Applying The pattern that changed my life again

I have applied the pretty maligned and controversial methodology, popularly known as "Latur Pattern" to studies at least twice in my life.

First time was when I was a simpleton from a small taluka place of Udgir, joining the well known college in the district town. I was just off from a relative failure in my tenth examination. I had got 88 percentage, pretty good but far below the expectation I had set with my parents and teachers. Losing the merit by 7 marks. 

This time the pattern was enforced and inculcated by the teachers/profs at my college. It had then involved two things. First: attention to each individual student, his limitation and aspiration by the staff. Everything was documented and tracked. The parents, students and the teachers were always in sync with regular communication between them. You will find a number of anecdotes where Jadhav sir gets hold of unsuspecting student in the corridor and read out his attendance record, his performance in the prep exams and the class he is bunking right now, everything from his memory. It was an external factor where the profs were going above and beyond their call of duty to make sure the syllabus is covered well in advance to leave more time for the students to prepare for the exams. Which is the second part and may be more controversial one. Once the syllabus is covered, the target is to score as much as possible. Regular exams are arranged so that the students get "match practise". Possible questions are discussed. The student exactly known even if it a descriptive question of 6 marks, what exactly is expected, how the marks are allotted to each point in the answer. This works on the fidelity of half and something quarter marks. So when the final exam comes round the corner, the students do not only know the answers to the questions but also knows the time required for writing the answer, what is expected out of the answer and how to present the answer to give maximum marks. 

This approach worked pretty well for me, just like it has been working for thousands of students from the hinterlands of Marathwada.

After struggling in the engineering college for first year and doing pretty well for the second year, I applied the same for the third year onwards at the opposite end of spectrum. I was working part time because of financial compulsions. That, in addition to my particular dislike of non programming and theoretical subjects and general apathy in life made sure that my getting the course completed in four years was pretty difficult. As a solution I tried to apply the thing that got me here with some changes.

I tried playing with the reference question papers, and with some practise I was able to easily figure out the answers I wrote and the marks they will fetch me. Once I reach the magic figure of 40-50, I generally used to lose interest in the exam. 

This approach was pretty successful, at least I think so. My scores of 40-45 without a single failure in third and final year of exam are testimonies for that. As well my certain position on the volleyball court at the end of each paper marked my efficiency as well.

This might not be the way the originators of the pattern might have liked it to be used, but I did use this in this way.

Now, exactly 10 years after I passed my last important written exam, I am doing something which I always wanted to do, i.e. to study further. With a new goal, "Masters before 35,doctorate before 40". First small step is to make sure I get through the mid semester and semester examination with good score. In more ways than one, this is one of the most important goals. And I need to do this with the less amount of time and more effectiveness. And guess what I am going back to the same pattern that changed things for me twice already.

Along with the other discussions, I will track the different ways I am trying to apply this pattern to my studies. Hope it will help people who stumble across this blog. Least it can do is help me channelize my thoughts and track my own progress with some degree of certainty. :)

Beginning: how

BITS has been one of the favorite DLP for a lot of Indian organizations. When I was in Wipro, I regularly saw particular type of people at their particular juncture in life opting for BITS.

In my current org, Microsoft India, a good chunk of employees are (or at least in the beginning were) expats most of them are MS (or MS+) from reputed US universities. So a post grad course, that too a correspondence course does not have the same ring as it had in wipro. But then there is not point in not doing something just to be "in". And at my current financial, family condition this is the thing that is most optimal for me to do.

So here is how one starts with BITS DLP. It needs definite commitment from your employer which is most of the times your immediate boss. It also needs a good mentor, preferably from the same org, and you are all set to go. Most of the orgs are ready to pay the full/partial cost of the 

You should monitor  BITS Admission notice page in the month of September/October for new applications. The application procedure works in two steps where we first apply for admissions with a demand draft of 800 rs (900 if not payable at Pilani), definitely this may change with time. Around mid/end November they go through all the applications. If you are coming in from a good-to-ok org and have good mentor and fill the forms completely, I think you are good to go.

I manged to screw up the DD, but BITS DLP was good enough to contact me and allow me to ratify my mistake.

Once your application is accepted you are given around a month to pay the admission and first semester fee. It is 20000 rs per semester. The admission fee is 10000 rs. Most of the companies reimburse this as mentioned earlier.

BITS DLP home page contains most of the info and updates and is one window of contact and update. I tried to go through other channels to contact BITS (phone/email/online query) and the response was not optimal. But I would rather give BITS benefit of doubt here as the problem was with me and BITS took care by contacting me on their own. So maybe it is part of their streamlined process.

In the mid of December once your admission procedure is complete you are given choices to choose between different courses distributed over four semesters. Some of the courses are mandatory for each semester, whether as others can be distributed over the three semesters (forth semester is for the paper writing). These courses cover a gamut of subjects generally covered by any respectable degree/post grad course. So no surprises here.

I just had a look at subjects I chose for first semester and the reference books etc. The books look familiar and builds on whatever was studied for the degree course. So the syllabi look achievable with 6 hours of work per week. 

I had a peek at one of the previous year's question paper and the questions look descriptive and I think you should reply like a person with a degree and industrial experience to get good grades.

I will discuss my first semester subjects, their syllabi, reference books, my plan of studies etc in my next few blogs.

28/12

P.S. One addition/clarification to the comments I already made. The syllabus as well as the choices have been decided with a lot of thought. The issue, if any, is that the decisions are generic and conservative. So do not catch the eye immediately.

Some of the courses are divided in two parts: for CS students and for students who are taking it for the first time. You can even decide the direction though not very pointed selections as they need to be generic.

Beginning: Why

Graduation was never the end of education for me. 

After a lot of botched attempts and further studies (reasons including high-headed-ness for thumbing nose at GRE, laziness of early youth in first job for GATE, eligibility at the new org for DLP courses - min 2 years, the weather pattern, bush regime and what not), I have finally embarked on doing post graduation at BITS.

Completing post graduation is not even a goal right now. It is just a first phase in my ambitions on the education front. Doctorate at/before age of 40 is the uber goal if you would. I do not even know how I am going to do that. But at least the first step was pretty much defined and easy to take without much changes in the current context. So here I am, taking it.

And if I complete it within the time stipulated ( 2 years ), then I am leaving myself with a good amount of time for the last (or the next) steps.

Here is amen to that :)