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University Exams v/s School Exams: Spot the Difference

By Shubham Kaushik November 17, 2015

College changes a lot of things and it also understandably changes the way you take exams. Come November end, an entire batch of first years will be taking University exams for the first time. Despite having given exams (a lot of them) all throughout school life, they are bound to feel a little unprepared for it. They should too. The preparation and pattern of a University exam is pretty different than that of a most school exams. From the perspective of an erstwhile under-CBSE Science student and current Economics student, here are 5 reasons how University Exams are different than school exams:

Pace of the Semester and Syllabus Completion:

Remember how in school the syllabus was finished weeks before the exams actually began? Yeah, that’s not usually true for college exams. You’ll often find teachers scrambling to finish their syllabus and asking for extra classes. You can’t blame them either, with all the activities and mass-bunks, the teachers find themselves with a lot less classes than actually allotted to them. For first years especially, the pace of the first semester will be tremendous. Expected to adjust to a lot of changes- new subjects and what not- you might find yourself face to face with them a lot more abruptly than comfortable, unlike the much more paced out school years.

There’s no one book:

For CBSE students, NCERT in Class XI and XII (and pretty much always) was The Holy Bible, The Bhagvad Gita, and every other important book you can think of. The cons (and sort of a pro) of college is that you’ll be referring to several books, all of which will be big and expensive, thus making it difficult for you to buy all of them, let alone one. Unless you’re a misinformed pseudo-intellectual like I was, you’d have embraced the photocopied relevant portions of all books (called ‘readings’). The issue with readings is that it never achieves the flow or uniformity of a book. Each author uses different symbols for different variables and asks you to refer to previous chapters for concepts which portion isn’t there from that same book, leading to a little bit of confusion. The advantage is that the same concept is explained in a number of ways and since you know the relevant books, you can look them up in the library and refer to the one which works for you the best. College exams, or any exam, at the end of the day, are about your concepts.

The amount you’ll care about them:

I don’t know about you but I took exams way more seriously in school than I do in college. Whether it’s about a change in perspective, priorities or having found things more important than academics (internships, societies, social work and others), your college life won’t revolve around your studies unless you very consciously want it to. You’ll study for exams as you should, but you will feel a difference in the motivation you have for studying. The reason for this could be anything from lack of interaction with your teachers (which served as a motivating factor for me during school) to lack of time.

With the semester exams not that far away, it’s imperative to dust off those books and sharpen pencils for a few weeks of toil, no matter how well or little you studied throughout the semester. To first years: you got this. It’s not that tough. Spend your time studying rather than freaking out about it. To us seasoned not-first years: another semester, another exam season. You’ve got this figured out now. Stick to what works, change what doesn’t. See you on the other side!

Featured Image: vox.com

Shubham Kaushik

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

Abandoning these 5 habits may help you save the semester

By DU Beat November 16, 2015

We’re all soon about to take our college exams and this time should be ideally dedicated to studies. Yes, I said ideally and yes, I know this isn’t the reality. But to nail these exams (or even pass them, quite frankly) there are some habits which are getting the better of us and need to abandoned before our exams start.

1. Binge- watching

It’s the most common and the most time consuming addiction of our generation. We have numerous seasons of one sitcom and want to complete all of them in one go. So, I think the first and the foremost habit that we need to let go of, is this. Let’s pledge to not start any new series or watch any new movie even if they may sound as interesting as How to Get Away with Murder’s season 2. (I think I’m getting off the point here)

2. WhatsApp

We tell ourselves that we’re only going online to ask one question from a friend and soon one hour has passed, that question is unanswered because your friend also had no clue about it and you’re sharing the links of funny videos or sending each other 9GAG memes. Try and control this habit. You have a pile of books still untouched and wasted time will only make you regret later.

3. Switching between Instagram/ Snapchat or any other Social networking platform

The constant habit of checking your phone every five minutes to see the latest pictures posted on Instagram by celebrities or checking Twitter for their tweets is futile. Also, snapchatting your friend about how much you need to study won’t really help either. Your attention gets divided and you’re more concerned about getting a reply than to complete the chapter.

