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IOI test series started way long back in Sep 2014 and it had around 33 tests. Was the test series worth the amount? Did it cover Current Affairs exhaustively?How helpful did it turn out to be during the actual prelims?Please post your reviews.
I did about 10 tests. I'm getting b/n 135-145 in actual prelims according to various keys.
Feedback
1. Coverage - good. They tried to cover a lot of stuff and did well imo. Important areas were adequately emphasized.
2. Quality of questions - umm, it was ok. Some very ambiguous statements that a UPSC-level paper shouldn't make;, some were wrong/bad. Some were good, few were excellent.
All in all I'd attribute 1 question to them (i.e from what I didn't already know like IndARC). In their website they are claiming 60 so check that out as well to get a balanced perspective.
Just a sidenote - test series is ancillary to your real preparation. It is mostly to make you realize that there are areas you haven't covered. Never rely on some test-series as any kind of a factor to help you clear prelims.
its a good series for practice...their structure is good.makes revisions easier...i am getting about 130 in prelims....and again its not about how many questions came from their tests...its about how u revise the subjects......their ncert tests were very nice too...eg after 2-3 readings of ncert...just go through the test covering the topic and the job is done...so it helped me...
Positives I don't mind paying the 6k for the test series because they are also providing a lot of free services I liked their ethics and commitment Coverage is exhaustive Schedules were adhered to, not much delays They provide a discussion page for each test. Vision does not provide any such facility.
Negatives Corrections to mistakes were sent at the dead end. I did not even have time to look at them
They don't reply to the mistakes/queries we raise in the test discussions page
Their claim of 60 questions indirectly must be looked at rationally. After 3300 questions you are bound to cover 60% issues, if not more. Thing is if the issue has been looked at from the perspective that UPSC has framed the question.
Thehindu news paper might as well claim 100% of the current affairs.
English is bad at times. They could use a technical and language review before conducting tests.
They are creating confusion using words at play rather than the concepts. Of course to increase the toughness one has to resort to such techniques because while UPSC has to prepare only one paper IOI or Vision have to create thousands of questions. Insights confuses with words while Vision asks for unnecessary details.
Frustrating part - They don't provide the questions in their solutions file. You have to shift between your excel file, Question paper and Solutions file. That is the most taxing part. I liked Vision or Dhamma for the Question and solution given together.
No ranking - You don't get any rank to assess yourself with the rest of the aspirants. That is good in a certain way too
They don't mention the source for every question/explanation in the solution file. Aspirant would sometimes wonder where did he miss the issue or would not know where to cover the issue. Ofcourse they mention the syllabus for each test, but it would have been helpful had they provided the sources of corresponding book or hyperlink
Bottomline( Insights Website + Testseries) Insights has revolutionized the civils preparation Hatsoff for the vision the founders had It's still in the building process, so I am guessing they will only improve in the future It is far better organized than mrunal.org ( Aesthetics, structure, utility, interactive, content ) They are working on tight deadlines (Evident from their test series mistakes, lack of response to technical queries but quick on general comments :P) Sometimes they take criticism very personally . They should ignore the irrational criticism.
bought xerox copies of IOI test series consiting of 27 tests .. from orn...cud finish upto 20th just a day before the exam...it was quite helpful,,,...helped me a lot during final days #didnt took any other test series #didnt took any coaching
i also get enrolled in their test series and wasnt disappointed at all...it helped me to cover topics in a time bound manner...they were punctual as well..but they came out with their corrections in all the test at the same time..that too very late which i was not able to do and it did create some confusion..otherwise its worth joing their test series
good coverage of current affairs..as well as ncerts they lack the zing for the tricky environment part.
i wish they start a bit late and finished a bit early for 33 tests.their schedule was loose at start and then rushed off in the end. also, they could have used some section wise tests for history geography and env. and culture. and then moved to full length tests. overall much better than gsscore/drishti. at par or slightly better than vajiram/srirams.
I really liked working with their test series. Helped me a lot to maintain the momentum. Questions were also good. Coverage of current affairs was awesome. But it is better to complement it with either vision/CL.
