In the Iast few decades, getting through a Government job exam in India has become more and more challenging, though the number of jobs has increased manifold. This is happening as lakhs of aspirants apply for select few but highly coveted Government jobs in Civil Services, banking, SSC, etc. Many factors contribute to this choice as people still favour Government jobs. This is particularly true in smaller towns and rural areas. But aspirants from these places don’t have easy access to good coaching and guidance to prepare for these intensely competitive exams.
Exam preparation is changing rapidly with the availability of affordable smartphones and Internet penetration beyond big cities in India. So what is it exactly that is changing the trendsIJ OnlineTyari, India’s largest exam preparation platform, analysed the usage pattern of 428 successful candidates in the recently conducted IAS prelims 2016 exam and found out very interesting patterns.
First, the mobile revolution is absolutely real. More than 90 per cent of the candidates use their mobile phones for exam preparation vs the 10 per cent using websites for the same. The anytime, anywhere flexibility of mobiles has helped in the early adoption of online preparation by India’s young aspirants. The easy access to technology, Internet connectivity is also a major factor as Internet users continue to rise whereas broadband continues to have very low penetration beyond metros.
The poor network connectivity and high data charges pose a big challenge for users as well as edtech companies. But slow connections still don’t seem to discourage aspirants from using apps. With 60 per cent of users having only 2G vs 30 per cent with 3G and only 10 per cent on 4G, edtech companies need to keep Internet speeds and connectivity in mind.
Basis these facts, it is not surprising that aspirants from all across India are rapidly adopting online preparation platforms. Students from States like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, UP, Bihar and parts of Chattisgarh are getting onboard online platforms to prepare for competitive exam. The diversity is further reflected through the participation from North-eastern regions.
Another major factor which has led to higher adaptation of online portals is increasing availability of online content in vernacular languages. This acted as a big barrier for a lot of aspirants. Interestingly, out of the 428 students, 70 per cent of the successful aspirants were preparing in Hindi compared to 25 per cent preparing in English and 5 per cent in Marathi.
More and more candidates are realising the advantages of online platforms. Features like daily real time updates, live tests, and instant scores and benchmarking with other candidates, are pulling a lot of new users online. Serious aspirants are spending time online for exam prep as they get easy access to a lot of high quality and regularly updated study materials. These would otherwise not be available to them as they live in smaller towns and rural areas.
These trends are likely to only rise as edtech companies continue to innovate and build better platforms for online education.