"I haven’t seen a single candidate whether successful or unsuccessful who has not been associated with a coaching institute in some manner or the other. You may take the full package of GS, coaching for the optional or may go for subject specific coaching; you may take only the test series or the interview guidance, in any case you are associated with the coaching and howsoever miniscule but the contribution of a coaching institute does exist in your success or may be in your failure!

But the irony is that very few candidates clear CSE in the same year as that of the coaching. And why is this so? Because it is a challenge to balance the time between coaching and self-study. Coaching becomes treacherous the moment you attend only the coaching and study less in your room. It becomes your enemy when the maximum time of your entire day is consumed in the institute and at the night you are too tired and fatigued to study alone at your room.

If you decide to join a coaching then enroll in the month of june/july/august so that the course may be completed by the month of march/april the next year which will give you at least 2 or 3 months of self-study before preliminary exam. If you have missed September, it is advisable that you study on your own. Read the preliminary and the mains section of this handbook and you will find all the aid required for a starter to take off the studies from scratch.

Further, it is advisable that coaching should not be more than 3 hours a day and that too for not more than 3 or max. 4 days a week. Trust me, you need two or three days in a week to consolidate what you have studied in coaching. I must narrate you the story of a girl who had joined a very reputed coaching targeting CSE 2014. I had written preliminary in 2013 when she had just joined the coaching. After an year, I got selected and by that time she had decided to quit her preparations. When I asked why, here is what she had to say, “Continuously for three months I attended the coaching without any break, not even on Sundays, from 9 am to 5 pm. The course piled up and registers of class notes had to be kept on a separate bed. I then realized that I can’t target CSE 2014 and I may not even try for 2015 also!”

So, my dear friends, coaching should ease your preparation, a teacher must guide you as a philosopher and friend and in the end your decision to join coaching must help you come out with flying color. Thus, one must be careful in choosing such a program that suits to your requirement rather than just going for the brand and crowd!"