Few pointers to help you decide whether you should opt for a Self Study Course or a Live Class Course

1. Your learning style

“As a college student, I rarely attended classes. I found them to be a huge waste of time. I would prefer to refer to books from the library and study on my own, at my own schedule and pace. Never did I feel that I was missing out on something. And, yes, I was among the toppers in my class”

If the above describes you well enough, then Self Study courses is an obvious choice for you.

On the other hand, you may be the studious kind, who rarely misses classes in your college and who actually gains from being regular in classes …. again the choice is obvious – Live Class course.

2. Self-driven or motivated by peers and regular interaction

In Self Study courses, the entire study material will be available to you right on purchasing the course. Hereafter, you will be left on your own to complete ploughing through the entire study material. And you will need to be self-disciplined and self-motivated to ensure to study regularly and complete topics in a timely manner. Basically you are on your own boss and you know best how responsibly you will act.

Discipline will also be needed in Live Classes … the discipline to finish learning the topic from Concept videos before Live sessions, the discipline to not miss Live sessions. But with Live Classes, you have a regular schedule and in case you are not keeping pace with it, you will be conscious that you are falling back. Further attending live class maintains a sort of constant interaction with faculty and peers and you do feel like preparing in a group and not alone.

3. Time Availability

Have no doubt … you will be able to score a high percentile ONLY when you self-study. Attending live classes is just an aid, it is NOT a substitute for self-study. On the contrary, attending live classes reduces your self-study time. If your idea is that you don’t have time for self-study and hence should join the Live Class course, you are in for a huge disappointment. Concepts are not taught in the Live Classes, they are just revised, that too briefly. Most of the time in Live Class is spent in solving few good questions that help apply what you learnt in Concept Videos or make you aware of the common mistakes made. Thus, if you don’t have time for Self-Study, just forget about Live Class courses.

Infact, we recommend that the ratio of time spent learning from the Concept Videos to the time spent Practicing Questions should be as high as 1 : 3. And the ratio of time spent in Live Class to time spent on Concept Videos is around 1 : 2. Thus, the ideal ratio of time spent attending live classes, spent on self-study using concept videos, spent practicing questions will be 1 : 2 : 6. So if you are attending 5 hours of live classes every week, then you need to also devote 40 hours every week for self-study and practice.

Yes, opting for Live Classes and following its schedule is a very time-consuming task. Make sure that you have the time available if you are opting for Live Classes. If you are short of time, we would advise you to devote all time to Self-Study. Self-Study is the only way to improve your percentile. Live classes are just an additional help.

4. Cost considerations

Obviously, Live Classes cost more than Self Study courses. So if funds is a major limitations, then go ahead with Self Study, the course is sufficient and many students have got 99+ percentile using just Self Study courses. You just need to be self-disciplined & motivated to stick to a study plan and self-sufficient in learning ideas from the videos. The videos give you a complete feel of attending a physical classroom (minus the faculty interaction).

Be rest assured that the Self Study courses include everything needed to score 99.999%tile. There is no concept kept exclusively for Live Classes. The study material is the same in the two courses, the only extra that Live Class students get are the approximately 10 odd questions discussed in every class.