UPSC Interview is the final stage of a year long Civil Services Exam process and is indeed the final rank decider. The competition goes stronger and stiffer at this stage as more than 4 lakhs candidates fight to make their place in the final 1000 seats. Unlike the other 2 stages of Civil Services Exam, Interview stage does not have any defined syllabus, all you need here is the experts’ advice on how to handle the final and most crucial stage of Civil Services Exam. And here comes IAS Mock Interview into the picture.
First impression is last impression! The moment you enter the interview room, you will be judged by the board of competent and unbiased observers. Your walking style, your dressing sense, your body language, your communications skills, your overall personality will be judged. Make sure to keep yourself formally dressed and work on your body language well.
Here, we strongly recommend you to take atleast 2 to 3 IAS Mock Interview before you face the final interview. There are many IAS coaching institutes which provide mock interview and prepare you for the final quest. Coaching Institutes which conducts such mock interviews maintains the atmosphere which is akin to the actual UPSC interview with the panel of experts including ex or serving officers, psychoanalysts, well experienced academicians and other subject experts who closely examine the candidates and prepare them for the final interview round. Remember that the real perspective of IAS personality test is not checking your General knowledge; it is something more than that.
Wondering why are we speaking so high of the Mocks? Here’s why
- Interview Session with an Eminent Panel: Academies conducting the Mock Interviews ensure that the panel members are eminent personalities from the Civil Services Fraternity. The panel of experts includes currently serving bureaucrats &top retired IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS Officers, Senior Psychoanalyst, renowned academicians and highly qualified professional from different fields. The highly esteemed panel with rich experience in different fields will scrutinize you & your personality through the eyes of your DAF & their expertise at handling the nurturing Administrators. They will ensure you manifest the right most administrative traits in your actions & take that confidence at par before addressing the actual UPSC board.
“It’s always intelligent decision to explore your potential with the Masters!”
- Get interview ready in Real time environment: A few prominent Academies conduct interview in an ambience which is akin to the actual UPSC interview to provide you with the realistic environment and experience. This ambience could be a 5-star property or the set-up similar to that of the UPSC CSE Interview set-up. This is done so to give you an experience of the actual interview and help you develop the required focus and confidence to face the esteemed panel at the Interview.
- Be questioned & not judged: Mock Interviews are the best place to be questioned on the UPSC pattern and not be judged for what you are. Examiners will not judge but question you on your personality & interests, topics of National & International importance, Logical reasoning over imaginary situations, etc. and critically assess you on the grounds of personality, general knowledge, and ethical standards. They will even hint you at the major shortcomings which may pull you down at the final interview round.
Now don’t you think this could be one big reason to take up Mocks before the real quest of facing the UPSC Interview panel?
- Inculcate the right most traits under Experts guidance: As mentioned above, experts sitting at the Mock Interviews are eminent personalities from the Civil Services Fraternity so as to analyze you not just on the grounds of UPSC but also frame you in situations they could have faced during the course of their Job and allow you to bring out the best possible solution or reasoning to actions in that particular situation. Such discussions are enriching for an aspirant to think from an administrator’s perspective. Apart from this, the post interview panel discussion with the esteemed personalities helps you polish your administrative traits and thought process automatically turns to think like a civil administrator.
- Post Interview Performance Analysis: Panel discussion at the post interview performance analysis is a great benefit for Civil Services Aspirants to rectify the loopholes and their weak sections to be worked upon. Examiners will scrutinized your performance in the initial stage and will give you a thorough feedback and valuable suggestions on right ways of presenting the answer, keeping write body language, and other ways to enhance their performance at the final quest and also the highlight the areas you need to focus on.
- Self-evaluation with recorded session: Interview session(Interview + Panel Discussion) is video-recorded and a DVD of the same is provided to the candidate so that the candidate can view their own interview and self-evaluate their performance in the comfort of their home and at a much relaxed state while also understanding what was highlighted by the interviewers & why. For instance an examiner might share a point you should have said while answering but only at a relaxed state of mind you might realize that you knew the answer better but just couldn’t say or skipped over a point for some particular reason (that could be nothing major but nervousness). Find out your reasons of skipping over the crucially important points while self evaluating your performance and ensure you work on them under guidance of someone who will help you make the needful corrections. In this particular case you might want to write those skipped over points and place them at a place close to your study table or a particular section of the house where you dwell the most. And practice these talk sessions with someone elder or experienced to win over your nervousness as well.
- Watch Live Mock Session for other aspirants: While at the Interview location, candidates waiting for their chance can watch live interviews of other candidates. This helps them learn from others’ mistakes and practice the right techniques before facing the panel.