SSC CGL 2013 Tier 2 - Result is Awaited

I am in a bind right now , whether to study in this festive season for 2014 Tier 1 or not. I am sure I am not the only one, there are many more brothers who share the same feeling. Sometimes I feel that it is better to wait for the result of Tier2 before jumping in the top gear preparation for CGL 2014 tier 1.  But at the same time I have the gut feeling that SSC is not kind enough to declare the results before its happening

It is rightly expected from SSC to declare the written results before conducting Tier 1 for 2014 exam. This is so because if SSC decided to delay the result then the same set of people who prepared for 2013 will also appear in 2014, as they are not sure what the tier 2 result has in store for them.

So basically these people will qualify again for the Tier 2 of 2014 . If SSC again conducts that before 2013 Interviews and Final Result, I fear that SSC is going to chose more or less the same lot for various vacancies.

Therefore the whole exercise will become redundant as there will be many people who will switch between jobs according to their preference and ranking. Overall there will be many unfilled vacancies in both 2013 and 2014 SSC CGL.

UPSC Civil Service and Indian Forest Service Result declared

UPSC declared Civil Service And Forest Service Prelim 2014  Result on 14 October 2014.
Here are the links for the results . Note that UPSC has published qualifying list only. Marks will be declared only after the whole process of this year's exam is over.

You will need your Roll Number to check whether you have qualified or not , so keep that handy.

UPSC Civil Service Pre 2014 Result - Click Here

UPSC Indian Forest Service Pre 2014 Result - Click Here

Myth Buster : SSC CGL State Allocation 2013 / 2014

Some food for thought for people spreading rumors and misinformation about SSC CGL 2013 / 2014 State Allocation : 

I had a conversation with an SSC official regarding this matter. He explained a few points but they are not SSC stand point so don't blame me and read on your own risk :P  ( please don't ask me about result dates, cutoff etc. , I dont know , neither does he )

SSC has decided not to allocate the states and left it to user departments. This is should not be a problem at all because user departments will follow merit list and ask for your preferences. SSC decided to do this just because it took SSC a lot of time and work for this trivial stuff and due to this result got delayed overall for even those categories where there was no state preference to be filled.

In fact for your knowledge , even UPSC does not allot the state cadres in civil services , it just allots you a service according to your preference and forwards the result to respective departments. The departments are then responsible for cadre allocation according to preferences and rankings.

So again advising serious aspirants not to fall in the trap of rumors and mark their preferences according to their marks and job they desire. In this RTI era you can always check whether the department you are finally allotted has given you state according to your preference and rank or not. Don't always be so pessimistic about changes being done, they are for your own good.

All the best for SSC CGL 2013 TIER 2 result and hopefully will see you guys during interviews.
This is my last post before SSC CGL 2014 Tier 1 probably , so good bye for 2 weeks.

Chao !!

My SBI PO - 2013 Interview Experience ( Finally scored 25/30 in interview and got selected too )

Hi all , I cleared SBI PO 2013 and was allotted Gujarat Circle. I am an alumni of Amity University Noida and a computer science engineer. While I was in college I was placed HCL but did not join for obvious reasons and started preparing for govt. exams.

My score in SBI PO - 

Objective(200)= 123 

Written(50)= 32 

GD(20) + Interview(30) =  12+25

Overall normalized score = 65 out of 100 (last general candidate selected at 63 normalized score)

I am hereby giving my interview experience as I scored really well in the interview , i.e. 25 out of 30.

The panel was of 4 male members . One of them was some kind of psychological expert , he never spoke.

Here it goes - I entered the room and they were already done with a quick look at my resume.

M1: you know German , you have mentioned it in your resume.
Me : yes. (totally caught unaware , never thought this will be the first thing they will ask after courtesies)

So M1  said that he also knows german
And started asking me very tough german word meanings
I told ki I know only basic stuff like counting , a few paras etc.
He asked counting in german and I answered correctly he was satisfied then.

M2 then asked about amity
He said that amity is big brand .. is it indian.. how many campuses? I told all about it . Was impressed
Told about achievements of my various seniors too in various disciplines.

M3 : then y u didnt join hcl??
 I told not good enough package i deserve more
 He said okk
 Then he asked ki what do you know in banking
I said that I know nothing much as i m engineering graduate and that I prepared banking basics like repo reverse repo crr slr etc
So he dint question further in that respect.

