Hi All,
Recently I completed Master of Science in Software Systems
from BITS, Pilani, Rajasthan.
For all those who want to pursue higher education and are or
aren't working, following are few tips from my side.
In the busy IT sector life one can hardly make out
time or rather invest time on themselves. But still there are few(rather
many!!) who inspite of having a hectic schedule, pull out some quality time for
their self growth. One of the reason is higher studies. There could be various
reasons which would have stopped them from continuing to pursue their Master
degree, but nowadays we have flexible options to do the same. For example, BITS
Pilani offers WILP (Work Integrated Learning Programme), Manipal (Distance
Studies), Symbiosis (Well known for Distance MBA).. etc.
I recently pursued Master of Science from BITS Pilani. Many
people(colleagues, peers, sub-ordinates and students) asks me, that why I opted
for BITS Pilani, over others. Following is a brief comparison that why I opted
for BITS.
Reason
|
BITS
|
Manipal
|
Weekend Classes
|
No (All Weekdays)
|
Yes
|
Classes conducted
|
Online
|
Place would be arranged,
somewhere near Basavanagudi(As far as I know)(in Bangalore)
|
Teaching
|
Much better comparatively
|
-
|
Fees
|
Almost same in both
|
-
|
Lecture Videos
|
Downloadable. So no tension of
missing any classes if you couldn’t attend any on weekday.
|
I don’t think this option is
provided.
|
Renowned Institute
|
Well known and established long
back.
|
Comparatively less.
|
AICTE Approval
|
No (BITS itself is deemed
university and has good reputation of its own).
|
No
|
Degree certificate
|
Final certificate won’t have
anything printed as distance education etc
|
I think this is clearly a
distance education. But can’t confirm on whether it would be printed on the
final certificate also.
|
Change of organization
|
Flexible
|
Flexible
|
Now coming
to the point that how to manage time and use of this master degree:
Most of all, its upto you how well you can make use of this
degree further(in corporate life and other places).
2 Also,
checkout how well can you manage time etc. Am not saying its impossible,
because I have seen people bringing their kids(around 3-4 years) to examination
premises. So if they can manage, then most of us can.
My personal
experience:
Nothing is easy, as it
seems to be initially. Every path has its own turns and twists and so did I
experienced.
During the first
semester it was hard to even write(because it was a long time writing some
stuff after engineering days. Ya I know that might be hilarious to many
:)).
Following are few of
the problems I faced and also how I was able to manage them:
1) Time : The
biggest problem is how to manage time. Usually the working hours would be
anytime between 9am to 5/6pm + 2 hours minimum of commuting so total of 11
working hours. Hardly you can make out time after coming to home. If you are
commuting in Bus/Cab, then that's the best time which could be utilized. Also,
morning time is the best time to study. Studying in bus may not be easy for
all, especially if its a bumpy ride on city roads :). But this is how I
managed, 2.5 hours of study in bus and 1 hour at home. And always, weekends you
have extra time. Also, you might have to skip those family gatherings and
functions, friend's get together, mini parties, movies, bowling etc etc, as the
list goes on and on.
2) Office chores:
Yes, you got it right. Work load varies across people and that small time which
you spend chatting or roaming etc, could be managed very effectively and
efficiently. Few companies also provide you special infrastructural support for
watching those lectures. And when you have the soft copies of the lectures,
VOILA!!, what more you want!!... you can access them in your smartphones also.
One can also watch the videos in their Tabs/ Smart phones. Still to make it
simple.. Convert the video to audio, and listen as if its some music(I know,
not as easy as I said .. ;)).
3) Exam time:
Huff!!. The D-Day.. As the exam nears, the heat increases. Many blow the extra
dust covered on books on the previous week of exams and believe me, these last
minute readers also perform very well and also scores good :).. Coming to
the main point, exams are usually conducted on weekends or on govt holidays.
Yes, you got it right, it could be during Diwali/Eid/Christmas also :).. So you
might not enjoy your festival, but still you need not apply leaves(other
than your study leaves that depends) for your exams.
There
would be two exams per day(as per BITS). Initially this would seem hectic, but
compared to other universities which plan for the whole month(one weekend
each), this would just end in one week and not dragging the lion too much so
tat it kills the poor students :)...
I
used to apply leaves as per my preparation, sometimes one whole week prior to
exam and sometimes 2-3days.
4) Exam
Pattern: In BITS, there would be one mid-sem exam(closed book), which is
like a unit test for 30% of marks, then an objective online test for 10% and
the final would be an open book exam (dont be happy, its not as easy as it
seems to be) for 60% of the marks. Each would have a gap of minimum 2.5 to 3
weeks. About the open book exam, as I said, its not as easy as it seems to be.
To put in short, its like going to a feast with a tape on your mouth. You can
smell all the dishes and sometimes taste also(somehow), but cannot eat
completely at any cost. Literally, the questions wouldn't be straight forward
or Copy-Paste kinda questions, where you can find the answer from text-books.
One of
my colleague suggested me on this. The best way to tackle the open-book exam is
to make less use of Book. Yes it sounds funny, but true. Using book, checking
out the most suitable answers would just eat up your precious time in exam
hall, rather
i)
Just try to recall what best you can write on the same as per your
preparations.
ii)
Have plenty of bookmarks or create an index of your own.
iii)
Best place to find the related stuff in your book is to check the topic wise
index at the end of your book. Believe me, this helps a lot.
5) Marking
scheme: There are two types of marking/grading schemes : Absolute and
Relative.
http://www.iitk.ac.in/infocell/Archive/dirmay1/relativegrading.html
would be helpful.
BITS follows Relative marking scheme, where if the top score is 50/100 then
45-50 would be grade A and 35-45 would be grade B and so on(The period may
vary). Since this is not in a student's control, so just do your best and
leave the rest :)..
All the
above problems are just some junk text if you are determined well enough and
know how to manage your time, because after all its your time and your decision
and hence "you" yourself are the right person to do the best.
Happy learning folks!!!.
You can reach me @ razz797@gmail.com
Disclaimer : Please note that, this is purely my opinion and hence this
post is not responsible for any consequences of anybody's decisions based on
the same. Also, by this post, I am not downgrading any particular institution.
