 Good evening, everyone. I'm assuming that all of you have either appeared in the past in the personality test, or you're planning to appear in a personality test. My focus today will be totally on how do you prepare for personality test. So some initial questions. We must understand when you sell a product or an idea you must understand who is the consumer of those ideas and products. And you must clearly also understand what is the word looking for. This is very important because sometimes you make a preparation without understanding who are you going to talk to and what is the purpose of the discussion. The second part of my brief presentation would relate to how should you prepare for the test or personality test and what should you do at the time of this. So first is the understanding of the context that is the board. The second is the as you go along to prepare for the test. And the third is at the time of interview what should you do. Now, the first point has to be understood very, very clearly by all of you. I must clearly appreciate and understand that it is not repeat, not an interview. It's a personality test attitude part. Very, very important. It will not only help you in your interview, but when you get into the service which you would most of you hopefully, you will require that attitude to succeed in the career. This is not merely as as if now I can understand that all of you are focused totally on getting into the service somehow anyhow, but I've seen a large number of civil servants spending miserable time in civil service because of wrong attitude. So there's no harm in developing a positive attitude right now, whether you make it or don't make it to the civil service attitude is extremely extremely important. Now, evolving out of your understanding that it is not an interview and a personality test. You must also appreciate the fact that the focus of this personality test is not knowledge. Your knowledge has already been tested through in your written exams. So don't waste your time in trying to read your mathematics and chemistry and physics, or history or whatever. Do it. You've done that in the means exam. Your focus when you prepare has to be totally different. So first is articulation articulation is the manner in which you go about expressing your thoughts. That's very, very important. And I'll briefly tell you how you can actually improve your articulation. And there is a there is hopefully a slide, then you have to improve on your logic. How do you logically present your arguments. One is your capability to speak. The other is your ability to speak logically, one point flowing into the other point. This is also equally important for your written exam, but in interviews absolutely imperative. Then, whether you are reasonable, it's not merely logic, if you are very reasonable, and you have to be coherent, meaning you should not blabber. If not, and then comes the very, very important point which was mentioned earlier, the positive attitude. So they may give you problems. But your approach to these problems will help those of you can find time and read my recently released book, ethical dilemmas of civil servant, they're about 70 odd case studies in that where you'll find that the difference that it makes from one officer to the other officer is basically in the context of your attitude. It makes a world of a difference. Two officers are actually equal, very competent, very sharp, very bright, very articulate, one is positive other is not. I'll give you some examples of how do you approach a problem so for example, when I was called secretary. I was posted as school secretary in 2014, when all scams had happened. And at that point in time, when I walked into the office room, I felt as I was walking into a graveyard, because the CBI was after files, it was after officers. Now, if I didn't have a positive attitude to finding solutions to the problems, I would have found it I would have become a part of the problem. It is the positive attitude, or the attitude of attempting to find solutions, or the belief that there are solutions to problems that you start finding solutions, and it all depends on the attitude. So much so that after 12 months when we had sorted out most of the core issues used to jokingly say that give us the Kashmir problem, we just might be able to find a solution. So the point is problems are what they are. You can't do much about the problem. They're there. Your, your efficiency will be determined by your approach to the problem. How do you see whether initially when a problem is presented to you, you start about it positively or negatively and hence positive attitude becomes very, very important. The other point that you should do is you should be aware of the recent happenings, something which has happened to them. You know, they will not test your knowledge, but they will test your awareness, awareness about what is happening around you. So for example, I'm certain that many of you will be asked about the farms laws that are going on. They will be asked about the farmers education, you have to be aware. That's how it is. So whatever is happening, some of you who may have written cricket as your hobby may ask you about what has happened in Australia, you can ask you about cricket. The next is when I talk about awareness about the place where you stay, where you are staying. So if you are, if you've come say from Allahabad, or you've studied say in Chinnai, you must know the recent issues about Chinnai, the history of Chinnai, the college where you studied its history. Some great people who've come