M3 said ki okk .. I want to know ki what do you know.. not what you dont know..

M1:  So tell me from which area i should ask  questions ??
Then i said ki you can ask from any general awareness topic Or gk stuff
So as they had my 4 biodata copies already with them, he said that you hv written reading as hobby.
I said yess i like to read historical fiction Like da vinci code , angels and demons,  Immortals of meluha, Etc etc. They got impressed.

So now the M2 guy took over
He said that I think you have interest in history
I said yes and then he started asking questions from history , like a quick fire round.

M2 :When was indus valley civilization established
I replied started 2500 bc and ended 1750 bc
He said ok.. now tell who deciphered indus valley script?
           I said it has not been deciphered.
           But he said no it has been.
           I said no u r wrong.

Then he said ok.. now tell about sarnath and sanchi?
 I told all historical facts related to them..
 Then he asked sabse tough who excavated sanchi??
 I remembered that i had somewhere read about Cunningham and guessed he was the one who did it.

He asked who was he ??
I replied first director general of archaeological survey of india. It was a guess so I asked permission to guess, was not sure about it at all.
Was really really impressed

Then asked about Lothal?

I told it was port city of harappan civilization
Then he stopped asking at last when i started reciting in front of him names of all excavators like b b lal  john marshal etc
In fact He said okk okk now you can stop. 

 And told that he gives me 100/100 in history and that i am very thorough with my interest but sadly it is not history exam. Not a great time to mock and I was quite nervous at that point of time. Point to mention - History is my UPSC optional. :)

So now M3 takes over. Our gd topic was " women are better managers ",  So all 8 people who spoke before me supported this theme.

But i was only one ( my turn was 9th ) who opposed this theory altogether. By saying being better manager has nothing to do with gender prejudice all are equal.. gave preamble and constitutional references. ( maybe this backfired = poor score in GD)

         
The panel was same in interview and gd ... and they noted down what I has said in GD
Now in interview when M3 started he said-
M3: you were very precise and too the point in GD. What did you think of gd topic as you were only one who vehemently denied it
Me : I said frankly it was absurd in my opinion. ( Absurd was not the right word to use but somehow came out of my mouth and He was taken aback .. I was also afraid that what have I said )

Then he asked tauntingly ( changed from appreciating stance )
M3 : what in your view should be the title then?
 I tried to calmly handle the situation
 I said that Sir what i want to say is that in india our constitution treats women as welfare subject because they were downtrodden  and ill treated .. but constitution never said that anyone is better than someone on the basis of prejudices of caste and gender etc.

He was now a bit relieved. The angry expression was gone from his face. I was relieved too . Phew!!
So i said that in my view it should have been " are women equally good managers " then i would have supported it...
 Now he was very much satisfied with this answer and nodded ...  And passed on again to the first guy.. ( the fourth guy infact never spoke during the half an hour interview )

After all such questions, M1 started with economics :
Why rupee is falling ,  Why gold price is falling,  What is policy paralysis,  FDI in bank, 

Can nationalised bank accept FDI specially SBI.
 In this question I was not sure so told that I guess that they cant.

 So now again after economics .. M2 had his turn :
 He asked me about recent supreme court judgments.
 I told the one about representation of people act 1951 related one  And about electoral reforms.

 Then he said that no there is one more. I told that supreme court has directed govt to regulate acid bottle sale due to attack on women
 Then he again said ki nhi another one  , I answered sir there is one more banning caste based rallies in UP .. but it is by allahabd high court.. i think you want to know about that.  Then he said that haan i wanted to know that.

 Now he asked about social problems in India.  I said that there are truck loads. Recited all indian problems one by one

Then atlast when they were all satisfied, they looked towards each other and said that you can leave now.

 Then i said good evening to all , specially to fourth guy who dint ask anything and came out.

What post preference should one give in SSC CGL exam ?

