[Official] SFG 2024 Level-1 Discussion & Queries thread
Dear Students,
SFG 2024 Level-1 will be starting from 26th December 2023, and it is the ideal time for encountering challenges in clearing one's Prelims exam and prioritizing one's Prelims exam preparation.
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The Select Focus Group test series has been designed exactly according to
the demand of the UPSC CSE Prelims Examination.
In Level 1 the focus
will be upon-
- Complete chapter-wise coverage and revision of the NCERTs
of different subjects including the conceptual as well as the factual aspects.
- Covering comprehensively static part of General studies Paper-1 for Prelims 2024 over 45 tests.
- The pattern, difficulty level and quality of the
questions which will be similar to UPSC CSE Prelims Examination Paper.
- Developing analytical acumen through interlinked and
multi-dimensional questions.
- Developing the art of solving Prelims examination
questions.
- Helping the aspirants in consolidating and revising their knowledge acquired during their course of preparation.
What is Select Focus Group / SFG
and How it works ?
- Select Focus Group ( SFG ) is a small group of students
who are selected by ForumIAS every year for coaching them to clear the UPSC
Prelims Examination. Almost all candidates selected, and retained
consistently in the group has cleared the Prelims examination in the past
including Rank 1 Ishita Kishore and Rank 4 Smriti in CSE 2022
- Top 100 Students from Offline mode will be selected for
the Select Focus Group (SFG) and the rest who clear the cut-off of the Entrance
Test will be selected for Reserve List Group (RLG), who will be required to
report at 7AM everyday 6 days a week to write an hour long test based on a
pre-planned syllabus , followed by discussion on the same, at no additional
cost.
- Candidates who are unable to make it to the SFG, will be
maintained in a Reserve List, who can also write the tests, but will not be
allowed to take classes.
- Tests are conducted daily and results are
provided within 12 hours of test with Name and Rank list for
candidates and parents to evaluate their daily performance. On the basis
of ranks, about 50% of bottom performing students from SFG are migrated to
the reserve list on a weekly basis, and an equal number of students from reserve
list ( RLG) are moved into SFG. The decision of management in this regard is
final and not subject to dispute. Please note that this migration is done not
keeping in mind the overall merit list but moving away bottom 50% from SFG and
picking up an equal number of people from RLG. Thus those who may be getting
more than RLG students , but are bottom 50 in SFG will be moved to RLG.
- Every month, the bottom 10% or so non-performing students
are eliminated from the program to maintain the quality of competition.
- All candidates writing the CSE 2024 are eligible to apply for the entrance test.
Application Procedure and Fee
Structure & Details:
- The program will commence from 26th December 2023, admissions to which will be entrance test based. The Entrance Test-2 which was previously scheduled for 17th December 2023 has been postponed to 20th December 2023. The results of the Entrance Test will be announced by 23rd December 2023.
- SFG 2024 Level-1 Entrance Test-2 for English Medium students will be conducted on 20th Dec. 2023 at 9:30 AM and for Hindi medium students it will be conducted on 21st Dec. 2023 at 9:30 AM.
- Admission to
the SFG and RLG are based on the rank of the candidate in the merit list of the
SFG Entrance Test. Students can apply for the program by registering for the
Entrance Test.
- Candidates can register by visiting https://academy.forumias.com/sfg/ . The candidate must appear for the entrance test on the designated date and time, subsequent to which he/she will be admitted to the Select Focus Group or the Reserve List Group.
- SFG will be conducted in both online and offline mode. In
online mode, students will invariably be part of the RLG and not SFG.
- 100 students
will be selected for SFG. The remaining students will be selected for RLG.
The rank list of online and offline students will be published separately.
- The course duration is of about two months and fees is
charged on a monthly basis. Fees for the full duration of the program cannot be
paid at one go.
- Candidates selected for SFG will have to pay a monthly fee of Rs. ( To be decided ) and those in the reserve list will have to pay a monthly fee of Rs. ( To be decided ). Fees are to be paid once the candidate is selected for the program. A fee of Rs. 20 is to be paid additionally for a physical I-Card by all Offline students.
Important Dates and Updates:
- SFG 2024 Official Noticeboard: https://forumias.com/blog/sfg/
- Daily study plan of SFG 2024 Level-1 Click Here
- SFG Program Starts: 26th December 2023 | 7 AM
Please Note:
- If you have any clash with any other exam, you will get an opportunity to write the second entrance exam. Only those students will have the opportunity to write the specific entrance who will email other exam hall ticket to farej@flaviant.com.