4. Fantasising about the places to visit after exams

It’s the most common habit of us all. We go on Zomato, make a group on WhatsApp and start sharing the possible options of all the cafes that we can try after exams end. The only problem here is that, syllabus isn’t complete, exams are near and this planning may as well cost you both, time and marks.

5. Procrastination

Everyone is familiar with this habit. This habit is the reason behind the shift of your plan from completing five chapters in five days to completing all of them in 5 hours. Try this semester to not procrastinate. It sends all of us in a panic at the last minute making us unsure even about the syllabus we had completed earlier.

Nishita Agarwal

[email protected]

Image credits: https://mvancise1.files.wordpress.com

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Top Picks

Studying for the Internet Generation

By Shubham Kaushik November 16, 2015

The internet and mobile apps fuel a lot of things in our life- TV show binges, fangirling (-boying, – appropriate gender terms), random curious google searches. With the semester exams looming ahead (yeah I know, it’s that time already), we bring you 5 internet resources to fuel your study sessions instead:

1. Online Flash Cards:

Flash Cards are widely used by students to familiarize themselves with important definitions and concepts to accelerate revision and study sessions. They can be used for anything from vocabulary, to definitions of terms and compact flow-charts of processes to important graphs or figures. There are tons of online resources available to make and print your own flash cards. And if you’re not about the DIY life, you might just find flashcards made by students like yourself on platforms like studyblue.com! (web.colby.edu)

2. Studyblrs:

If your notes and messy and you cannot make sense of them but you lack inspiration to actually make notes you’d like to study from, studyblrs are what you’re looking for. They are basically tumblr blogs (hence, studyblr= study+tumblr) dedicated to pictures of very well organised notes, flashcards and stationary, which will make you want to pull out your sheets and highlighters and coloured pens to make neat and attractive notes, because hey, we all do store some importance in how things look, right? Go to tumblr.com/tagged/studyblr, be inundated with motivation and follow whichever blogs you like!

3. Apps like FocusON:

If you find yourself distracted by constant WhatsApp messages, Facebook and Instagram notifications and you lack the self-control to keep your phone aside, or desperately have to use your phone for looking up information, apps like FocusON would work well for you. FocusON lets you choose whatever apps and websites you want to block and then asks you to set a time-period for the block. And during that block, you won’t be shown any notifications from the said apps and, what’s more, if you try and open them, you’ll be treated to stuff like:

“Q- Where do Math teachers go on vacation?

A- To Times Square. Had a laugh? Now stop typing and get back to work”

4. Study Playlists:

When distracted and fidgety, listening to certain albums or playlists can be very therapeutic because they incentivize me to stay in place and to keep writing and making my notes. If you’re not doing something that requires immense concentration, like understanding a brand new concept (because obviously you missed the class), putting on a study playlist can be awesome. You can even time yourself through setting goals of completing a certain number of questions or getting through a certain number of pages in the course of one playlist. There are amazing study playlists of softer, just instruments based songs on 8tracks and YouTube. Better still, if that doesn’t work for you, make your own! As long as you don’t end up jamming instead of studying, everything works.

5. Youtube videos:

Did you know that YouTube can be used for more than watching music videos and random viral videos? *gasps* Several YouTube channels have videos which will be able to give you an overview of certain topics of your syllabus, if not explain to you the entire thing. I find it helpful to watch a video of the concept before I delve into studying it, to give me an idea of what’s in store, especially if it’s a topic I missed in class. As an economics student, channels like ‘The Economics Detective’ or ‘Economics is fun’ prove to be helpful. You’ll even chance upon entire lectures by professors of different universities. So go on and type the name of that concept in the search bar and get learning!

Feature Image Credits: sandweisstestprep.com

Shubham Kaushik

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

This semester, take it easy!

By DU Beat November 16, 2015

When everybody is going gaga over the semester exams and you’re yet to take a nice look at your course books, here is a piece of advice- It’s OK to be a late starter. For most of us, university exams mean studying 12 days before the day and securing decent marks. This semester is no different. So stop worrying, take a quick look at yourself and face it, these exams are no big deal!

Ten Years to your rescue

For 2nd and 3rd year students it’s a customary practice to learn the ten years by-heart. As for the freshers, you’ll soon realise the miraculous powers of these holy books for DU students! It’s easy to score decent marks by just going through the past exam papers. Still haven’t bought yours? Go grab them quick.

