Vajiram and Ravi

Ask anyone who has prepared for IAS in New Delhi about the best coaching institute and the probability is very high that you will get an affirmative answer for Vajiram and Ravi. Indeed, Vajiram and Ravi is the most sought after coaching class for Civil Services Examination in Delhi. But, if you take the whole preparation in clear perspective then definitely it is not the best one. As for example, for General Studies the ALS and Ensemble is delivering far much better than Vajiram and Ravi.

Vajiram and Ravi was established in 1976. And since then it has delivered better results. It has successfully aligned itself with changes made in the recruitment process of Civil Services. When Kothari Committee recommendations were adopted in 1979, it was Vajiram and Ravi who snatched the chance and dramatically changed the perspective of preparing students for Civil Services.

The institution is located in Rajendra Nagar, Delhi. And, to its credit the institute has not opened any other branches despite huge popularity all over India. In fact, by concentrating on single branch the institute has successfully concentrated on closer teacher-students relation.

If you have taken Psychology as one of your options for Mains then definitely Vajiram and Ravi must be your first choice. The Psychology section of this institute has consistently produced toppers. And, more importantly almost all students who studied Psychology at Vajiram and Ravi are satisfied. This all happens because of the impeccable teaching manner of Mr. Mukul Pathak. One more thing, at grey market in Delhi for pirated [photo copied] notes of Psychology, it is Mukul Pathak who rules. It means to say that even for those students who are not getting availed by the impeccable teaching technique of Mukul Pathak trust him more than anyone else. 

There was a time when Vajiram and Ravi used to rule the sphere of General Studies preparation for Civil Services. However, since last ten years it is not able to show its leadership position. ALS led by Jojo Mathews and Ensemble led by K. Sidhartha are able to provide better result. The reason is Vajiram and Ravi’s inability to cope with surprising pattern of General Studies paper year after year. When the emphasis was on Current Affairs in Prelims GS then Vajiram and Ravi was not providing special classes for Current Affairs for its students. It simply gives students notes from The Hindu. However, CSAT 2011 has shown that noting down Current Affairs issues from The Hindu is not important. One needs to go a step ahead and try to decipher the related stuffs. Lots of questions from CSAT GS were from the Hindu Editorial and The Hindu Magazine [Sunday]. No institutes touched these two sections for CSAT/Prelims. 

Vajiram and Ravi is also charging huge amount of fee which is simply not proper. There is also charge of tax evasion by Vajiram and Ravi by the very nature of its collection of fees.

The admission process of Vajiram and Ravi is really different. It has innovatively started a token system where an aspirant has to take a token to reserve seat. To take a token students have to stand in the queue for the whole night. Is it proper in this technological advance age. Vajiram and Ravi should seriously think about that and they should choose a different path.

In a nutshell, Vajiram and Ravi is the best institute for you if you are preparing IAS with Psychology as one of your optional in mains. However, it is not worth money, time, and energy for GS, CSAT, and other optional.