- SFG will be conducted in both online and offline mode. In online mode, students will invariably be part of the RLG and not SFG.
- The tests will be supplemented with comprehensive discussions.
Here are some updates with respect to the SFG 2024
Level-1 Entrance Test:
- The duration of the test will be 1 hour. It will have
both GS and CSAT questions.
- There will be 50 questions. For every correct question,
there will be 2 marks, and for incorrect questions, there will be a negative
marking of -0.67
- It is expected that candidates will have gone through the
basic books and are aware of the concepts across different subjects.
- For GS part, you can expect a judicious mix of questions
from Polity (10 Questions), Economy (9 Questions), Indian History and Art
& Culture (9 Questions) and Indian geography (6 Questions). For
Current Affairs (6 Questions), questions will be asked from the last 3 months
i.e., August, September and October 2023.
- For CSAT part, a total of 10 questions from Reading
Comprehension, Reasoning, and Aptitude will be asked. The previous year's
question paper from 2013 can be used as a reference point for preparing these
topics.
- The entrance test will check the aspirant’s problem-solving aptitude within the provided time.
Note: Admissions to the SFG / RLG Group will only be on the basis of the merit position of the candidate in the entrance test.
No admission will be granted to the candidate without appearing for the Entrance Test.
@farejul - Humble request to reconsider the fees of Online students, it is mentioned that in online mode students will invariably be part of RLG. I had joined the program last year as well. For Level 1, the total fees comes to be INR 6726 (2500 + GST x 2 months + 826 Exam Fees).
Similarly, for Level 2, the fees structure also comes out to be INR 6726 /-
The total fees for Level 1 and Level 2 comes to be 13,452/-
Kindly make the monthly online fees as INR 2000/+ GST instead of INR 2500/- + GST
If the fees is reduced to INR 2000+GST per month, for Level 1 and Level 2 in online mode the net savings comes out to be INR 2360/-
826 - Registration
2500 + 450 (GST)
2500 + 450 (GST)
Total 6726/-
For 45 half length tests. Doesn't seem subsidised to me.
This is your previledge speaking. You are saying this because you are in Delhi and are able to get it.
I understand a lot of people just want to pay for the paper they are writing in
In other cities we are not able to get these tests done properly at 7am just because for the regional institute it would cost much more than that to conduct the test and it wouldn't work out even if all the fees was given to the participating institute.
You are talking about writing the test in Pusa road / Karol bagh / Central delhi which is among the most expensive commercial areas in the National capital region, which makes it among the most expensive areas in the country ( barring few places in Mumbai )
You can do the math from the room rent in Central delhi and mark it up 4-5 times for commercial places. Imagine a friend saying, I want to live in your ORN flat in one of the rooms, and will pay 3000 rent - you pay the landlord.
We had a small experiment this time where at the GGN center the entrance test was at rs. 118. It didn't work !
To make sure that you write test at 7 am, at least 30 people will leave their home at 4-5am, so that you can smoothly write test at 7am.
Your cost expectations of services comes at a cost to labour rights. Note that these are services, not goods. There are humans involved in conducting this.
You are applying for a Civils servants job who will be making policies for the nation. You will have to stand apart from a generation raised on free facebook and free instagram.
Any system collapses because of an excess of its principle.
I am no knight. Do not call me Sir
@Neyawn Sir, I would like to express my appreciation for the inclusive approach that initially drew me to the SFG program—incorporating GS, CSAT, and Current Affairs in one comprehensive schedule. The quality of questions provided in the Forum has been a significant factor in the overall positive experience for many of us.
I was eagerly anticipating the continuation of this inclusive structure in the current schedule. The absence of CSAT and Current Affairs sessions has left some of us feeling a bit disappointed, as these components have played a crucial role in our holistic preparation in the past.
While I understand that the Forum has the autonomy to design the schedule as deemed fit, I hope this feedback is taken constructively. Many of us appreciate the integrated approach of addressing various subjects in one cohesive program.
Looking forward, I sincerely hope there won't be a separate course for CSAT this year, especially considering the perceived difficulty of the paper, mirroring the inclusive ethos of the SFG.
I trust that this message is received in the spirit of constructive feedback, and I appreciate your understanding.
Thank you.
