Engineering eduction was painful, when we were actually there, however in retrospect it was a joke - At least I see it as a joke that makes me laugh and also wonder at times. I am very sure some of my friends also feel the same about it.
When I joined engineering, I felt I was reasonably smart and also pretty capable in doing my engineering well, with good scores and all - as per records, I was a merit candidate, studying in a fairly reputed college, admitted to the second or third most "lucrative" branch of engineering - at least during that time. By lucrative, I mean the branch which gets maximum job offers to its students after completing engineering. I had this strong feeling that the greatest battles of my life were the twelfth standard board exam and the engineering entrance exam and I also felt that nothing could possibly be more painful than the years spent in preparing for those exams. Actually, to an extent that's how I still think. But, as I started of, doing engineering wasn't less painful either, I should say that for multiple reasons. To start with, we had 64 exams (64 Subjects) to clear in four years and 64 X 3 mini exams, also called as internal tests that kept our souls occupied. Well, this post is all about the misery that we went through during those four innocent years.
Vinod, who was my close pal during my 11th and 12th, ended up becoming my classmate in Engineering as well. I was super happy to do my four years of engineering along with him, however he wasn't interested in doing the same with me, not that he disliked me or something, because he desperately wanted to move to the most "lucrative" branch in the college by next year. To get there he had decided to toil madly, which he did, but unfortunately the result didn't show up the way he expected, at least in the very first semester.
What ever caused Vinod's failure in getting that great marks in the first year, thankfully, in a way worked out very much in my favor - Let me tell you how. He had this incredible sixth sense or may be some kind of predictive algorithm that ran on his brains, because of which he could quite well guess the questions that used to appear in the exam question papers. For instance, my preparation for this exam Mechanical Engineering Science in the first semester was absolute crap, I knew nothing in that subject. Our boy had seven to eight previous years question papers with him, based on some calculation and statistical analysis, he advised me to read few stuff while we were going in the college bus (an hour or so before the exam). As I had no idea what to read and what not to read in that one hour, I went through the stuff he told me. Not just that I was too happy seeing some familiar questions in that paper I even manged to score more than 60% marks in that. Neither him nor I would ever forget that bus ride. Well, if you ask me, there are many such unforgettable stories that followed for next three and half years.
No matter how horrible experiences we may have had while doing our engineering, nothing beats the experience of doing an experiment in the lab and not getting the expected output, especially if its a lab exam - believe me its a real nightmare. Having said that, I must admit that the lab was also a place where we made great friends, probably because we make great friends when we share the same pain and of course some joy (once in a while). As the college had limited equipments and space, the whole class was divided into four batches to do the stipulated experiments. I was in the first batch and Vinod was in the fourth batch. I became friends with Ajeet and Jay in my batch, while Vinod became friends with Vivek in his batch. The events in the lab used be a great deal of fun to share with each other during our free time . Since we had limited time in the lab for a given semester, our focus was in getting the right output. Not getting the right output for a given experiment meant that we were running a risk of flunking (failing) in the lab exam. Needless to say that some of my classmates went to lab tutorials to cover the risk. Vinod and I had access to a lab in my dad's office where we repeated all the experiments that we did in our collage lab. The time spent in that lab gave us great confidence to take up our lab exams. How much ever we had practiced doing the experiments, the tension used to peak before the day of our lab exam. I guess those Phone calls, that apprehension , those assurance, those last minute tips, those short cuts and those prayers will never leave our memories. At the end of it all, back then getting the right output in the lab exam was perhaps bigger relief than any damn thing.
