Semester 08-First Exam-Electric Energy Generation, Utilisation and Conservation-30/04/2008

The name of the subject is that long really. 🙂

So, exams are here again and unlike the last semester when I was blogging like mad even when I had exams (and it cost me too, even if only a bit.), this time over, I haven’t had the time somehow.

But in spite of studying (or at least trying to) hard, I have done my exams abysmally.

So I have been studying hard from two books, one, Generation of Electrical Energy by B.R.Gupta and another Generation,Distribution and Utilization of Electrical Energy by C.L.Wadhwa. While Gupta is one of the prescribed books, Wadhwa is one of the reference books. I go to college on the day of the exam and talk to my classmates who are sitting under a tree hoping to be enlightened. 😉

Me: Hey, so have you guys done units 3,4 and 5. I found it quite hard.

Random: Yea da, we guys completed it. Pretty easy really.

Me: Whaaa ? You’re kidding me, right ?

Random: Of course not. What do you find hard in those units da ? It’s all pretty simple really.

Me: Wow, so you guys actually found Illumination due to a strip, due to a circular disc and due to a rectangular source easy ? You’ve done the derivations and problems ?

Random: What ?

Me: huh ?

Random: What are you talking about ?

Me: (Showing them the book) This.

Random: What on earth is that ? Never seen it.

Me: But this is the prescribed book.

Random: Our book doesn’t have it.

Me: What book are you guys using anyway ?

Random: Local Author. 🙂

Me: Great. All of you guys ?

Random: Yes.

Me: Ah, just perfect.

None of these guys had bothered themselves with the derivations and problems in various units. What’s more, they didn’t have an idea what was in the syllabus, because they were all using some local author book.

So, after preparing 4 units really well and parts of the 5th unit, I go into to exam hall. This is the question paper I get.

V4172-01

V4172-02

V4172-03

V4172-04

V4172-05

Gupta

Wadhwa

Now, the 2 mark questions were no trouble at all and went well. Coming to the 16 mark questions, this is what pissed me off. Everything I had taken the trouble of studying did not appear. I am sure the guys who used the “Local Author” must be laughing at me. (Actually they did too.)

God only knows how the evaluation will be. For instance, 11(a) the prescribed book only had derivations. Whereas, it seems these guys drew block diagrams and all. 😦  I screwed 14 (a) i by writing some shitty stuff and messed up 14(a) ii by once again writing something else.15 (b) is once again messed, mainly because it was simply not there in my book and I was compelled to write what I knew.

There goes the first exam. The second wasn’t any better.

Counting Down – 13 days to go

Well whats this ? Anticipating the end of examinations already. Waiting for it like the Boundary from Gavaskar’s bat. Take a lot of time I tell you.

 To exams down and I am already wishing we didn’t have exams. I don’t know why. I never had this attitude earlier. I always lecture on the attitude shift in final years, but darn I am experiencing it myself. I don’t feel like studying at all inspite of having done pathetically in the two exams I have written so far.

I tried to do some soul searching and narrow down on the possible cause for my attitude shift. Am I being over-confident ? Crap, no way. I don’t even feel confident, let alone overconfident. Am I being negligent and casual about the whole exam affair ? Perhaps, but I don’t know why. Is it that I finlly got a job (God knows how) and I am being all pricey and saying who needs college, I’ve got a job man. Let me tell you something. I didn’t need the job to give me an ego boost and look down upon and sneer and even spit at these loser staff we have who think they can tell us what we should do. I think the answer really is, I don’t give a damn about this course we call engineering here anymore, especially because we are studying filler papers just there so that your mark sheet doesn’t look empty. I am tired of this college and university. I want out. And now that the end is nearer and the light at the end of the tunnel is visible, I just want to throw cautions to the winds and run for it.

So another 13 days to go and then atleast I’ll have only 3 papers next semester. I can also work on my project without I hope much intervention from college. I don’t want them to tell me “Who needs compression algorithms ? We have Winzip” as Shiva mentioned the other day.

The trouble with these 13 days though: 4 more exams. 2 meaningless and 2 gut wrenching tough!! God save me through all this.

Anna University Semester Exams

Coming to think of it, I have been blogging a lil too much of late. And it’s actually a nice feeling. Especially if people read what you write. (Or atleast I’ll claim so.) But then my exams are only two days away. Actually between now and my first exam, there’s only one day. So what am I doing here blogging ? Well I am anyway not going to study. Something which none of my classmates or collegemates want to believe. They somehow picture me book in hand, sitting in one corner, concentrating on the job at hand. 😉 Completely wrong picture.

Exam time posts:

In an effort to not get bogged down by exams, I shall try and up the ante during exams. I think I should be able to post atleast one post per day if not more.  It’s total crap that we cannot study as well as blog. You are not going to study the whole day, nor blog the whole day. The peaceful co-existence of the two is totally realisic. (If only I started studying for a change.)

My first exam happens to be Total Quality Management.(Common to all branches/streams.) The prescribed text “Besterfield” actually rocks and makes sense. But then I have only 2 days to study something like 600 pages. Extreme problems call for extreme measures. That extreme measure is reading from Jayakumar instead. It’s full of crap and people have been calling me up and whining that they simply can’t bear the book. However, that’s the last resort and there’s not much else we can do right now. So guys read on!!

All the best for the upcoming exams!! 

I even found a photo of Besterfield online…