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Friday, August 18, 2006


TUTORIAL SYSTEM IN BITS

Well, I don’t know how many blogs or discussions in orkut have been guided by this,but I felt a necessity to express my view on this common problem(or rather a boon as some would put it).The evolution of a system could have had so many dynamical changes involved in it but what we face is its present state.
Going into the pros and cons………
Those who speak of advantages(including professors of course) say that you get to study regularly on smaller topics and get tested on them so that the whole course is mastered. A big NO from my side for it does not happen the way it should.That crushes the purpose of the system. Theory alone is taught in the lecture hours leaving the problem solving to the tutorial sessions(since they exist).The tutorial profs are mind you not eligible to teach anything ,copy their way out to somehow put up some solutions(of tha tut sheet)on the board and ultimately end up giving a nice tut problem for say 10 marks,after seeing which students get butterflies in their stomachs as they have never even understood the problems done in the previous half an hour or so.
That which makes life hell for people is the number of tuts per week.college life is TO HAVE freetime and do things that one likes and not keep cramming things everyday for this tut or the other.
A major accusation about BITS(by a few alumni) is that the standard of education has come down compared to the previous years.I feel a reason could be the tutorial systems. TUT MANUAL-Take out the book the previous night or that day morning,go to the section included ,etch into your memory the 2 formulae involved(very much true for ES-2),go to the tut section, sit idle for half an hour (or if bored try doing some problems),get the evaluation sheet ,pour out the formula,substitute the numbers involved,get it right!(Not a bit of working of the system you need to know for this!).
I do not mean to say that we all will be experts if the system is changed but hope 100 % that a better knowledge and a memorable college life(enjoying it or otherwise why would people describe CDCs as “acid test”?)will come to stay if at all changes are possible.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:43 AM

    100% true. and the worst part is that all of the instructors fail to realize that there are other courses to be read by the student. In the first place they don't even consider students as "normal" human beings. And cramming 5 out of 6 working days in a week gives very little or literally no room for creativity and other extra- and co-curricular activities.The infamous saying that "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is apt to this situation faced by BITSians. I think that this is a desperate attempt by the institution and the instructors who embrace this system to forcefully make the students swallow a bitter medicine (in their terms) to which many of us are allergic.

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  2. There is no question about this. I myself am a victim so are many of my wingies. In the name of continuous evaluation tutorials destroy all the grades we could have got otherwise.

    Blatant copying is another issue. Those who want to copy do so very easily. They come early, occupy the back seats and when the instructor looks away, in matter of seconds everything is xeroxed.

    The tutorial system has promoted copying and rote-learning than anything else.

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  3. Very nicely put. The samething happened 5 years ago and nothing has changed now. Copying was something which led to a C grade for me in operations research. Students who knew far less than me scored A in that course. BITS authorities never occupy their minds on essential issues like these. Instead they attack rediwallas.

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