I also faced the same problem despite having a family member in ministry, only because there are so many departments each has its own problems, rules, cadre woes. No single person can possibly know what goes on in 30 other ministries/cbec/cbdt/ece/cvc/cbi/etc.  So I tried to put the info that I collected in one palce for helping others. I interacted with people who actually work there or who have worked there or have family member there. Thats how I tried to create a preference list for males and females. Example of excise can be taken - after cadre restructuring it will become a better department but all those gurus on various commercial sites having ads and selling books through links, dont even have this info , they are furnishing year old stats and saying excise is not good. We dont have to focus on what has been bad rather doing so on what will be good in our particular batch. Alas! But very few people are there who can gauge such things and minute details. Everyone thinks MEA is super awesome (this is 60s ka mindset foreign is no more distant just like flight ticket used to be , now everyone is flying. You dont even get proper promotions, but yes it is better than other ministries ofcourse). People dont realise that examiner and preventive are super risky posts , they always think of the riches. ( during my posting near Kandla SEZ in SBI - 3 preventive Officers were caught redhanded by CBI , now try and sleep with that money in jail , but ofcourse not everyone lands in jail. So you see there are many misconceptions about SSC posts, its not like IBPS or SBI PO that whatever bank it is work will be same. Apart from your scoring good in the exam , you also need to sit down and look for various pros and cons of each and every post.

One thing to clear is that no shoes fits all. Everyone has its own needs , requirements perceptions and misconceptions. A post should not be opted just because it has been going for high merit the reason being that most of the people are you who have opted for those despite having no clue about whats in store for them. Similarly if a post is going for low merit that does not mean it is bad, it is just that less people found them fitting in their scheme of things. Example : last year's topper Amandeep Singh chose assistant railway , it must have appealed to him somehow and nobody can comment on his judgement , he was eligible for all posts in every location you see. We dont know what was going in his mind. Similarly I came across people opting for SI CBI after being in top 100 too. 

Chalo hereby sharing what could be a good preference order : ( Examiner on top because if you place it anywhere low you are not going to get it )

For Males- http://clearfundaa.blogspot.in/2014/07/preference-list-to-be-given-for-ssc-cgl.html

For Females - http://clearfundaa.blogspot.in/2014/07/preference-order-list-to-be-given-for.html

Myth Buster - Rules regarding CSS cadre personnel transfer outside Delhi

So I have come across this official order on the net, and according to this CSS officials can be transfered outside Delhi. This is so because many attached offices are outside the NCR region. Anyways CSS also has All India Service Liability AISL condition in service rules.

This is the circular I am talking about - 

F No. 21/2/2009-CS.I(P)

Government of India

Ministry of Personnel Public Grievances & Pensions

Department of Personnel & Training

Dated the 5th October, 2012

Office Memorandum

Subject : Posting of officers of Section Office’s Grade and Assistants Grade of Central Secretariat Service to the posts located out side National Capital Region- procedure for

The offices of the Central Ministries/Departments participating in the Central Secretariat Service (CSS) are mostly located n National Capital Region (NCR). However, there are a few posts of CSS cadre which are located outside NCR, in the various regions of the country. The CSS being a transferable service members of the CSS are liable to be posted to such posts located outside NCR also. It has been decided with approval of the competent authority that to fill up such CSS posts which are located outside NCR, the following procedure would generally be adopted for the posts of Section Officers Grade and Assistants’ Grade :-

(i) The cadre-unit would fill up the post from only amongst their own personnel by circulating the post among them. In case of their inability to fill up the post the cadre-unit would request DOPT to circulate the post and invite applications from eligible CSS personnel.

(ii) The action to fill up the post may be initiated six months before arising of the vacancy.

(iii) An officer shall be selected for the particular post keeping in view all the relevant factors and instructions/guidelines.

(iv) The tenure of Section Officer and Assistant posted outside NCR may normally be 7 years on that post irrespective of their tenure in the main Ministry/Department.

(v) If no application is received after circulation by DOPT, the present incumbent may be allowed to continue on the post for one more year after which the post may be re-circulated.

(vi) DOPT (CS.I pision) may post any officer without taking his consent for posting outside NCR, in case of exigencies. This authority shall not be exercised by any cadre-unit.

2. The above stated procedure is only directory in nature and not mandatory and is therefore subject to administrative exigencies.

sd/-

(Gokul Chandra Rout)

Under Secretary to the Government of India

New India Assurance Administrative Officer Vacancy 2014 - 509 posts

New India Assurance has advertised the vacancy for Administrative Officers today.

They will be placed in the Pay Scale of 17240 (basic pay) at Scale 1. There are a total of 509 posts including both Generalists and Specialist streams.

Eligibility for Generalist cadre  - Graduation any stream.

Application Fees- Rs 600.