solved all the 55 tests of IOI , i.e. 2014-15...never scored more then 80...scored 112 in real prelims...thankful to IOI ...darr banaaye rakhne ke liye.. beware there are muliple wrong answers in the solution booklets...thought the standard of test series is goo
It was very useful. I took print outs of the question paper and answer in 'booklet' form (option available while printing). This makes it much easier to refer to question and answer, compared to opening two PDFs on your screen. It's also useful for quick revision in the end. However, don't expect to simulate a real test-taking environment solely on the insights test series. It acts more like a base to cover important topics from NCERTs and current affairs. Taking a real test series (under time constraints and with relative percentiles) like visionias helped me realize what level of preparation I was at, and what level the exam required of me. It also helps in moulding exam strategy, time management etc. However, the insights test series can really be a very good base and aid for your preparation, and I would go so far as to say that it's a MUST, especially if you're not enrolled in a coaching class, don't know exactly what to cover, which areas are important etc. To supplement my preparation for current affairs, I compiled their daily current affairs into 2 PDFs for each month, using this software PDF split and merge which merges PDFs in a matter of seconds. So the test series may not provide you with complete coverage of current affairs, but the website has rich resources that can supplement your overall preparation at no extra cost! For all their freely available additional resources, I felt good about paying for the test series and supporting their good work.
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Comments
Feedback
1. Coverage - good. They tried to cover a lot of stuff and did well imo. Important areas were adequately emphasized.
2. Quality of questions - umm, it was ok. Some very ambiguous statements that a UPSC-level paper shouldn't make;, some were wrong/bad. Some were good, few were excellent.
All in all I'd attribute 1 question to them (i.e from what I didn't already know like IndARC). In their website they are claiming 60 so check that out as well to get a balanced perspective.
Just a sidenote - test series is ancillary to your real preparation. It is mostly to make you realize that there are areas you haven't covered. Never rely on some test-series as any kind of a factor to help you clear prelims.
I don't mind paying the 6k for the test series because they are also providing a lot of free services
I liked their ethics and commitment
Coverage is exhaustive
Schedules were adhered to, not much delays
They provide a discussion page for each test. Vision does not provide any such facility.
Negatives
Corrections to mistakes were sent at the dead end. I did not even have time to look at them
They don't reply to the mistakes/queries we raise in the test discussions page
Their claim of 60 questions indirectly must be looked at rationally. After 3300 questions you are bound to cover 60% issues, if not more. Thing is if the issue has been looked at from the perspective that UPSC has framed the question.
Thehindu news paper might as well claim 100% of the current affairs.
English is bad at times. They could use a technical and language review before conducting tests.
They are creating confusion using words at play rather than the concepts. Of course to increase the toughness one has to resort to such techniques because while UPSC has to prepare only one paper IOI or Vision have to create thousands of questions.
Insights confuses with words while Vision asks for unnecessary details.
Frustrating part - They don't provide the questions in their solutions file. You have to shift between your excel file, Question paper and Solutions file. That is the most taxing part.
I liked Vision or Dhamma for the Question and solution given together.
No ranking - You don't get any rank to assess yourself with the rest of the aspirants. That is good in a certain way too
They don't mention the source for every question/explanation in the solution file. Aspirant would sometimes wonder where did he miss the issue or would not know where to cover the issue. Ofcourse they mention the syllabus for each test, but it would have been helpful had they provided the sources of corresponding book or hyperlink
Bottomline( Insights Website + Testseries)
Insights has revolutionized the civils preparation
Hatsoff for the vision the founders had
It's still in the building process, so I am guessing they will only improve in the future
It is far better organized than mrunal.org ( Aesthetics, structure, utility, interactive, content )
They are working on tight deadlines (Evident from their test series mistakes, lack of response to technical queries but quick on general comments :P)
Sometimes they take criticism very personally
#didnt took any other test series
#didnt took any coaching
they lack the zing for the tricky environment part.
i wish they start a bit late and finished a bit early for 33 tests.their schedule was loose at start and then rushed off in the end.
also, they could have used some section wise tests for history geography and env. and culture.
and then moved to full length tests.
overall much better than gsscore/drishti.
at par or slightly better than vajiram/srirams.
beware there are muliple wrong answers in the solution booklets...thought the standard of test series is goo
However, don't expect to simulate a real test-taking environment solely on the insights test series. It acts more like a base to cover important topics from NCERTs and current affairs. Taking a real test series (under time constraints and with relative percentiles) like visionias helped me realize what level of preparation I was at, and what level the exam required of me. It also helps in moulding exam strategy, time management etc.
However, the insights test series can really be a very good base and aid for your preparation, and I would go so far as to say that it's a MUST, especially if you're not enrolled in a coaching class, don't know exactly what to cover, which areas are important etc.
To supplement my preparation for current affairs, I compiled their daily current affairs into 2 PDFs for each month, using this software PDF split and merge which merges PDFs in a matter of seconds. So the test series may not provide you with complete coverage of current affairs, but the website has rich resources that can supplement your overall preparation at no extra cost! For all their freely available additional resources, I felt good about paying for the test series and supporting their good work.