Everybody makes mistakes. Be it as frivolous as missing your 8.03 train for a lecture because u got up late to as serious as choosing your career path. Ask any bloke or a missy for the University review and eventually the appalling will cease as the replies will soon be repetitive. Okay this one is for the newbies who will enter something called Engineering which encompasses myriad branches right from IT to Mechanical to Chemical to Paper Packaging.

Yes the last one does exists. Being practical in approach, it all lies about survival in the end, how you skate through, then be it a ferocious jungle or tackling an octave of semesters. My earlier statement will put many to doubt but you all will understand what I meant. Let a year pass. 40 will be the golden number which will be a sole parameter of satisfaction, forget scoring 90 marks like school.

Initially Engineering may be all intriguing and worth exploring but later you do realise what it actually is. Anyway I guess the chaotic admission processes and constant greed to get the “best” education has finally come to a halt and  the FE’s have commenced their tedious and screwing journey and this will  probably be the best guide to survive this war. I believe in relating to the youth and discussing  matters very informally. Forget counsellors, lecturers, orientations and all those serious folks who can intimidate you by being all  corporate like formal in explaining you what you are about to go through.

Let me categorize in a few sections what this stuff is all about. Ill only focus on the stuff which concerns us. Totally candid based on reviews and experiences, here it goes…………..

UNIVERSITY EXAMS

The name itself is enough to induce fear unlike board exams and unit tests. A friend of mine had told me how fickle the university paper correction is which I experienced myself later. He said sometimes you pass in the subjects you are sure to flunk and fail in those in which you are sure of passing. I don’t know how they manage this but it happens. It’s a gamble sometimes irrespective of the efforts you put in. Still I am not at all saying don’t study and rely on luck but this is just to make you people aware of a crazy reality.

REFERENCES BOOKS

You may stumble upon ajeeb authors and 500-600 page fat books which will  instantly acquire a BITCH PLEASE reaction. To be very honest don’t use reference books if you are aiming solely for clearing a university exam. If you wish to absorb real technical information and plan to be prolifically brilliant in the society with respect to your subject, enjoy the company of the fat nerdy books. A local publication is more than enough to clear a university exam.

EASY SOLUTIONS

It is like a beacon in dark tunnel when the above category fails. Easy Solutions cant 100% guarantee a PASS in a subject as in rare occurrence the ‘repeated’ questions are as less as 10-20 marks and the rest totally different questions. Then, boy!! You’re screwed.  An example was the 2011 paper of COA for computer science branch. Like I mentioned the university is like a die. Gamble and pure gamble-anything can happen. Still, this in my assumption is the most widely sold book which comprises the previous 3-4 years’s question papers with complete solutions and is constantly updated. Easy solutions is a classic book a 40-60 page book which can at least give us some confidence to tackle a university paper.

VIVAS

This is some serious unwanted section in an practical examination which everybody hates to the core. An external examiner who seems to enjoy your helplessness and lack of technical crap through his evil smile is often reminiscent of JOKER (from the movie The Dark knight). The internal examiner should be kind enough not to bombard you with extra questions and confuse you. The key to a “successful” viva is be confident even if u don’t know anything, at least attempt  in answering whatever the opponent has to throw at you. Well, this has worked for me and I ain't generalizing but according to my premise this is what all people do. So best of luck with that.

THE RAPPORT

Make sure you do not invite unnecessary grudges and hatred from your professors or the lab assistants who apparently could be guiding demigods in your practical examination. Be careful as to not mess with your teachers. You could land in trouble if the prof is a stern and a revenge-seeking minded fellow. Be safe than sorry.

Alright I guess this is decent enough as a guidance. Be chilled but make sure you are organised and plan your studies. Last minute studies may not always work in your favour. SEM I can be a little hectic for you people but eventually our resilience works and we get used to this system. There could be quite a few alterations in what I have penned down but mostly it’s uniform in all cases.

Cheers \m/