3 Months…
3 months and then F R E E D O M – that’s how I like to look at it. But I complain, and keep complaining. I just have to bring up the now age-old debate – “The Indian Syllabus & How Bad It Is…Or Not” – I am writing a book on it. For the look-a-likes, India Today hit out on the Indian Syllabus calling it an “all rote” experience, and a survey of 30,000 students made them conclude that the Indian Syllabus is way behind the international standards. Apparently the 30,000 Indian students’ survey was good enough for researchers to prove that application-wise most Indian-System-bred Indian students can’t be compared with the international-system-ly bred students. Right. It’s true, we sometimes just can’t apply Newton’s 3rd Law, but then how do we still end up doing well? I think we Indians are just too darn hard-working – and that is the greatest lesson the Indian System can inculcate in us, but then, that’s it.
I am not here to enlighten the already enlightened anymore about how wrong the Indian System is, I am here to complain. I hate this time. Beyond the personal stuff, which always gets messed up at this time of the year, the studying has got to me – B I G-time. There are like a billion distractions, and if I can’t find a distraction, I make one, like reading “Aquarius”. Who does that? I watch Al Ahli V Al Wahda on the television, and convince myself as to how “The Bold & The Beautiful” actually has some substance. Facebook is friggin’ addictive, and I can’t stop eating.
At this point, I wrote another 400 words on how I hate “this time”, which I have no intention of putting in, because it’s too darned whiney. So to sum it all up: I can’t, and I mean, I cannot wait for these 3 long, dreary, painful, fattening, annoying and BORING months to bamboozle themselves out of my God-forsaken life.
That felt good – venting helps.
To bring in a little optimism or dreaminess – there is so much to look forward to as soon as the ISC exams end. Ideas and dreams start erupting one after the other as I seem to plan out every single day beyond the trauma. There is so much to do, football, work, Redial Entertainment, salsa (hopefully), football, gym, football, University, and just the ability to watch television for hours without feeling guilty about it. Bliss…
…is 3 months away,
P.S. I think, and only think, that “rote” is a new Indian term for “mugging” as in memorizing. Please do enlighten me if I am wrong.
Well mug up is informal English and rote is formal, so it is probably the other way around.
Coming to the Indian Education System, I do feel it is lacking in more than one way. The fundamental problem is a lack of coordination, so to say, between school level academics and University level academics. The only reason we score exceedingly well in Board exams is due to the fact that these exams are very student friendly. They are meant for an average student for whom learning the basic ideas is quite a challenge. Due to the low level, schools also do not stress on imparting correct, thorough knowledge, and rather teach so that students clear the boards. The kind of stuff we do in Career Launcher makes me question how we do so little in so much time. our fundamental concepts are not clear, because of the low difficulty level of the boards. A tough paper checks your application and understanding, and is a true indication of what you know. And hence 12th grade schoolwork can get extremely boring for some people. But then again, would you be willing to do a tougher paper, in order to ensure that your concepts are clear?
As for proffessional success, well the scenario in most good colleges in India is very different from that at the school level. And ofcourse, as you said, Indians are very hardworking.
Look at the bright side (in a poetical sense). Living through times of drudgery is vital in order to appreciate the immense amount of freedom after it.
No Anish … you are absolutely right. And you have been right ever since we stepped into ISC.
Latest News… Anish ure 3 months has just been made longer my the council. Our Economics exam(last paper)is 14 FOURTEEN freaking DAYS after our Physics exam. FOURTEEN DAY… thats insane. Computer Dudes end on 16th and we end on 28th. Thats Crazy.
Right Now I don’t wanna leave school soon but seriously I wanna finish my studies(ISC) as soon as possible.
Four words that make sense (I have borrowed):
Patience, Endurance, Diligence, Silence.
ello Anish!