First thing first. I understand you guys are offering a service and it is our choice to take it or leave it, but everyone has a right to appreciate or criticise the service being offered.1. Last year I called Forum to enquire about a course, the lady was rude like anything right from the time she picked up the call and I had to remind her to be humble.2. Even this reply you have started on an argumentative note which was logically inadequate to say the least and seemed more like a rant.3. Why I said point 2 is becausehow can you justify this fees for online students? What are the resources spent in making an objective test available online? No stationery cost, no test center cost, no invigilators, no access to offline discussions. No manual checking. Still, It comes to ~ Rs.120/day for 50 questions.On top of that, how in the world can you seemingly come to conclusion that fees for online should be MORE than offline?And despite all this if you say that the service is heavily subsidised then that claim needs justification.Note: The service you are offering is in public domain and everyone is free to give their opinion on it.
Because things don't cost the way you calculate the cost.
The whole organisation is nearly paralysed conducting the program - with the kind of effort it takes to run it. It takes way too much effort to run it.
Since people who join it are so busy, they would not join nearly any other program, and admissions to all other programs fall, putting the organisation in a precarious position as it is dependent on ONE program which most people follow - and this goes on for six months.
Every year these monthe become financially challenging to support an organisation with nearly 250+ employees on this. A time will come when we will have to eventually kill it.
As organisation ages, the people associated move into different phases of life and need to be better compensated. So someone who was scanning your omr sheets working efficiently working at let's say 25k per month will have to be paid twice the cost when he moves into 30s and has to run a family or you keep firing people, recruit young people to keep costs low and young people will make mistakes every year.
Any differential pricing in favour of online students shifts the students ( who is young, immature ) to lower priced online service.
So I know that if a Natasha Goyal with 4 prelims unsuccesses comes to know about sfg - and if online is cheaper , she will first do it online - to save money - and won't get the right environment, and won't clear the exam. So effectively your pricing policy has ruined your own results!
At this age don't expect the student to have the maturity to invest in a room heater so that he can study better. He will rather sleep for 2 months and lose them rather than even buy a room heater.
Also what makes you feel software development is not costly, given that post pandemic there has been a cent percent jump in wages in IT.
And every platform needs to be upgraded or you run it in maintenance mode on outdated software much like this website on basic php, no modern frameworks such as node.js or modern ui frameworks such as angular etc.
Also do not do product level calculator economics. Think of the revenue an organisation has to make to sustain in a marketplace with big players which have better financial resources and can anyday turn tables on you, by poaching the top talent you have. These months become most vulnerable for us.
Won't be able to further debate on this topic, but you could try by making 30 questions with solutions yourself and if you can rent your own apartment at that cost among bunch of your friends, and see if you are able to sustain it.
I am no knight. Do not call me Sir
Guys, I need honest help.
I have my optional and ethics left, and I need to do that. But with this SFG syllabus (Laxmikanth+NCERT) is giving me less time to focus on those. I like the daily tests. It is helping me to maintain the flow. But I want to do CSAT as well daily but unable to find time. Can someone help me with this? How are you guys managing?
Sincere help needed on this.
Thank you
See, if you have cleared prelims before, and written Mains then you can safely find comfort in RLG and give 3-4 hours to SFG, rest time to Prelims. But if you have not cleared prelims and not written mains, you will need to give time to where your problem area is - the prelims.
I am no knight. Do not call me Sir
Is scoring 50% of the topper score in SFG level 1, a decent score ?
My scores have been 70,41,56,53 so far.
Try at least being 75% of the offline topper score.
Also, topper will change with subjects. Some people may just be polity toppers
The winner is one who is above a minimum level in all subjects with some highs but not lows below a minimum level.
I am no knight. Do not call me Sir
Guys, I need honest help.
I have my optional and ethics left, and I need to do that. But with this SFG syllabus (Laxmikanth+NCERT) is giving me less time to focus on those. I like the daily tests. It is helping me to maintain the flow. But I want to do CSAT as well daily but unable to find time. Can someone help me with this? How are you guys managing?
Sincere help needed on this.
Thank you
I have a few doubts about students joining the SFG online:
- It is written that they will always remain in the RLG group. Does it mean they will NEVER be considered for upgradation to SFG when there's a shifting from RLG to SFG after every week? Eventually, it means the online guys are effectively getting enrolled for RLG only, and will be out if they reach the bottom 10% of RLG??
- What about the discussion classes for online students? How and at what time will we get access to them? Will it be live for us or the recorded version?
- Will SFG level-1 have CSAT questions in it? If not, any other thing for preparation of CSAT along with SFG?
I also request you to put details of SFG Online vs Offline in the post itself. Thanks a lot!
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