Reserved Thoughts

So much has been said and acted upon reservation that it seems nothing else is left to be said or done. And yet, every year the same question arises again. I always wanted to say something of my own on this flaming topic. I know, a lot of people might not agree with what I say but what needs to be said, needs to be said.

I am from General Category. Which means I have never "enjoyed" reservation of any kind. And that leads to frustration; when you see other "less capable" students reaching where you want to reach. And in reality it doesn't serve any one, since those who eventually get admission also quickly realize that it they shouldn't have!

It is frustrating to see everyone and their dog enjoying reservation these days. Reservation for SC, ST, OBC categories, reservation for migrants, reservation for minorities of all kind, reservation for girls, reservation for handicapped, state quota, foreign quota, management quota, EWS quota... There are so many kinds of horizontal and vertical reservation that I believe General category students should also get a special reservation of their own! Don't get me wrong, I fully support some of these reservations. And had I been getting benefits of reservation somewhere, who knows I might have been supporting all kinds of reservations!

Having said that, I think if reservation has been granted after all, then it is idiotic not to take it. I see scores of seats go empty every year in college since there are no eligible students in the reserved category for them. I see women travel standing in the buses because some lazy ass men have occupied their reserved seats, and they are too chicken to ask for their own right.

Reservation in a way has been good for me too. Some of my bestest friends come from reserved category whom I might have not met if they weren't from their respective categories. Of course, counter arguments can be given that one is bound to find good friends wherever one goes, but as I look back, I am not ready to trade them with any one else.

I think reservation per se is not the main problem. For me the lack of sufficient resources is. Even if you abolish reservation fully, the cut throat competition will still exist. So until and unless we can generate enough resources the headache is not going anywhere. Think about it, if 120 students are sitting in an exam for 100 seats, do they really need reservation?

Tell me who among them needs/deserve reservation and who doesn't.

And the biggest malaise for reservation is not the reservation itself. It's the ill thoughts attached with reservation. Personally for me, caste is nothing to be talked about (just like religion). But, reserved category students are still thought of as "lower caste". Casteism is still strongly prevalent in educational structure (which is ironic, since main aim of education is to free us of this third world thinking). People instead of working hard to grab the opportunities are doing everything in their power to either get or stop reservation, which brings further hatred towards each other.

I think to an extent reservation is still needed. And in some cases (PH) it will always be needed. But it's important to not take it for granted. People who need reservation must be given, but it should also be taken promptly from those who don't need them any more without caring for vote bank/protest. Children need to be taught of value of hard-work rather than short-cut. "Quota to hai hi!" thinking must go, for good!

So, what's your own thinking about Reservation? Please let me know in the comment section. (please keep your reservation status away while giving your views!).

Paper Setter's Mindset

"Let her/him attempt this paper and pass it"

"Did they copy the paper from another university?"

"WTF was that, was the paper of some other subject?"

"Did they got this paper made from the peon or from the lab assistant?"

Sound familiar? Heard of them? Well these are a few things either I have said or heard people talking about whenever the conversation turns to exams. And these days, I can't really blame anyone for thinking or talking like that. When one works really hard (well cramming GBs of data is not easy!), you expect to get rewarded for it by an easy paper (Of course, when you know the answer, the question is easy) and then some good paper checking, making the hard work successful and giving the mind the right signals that hard work is rewarded.

OK?? NOT OK

But the way we (OK, at least 'I') get the exam papers, my mind gets the signal that it is OK, if I don't work hard. It is OK, if I don't prepare fully for the exam. It is OK, if I bank on my general knowledge of the topic rather than actually knowing the answers to questions. It is OK, to just study a topic 5 mins before the exam and go and write the paper (ask me, I did it in my exam on 31st December 2010). But everyone including me knows, in reality it is NOT OK.

Ideally

(please take note of the word) the exam should be taken to check your 'general' understanding of the subject (not everybody is an expert in Analog Electronics alright). But the paper setter seems to think as if we would have become an expert in 3 months of studying the subject, like it was the only subject that we had to study.

Ground Reality

I find it most ridiculous when you get a 15 marks question when all 'you know' AND/OR 'it can be written about' is of 5-7 marks. So, what options do we have? • Growing the limbs and redundant body parts of the answers which should have only got the mid-gut (read core).• Choosing larger font size (16 rather than normal 11 or 12). Also making use of cryptic fonts (think Webdings or Monotype Corsiva). • Making the text 'centered' rather than 'justified' (leaving margins on both sides of sheet.) • Leaving a blank line after every 3 lines or so of text, on the pretext of making the answer seem legible and neat.

Size Does Matter

And teachers also seem to go for the length rather than the content of the answer. 

"You see, he has written 7" answer so he gets 8 marks while your answer is just 6.25" inch, I still gave you 6 marks, what else do you want?"

"You should have explained this also (even if it means going out of context). This is not enough for a 10 mark question (crap some more)"

Choices. Really?

