Online UPSC coaching gained popularity in May 2020 in India. This was a time of global lockdown due to COVID-19, with schools, colleges, and coaching centers closed. No one was sure how long the pandemic would last, but one thing was clear in the minds of students: the UPSC CSE exam would be conducted in 2021. Possibly delayed, but definitely by October. For UPSC aspirants who aspired to become an IAS officer by clearing UPSC CSE exam from the height of lockdown anxiety to the approaching exam deadline felt increasingly intense.
Even some of the best IAS coachings used recorded lectures for their courses prior to COVID. But even this constrained mode of instruction came to an end during the pandemic. Moreover, students were unable to even obtain books for independent study, which was a hindrance to their UPSC dreams. At the same time, a few websites for online pdf notes for upsc gained popularity.
Since COVID, investment in the Indian Education sector has started pouring in, and technological advancement brought UPSC coaching online.
Today, probably, there are more online UPSC coaching than classroom IAS coaching. According to a report on Forbes Indian EduTech market was about 500 million USD in 2020 and will reach about 10.4 billion USD by 2025, and this estimation guided many investment funds to invest in Indian start-ups in EduTech.
UPSC CSE exam has always been a trendsetter, and students dreaming of becoming IAS officers started opting to choose online UPSC coaching.
While established UPSC coachings were reluctant to move online, this hesitation brought an opportunity for EduTech coachings and new online UPSC coaching to prove their need amongst students and potentially join the league of best IAS coachings in Delhi. Notably, several high-quality online UPSC coaching options don’t necessarily have a physical presence in Delhi. They successfully run their operations from various Indian states, such as Punjab, or cities like Pune and Jaipur.
Start-up coachings like Unacademy, Byjus, Vedantu, TheHinduzone.com, Gyanaj.com started serving students as per their needs. Not only big companies with huge corporate funding but even teachers started their own guidance platform independent from coaching. Teachings of qualified and best teachers started reaching far corners of India. Earlier teachings of best UPSC coachings in Delhi remain limited to students of Delhi only, and the best teachers used to teach majorly in Delhi or metro cities of India.
Different types of online UPSC coaching started serving with different offerings at different costs through different IAS exam courses.
Different Types of Online UPSC Coaching
a. Only Video lectures of best UPSC teachers (Pen drive mode): An outdated methodology of digital teaching which did not have the barrier of Internet connection and speed of buffering of lecture was in practice majorly has evolved.
b. Recorded Video lectures delivered online in LMS of UPSC online coaching ( Learning management system): This is the most basic form of lecture delivery methodology being practiced by small coachings. This is considered the minimum standard of UPSC online coaching in the online coaching industry in 2024.
c. Live One-way Lecture: Another popular method for online UPSC coaching involves teachers delivering lectures through platforms like YouTube or specialized online platforms. In these UPSC online coaching classes, teachers present their lessons using a whiteboard and a large TV screen, allowing students to follow along visually. However, the ability to ask questions in real time is limited. Often, communication is one-way, with students sometimes submitting typed questions for the teacher’s discretion.
Concept of a large batch-size classroom was replicated in these UPSC online classes. Due to the large batch size, students usually hesitate to ask questions in the best IAS coachings in India, which leads to losing interest in topic and then with the subject. The same happens in this form of lecture, and as the fee is also less, with time, students stop thinking of money invested rather, they simply drop out of class.
d. Live Interactive classes for Online UPSC CSE coaching: It’s a two-way class with a limited number of students. Fostering a classroom-like environment, the students and teachers can connect with each other through three forms of communication: webcam, microphone, pen tab, and other instruments.
- Audio
- Video
- Script (written)
One of the biggest challenges after opting for the UPSC online coaching exam is that coaching sessions seldom can respond to students’ writing papers. Live interactive classes foster effective communication, allowing teachers to understand students’ issues with answer writing for Mains and optional papers and providing detailed feedback on written work.
These features - live interactive classes with small batch sizes - make online UPSC coaching through interactive platforms a compelling option. However, it is essential to remember that high-quality internet with a minimum speed of 128kbps to 256kbps is crucial for seamless communication.
e. Hybrid classes: Hybrid classes for UPSC coaching allow students to experience the environment of classroom classes, and it has the facility of all the above types with an addition to attend online or offline classes at will because the same class gets delivered to both students.
Apart from the above technical selection of online coaching quality, online UPSC coaching should also have the quality of the best UPSC coaching, which are as follows.
1. Faculty: Qualified faculty is very important for UPSC coaching. Teachers with experience in delivering quality education enhance the learning experience of students in online UPSC coaching. Qualified faculties will not come cheap. Qualified faculty must not be judged on the basis of only experience of teaching for UPSC CSE exam but should also be defined by the achievements of faculty during their educational career.
