[Views expressed here are not officially endorsed by ISI.]
Welcome to ISI. I am sure you are all very good students. But
possibly you feel a bit apprehensive about whether your good
days will continue at ISI. Indeed, this apprehension is
justified, as ISI days are going to be rather different from what
you have seen so far.
If you think carefully you'll notice that
your good academic career so far has depended on these three factors:
You lived in a supportive environment (your parents cared
for you, maintained daily routines, kept disturbances away
etc).
You knew the exam patterns well in advance (using textbooks,
private tuitions etc).
You were way ahead of your class. So you could spend time
pursuing your own ideas (hobbies, solving difficult math problems,
whatever) without sacrificing class performance.
Here at ISI the first two points are definitely missing! And the
third point will also be missing for most of you.
The hostel environment (with its poor maintenance and
boisterious inmates) is far from what you are used to.
Most teachers teach based on their personal intution about
the subject, and do not follow any textbook. Exam patterns may vary
drastically from year to year and teacher to teacher.
Typically at most five students in each class can boast to
follow everything discused in a lecture. And even these students
may founder in certain classes.
None of these points can be changed easily. So you need some way
to survive in spite of these.
Don't expect to understand everything. But carefully keep
track of what you are understanding and what you are not (and why).
Here is how this may be achieved. Maintain one fair note for each
subject. It could be the same as your class notes (if you have a
good fast handwriting), but having a different fair note is more
effective. In this fair notebook, you'll write down all the
things that you have understood and, for each unclear point,
identify where the problem lies:
Do you know the definitions of all the terms and symbols? If
not, underline the unclear ones.
Do you think that this step is wrong? e.g., you seem to be
able to find a counterexample? Then jot down your argument in
the margin.
Do you have no idea why this step is correct? Write "How?"
in the margin.
You understand the step, but you do not see any
motivation behind it. Write "Motivation?" in the margin.
Do not spend more than 5 minutes to decide these points for each
step. The important thing is annotate like this all the class
notes on daily basis. Do not get stuck up with any single problem
before you finish doing the above to all the notes for that
day. It is like appearing in a competivie exam with lots of
MCQs. Spending too much time on one may mean missing an easy
question later on! It is not very difficult. But this
single technique will allow you to survive quite merrily at
ISI. Many of your problems will automatically go away when you go
though your annotated notes before the exam, because many
questions get answered down the way. Also, you'll have precise
questions to ask your teachers instead of a confused request like
"Could not follow anything for the last month, please help!".
Teachers at ISI sometimes experiment with the course
structure. If you feel that things are not working out well for
you, you must first inform the teacher. Doing so collectively is
a good idea. There are teachers who appear unfriendly in class,
but area actually quite friendly when you visit them in their
offices personally. Do not get irritated with a teacher before
talking to him/her personally at least once. If the
teacher's response is not satisfactory, then talk to the class
teacher about it. If even that does not solve your problem, well,
then start believing in God so that you can blame Him!
If you are new to hostel life or are not familiar with Bengali or
Hindi, then chances are that you'll initially hate hostel life
here. That is natural. But let me assure you that when you'll
eventurally leave ISI, you'll miss
that very hostel life that you had once hated! The key to start
loving the hostel life is to actively explore ways to love it. The worst
mistake that you can make is to sit inside your closed hostel
room immersed in cyber space pretending that you are still back
home. Make friends (take the initiative), play, read story books,
and above all don't skip meals or sleep. Also explore the nooks
and corners of the campus, the rooftops, ponds, and the strange
hidden stairways (I leave you to find them!).
You are very serious, study the lectures extremely carefully, and notice some intriguing point
somewhere. You smell a puzzle, get interested,
try to understand it, and start ignoring the other subjects.
Your time is spent in Google searches, unearthing tonnes of research papers, sending emails to
professors about your findings. You even get encouragement from some of them. You start thinking that you
are well on your way to a brilliant research career. The other subjects lie neglected. After two
weeks the excitement subsides leaving you with a bunch of confusion and a huge lag in your
regular study. You find yourself tottering on the verge of a downfall.
Remedy: Never lose track of your regular coursework. You'll get plenty of scope to do
research later. For now give top priority to the regular (possibly boring) coursework. Indulge in
such extra research only after you have made your fair notes for each subject. If you are afraid
of losing your research ideas, keep a separate notebook for jotting them down.
You are a superb math whiz kid cracking the hardest math nuts as easily as if your brain
were just a giant nut cracker. You know that great mathematicians were all eccentric persons who
disliked there regular studies. You already know the things taught at Masters level,
and are eager to do advanced math project under some professor who is impressed with your abilities.
You find statistics a most boring subject. You start bunking stat classes. "After all, ISI cannot
punish a bright math student like me for flunking in stats", you think. You are wrong. ISI is a cruel place. You'll
lose your stipend, repeat years and possibly get chucked out if you regularly flunk in the stat classes.
Remedy: Shift to B Math. Or make sure you keep at least a passing score in the stat classes.
If you are this kid, then most likely you are not reading this, because class webpages are too urban a concept for you. You
are fresh from a village. Possibly you are the first in your family to get higher education.
You miss your rural surroundings, hate the dust and noise of city life. You hate your classmates because they make fun of
you, and talk about outlandish things. You find it difficult to communicate in English. But you
love your hostel room (and the
stipend). So you stop coming
to class, you just enjoy your hostel room, and accept the stipend as a permanent gift from god. Then one
day you learn that you will be chucked out or have to repeat the year without stipend.
Remedy: Form a group with the other students from rural background (may be from the other batches).
Socio-economic barrier is a big barrier, and so do not expect much help from your urban classmates initially. Meet the
professors (preferably all
the rural batchmates together) outside the class, and explain your situation. Most professors understand Hindi, and some even
speak fluent Hindi. They generally understand the special needs of students from rural background.
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