Coaching or No Coaching

This is one of the difficult questions to answer. The answer to this depends completely on Individual Capacity, strategy, Financial condition, and time at your disposal. I know both kind of people who have cleared the exam with and without the coaching. Individually I did not take any coaching but believe me there  is no hard and fast rule for the same.
                     
                                     Remember you are here to clear the exam and it does not matter how you achieve it. Only End result matters. My advice is to go through the subject which you have to appear for. Check how comfortable you are with the subject. If you think you can self prepare , go ahead else look for guidance.

    Selecting coaching institutes is again a daunting tasks. Either you can go for standard one in Delhi which have produced results in recent past or you can go on for trial and error. The more famous one have bigger batch strength and you have to be smart to get all your doubts cleared. You can also try to attend some free classes of lesser known Institutes and see if you are getting right and personal guidance over there.You will get list of Institutes from any Civil Services prep magazine like Civil Services Chronicle, Frontline etc.

                              The most important point is that you have to be very cautious in assessing the cost-benefit factor. The cost is not just financial but your time is also equivalent to money. So if you have made a bad selection of Institute or the quality has gone down don't hesitate to call it a day. This will save you from further trauma.