HCS 2021 Final Result Update and Interview Video Transcript detailing the entire process.

https://youtu.be/96bM_1xojcY

As discussed, I've decided to postpone the Ethics course until after Prelims and would work on releasing the Prelims course soon.

I would help you solve all Qns from 2011-2021.

We would have two components.

1. Subject wise basic source crash course that would focus on Qns that needed your basic reading and I'll help you memorise and apply that knowledge.

2. Master Sherlocking series that would focus on Questions that needed only application of heuristics.

You would also have the option to purchase Modular courses, i.e. Only History/Geo/S&T etc PYQ discussion. Or the entire crash course. Or just the Sherlocking course focussing on heuristics. Or the entire module at once.

It's a big project and I want to maintain the highest quality as always. So I'll start releasing videos from March first/second week and should be done by April Mid/End.

Approximate pricing: Have to decide the price in such a way that I respect your pocket but at the same time, it's respectful to my time and intellectual investment. It'll be sub 10k for the entire package for sure, even lesser if I can get economies to scale. Individual crash courses would be around 1k each, Sherlocking would be around 2.5k-3k.

Kindly participate in the poll below so that I get a preliminary idea about the intent of interest.

Admissions in the Essay Course have been officially closed. I'll hopefully open the admissions again after Prelims.

Guys, I would be unavailable for next 2 weeks now. If you have any pending evaluations or activity classes, schedule them or put a gentle reminder on the @helpdeskupsc ID after 7th March. Thanks for cooperation.

Can't help but share. Amazing Mock Experience and learnt a lot.

Customary photo, because why not!

This exam is fiercely uncertain so I won't get my hopes too high but ig your love and wishes have been turning the tide in my favour so far.

Done with my interview.

Went much better than I could have expected.

I hope it doesn't flatter to deceive, which even if it does, won't meddle with my headspace because I played my part well.

Onto the next mission now. Releasing the Prelims course details soon, a Video Transcript of my experience and HCS 2021 Prelims solution. Plus I'll schedule a Gmeet with my Telegram/YouTube family soon! I'll ensure that you guys get the best shot this year.

UPSC Interview Transcript:

Date/session - 6th Mar/Forenoon
Board - Mrs Preeti Sudan Ma'am
Name - neilcantbirdwahtch
Attempt count - 5th Attempt, 1st Interview
Grad -  Instrumentation & Control(ICE) Engg
Hobbies - Walking, Online Virtual Football Competition
Duration - 25ish minutes

First one to go. Total 5 members, not a big room with the 4 members on their individual sofa chairs. Impeccably cordial and encouraging board. Felt like a really short interview imo. I gave elaborate responses, they didn't intervene in between. Most of the questions were analytical. Felt like it was actually just a conversation with a natural flow and transition. It didn't seem that they had readymade questions in advance barring one occasion with M4.

Chairwoman-

Ma'am tried to comfort me and put me to ease by telling me that it was just a friendly conversation to know me, and I should be relaxed and free to ask them for clarifications if any.

- So you were an Intern before and then a full time employee at the same company. What were your roles?(PMIC subdivision, PowerON module as an intern, Clocks module as an employee so cellular connectivity ensured in mobile systems during concurrencies)

- Why have we been experiencing call drops of late?

- Physical towers might be replaced with superior tech soon. What's the expected timeline in your opinion?(I told her that my knowledge was rudimentary and I can't give an informed estimate, she accepted the response with an encouraging "Fair enough")

- So you participate in Online Virtual Football Management Tournaments. Elaborate.

- Do you play football IRL?

M1- 

- You sound really articulate and I'm impressed by your structured and informed thought process. Tell me, how will you use this thought process in administration?

- From your profile, it looks as if you're a Privileged Delhi boy who has good educational credentials, works in a well paying job and who is now looking to come work in government for a new experience. What do you have to say to that?

- Tell me honestly, why CSE?

- This is a good response but a typical response we occasionally hear. Tell me what you can add to the administration with your academic credentials.

- EPL(Premier League) is flushed with money. What do you have to say about that?

- So does money matter?

M2- 

- How will you use the knowledge of instrumentation and control in administration?

- Delhi pollution, how to solve?

- Use of data in handling pollution?

- Are you aware of the recent issue surrounding data related to kids/minors?

- C emissions, what should be the response?

- Any specific fund catering to this problem?

M3-

- So you spoke about EV in your response to pollution problem, how to encourage EV usage?

- Can you see India moving to exclusively EV based ecosystem in the next 5 years?

- Shouldn't govt create a complete charging ecosystem prior to pushing for EV? Why/Why not?

- Will EV also push the envelope of vehicular safety and telematics further?

M4-

- Every citizen whether rich or poor needs govt support. What can govt do better for citizens, give me some 5-6 reforms required and how to realise them on the ground?

- Speak for a minute in support and against the statement "India will get old before it gets rich".

Chairwoman-

- Your Interview is over, you may leave-

While i was getting up forgot my mask on the table, I was reminded to pick it up by by M1. I politely thanked him for reminding me. I also wasn't able to locate the crease of the door immediately while going out due to curtains and a good camouflaging paint xD.

Overall experience and transcript:

https://youtu.be/De_tPnncgIA

Students who have pending evaluations, put a gentle reminder with @helpdeskupsc.
Also arrange your activity classes at the earliest so that you wrap Essay up in time and move to full fledged prelims prep asap!

