esmeralda,
in my opinion, the ladies stand better chances of clinching the top positions at civil services academy. at csa, there are two broad categories of marks; one is academics, second is marks given by faculty on conduct. the boys will always lose out on the second category because they commit violations. the army inductees are sometimes an exception here.
as far as academics are concerned, ladies are so studious that i personally noticed some making notes from the 37th common handbook, from which a non-graded test was to be taken. i don't know about other boys, lekin agar itni mehnat mein karoonga, to mar jaoonga. :-p
i do not remember exactly, but the top 5 positions of ctp went to girls. and there were 7-8 girls in the top 10.
people do not work hard during ctp. perhaps because many seniors say that it does not make much dent on the career. however, i'd suggest everyone to take the activities very seriously because then csa gives you opportunities to become prominent in the batch. and it's really good to be remembered and discussed by people like our ctp topper.
regards,