Notes of the most regular student in class

Needless to say, class notes can do wonders. Also in such little time, it’s a bit difficult to finish the books completely. It’s time to say hi to your new best friend in class (wicked smile!)

**Stay away from that friend**

We all have a friend who scares the hell out of us by asking again and again “Kitna hua?” Distance yourself from that friend who has already finished the syllabus thrice and is going to dive in for the fourth time! We don’t need such negativity in life, do we?

Bring out your best hand

Let’s face it, more than what we write what matters to the examiners is how we write. Your presentation fetches more marks than your content. So make sure your paper is beautifully and neatly written.

Peace-out

Say goodbye to the world of social media. Avoid parties (obviously, duh!) If social media is a huge distraction for you, become less active for a few days, only then can you concentrate.

Put in your earphones, listen to some music and sit down to begin. Because it’s still okay if you start today! Good luck.

Tanya Agarwal

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DUB Speak

5 rock bands that may help you seek solace this exam season!

By DU Beat November 9, 2015

Exam season has started and the preparation for the oh-so-dreaded exams is more or less about to begin. (If you’ve already begun with it, I’m going to go ahead and call you a traitor!) Now, amid this mind-numbing preparation period, everyone takes breaks to rejuvenate themselves. And, if you are one of those who turn to music to do the deed, here’s a list of five rock bands that you must try to revamp both, your mood and your playlist!

1. Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy is an American rock band formed in 2001. If you imagined rock bands just to be a couple of people, head-banging on ear-piercing music with incomprehensible lyrics, holding bulky guitars, this band may change your perception. The title of their song ‘Where did the party go?’ seems to perfectly reflect the thought of every student swamped with internals and assignments at the moment and may as well turn out to be an interesting listen. Also, their top tracks like light ‘em up, alone together, Uma Thurman and Centuries should not be missed.

2. Imagine dragons

You may have heard about them through their much acclaimed single “Demons” and the powerful video that accompanied it. Many put this band in the alternative rock genre but they once said in an interview that, “We don’t want to be a cliché band. We don’t want to restrict ourselves to one genre. We don’t want people to remember us from the genre. We want to let people call our songs as Imagine Dragons’ type songs. So in pursuit of that, we push the boundaries of every genre and try to mix them.” Amazing lyrics, great music, inspiring music videos, this band will provide you with all.

3. Panic! at the Disco (P!ATD)

This is an American rock band from Las Vegas, formed in 2004. They’re fresh and have a modern appeal. Their songs are so catchy; you’ll end up humming them for weeks. Few of their tracks that you can try are Ballad of Mona Lisa, New perspective and This is Gospel (both the original and acoustic version)

4. Arctic Monkeys

Along with a unique name, this band is famous for their quirky music with lyrics that’ll connect with you in a second. They’re also pretty famous for their ever-so-hot lead vocalist Alex Turner whose voice contains the perfect amount of snotty English accent, which becomes all the more tempting when lazily delivered. Their fifth album ‘AM’ is absolutely the most incredible album of their career comprising of tracks with fascinating titles such as ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re high?’ And ‘Snap out of it’.

5. The Fray

The Fray is an American pop-rock band from Denver, Colorado, formed in 2002. Their songs are ideal for when you’re sitting alone in a peaceful room at night, looking to go on a ride of self-reflection and intense emotions. Their most famous tracks are How to save a life, You found me, Look after you.

Nishita Agarwal

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

Two Exams, One Day: The Dilemma of the D-Day

By Shubham Kaushik October 16, 2015

A lot of things change from school to college, but exams and academics remain. In the first semester- with new surroundings, new possibilities and a lot of changes to adjust to- studying understandably, takes a back seat for most students. After a few months of getting used to pretty much an entirely new life, dawn the semester exams and the realisation that university papers, datesheets and exams are another foreign concept and with all the other activities having taken the centre-stage, they were never given much thought. This is enough to make a lot of people worry about the fate of their marks.

This year, a certain group of first-semester students have another dilemma to complicate things further- two exams on the same day. A group of semester 1 students studying B.Com (H) have their papers for Introductory Microeconomics and Financial Accounting scheduled on 26th November. A similar issue was faced by some semester 1 students last year as well when two of their papers were within 24 hours of each other, with Environmental Studies in the afternoon and Mathematical Methods for Economics the next day in the morning.

