Should I join a coaching institute for Bank exams preparations ?
At least a dozen of people ask this question every week via various channels. Today I am going to explain why exam preparation at home is better than coaching institutes.
Shortcut techniques
No coaching institute is going to teach you shortcut technique for any chapter because shortcut techniques never gives 100% accurate answers in all possibilities.That's why I don't share all the techniques are as some of you find these techniques funny.
While preparing yourself, you will find many shortcut techniques and you gradually you will draft some techniques yourself.
I have seen few students who solve every question from Quantitative Aptitude section using Algebraic equations only and I have also seen students who solve every question using estimation techniques only. Both of these students prepared for just 3 months and they cracked IBPS PO.
Low standard of teaching at coaching institutes
Let's accept a fact that salary of a PO is around Rs.40,000 (After June 2015) and institutes pay Rs.300 to Rs.500 per 2 hours lecture to a teacher. Don't you think it will be better to become a PO then working as a casual labour ?Then why are working as teachers ?
Because they are trying in competitive exams from past many years and unable to crack any exam.
So what they are teaching you ?
They are actually not teaching you anything. You score won't improve at all if you solely rely on them.
Believe me, sometimes I find a new student is better at Maths or English than his/her teacher at a coaching institute.
Low quality study material
How many of you have seen 200 pages Quantitative Aptitude book at a coaching institute ?If your answer is yes then tell me if it is possible to cover whole Quantitative Aptitude syllabus in 200 pages.
As many of you might know that I started my coaching class last year. We printed our study material and gave it to students. Only Data Interpretation workbook consist of 200 pages.
It took me around 3 months to complete Quantitative Aptitude syllabus. While I charged Rs.4000 per student foe whole course including study material.
I end up incurring huge losses.
I realized why coaching institutes provide 200 pages Quantitative aptitude book. They want to complete the whole syllabus within 2 months. That's not enough.
It is not financial feasible to provide quality content and teachers to students.
Batch size should be 10-12 and fee for course and study material should be at least Rs.25,000. Course duration should be at least 5 months. But nobody is ready to pay this much. In short institutes are interested in making money but they can't make money by providing quality education.
Difficulty level practice questions
If you have ever been to a coaching institute, you might have realized that everything is so easy. From concept to practice questions and even their test series.Why they do this while everybody knows the fact that exams are getting harder?
Because if institutes provide hard questions then they need to provide detailed explanations to students and they don't have skilled teachers. After every chapter there are 20 questions and you can't bring any question out of these 20 questions.
No SWOT analysis
Who is interested in knowing your strengths or weaknesses ?It's only up to you.
If you are preparing at home or with your friends, you can find your weaknesses and then you can work on it.
Benefits of preparing at Home or in a Group
- Study at your own speed. If you think you need more time for an easy Probability chapter then you need not to take permission from anybody.
- Get the best and updated study material.
- Save time and invest that time on reading newspapers and practice model papers
- Save money
Candidate preparing at home have higher probability of cracking the exam. Never get impressed by success rate of coaching institutes. I have seen many institutes in Ludhiana and Delhi who pay Rs.5000 to Rs.10,000 to successful students for their permission to print their photographs on their pamphlets and newspaper ads.
I wanted to write about this issue from past many weeks. Two years back I helped 2 students without any fees. They cracked the SBI PO and SEBI exams. I didn't want any credit for that. After few months I saw their pictures on ads of a well known coaching institutes. They took Rs.5,000 each for their permission. I never expect people to praise my work but they helped an coaching institute to cheat dozens of students.
Find a mentor, make study groups. That's the best way to prepare.
Please give me your opinion in the comments section.