Last day to apply - 3/11/2014

Date of examination - 10/1/2015

This is the link for detailed Advertisement : Click Here

Comparing Railway Assistant (RBSS), CSS Assistant , AFHQ Assistant, Assistant Other Ministries

First thing to understand is that assistants be it in any ministry are having the same work profile. They do clerical / file work such as putting up a file for review, drafting, departmental case analysis etc. Basically everything that happens in a ministry starts at the level of assistant except decision making (lol).

PROMOTION in all assistant posts whether in AFHQ (Armed Forces Headquarter) , CSS, Railway , Other Ministries (4600 grade) is almost similar and it all depends on many factors such as the age of person while entering in service, cadre restructuring, cadre stagnation, cadre review ( i know lot of cadre terms but u will know them once you join any post through SSC). So one cannot really say that person in this ministry or that one will always get promoted faster (it is not always the same as I have told). Various cadres have seen alternate good and bad days and no one can really predict.   Fast track promotion in 4-5 years only if you clear departmental exam for Section Officer conducted by UPSC, else you will rot at assistant level for 8-9 years. This affects overall seniority list.
  
POSTING - All India Service Liability is associated with all assistant posts too, so if need arises you can be transferred anywhere. But the point to note is that currently they serve mostly in Delhi in various ministries, apart from assistant in CVC, Election Commission which you can opt for in Other Ministry option etc.

PAISA - clean white money, almost no chance of having a Swiss bank account. So the corrupt souls should not linger here. For most of the time you are being closely monitored by civil service direct entry lobby and they have all decision making power. (You start getting some decision power at Section Officer / Under Secretary level).
      
POWER / PRESTIGE - Its not a job where you can say “Tum jante nhi kya ki main Falana Ministry me assistant hun”. No one cares as you don’t have public dealing, hence no nuisance creating power. Prestige is good but it all again depends on you. How are your contacts, knowledge, postings and how u utilise them.
        
 PERKS- There are different perks in different ministries.  AFHQ - you get army canteen facility; buy everything at heavily discounted rates. Railway - free railway passes 2nd AC every year hence no LTC.  CSS - LTC is given as in all other departments.
  
I hope I have made things clear. These posts can be given preference in Range of 6-10 according to your own choice and judgement.

 Add queries and suggestions in comments and like the post for the hard work that I have done.
 Chao!!!

Cadre Restructuring in Central Board of Excise and Customs ( relates to examiner , preventive officer, excise inspector )

Promotions to Assistant Commissioner is where the cadre of examiner , preventive and excise merge.

Earlier promotions were made in ratio 1:2:6 respectively for examiner:preventive:excise. But the cadre of excise has much larger cadre than both and even a ratio of 6 could not give them good promotions. Whereas Examiner has very less personnel in its cadre so even a ratio of 1  is excellent.

Now after cadre restructuring , promotion ratio has changed to 1:2:13 so the extra 7 ranks in ratio will certainly mean much better progress for excise inspectors who are stagnating at various posts. This certainly means Achche Din for Excise Inspectors because when there are 16 vanacies for AC then 13 will go to excise promotee, 2 will go to preventive promotee, 1 will go to examiner promotee.

So people can give Excise Inspectors high preference in SSC CGL post preference order.

Info Source - Excise Union Websites

SSC CGL 2014 Admit Cards are available for download now

North Region - Click Here

Central Region - Click Here

North Eastern Region - Click Here

Madhya Pradesh Region - Click Here

North Western Region - Click Here

Kerala and Karnataka - Click Here

Eastern Region - Click Here

Western Region - Click Here

Cut Off prediction game for various posts at stake in SSC CGL 2013 , IBPS PO , SBI PO etc.

Keep one thing in mind and try to live with it that no one knows the cutoff except the SSC itself.

You just make sure that you have done the part that you were supposed to do alright (i.e. hard work and performing on exam day). If that is all done then there is no need or reason to fear the result . You are surely going to make it through if you have done well.

But for the time being you can ascertain that whether you have done well or not from the previous year result. If you are anywhere near that then you are good. If you are near the toppers then you are certainly in good position and can afford to shoo away the sleeplessness.

One thing that matters the most in the SSC CGL pattern is the interview stage. At this stage people usually get 30-80 marks. That means one can cover a gap of almost 25 -30 marks in written stage if one has prepared well for the interview. The performance in the interview can catapult you in the topper category and similarly over casual and I know all behavior might bring your score down.