out of that college, you should know about them. So the fundamental point here is they are checking about your awareness levels of recent happenings as well as the places to stay. And then finally, your hobbies. I don't know whether you already mentioned your hobbies, be careful about mentioning your hobbies. Hobbies, having hobbies does not necessarily mean that you are very good at it, but you are aware of it. So for example, I'm very fond of music. If I write music as my hobby, I might as well be prepared for answering questions related to music. So if they ask me, well, Mr. Suru, can you sing? No, I have to be clear in my mind whether I should say yes or no. I can tell you about my example. I had given music my hobby in one of the interviews, they asked me whether you can sing. So my job, my response at that point in time, which I think was fairly good. I said I'm a Khan saying not a Khan saying, meaning thereby, I'm a good listener, but I can't sing myself. I'm not saying you answer it in that manner. But if you say if you give tennis as your hobby, then you should know what is happening in Australia and open or what is likely to happen in Australia and open. Who are the good players and tennis men, women, what are the problems with tennis. So if there is a tennis player sitting in the board, they will ask you about tennis. So be careful about what you write and when you write, you have them to be fully conversant with those aspects. Now, this is also very important. You are not supposed to have solutions to all the problems that beset the country. Don't worry about it. They might ask you about the Kashmir problem. They asked me in my interview. They asked me about the Kashmir problem. And I told them whatever I thought was correct. You're not supposed to know if you knew the solution to the problems, you would not be sitting on the other side of the board, you would be asking questions and those that are asking questions are also not available are also not have all the solutions. So what they expect of you is your analytical capabilities, whether you are able to analyze the problem appropriately and then suggest a possible solution. So what they are going to assess you is in terms of approaching a problem, the nature of the problem, rather than actual solutions, because whatever they're going to ask you the solutions are not already there. So again, let me take the example of farmers agitation. If someone asked you whether the bills should be abrogated as is the demand of the farmers, then I can answer either way. Yes or no, but whatever answer you give, you must have a reason behind it. You just can't say, sir, it is too bad. It should be abrogated. Then you should be able to tell why should be abrogated. What are the possible consequences of abrogation of those laws, you should be able to give a reason behind whatever reply that you get. Then let us now come to two aspects of it. How do you prepare for the test. And the second one is what do you do at the time of the test. The first is, you must improve your articulation and awareness that is prepared for preparation. So you have two months, three months, six months, whatever time you have. And the suggestion that I have here is which I give to everyone is pick up the editorial articles. I'm not talking about the editorial. On the editorial page, there are articles that come, you should first read them aloud in in front of a mirror and record what you're saying. Initially, you'll feel terrible because not used to it and I can again give you my example. I was very poor at articulation to begin with. I did my class 12 and I had physics, chemistry and maths. And thereafter I switched over to arts. So my language was bad, my articulation was poor, and I couldn't express myself very fluently, but I tried this trick and it worked. You need the article on the editorial page allowed regularly for next one month, two months, whatever time you have one, you will see an improvement in your articulation that will help you do that. Number two, you will also get a lot of knowledge or awareness about that particular issue. And more often than not, the articles on the editorial page of a newspaper are about issues that are current. So your awareness level will go. The third advantage that you will have is that once you start doing that, you will understand how to logically build an argument. You can, because these articles are based on logic. You may agree, disagree. That's a different matter. They could be a particular bent in that article, but whatever opinion of the author is or the writer is, you will see that they build their arguments logically. So you will have logic there. So your articulation will improve, your awareness level will improve and you will be able to say it logically. That's the first stage of reading of articles. After one month, two months, when you become slightly more fluent in leading, the next step would be to put down that paper after you've read it out, put it down, and then in your own words, try and speak out what is there. That's the second stage. The third stage would be that if you have a difference of opinion with the writer, then after having said what the writer has said, you present your point of view. Now all this exercise will help you improve your articulation, your understanding and presenting it logically. The other preparatory work that you can do while you prepare for the interview is to constitute small groups of aspirants. And number one, hold discussions amongst yourself. So what you do is you pick up a topic and these days you have a WhatsApp group. You