Like any college, even we had many places to hang out in the campus. One place which comes to my mind immediately is this place just next to the college gate, where Vinod, Vivek, Jay and I used to hang out just before the internal tests and final exams. There was this rectangular shaped stone chair where we use to sit and prepare really hard. Although we had a month or little more holidays before the exams, most concrete preparation used to happen in that place. We all had many stories on how we spent our study holidays, like Vinod would have seen one complete season of a English TV series through his computer, Jay would have watched a compete test cricket series between Pakistan and Bangladesh, Vivek would have spent many hours with his locality friend near some chats place, I would have spent time playing galli cricket day in and day out. In the end, either we lacked that competitive spirit or just loved whiling away our time or just didn't value these exam much or perhaps we even didn't apply our minds much; However one thing for sure that must have played a very crucial role in us getting our degrees was the time spent near that place just next to the college gate :)
When I joined engineering, I felt I was reasonably smart and also pretty capable in doing my engineering well, with good scores and all - as per records, I was a merit candidate, studying in a fairly reputed college, admitted to the second or third most "lucrative" branch of engineering - at least during that time. By lucrative, I mean the branch which gets maximum job offers to its students after completing engineering. I had this strong feeling that the greatest battles of my life were the twelfth standard board exam and the engineering entrance exam and I also felt that nothing could possibly be more painful than the years spent in preparing for those exams. Actually, to an extent that's how I still think. But, as I started of, doing engineering wasn't less painful either, I should say that for multiple reasons. To start with, we had 64 exams (64 Subjects) to clear in four years and 64 X 3 mini exams, also called as internal tests that kept our souls occupied. Well, this post is all about the misery that we went through during those four innocent years.
Vinod, who was my close pal during my 11th and 12th, ended up becoming my classmate in Engineering as well. I was super happy to do my four years of engineering along with him, however he wasn't interested in doing the same with me, not that he disliked me or something, because he desperately wanted to move to the most "lucrative" branch in the college by next year. To get there he had decided to toil madly, which he did, but unfortunately the result didn't show up the way he expected, at least in the very first semester.
What ever caused Vinod's failure in getting that great marks in the first year, thankfully, in a way worked out very much in my favor - Let me tell you how. He had this incredible sixth sense or may be some kind of predictive algorithm that ran on his brains, because of which he could quite well guess the questions that used to appear in the exam question papers. For instance, my preparation for this exam Mechanical Engineering Science in the first semester was absolute crap, I knew nothing in that subject. Our boy had seven to eight previous years question papers with him, based on some calculation and statistical analysis, he advised me to read few stuff while we were going in the college bus (an hour or so before the exam). As I had no idea what to read and what not to read in that one hour, I went through the stuff he told me. Not just that I was too happy seeing some familiar questions in that paper I even manged to score more than 60% marks in that. Neither him nor I would ever forget that bus ride. Well, if you ask me, there are many such unforgettable stories that followed for next three and half years.
No matter how horrible experiences we may have had while doing our engineering, nothing beats the experience of doing an experiment in the lab and not getting the expected output, especially if its a lab exam - believe me its a real nightmare. Having said that, I must admit that the lab was also a place where we made great friends, probably because we make great friends when we share the same pain and of course some joy (once in a while). As the college had limited equipments and space, the whole class was divided into four batches to do the stipulated experiments. I was in the first batch and Vinod was in the fourth batch. I became friends with Ajeet and Jay in my batch, while Vinod became friends with Vivek in his batch. The events in the lab used be a great deal of fun to share with each other during our free time . Since we had limited time in the lab for a given semester, our focus was in getting the right output. Not getting the right output for a given experiment meant that we were running a risk of flunking (failing) in the lab exam. Needless to say that some of my classmates went to lab tutorials to cover the risk. Vinod and I had access to a lab in my dad's office where we repeated all the experiments that we did in our collage lab. The time spent in that lab gave us great confidence to take up our lab exams. How much ever we had practiced doing the experiments, the tension used to peak before the day of our lab exam. I guess those Phone calls, that apprehension , those assurance, those last minute tips, those short cuts and those prayers will never leave our memories. At the end of it all, back then getting the right output in the lab exam was perhaps bigger relief than any damn thing.
Like any college, even we had many places to hang out in the campus. One place which comes to my mind immediately is this place just next to the college gate, where Vinod, Vivek, Jay and I used to hang out just before the internal tests and final exams. There was this rectangular shaped stone chair where we use to sit and prepare really hard. Although we had a month or little more holidays before the exams, most concrete preparation used to happen in that place. We all had many stories on how we spent our study holidays, like Vinod would have seen one complete season of a English TV series through his computer, Jay would have watched a compete test cricket series between Pakistan and Bangladesh, Vivek would have spent many hours with his locality friend near some chats place, I would have spent time playing galli cricket day in and day out. In the end, either we lacked that competitive spirit or just loved whiling away our time or just didn't value these exam much or perhaps we even didn't apply our minds much; However one thing for sure that must have played a very crucial role in us getting our degrees was the time spent near that place just next to the college gate :)
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interesting post about Prepare For Final Exams Tips
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