I don't know which syllabus the paper setter follows, because you almost always get 10% or more of question paper 'out of syllabus'. What's hilarious is that those questions will be given as a choice. So, you exhaust all your choices in 'don't-know-from-where-the-MoFo-gave' questions. So, now all you are left with are the questions that are 'compulsory'. Hey, don't blame the paper setter, he/she gave you a 'choice'. It's you who didn't take it. The choices between questions is also horrible (See my this time's ACN paper to know what I mean).

And what's more ridiculous

...is the way the question paper is set. Instead of asking the question in a simple manner, they will twist it like Jigsaw Puzzle. There will be wrong or incomplete information provided in the question (shame for an end term question paper). The paper seems like has been made at the last moment, just like we prepare near the judgement day. So, whichever question is seen first is given without caring that it is actually going to be attempted by thousands of students in coming days and may be the deciding question for whether the student passes. Recently, a friend told me that his question paper contained significant number of questions from a single page of a book!

I know

...what I have written here is not 100% applicable for all the papers we get. I was quite impressed by the way last paper I gave was set. And University exam papers can't exactly be set like School Board exam papers, all scientifically prepared because they don't have that much resource or time. Also, some of what I have said might be the result of some bad exam experiences (lack of preparation, lack of intelligence, hard luck etc.). But what I have said is not entirely wrong. If you have ever faced University Semester style exams, you will agree with that.

PS: Now that I am all bossing around here like I know how to set the perfect paper, I wonder how I would have set the exam paper. Hmm.. Interesting! Well all I know is that I would have definitely experimented with different styles, like I do in blogging and life in general!

My Idea... of an Ideal Teacher

"Teachers teachers everywhere, everyone has to preach

Teachers teachers everywhere, not a single to teach"

I have been a student all my life. And as a result, have encountered teachers of every kind based on region, language, gender, color, and physical appearance. They being a teacher, these criteria does not matter also. But may be barring a few, most of them haven't been able to meet my high (impossible?) expectations. But this post is not about showing negativity and disappointment. This is about positivity and hope.. that may be aliens will teach us someday.

I myself have been a teacher in some sense (teaching my brothers, and being a part time tutor). But I know I am nowhere near the perfectionism that I want from a teacher. But that does give me some idea about what I, as a student, want from my teachers. Here is my idea of an ideal teacher:

1. Impartial: An ideal teacher got to be impartial towards students and give each student the same time and support, keeping personal perception aside. She (from now onwards, 'she' implies 'he/she') must give more marks for the same question, only because it deserves them, not because the answer was written by her favorite student. Many a times, I have been guilty of getting better marks this way, and believe me I feel really embarrassed.

2. Understanding: Is it too much to ask from a teacher to be understanding? If one becomes a teacher, does she stops being a human? Its a known fact that, not every one has as high IQ as me (no, don't laugh, I am really intelligent!), some students need more time to understand the concept than others. Anyone can teach students who can self study, to teach the students with low motivation towards the subject is the true test of a teacher.

3. Patient: So many times I have heard teachers telling students to ask any concept 'n' no. of times, till the time they don't understand it. But it is amusing to see the same teachers getting irritated when the student is unable to understand the concept even after the third attempt (may be n=3). When I was a kid, I used to get beaten by the teachers for not knowing the alphabets. I learnt them properly only in 3rd standard. Today, I ask myself, what difference did it make in my life to learn alphabets 4 years later than what children normally do? Was it justified to get slapped and scaled on the palms?

4. Adaptable: The field from where I belong keeps changing overnight. In this scenario, it is unacceptable for a teacher to be rigid about her teaching methods. She should be ready to accept that a student can find a better solution to a problem, he/she can know more than her. An idea should not get rejected just because its not mentioned in the book. Anyone would love to go into a class, where the teacher is innovative in her style of teaching. Takes real life and unimaginable examples rather than copy book examples.

5. Knowledgeable: It never hurts when your teacher is the master of the subject, truly passionate about the things that she teaches. It only gives a student confidence that he/she is in the right hands. But to tell the truth, I give a rat's arse about the teacher's knowledge of the subject, as long as she meets the above criterias. If the teacher is willing to do the hard work, ready to accept her ignorance about a topic and willing to learn with and from the students, it doesn't matter to me, whether she is a B.Tech or a PhD.

"I may not be the best of the students.. But that is the precise reason why I deserve the best teachers"

PS: In junior classes I studied about ideal gases only to be told later that there is nothing like an 'ideal gas', but its poor cousin the 'real gas'. I think an ideal teacher is an endangered species, if not non-existent. So, my real teacher will be:

1. Hot: I mean not metaphorically but literally. If her temperature remains high all the time, this will mean nobody will dare ask the questions (such a waste of time). The syllabus gets over well in time, and you can concentrate on better things in life. Also, when she is burning hot, that means she will take loads of holidays (she is not well stupid), implying loads of free classes.

2. Sexi(st): Its been a long since boys have been victims of discrimination in the class. Its time girls should also get the know what it is like to be beaten, just because you are not a boy. Grr..

