Why don't we study @ IIT Bombay

Today there was an online survey by Insight (IIT Bombay's news letter) about why don't we(students) study, surely we use to study during our JEE days but everyone will agree that now they don't study that much which they used to earlier. Same case with me too.

So  why don't we study that much ? i'll try to answer this taking me as reference. I studied hard in my 11th and 12th days, we all did. All that was said to us was "beta 2 saal padh lo, IIT main ho gaya na to 4 saal main kewal 2 mahine padhna padega" (son, study for 2 years, if u get into an IIT u'll just have to study 2 months in your whole 4 years.). Well i at least took it very seriously indeed :P.

During JEE days, each exam was not just an exam, it was a preparation for JEE. Now each quiz is independent. what has been asked has a low probability of being asked again. Every mid semester exam is just half way through and end semester is the end of that subject for most of us.

In those days if you were bad at a subject you tried hard to improve it as it will affect you ultimately. but here if you are bad at something generally it gets ditched. There are better things to do rather then study a subject which will last only for 4 months and you have no interest in it. Take an example, HSS courses, how many of us remembers what have we done in them actually? We just mugged up many slides and wrote in the exam paper and forgot about it the very next day. This is true for most of us and not all. There are people who like HSS courses as they are different from general theory courses of Engineering and can be refreshing sometimes.

We generally study one day before the exam. Why ? what do we do all those other days ?
As a typical freshmen in CSE department i had lectures every morning and labs twice a week in afternoon. In the evenings there is either NSO /NSS or some sport in hostel ground, or worse Chatting on a social network. Nights were the most amazing!. Dinner and then 'mafiya' (The game every freshi plays) or some card games. Some nights were for roaming in the institute exploring and some for b'days of wingmates and friends. Where was time to study in such a busy year? Ohh yes i forgot the people who are cult or sports enthusiastic. Nightouts for some competition or other is very normal.

As a sophomore i became a bit free from the previous year. But lazy, more lazy. And that laziness combined with a laptop full of new TV shows ruined my sophomore year academic wise. but yeah the fact that this is the first time you have department courses matters, as you discover do you like your branch or not. You can not make a complete decision but still many of us do. And don't forget the race for PORs. MI techfest, Ecell etc. many people are busy in these activities.

Now the third year. I have no idea what other people do in this semester. I was so damn busy in acads, yes acads :P that i didn't realize when the year passed. Night outs in labs, continuous work, assignments, projects and reports. So many assignments that the schedule became from lectures->lab->assignments->sleep. Sometime even not sleep. Frankly i got so busy in assignments that there was no time to study for the exams other then the exam days themselves. Count the work of people who hold some PORs. They were literary screwed.

Final year. More than half way through it and did nothing this whole semester other then placements study and tests and PPTs of company. Interest in everything else reduced (projects and assignments) and all concentration was on placements. Well that is supposed to happen I guess.

To summaries I a guy who had no POR for whole IIT life, no extra circular activity interest  and on an average i never studied even one hour per day for my courses. For people with some regular interest you can imagine yourself.

Now lets finish the year in terms of activities.
Starts in july, just began, have some fun i'll study later on. with in 3 4 weeks before you realise, quizzes  Then again, quizzes just got over, i'll study later.Starting of September some competitions, mid September Midsems and then Gyrations, surbahar, Some GCs, Theater Fest  etc. Finally its dushhera, diwali, quizzes, and projects submissions, October finishes in them. Nov Now you realize you had done nothing this whole semester and then it comes to mind, "let this semester go i'll study in the next one". End semesters from mid nov and thus our sem emds.
Even Sem: Techfest (at  least till now), then quizzes, then Election Phase I, Midsems, Elections Phase II, PAF, Quizzes, Valfis, and endsems. Whole semester gone, without noticing :P

Disclaimer:  I do not say here that one can not study at IIT Bombay, I am just listing my thoughts. People still find time to study, to research, some of the best student projects are from IIT B. Be it 'Pratham' or 'AUV' or 'BKB'. It's all about interests and what fascinates you. If you are passionate about something or other their is an opportunity here.
:D