need not meet physically, you can do it in a group also on a Zoom chat also. So initially you assign each individual, suppose there are five persons in that group, assign each one on a particular topic, ask him to prepare and speak for about five minutes on that topic. It helps the person who's preparing and speaking. It helps others in terms of knowledge. And then after he's spoken for five minutes, each person gives his own view on that particular issue in a minute or two minutes. Again, if it will improve your articulation, it will improve your awareness, you will be able to respond to a particular situation in that. And finally, for preparation purposes, you can have mock interviews. So amongst your five, four can become a board and one chap can. And they can ask questions. All this will help you enormously in preparing yourself for the interview. Now, as I mentioned earlier, while preparing for the test study at length the details of copies that you've indicated place of state where you've been educated. If you have worked somewhere, then you should know very well about the organization's problems and your contribution, as well as your reason for quitting that. Why do you want to quit that and join the civil service, you should have good answer that then brush up the details of the subject that you have, you have offered, not in the context of the subject, but if there are some recent developments. So suppose you've opted for political science or public administration, if they are current issues relating to political science and public administration, you should be conversant with that. And finally, this is very important, you have to have an in-depth understanding of current affairs through newspapers and articles, read newspapers. Of course, these days on the net you get details of everything you can read very easily. But what you have to do is to prepare yourself in terms of whatever information that you can gather around that time. And on the day of test, you should dress normally in which you feel comfortable, don't wear anything new. Mind you, it's not a beauty pageant or a fashion show. Normal as you are, go as normal you are. But don't look sleepy, you beard, like I have a grown beard, I would not like to go and interview with a beard if I have to. You should look decent and presentable, you should not look outstanding, outlandish. The second point is very important. You must listen very intensively and you should practice this in group discussions and mock interviews that don't interrupt anybody, never. Let the other person complete his point, and then you should start your argument. And finally, most importantly, you are not there to win an argument. Again, very, very important. You may disagree with the panelists or the board member and politely do that. I remember in the first year that I appeared and I qualified for the police that year. I got about 55% marks in the interview or in the personality test. In the second year I got 80% which was the highest in the country. The difference was this, I was not trying to win an argument in the second interview, I patiently listen to them, and then respond it in the manner that I could, makes a lot of difference. This again is very, very important. You must clearly understand the difference between facts and opinion. So you should not be guessing facts until less a board member ask you to guess. If they ask you then you should guess, but if they're not asking you, don't guess. If you don't know a fact, then you should say no, sir. I'm, as I said in the beginning if you recall, you're not supposed to know everything. So if you don't know facts, admit it, be, be very humble, be very forthright, be very honest, because if you try and fit and tell you, one of the board members is going to catch you, and then there's no redemption. So your focus should be on, on, if you know the fact tell them, if you don't know the fact admitted, but opinion will be based on what he's saying. So you may have an opinion. I mean, it would be wrong of you to say, sir, I don't have an opinion that would be wrong, because as youngsters, you're supposed to have opinions on issues that are besetting the society. So you should be able to say something about it. Opinion can be yours, but facts cannot be yours. Facts are facts. Then when you are saying, and this you'll have to practice practice quite a lot. While in your group discussions mock interviews that at your age, you do not have finality to issues, because what they so again I could go back to the farms legislation. There is no finality as which is right and which is wrong. And in any case, you are not sufficiently equipped to say give a final. So don't say sir, in my view, this is happening. So you will have to keep as I use the term, you have to have some exit or open, sir, in my opinion. So, which means that there could be a difference of opinion, you have a different opinion a board member may have a different opinion. You can use words, probably in all likelihood, perhaps by using these phrases, you are leaving some door open for you to get out in case you get caught. But if you say, no, sir, I'm sure this is this is this is what it is. You are in trouble if you do that. Because as I said in the final, in the last point, that there are no final solutions available to most of these social problems. We are all grappling with it. Those sitting the board would also be grappling with it. Okay, all the best. God bless you. Work the way I've suggested many of you will qualify and probably we'll have a cup of tea after you qualify. God bless you. Take care.