So buck and stop having sleepless nights over the results and prepare hard for the interview.

Maybe this motivational talk has helped you , if it is so keep coming back for more !!! All the best.

How to select an Optional Subject for UPSC Civil Service Exam ?

Every UPSC aspirant faces this question when he is about to start his preparation. Your decision of choosing one optional has the capacity of catapulting among toppers or relegating you to low scores. This makes the optional subject choosing so crucial and hence you have to make a well informed and calculated decision.

 The answer to this question is not as simple as it seems. Many coaching institutes advertise that the optional subject which they are teaching has the most promising results and has least amount of syllabus to cover. Such advertisements do put the students into dilemma. If one has a guide to show him the way then it is well and good , otherwise the answer remains elusive.

Some of the aspirants have tendency to take the exam without any kind of special preparation so as to get the feel of the exam. But this strategy is the least recommended one and there are reasons for that. On one hand the aspirant loses his one attempt on the other he loses one precious year too.

So what are the things that one should consider before settling for a subject and putting one's hard work into it ?

Here are a few points which helped me choose my optional and may be they will help you too :

1. Buy or download the syllabus of UPSC and go through it many times. Try to make a framework of the syllabus of General Studies Papers in your mind (of course not asking you to cram).

2. Now read the basic concepts of topics like history, geography, sociology, philosophy, polity from the NCERT books. (you anyways have to do this step for your general studies preparation)

3. Now try to find an answer for the question whether any of the subject interested you much more than others , if yes then spend some time reading details of that and maybe you will agree with your previous perception or it will be evident that it was just a misconception.

4. For choosing Engineering, Medical, Anthropology etc. It is best to find out some person who is actually taking exam with those optionals ( best way is to talk to people who gather around coachings).

5. Another thing to do is that you spend some time with the previous year questions of the Optionals which you have zeroed upon. Try to gauge the depth of the questions and ascertain whether you have the caliber to handle such questions, if not then move to any other subject and if yes then well done.

6. While going through above steps don't spend more than 1-2 weeks in doing PhD research for each and every optional. And after some time you must have 2-3 optionals that you think are worth giving a shot.

7. Last advice is that choose a optional which you love, while reading which you don't feel sleepy and that in which you instead have the curiosity to know more and more. Don't spend time speculating which optional is more scoring. Each Optional is scoring and each has comparable depth of question ie. level of difficulty. And in the end UPSC does scale the marks of all optionals.

8. Now choose your perfect optional and keep working hard.

Why to select History as an optional subject for UPSC Civil Service Exam ?

I selected my UPSC optional subject after much consideration. I belong to english medium schooling and Computer Engineering background. The optional subject that I have selected is History.

Now why did I select History? I inquired many people about optional that they were preparing and their perception about that. First thing to do if you ask someone is making sure that he is a serious contender not a rumor monger and cutoff predictor.

This is what most of the people told me :
Optional A is very scoring, so take that.
Optional B is very easy to prepare.
Optional C has so less syllabus that it can be covered in 1 months.
Optional D is very scientific whereas all others are not.

This is what Serious Players told me :
Take the optional that you have interest in.
All optionals are equally scoring , what really matters is the hard work you put into it.

When I decided that history will the optional that is going to be prepared by me. There were many reactions. Most of the people said it was not a good optional as one has to remember dates, king, places, chronology (overall many things to remember and cram). They were all very apprehensive because the syllabus of history is also seems vast like an ocean. And at last they feared that it was not scientific and scoring.

But at last I settled on History and I have valid reasons for doing so :

1. My love for history and past times. I like to read how society functioned and our ancestors made their living in the past.

2. History is as scientific and analytical as any other subject. It just depends on how you prepare history.

3. History optional syllabus though it looks very vast, is rather quite manageable in 3-3.5 months of preparation. This is so because each and every thing is logically arranged and most of the times its like a chain which keeps on linking further.

4. While preparing history one gets a lot of fodder points about society and past practices which can be used in general studies and essay answers.

5. Most of the Paper 1 General studies is based on the Culture and History , so that part gets prepared along with your optional preparation. Hence it saves a lot of extra effort.

6. And last but not the least, UPSC has moved away from asking questions about Kings and Wars. Now the things that are asked in exam are more in the context of society and causes etc. so one should remove the fear of cramming dates from his heart.