Naturally, these occurrences cause a lot of anguish to students, but at the same time, they aren’t as uncommon as you may think, with cases like these popping up every few semesters. The only two ways out of this situation are either to notify the authorities and protest against it to get them to change the datesheet, or to deal with it. The latter sounds impossible but really isn’t.

However, it is unfair for the authorities to not be sympathetic to the state of mind of most students around examinations, and not just with respect to less time for dedicated preparation for that subject available to them. It is a general experience that giving an examination is exhausting, and no matter how well or little you slept the night before, you tend to feel drained by the end of the three hours and want to go back to atleast a few hours of relaxation before you start preparing for the next exam. For students to be expected to sit for another examination after a tiring three hours of writing for one, and to be expected to retain everything they studied for both subjects is unfair and something that must be avoided, given that the marks of both subjects count towards the final percentage, and eventually, the overall percentage at the end of all semesters.

It is advisable for the affected party to gather as many voices of support and approach the authorities about the issue and get them to change the datesheet. If that doesn’t happen, then we have our best wishes and the counsel to start studying right away and wrap up preparation before the D-day arrives to offer to them.

Image Credits: www.inmyheadcase.com

Shubham Kaushik
[email protected]

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Admissions 2015

Are Board Exam Results the end of our world? – The harsh story of college admissions in India

By Arushi Pathak June 26, 2015

Come May and one can see around is the extravagant anticipation regarding the year’s board results. Every year, the fate of thousands of students is sealed in envelopes stamped upon by vintage authorities who seldom realise the worth of the work they’re doing.

And while the kids develop anxiety disorders hoping to be able to ‘make the cut’, we tend to see reassurances from all around that board exam results are not the end of the world after all. When comedian and celebrity, Vir Das broke the internet with his marksheet; the youth seemed to be infused with an unusual gusto to break away the status quo. However, the question, and a very important one in the Indian society, still stands staring at us- Are Board Exam results really NOT the end of the world?

The answer, sadly, is a big fat no. Because let’s face it, when the nosey aunt shows pity when you just scored a 90% while some Sharma ji’s son managed to score a 98% all you want to do is to get away from the situation as soon as you can. Let’s take a simple example. An author at the age of 17 would not be able to pursue English Honours course in DU’s premier colleges simply because she failed to score a 99% in her board exams; which is the metric for her intelligence and brilliance, isn’t it? Because being an author at such a young age means nothing but messing up that Physics numerical and losing out on a few marks keeps her from attending the best college in the country.

And with this big question follows another big one- Is it fair? And that’s a question all of us know the answer to. Certainly, students who aren’t able to score exceptionally alien 100% scores also make it big in life. But at this point in this developing country, we cannot turn a blind eye to this mismatch. As an observer, one can see aspirants crying when they score a 98.25% because Stephen’s has set its cut off at 98.5%.

With 28 boards running in India, there is no common metric that can keep all students at par. While someone with “mah lyf, mah rulezz” captions is able to score a 95 in English, the other one with “full fathom five thy father lies” cannot climb beyond an 85. So even though the Indian education system runs away from practical knowledge, the system of theoretical knowledge is full of loopholes which indeed make the board result a life changing event for all students.

When we realise the problem of increase in student suicides across the country, why is it so difficult to think of a solution that brings all of us out of this 100% cut-off mesh? Are the students who are not 95% scorers any less deserving than the ones who are? Why are marks solely our judgement metric for a student’s intelligence? Most importantly, why is the flowchart shaped like: Less than 95% is equal to losing out on the country’s best education facilities?

So no matter how much Vir Das or Amitabh Bachchan or Arvind Kejriwal harp about board exam results not being the end of the world, the hard reality is that the status quo points out very different facts which in fact prove the very opposite. And while we’ve all faced it in our lives at some point or the other, there isn’t much that has changed in the Indian Education System in the past three decades.

Acche din might help. We’ll know soon!

Image Credits- mentalhealthy.co.uk

Arushi Pathak
[email protected]

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Bazinga

Bazinga: Delhi University all set to throw an after-exam party

By DU Beat May 21, 2015

Disclaimer: Bazinga is DU Beat’s weekly column of almost believable fake news!

