This story is from April 22, 2019

For a decade engineers have been dominating UPSC exams

Most engineering graduates make effective use of their sound understanding of Math, logical reasoning and analytical skills that helps them succeed in UPSC exams
For a decade engineers have been dominating UPSC exams
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Most engineering graduates make effective use of their sound understanding of Math, logical reasoning and analytical skills that helps them succeed in UPSC exams
More than eight lakh students register for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services (Preliminary) examination every year, of which, less than 1% qualify for the Main exam. After another round of filtering through interviews, the selected candidates are recommended for appointment to various administrative posts.
ENGINEERS
LEAD
In the last decade, the top slot has been occupied by Engineering or Management graduates with more than seven UPSC toppers being engineers.
Besides, more than 50% of candidates recommended for various important posts are from engineering academic background every year.
"Engineering students crack the UPSC exam because of the practical pedagogical methods they experience in their four-year engineering studies. This provides them with a better analytical aptitude as compared to Arts graduates," says JK Dadoo, former IAS officer who was in the services for more than 35 years.

"Engineers take a lead in Prelims Paper II (Aptitude) as they have a sound understanding of Math, logical reasoning and analytical skills, whereas Arts students usually are subjective in their approach. Not studying math as a subject after class X makes it more difficult for Arts graduates to qualify," says DP Singh, secretary, Rau IAS Study Circle. Shah Faesal, a qualified doctor, who topped the UPSC exam in 2009 and quit the services to be a politician, blames the trend of more engineering students qualifying the exam as a reflection of the distorted education system.
"The brightest students in school are encouraged to take up Engineering or Medicine, and this is the same cadre of applicants that appear for UPSC. Because of the very nature of these fields, engineering students understand competitive exams better than the Arts graduates," adds Faesal while talking to Education Times.
HUMANITIES IS A TOP CHOICE
Although Engineers are making a way in the top league, 80% of optional subjects picked by the recommended candidates are from Humanities stream. In 2015, Geography was the most preferred optional subject, followed by Public Administration and Sociology.
"The selection of optional subject is not on the basis of scoring possibilities in that subject, but its level of difficulty. Applicants opt for a subject, that takes relatively less time and energy for preparation," adds Singh.
"Candidates follow an 'anti-competition' technique where they opt for a subject different from their academic background to eliminate competition in their own field. Also, engineering subjects are
more extensive and vast. Ironically, it has lesser study material available as compared to the humanities subjects," says Faesal, who opted for Public Administration as an optional subject despite being a medical student.
HIGH DROPOUT
In 2014, out of 7,55,103 candidates who had applied for Civil Services (Preliminary) exam, only 3,18,184 appeared and 57.9% of the candidates dropped out. The scenario was similar in 2016, where 50.7% of 9,39,735 registered candidates did not appear for the prelims exam. "UPSC has made registration very easy, so several non-serious applicants register only for the thrill. Most of them later develop a cold foot owing to their inadequate preparation and restriction in the number of attempts, which prompts them to drop out," adds Faesal. Dadoo, however, blames it to societal pressure. "But it takes them no time to understand that their priorities and passions lie elsewhere and they move away from UPSC."
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