Semester Term Memory Loss!

Hey Everyone,
             
  I have almost completed 15 months in Engineering now. Throughout this journey one of the most common phrase I have come across is "This X book by Mr.FamousAuthor will cover your syllabus and will help you score excellent MARKS in your exams". The minute professor says the name of the book, the faces of our, how shall I put it gently, yeah The First Bench Gurus, gets lighten up like they have discovered the secret of happiness in Life!


For most FBGs that IS the key to happiness, Go to a book store...Buy Mr.FamousAuthor's book..go home and start reading it..By reading I mean read it so fast and hard by the end of 2 hours you have 'by heart' each and every word of the 4 line paragraph with the places of full stop and commas and if focused a little hard they even remember the page numbers. In the next semester I had a doubt..so I went to the cleverest FBG and asked weather it was the same concept as the 4 line paragraph? He said and I quote "I dont remember that but the answer to your question is this" and then followed a 2 page long explanation in the same exact way as given in the textbook(with the commas and all). While my mind was still stuck on what he said...He doesn't remember what he did few months back!


What is the point of learning something when you cannot remember it? I got an answer from my inner self bathed under the tap of Mumbai University's education system, It is to score MARKS!
According to the latest research...and by research I mean my observation..
Most engineering students are facing a serious condition called STML, which stands for Semester Term Memory Loss!
In this condition, students tend to forget what they had learnt throughout their semester as soon as they come out the examination hall. The effect might not be immediate but the Memory Loss increases with the increase in time.


I am not sure about my other friends, but I know I am suffering from this condition. I dont remember a word of Chemistry I did 5 months back and its plain sad!
Why do I care about Chemistry when I am going to be an IT Engineer?
More on that in my next post!


So STML, I am on a mission to control it, not hoping to eradicate completely(I think that is humanly impossible). I have a three point way to control STML:


1. Take interest in what you read. Thousands of engineering srudents are learning the same concepts as you are and lakhs learnt it before you did. Have some respect for the white haired and bald syllabus setters sitting in kalina. Try not to get carried away by 'out dated syllabus' hype.


2. Read to Learn not to Score!


3. The most important: Break the ice between the book world and the real world. It is very important to link what you read with the things around us. Once the link is set. Magic happens!
You start learning and understanding the way you have never before.
Simple things around you can help break the ice. This is how it happened to me.
My sister and I at times have problems on deciding what mom should make us for dinner. I was learning the wonders of Java that time. I wrote a simple piece of program that would give me random 3 dishes on clicking a button. Now anytime we have a problem deciding what to eat, we know who to ask.


Mr.FamousAuthor's book thought me how to code but not what to code!


This is how I dicovered happiness for my stomach and upto some extent...Life ;)