In the recently announced IAS results, it was interesting to see that over 100 selected candidates had made use of technology to assist their preparation. These students had joined live classes from existing top IAS teachers conducted online via NeoStencil.com, a startup of alumni from AIIMS, IIT, IIMs.
Annually UPSC civil services exam receives over 12 lakh applications. Many of these are not able to do complete justice to their preparation due to financial constraints, family commitments, or working schedules. Traditionally, preparing for IAS has been very expensive. The cost incurred is not only the course fees, but also the dilemma of leaving jobs, and the relocation expenses candidates have to bear to move to coaching capitals.
To overcome this problem, many students have started using online platforms, such as NeoStencil, to connect with teachers of their choice.
According to Abhilash Mishra (AIR 5), "Time management was the key in my exam preparation. I am already in the Customs and Excise services undergoing training and it was very important to manage time while working. Usually, aspirants struggle in managing time and juggle between conflicting schedules of classes at various Institutes. NeoStencil offered me an opportunity to attend online IAS classes of the same teachers I already wanted to study from."
Abhilash is one of many who have benefitted from technology. "I couldn't afford to go to Delhi to attend classroom programme of my favorite teacher but these live classes made me felt like I was in Old Rajender Nagar while studying from home at midnight," shares another successful aspirant, Manuj Jindal, AIR-53.
In the recently announced UPSC mains result 2016, over 500 selected rankers were student from classroom programmes of NeoStencil's 25 partner institutes and over 100 of those were enrolled with live online classes. "We are super excited and happy that almost 1 in every 2 successful candidates is a student of our partner institute. This is a testimonial to the quality of teachers we enable through our platform," shares Co-Founder, Kush Beejal.
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Sharing more on NeoStencil, he said, "It's an online platform founded in 2014 by alumni from AIIMS/ IIT/ IIM and is used by top coaching institutes & teachers across India to deliver their classes live online."
Other than this startup that works on a marketplace model, there are other players that have started delivering online classes through recorded tablets, pen-drives, etc. Such technology companies are changing the way exam preparation is done these days and are here to stay and help India move towards its goal of inclusive education.