In this exam season, students are flipping with exam phobia. Students take to unhealthy living and unhealthy food. They run around while sleeping for 2-3 hours every day or not sleeping at all! Everyone feels the exam heat, and teachers are no exception. Their workload increases and the process of allotting marks and distributing copies can be a tedious one. So this year the Varsity has decided to give a post exam party of sorts where all the teachers, as well as the students can celebrate the end of the exam maha yuddh. The varsity this year had appointed additional squad members to keep an eye on invigilators and supervisors, alike. So with more than required number of teachers in every room no one time had time for breaks, courtesy of exam-malpractices. “Exam time brings with it increased workload for us as well, and this year it was even more so. A party like that would be welcome refreshment”, said a senior official sharing her views on this.

Even more unexpected was where this idea came from which was, if reports are to be believed, from VC Dinesh Singh. Apparently the VC knows when to throw a party. Calling it ‘Exam ke Baad‘ they are planning to have games and few local DJs to turn it up, adding to the fun. The cost for all this is surprisingly economical. The university has tie ups with numerous local ventures and for a contract they have agreed to sponsor the event allowing DU to go forward with negligible cost. Also with most students leaving home for the summer, less turn ups are expected from outstation students. The venue for this has yet to be decided, but it will happen in three or four campuses simultaneously, both South and North. No more details have been given.

Bazinga is DU Beat’s weekly column of almost-believable fake news!

Feature image source: globe-views.com

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DUB Speak

4 things not to do while you plan to ace this semester

By Vani Vivek April 22, 2014

After years and years of planning to start studying well before the exams and failing to do so, cramming at the last hour, and sometimes miraculously scraping through, we’ve all developed our own ‘fundas’ of preparing for examinations. While we all have unique ways of studying that work for us, there are a few ways that usually don’t. Here is a list you should try not to follow if you want to ace this semester:

1.Decide to get organized

This might seem like a good idea, but tidying up your cupboard/ room/ local river in the week before your exams isn’t likely to unclutter your mind, and arranging all your books and notes in neat stacks won’t boost your grades. If you haven’t been organized all through the semester, trying to do it now will only distract you, tire you and waste precious time.

Best case scenario: You now live in more habitable surroundings.

Worst case scenario: You discover an old photo album (let the reminiscing commence).

2.Multi task

You may think that playing Flappy bird and upholding a conversation at the same time makes you a master multi-tasker, but rarely does this skill convert well in terms of actual studying. To be able to really grasp what you’re reading, you need all your concentration and more, especially when there’s only a little time left to cover a lot of syllabus. For some students, studying two subjects alternatively without a sufficient gap works wonderfully, but for most of us, this just muddles things up entirely. Stick to one subject at a time and make sure you don’t move on to something entirely different till you’ve given your mind enough time to soak in what you’ve just studied.

3.Pull regular all nighters

Sure this works for all people on some nights and for some people on many nights, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that completely disrupting your sleep cycle will lead to any major leap in your scores. If you aren’t typically a creature of the night, then turning nocturnal right before exams is a very bad idea. Staying up all night to study generally leads to increased consumption of caffeine and decreased concentration. Your ability to memorize and recall what you’ve just learnt falls and your mind tires more quickly.

4.Try to study online

Because no one really knows how those online notes usually turn into Facebook. And after chatting or aimlessly hitting the news feed button you end up wasting not less than 3-4 hours from your rigorous schedule of last minute studies. So better beware of falling into this trap and stick to the old school method of reading from your books.

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News

Delhi University declares results for FYUP students

By Gurman Bhatia December 21, 2013

Delhi University declared the result for the examinations held for the first semester in the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) on Saturday, the 21st of December. The announcement of the results comes shortly after a fortnight since the examinations ended. This is also the first round of results to have come out for the semester exams held in November and December.

While the results of a total of 42 FYUP courses have been announced, some courses including Journalism and Mass Communication are not present in the list. In order to avoid the crashing server that follow the announcement of all results, the University has hosted the results on three separate servers this time. Only, they still seem to be crashing with students’ attempts to access their results constantly going in vain.

Link to the results servers: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

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