3. Charming: There I said it. She doesn't know anything about the subject? No problem. She can't solve even the basics of problems? I will manage. She doesn't think she is qualified to be a teacher? You are in majority, mam! All I want is that she (here she implies she) has a nice personality, good looking face and sweet voice. If you can't be easy on brain then just be easy on eyes and ears. Just don't make the 50 mins of an already boring class a torture for me.

Happy Teachers' Day!

I NO Longer WANT to be an Engineer

(The very first post turned out to be a Super blog rather than a mini one, as promised. Well, sorry, but I had strong opinions on this one..) 

First an excerpt from my friend's email.. 

To tell u the truth ! sometyms it's kind of frustrating to think one self as an engineer specially wen u have a university as gud (take it the other way) as mine. "6Th semester ends in just 1 n 1/2 months".how does that sound for tomorrow's times of india headline? but there is some respite , atleast from now onwards our course will be on time..but still i would say, whats the point of doing engineering like that?? i mean there has to be someone who should take responsibility..i mean, do we Indians even know the meaning of word" accountability?? any way, i won't bother u much ! since u are free..i'm giving u an open chance to air your views on this. 

Sounds familiar? Well, to me it felt like someone took my thoughts there and wrote it as his. When I started my B.Tech. I had a lot of hopes.. Hope that I will be a better person after 4 years. Hope that I will not only be getting a degree and a job but also knowledge and confidence.. Hope that I won't just be a B.Tech but a Computer Engineer.. After all I chose Computer Science..

3 years have passed since then. While I am still confident of getting a degree and a job in an year. But all the hopes that I had from the college and from the engineering education have been brutally shattered (sorry, if you don't like the metaphors but I don't have better words to explain how I feel).. 

I thought I will be doing innovative work, learning new technologies, building things that I could be proud and other be envious of, being in company of professors that are a master of their subjects... But, here I am today, doing the same old rot learning that I specialized in, back at school. Whats path3tic is that now, I can't even do that properly. Grades are getting lower and lower by each semester, dragging down the confidence as well. 

Last semester I had a real scare in an exam. I had 2 real bad experiences which I won't want to have ever again in my life. I got to know, how it felt like going completely blank in an exam. How it felt like not being sure if you are going to get in even 50%. 

Alright, so who is at fault here.. Me?

• Me, because I refused to study the subject just because I didn't like it and didn't know how was that going to help me anywhere in the future. 
• Me, who didn't regularly attend that particular subject's classes because the teacher not only couldn't generate any interest in the subject but also seemed a bit rude to me. 
• Me, who thought of passing yet another exam by just cramming the notes a day before the exam... Well if you also feel so, then, sorry I don't agree with you. 

I feel that a student should be given a right not to study any subject (say Maths) if he knows that he isn't exactly cut-out for it, and can better utilize his time making 3D models. If later, he will feel Maths has importance in his life, then he will automatically strive to learn it, as the need arises. 

I also feel that one should be given freedom not to attend any class if he/she doesn't . I mean, whats the use of torturing him/her for an hour when he/she is not interested to study that subject. Will having 70+% attendance going to insure good grades and more importantly attained knowledge? 

A counter-point that's given is that if there is no barrier of attendance then nobody is going to attend classes and there will be no difference in between a regular and a distance education college. 

Well, I disagree.. What I have seen is that, if the teacher is brilliant and can motivate students then the class is not going to be empty. Pupil come not to mark attendance but to actually learn something. They respect the teacher and automatically behave. And those who don't have any interests in studies, aren't going to attend classes, whether the minimum attendance is 70 or 90%... 

I am still to figure out..

• Why do we need to study 6 subjects in 3 months (excluding practicals) and why do we have to keep our files well maintained even-though they are going to be trashed at the end of the semester?
• Why do we have to spend half of the semester duration writing exams? 
• What are we actually going to learn in a 3 months (or in my friend's case in 1.5 months!) semester with books that seem more history than technology, teachers that seem more concerned with how the student looks or behaves in the class rather than what he/she is learning and a education system that wants to squeeze in every little thing to learn in 4 years time without even checking the ground reality and taking the problems of the learners into account.

• Can't we instead choose 3 subjects out 6 every semester and study them properly rather than juggling with all of them?
• Can't we spend more time doing practicals than copying practical work?
• Can't we go into exams with an assurance that our hard work will be rewarded with proportionate grades, and we won't get more or less marks than we deserve?

But hey, who am I to ask these questions. Just an ordinary student, who wasn't even smart enough to get into an IIT (as if IITians are the brightest blokes in this country). 

So, at last, to the question that my friend asked, I would say sorry my friend, there is no accountability in most part of engineering education in India. Their idea is that you can become an engineer only if you pass all the subjects they have prescribed and they will ensure that you get to sit for each of those exams (after all, you have paid money to them!). Now, whether you learn anything or not is not their responsibility. 

And yes, you have the right to remain silent in this matter.. Thank you very much.

PS: I dream of one day becoming the Education Minister of India and recognize the Engineering education and Engineer as a profession. They are no better than unskilled labors... And also, upgrade all diploma holders to degree holders so that they stop feeling inferior.