The college or university a teacher graduated from becomes a crucial consideration, especially when choosing faculty for optional subjects, essay writing, or answer writing. While for teaching subjects of prelims, a teacher must have experience in clearing prelims himself. The teacher needs to have at least cleared UPSC prelims exam in order to teach an optional subject in UPSC exam.
2. Batch Size: In online UPSC coaching, a large batch size is difficult to manage and will discourage communication and discussion amongst students. This environment is more prone to disruption. A student must focus on a small batch size for a proper learning environment for civil services exam preparation.
3. Teaching style at coaching: The teaching style of coaching and faculty shapes the learning of students, and it also varies depending on coaching to coaching. Different coaching institutes structure themselves as per the needs of students who are preparing for the civil services exam. Some students need coaching from the base, while others who have already read the syllabus a few times need coaching, which focuses on test series and practice papers.
Coaching institutes offer varying access to online class recordings. Some provide them for a limited period, only a couple of days at a time. Others hold live classes a few days a week and then delete the recordings. In the worst case, some limit how many times you can watch a specific lecture through their online learning management system (LMS). Don’t be fooled by a seemingly long course validity period if access to individual lectures is restricted. Some allow only one viewing, while others limit it to three. Fortunately, the best coachings, like Plutus IAS and Yojna IAS, allow students to watch lectures as many times as they need.
4. Quality of study material and access to online study material: Quality of study material is always important in identifying the quality of coaching. Coachings like Plutus IAS, Vajiram and Ravi, Vision IAS has a long history of good quality study material, and they keep updating their study material. However, for online UPSC coaching, the nature of study materials becomes particularly crucial. Students require access to both digital and printed resources, especially for subjects like Maths and PSIR optional.
Moreover, most big coachings only allow 3 or 7 days of access to their classroom recording of study material, but coaching like Plutus IAS allows access to its study material to its students preparing for UPSC CSE exam for the entire course along with unlimited access.
5. Kinds of Course: While choosing your UPSC online coaching, you also need to identify the courses in which you are taking admission as per the need of the student. Coaching duration from course is also important as some courses are 3 months while some are more than a year.
6. Good infrastructure of online class delivery: We have discussed all types of delivery infrastructure for an online class, from live lectures to hybrid classes, and a student can choose coaching as per his requirement and budget.
7. Test series: The UPSC Civil Service Examination (CSE) is a three-stage process: Prelims, Mains, and Personality Test (PT). Aspiring candidates require comprehensive test series and expert guidance at each stage to maximize their chances of success. Therefore, choosing the right online UPSC coaching program becomes crucial.
8. Take feedback from current student: Checking the reputation of a coaching from its current students is an important feedback mechanism that helps students identify the difference between commitment being done by UPSC online coaching and the actual delivery of services.
A few other important parameters that need to be kept in mind while choosing the best upsc online coaching are.
- Performance of students
- Background of coaching
- Past achievement of coaching
- Track record of coaching.
Keeping the above parameters in mind, the Fee for different Online UPSC coaching varies from Rs 5000 per year to about Rs 180000 per year, and adding FEE as a parameter, we have tried to help students choose the best upsc coaching online.
Best UPSC coaching online are as follows:
1. Plutus IAS: Fee of about Rs 50000 to Rs 180000 per year for different courses from optional to GS, PT, and Mains. Plutus IAS tries to meet the needs of students through online, classroom, and hybrid classes across India from Karol Bagh New Delhi. Plutus IAS has been ranked number 1 on the list of best online UPSC coaching because its hybrid class gives students unlimited access to their course for full course durations. Students can watch videos of Live and Hybrid sessions for an unlimited period. Answer writing and Essay writing papers are checked and sent to students at timely intervals. Students get the opportunity to take their test series in both modes, online and classroom.
2. Yojna IAS: Located at Mukherjee Nagar Delhi, it has been ranked 2nd on the list of best online UPSC coaching. Yojna IAS mainly provides Live interactive classes for its online UPSC coaching.
3. Gyanaj.com: It’s an app-based online coaching which provides courses as cheap as Rs 5000 for online GS course live and recorded. The fee is an important factor that brought this new online UPSC coaching to the list of best online UPSC coaching. Its teachers have also been sourced from best ias coaching in delhi, So the quality of teaching is also good, but the limitation with the teaching methodology of answer writing and paper check is not very student friendly and coaching charges extra.
4. TheHinduZone.com: TheHinduzone is a mentoring platform for UPSC candidates, and it also provides video lectures of the best teachers. It does not provide Live classes, but it provides mentoring sessions through its online UPSC mentoring programs.
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