was pointed out by Vinay sir as well when he checked initial few copies. My speed and presentation improved over many tests with the feedback. I obtained similar pattern of marks in the main exam as well. I never panicked in the exam because I knew I could complete my paper anytime.
Whenever I crossed Vinay sir, he kept saying you will surely make it to the top. It was motivating. I got rank 380. Though I dint top this year, I am hoping to do it next year. I was mostly pulled down because of my bad performance in optional geography (and my optional performed badly as well- unfortunately the average scores of geography has fallen down drastically- what they call as butchering).
I got this rank because of my good GS scores (Total 396 – GS1 108, GS2 81, GS3 111, GS4 96) and an average essay (127) and interview (179) score and a below average score in Geography optional (188). I have improved GS my scores from last year especially in ethics. This is mostly because of stronger content and writing the answers as if I am explaining to examiner. This needs both reading and practicing.
Being from Karnataka, Insights test series was the most accessible for me. I knew I could go home anytime and visit my family. We don’t need coolers or sweaters here and productivity is higher. Along with this comfort, good quality of tests, accessibility to Vinay sir, peer support prepared me well for the exams. Though I don’t believe in coaching, I found this model different from some of the commercial set ups in Delhi. The material that is provided offline is provided online as well. But I already explained the difference of being in offline test series earlier.
