CBSE & engineering entrance exam syllabus is different: Vishal Kanhaiya

I was born in Suratgarh, Rajasthan. My puberty hit me in Hyderabad, where I currently reside. My dad was in Indian Air Force, because of which, I got the chance of studying in Kendriya Vidyalaya (3 BRD Chandigarh and AFS, Hakimpet). I passed my 10th standard in 2014 with 10 CGPA (without any upgrade in the grades). Till now, I have never ever been to any tuition or any coaching class. As expected, I chose PCM with C++ for studying in the coming 2 years. To be honest, I encountered some problems in the concepts of Physics, and the rest of the subjects were won over by a little struggle. I developed an interest in computer programming, since it was entirely new to me and our subject teacher was courageous enough to teach what he forgot to learn.

In the end, YouTube and textbooks were all I was left with. I didn’t join any tuition because we had a financial thing, and which I believe was the correct decision. I loved sketching and drawing and aspired to do a course in animation or game designing, but “they were not a good career option”, as the society understands and it is really tough to resist it.

In 12th class, in 2016, I secured 86.4% with 64 marks in Mathematics (my CBSE batch people will know the reason for mentioning this) and just like others, I qualified JEE Mains, BITSAT, TS EAMCET but didn’t qualify NEST. I noticed that the syllabus in our CBSE textbooks and what is required for these exams are poles apart. This gap is filled by the coaching academies. I never understood why they couldn’t just change the syllabus of schools, which would save our parents from throwing their earnings to the coaching classes.

I prepared for these exams with the help of Arihant books, which I ordered online, and YouTube. I used to practice all of my mentioned hobbies along with studying since my school life. My motto was to understand the theoretical concept, see its real-life applications, and then solve the numericals. I wrote JEE Advanced and found that it was on an entirely different level; using the word tough won’t do justice to it. I secured 26,959th rank in TS EAMCET, which opened my doors to engineering. I wanted to pursue CSE, so an enthusiastic me filled just CSE in his seat allotment choices. After a few days, an SMS came stating that no seats have been allotted; please try in round 2. People with 80k+ ranks got CSE in various branded colleges of the state, and I noticed that these people belonged to different castes- maybe a coincidence. But what programming has to do with castes, I still don’t understand. In the next round, the first priority was CSE because I was desperate and also a fool, the next was mechanical as it made my family happy, and later ECE and IT. Results came soon; I got a seat in MLR Institute of Technology. My dad came with me for the admission procedure in the college.

My college life started with a boring introduction in every class. I noticed that I was the guy in my class with the least 12th percentage and also that most of them were from state boards, maybe another coincidence. From my point of view, you should never expect the teachers to teach you, just expect them to tell the name of the textbooks which had to be referred. Then spend some time in the college library, struggle to find the books, issue them and go through them. Believe me, they will help you a lot. Along with sailing you across the exams, you will actually attain sufficient knowledge. My first-year HOD was one of those teachers whom I admired a lot. She actually had a good grip on her subject, which was rare, and also had a good sense of humour. Guess what, she taught Physics- the subject that suffocated me in the high school.

In the college, I learnt table-tennis, volleyball, the art of bunking classes and I am still trying to learn carrom. Sports and extracurricular activities are an essential part of our life which help one to develop and bring out the best version of themselves. As far as academics is important, these things are important too. Studies, fun, hobbies, etc. must be done simultaneously, like a parallel connection. In a series connection, if one component fails, the connection is bound to break. I also joined my college club responsible for organizing the technical events such as MUNs and TEDx. It helped me enhance my managing, coordination and negotiating skills. Spend, or more like, invest some time on the things which you like to do. If you don’t know what they are, find those things. Don’t support ragging or break the tradition. We don’t have any idea of their ordeals and if we can’t help, then we should not add to it.

Looking at the career aspects from the mechanical point of view, I got advice from my parents, my elder sisters, and Google. The government sector looks promising. The few competitive exams that I have in my mind are GATE, IES, BARC, UPSC (being a Bihari) and SSC. The campus placements are sober, but remember, they are not the limit to your growth potential. The preparing period for these exams may start with the onset of the 2nd year, as it brings the core subjects to you.

Have a goal in life, read the textbooks, refer to the Internet for the latest trends and development, make notes, study to understand, and have a rough planning for the future.

About the Author:

I am Vishal Kanhaiya, pursuing Mechanical Engineering from MLR Institute of Technology, Telangana. I will start my 3rd year in July, 2018. Besides being a nerd with 9.8 CGPA, outdoor sports such as football and calisthenics are remedies for my laziness. Watching anime and web series, and reading manga and webtoons are my hobbies. Furthermore, sketching is what I love.