We generally used to call mugging ‘rutto-ing’ in mayo, wonder if ‘rote’ is the source! As for the systems? well whatever the systems we’d always complain! We’re kids, it’s what we do, on comparison though we may complain less with some systems. I think we should just bear in mind that our system is generalised as unmukt said to the point where it must apply to every single student under it! For what it’s worth I think our school is one of the few who try to yank every bit of positivity in the syllabus out and give it to us pretty nicely! We couldve had it worse! Keep complaining though! its healhty!:P
Maybe we should do a complaints choir thing like in Birmingham and Helsinki!(youtube it)
Ta
2004 was my last brush with the Indian system (Er okay, now I feel old…hehe…is 19 old??) …I had CBSE though.
You’re right…application-wise, we’re pretty clueless when we enter college etc… but when it comes to mugging up stuff, we’re on top!
If you can handle the stress, boredom and utter uselessness of these 3 months…you can sail through anything else…
Is there any point/benefit in studying for these exams? I mean college apps are sent ….
Bright Side: I have only 2 MONTHS AND 10 DAYS left!
im giving my i.c.s.e in less than 2 months and trust me ive never been more scared.ive barely managed to finish half my portion.
abt the distractions im going through the exact same thing. when i start studying i start thinking abt random stuff write down the names of all the possible clubs i know. yesterday while sitting with my history book i ended uo writing no of goals each player has scored for arsenal this season and assists and stuff like that. these 2 months and 19 days are gonna give me much more torture/pressure/pain/boredom.
january will pass by in no time because of prelims.
SCREWED
abt the indian system. i donno abt isc but what ive heard and i believe is that indian education grills u..when u go to college ull be used to the hardwork and pressure so u wont find it a problem but in international schools u are used to the applications but not to the pressure of studies. this implies to engineering and medical students specially. shruti moni is studying medicine in manglore i think. she told dhrumel that many students are with her in her college who have studied o-levels and a-levels but are finding it really difficult to cope.
but if u wanna go to colleges abroad then maybe an experience of applications would help but i really donno.
Wow dude u seem reely bored 4 a guy who has imprtnt xams coming up
http://www.hotornot.com
Firstly I don’t believe Indians are hardworking. It’s more like we cannot afford to be stupid and also cannot afford to be totally lazy, which makes us excel later in life.
Secondly, didn’t read any of the comments, so if anyone has already written about this – my apologies.
Anyway there was this recent article in the paper that spoke about how top companies are now planning to open schools and colleges because they find that the work force (right out of college) is not up to the mark.
Just goes to show how bad things really are.
The good news for those who can afford it and get in, lots of foreign universities are going to set up shop in India. Of course this is college (university) level. The main advantage here being that it will be cheaper than going abroad. This hopefully will have a chain reactions where the universities here will pull their act together to try and retain good students and will therefore makes necessary changes.
Time will tell…
i am a student of grade 12 studying in our own high school dubai.
i follow the cbse syllabus.
i used to find the 9th & 10th standard syllabus irritating as i used to hate social science (primarily coz of all the mugging!!)
but once i entered 11th (i opted science stream) i started doing really good in my studies & people actually started calling me nerdy
lol
well my point is that cbse is targetting the weaker or the average students. like my chemistry teacher pointed out, “any student can achieve a 90% as long he/she works for it.the cbse is meant for average students.”
i have studied the basic concepts in physics. but i dont think with just the training i got in school i’ll be able to attempt the JEE..
like “d” said, we are pretty good at mugging up and there arent many who can apply the concepts of physics. but can that blame be laid on the syllabus? shouldnt the schools be blamed for not training them in the right sense?
one of my chemistry teacher’s once told me that A level chemistry was much easier compared to the cbse in exams. the same also applies with physics and math.
then why do they seem to be better & brighter than us (considering the fact that we study the same topics).
i think the blame lies with the school and not with the board’s syllabus.
anish
im in university in north america…and let me tell you that students who graduated from the indian syllabus are doing A LOT better that most other people here