This is my sister's Interview Transcript from today. Her interview was slightly longer than mine. This was her second interview, she already scored 187 in 2021(TCA Anant sir's board) and got allocated Indian Trade Services. Hopefully she'll come interact on the platform soon based on her bandwidth.

Date: 07th March 2023
Forenoon session
Shri R. N. Choubey Board
Optional: Mathematics
First one to go.

Chairperson:

You can take a seat and relax. We are just going to have  a natural conversation. If you don’t know anything, don’t hesitate to let us know. We don’t expect you to know everything and that’s not even humanly possible. If you don’t have any covid related symptoms you can remove your mask.

- Tell us about your educational qualifications and work experience.

- Can you tell us about any major govt scheme or initiative in health sector?

- Who all are covered in the Ayushman Bharat scheme?

- This year’s budget allocation to the scheme.

- Suppose you are the health minister and madam finance minister call you before announcing the budget and asks you for the allocation under the scheme. What would you do?

- Give funds to the private hospitals to facilitate the healthcare under the Ayushman Bharat mission, or

- Allocate the funds to develop primary healthcare infrastructure.

- Talked about suboptimal allocation, where if you split up the resources none of the concerned sectors gain benefit. So you have to choose one to allocate.

- If you ask a common man on ground if he wants to go to the government primary health centre or a private hospital, what would he choose?

- Now if you still choose contrary to what the people want, how will you convince the PM then? We are a democracy after all and there are elections every 5 years.

-  Why would the common man be convinced by your arguments. They will say that every govt gives us these big promises, yet nothing changes on ground. Just give us the Ayushman Bharat card and we will go to the private hospital. How will you tackle that?

- How to resolve this dilemma of long term public interest vs the instant political gratification?

Member 1:

- Collegium vs NJAC issue and which side are you on?

- Why was the judiciary against it?

- Do you think the current system is fair?

- What changes should be brought in the process of judicial appointments?

- There are a lot of talks about UCC. Do you think it should be implemented? (Which side are you on)

- Why even after so many years, there is no progress on it?

- Do you know of any state which has it in place?

Member 2:

- Stubble burning is such a big contributor in Delhi pollution. Stubble is also used as a fodder for animals. Then why this prevalence of stubble burning?

- What steps have been taken by the government to tackle this issue?

- Is GobarDhan scheme going to help in this?

- Is there some financial component involved in it for the farmers?

Member 3:

- I would like your comment on India’s foreign policy.

- We are close to Russia, we have good relations with Ukraine. They both are at war. What is our stand on it? Give me an assessment of that.

- Is Russia listening to us?

- Why are we hosting the G20 summit?

- What does India stand to gain out of it?

- Is it not pushing China and Pakistan even closer?

Member 4:

- Suppose you are posted in the social justice department and you have to formulate a policy on street children. What would be the aims and objectives of that policy?

- You have a particular amount of fund for this. What would you choose?

 - Make infrastructure for government run shelter homes, or Give funds to NGOs to run shelter homes.

- Won’t NGOs perform well on such social initiatives?

- There are several services constituted by the government, one of which you yourself are a part of. The govt handles a huge amount of funds. There are some checks by CAG, ECI etc on that. However, don’t you think we should have a specialised service for accountability?

- All the members of these bodies ultimately look up to  the govt for their future assignments. Would having an independent body help in such a situation?

- Which system of recruitment is better?

- The UPSC like independent body recommending the candidates, or The earlier discussed NJAC or collegium system one.

- What would you choose to be?

- The smartest person in the room, or the most hardworking one.

- Why? What are the reasons for that?

Chairperson:

Your interview is over. We had a great time talking with you. Do you want to tell us something more? We give this opportunity to every candidate. So if you have anything you want to talk to us about other than what we have discussed, you can tell us.

Overall, the panel was very cordial and engaging. The interview felt as if it revolved around the theme of would you rather :P

It was diametrically opposite to my last interview where the discussion revolved around my DAF mostly. This time nothing from DAF was asked.

UPSC 2022 Medical Process Explained:

https://youtu.be/W4ifDd6ggFY

Sneak peek into the course. Details and demo video to be out tomorrow!

Hey guys, opening the enrollments into the Master Sherlocking Series-Prelims 2023 course.

Orientation Video: https://youtu.be/IHMQXK8QZSo

Demo Videos:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFrAJkEb21Aw-F1VhLk9b1LstQh4zeU_R

Brochure for MSS_Pre23

First video of the course, supplementary video for 2022 is available to watch. Enrolled students should kindly check their telegram and registered email inboxes.

Memory is like Parshuram's Curse to Karna.

It evades you when you need it the most.

That has been a common theme of my preparation cycle.

And that's why I had to create Sherlocking, the process to identify an answer based on conceptual clarity and application of common sense, something I learnt from my extensive reading of Panchtantra from an early age.

But what if you have a pile of facts lying in front of you waiting to be memorised and the edifice of 'concepts' doesn't exist!?

That's where memory tools come into play.

I have been using memory aids like mnemonics since a couple years to feed seemingly dense info inside my head.

The video link shared below is an illustration of how I memorise the rough locations of 75 wetland sites without burdening my memory cells.

You can create your own mnemonics on similar lines.

I'm certain this would help you.