Nineleaps, a Bengaluru-based product engineering company, has introduced a digital platform ‘ApnaIAS.com’ that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to guide and assist IAS aspirants to improve and fine-tune their aptitude for essay writing.

‘ApnaIAS.com’ focuses on the structure of essay submissions, evaluates them on critical parameters, and gives instant pointed feedback for improvement, says Vineet Punnoose, Product Manager, ApnaIAS.

Provides for five attempts

The Civil Services Examination Mains Exam has been rescheduled and will be conducted in January 2021. “As an aspirant myself, I have struggled to find someone who would give me detailed and pointed feedback rather than the traditional ‘good’ or 'bad’,” says Punnoose.

ApnaIAS.com provides for five attempts for each Essay and scope for improvement. “We believe that the feedback on each will help you improve,” he said, and claimed that AI and ML are being used for the first time to give aspirants the advantage of modern technology.

Delayed feedback on essays

Traditionally, an aspirant works in silos, where he/she reads upon and understand various topics, manually searches for potential essays to practice with, attempts these essays and sends it to an evaluator either online or offline to get a delayed feedback, Punnoose said.

Additionally, this feedback does not deal with the specifics of what is good or bad and usually remarks on the attempt at a very high-level. It is also apparent that the aspirant is seldom satisfied with it due to a lack of clarity in the areas of improvement.

Everything on single platform

It has also been observed that a typical UPSC aspirant dedicates most of his/her time preparing for the Optional and General Studies papers. By doing so, the time taken to concentrate on the Essay paper is considerably less, Punnoose added.

“‘ApnaIAS.com’ seeks to make this process easier by bringing everything onto a single platform. We believe that spending more time to practice essays can drastically make up for marks likely lost in General Studies due to the effort-saturation point,” Punnoose said.

Offers various functionalities

The platform also offers functionalities for aspirants to scan, upload, and analyse handwritten essays. It uses technology to deliver detailed feedback in under a minute, with in-depth actionable insights across six areas.

In addition to essays and all four General Studies-type papers, ‘ApnaIAS.com’ also covers five different optional subjects including Public Administration, Sociology, Geography, Anthropology, and History which appear to be favourites among IAS aspirants.

 

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