A Day in the Life of an Engineering Student in India

WHEW. And we thought AP Calc was impossible. Yttr Wolf, you are SMART.– Sparkitors

Both of my parents are engineers, so from a young age, my brother and I were set upon the engineering path. My journey to gain acceptance into one of the elite colleges in India officially started when I was in 8th grade, but the seriously rigorous training didn't begin until my junior year of high school. Now, after a day of normal classes, I have to attend IIT Foundation Coaching Classes, which basically drill everything related to high-level math, physics, and chemistry into my brain.

3:20 PM: I get ready for my class, which means ensuring that my outfit and appearance adhere to the dress code. The people in charge of my classes firmly believe in the "dangers of distraction," so everything about my appearance has to be as plain as a blank piece of paper. That means no cosmetics, no talc, no deodorant, no "fairness creams," and definitely no hair gel. I chuck my phone on the bed; it's considered the mother of all distractions, and it's not allowed within a 5-mile radius of my class.

3:30 PM: I pile up my bag with three to four 500-page books, five notebooks, extra pens, and the Clark's Tables (heard of them?). At this point, I'm sort of filled with enthusiasm, hoping that my studies will allow me to become the successful engineer my parents have always envisioned.

3:50 PM: I arrive at my coaching centre. Class starts at 4:00 PM, but the gate closes at 3:55 PM, and even though I'm ten minutes early, I'm the last person to arrive.

4:00 PM: Chemistry class. We turn the pages of our books in silence. I'm in a room with 80 other students, but none of us will talk to each other—in fact, we don't even look at each other. We solve sums for fun, and the guys who spent the previous night updating their blogs now solve the homework problems they haven't yet completed.

4:15 PM: The teacher arrives—he's the only person allowed to enter the gates after 3:55 PM. We derive the Rydberg constant in five different values, and spend the remainder of class calculating the various behaviours and states of electrons in Hydrogen Species atoms.

5:45 PM: Class ends, and the teacher leaves as silently as he entered. We have a 15-minute break before our next class; we have two classes per day, six days a week, and a three-hour exam every Sunday. Each class (one for math, and the other for chemistry or physics) is 1.5 hours long, and we use the break in between to go to the bathroom or drink from the water cooler.

6:00 PM: Math class. I did my homework! That means I don't get sent home for a change. I feel sadistically happy while we solve trigonometric equations.

7:30 PM: Class ends. There is no bell, just the teacher telling us that he's had enough of our faces for one day. We leave the place in a single-file line, gasping for fresh air (remember, no deodorants allowed) and trek off campus. I feel hopeful, like maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Then I realize that light is just four years of engineering school. Sigh.

Engineering sounds hard, don't you think? Our brains hurt just from reading the words "Rydberg constant."

Related post: A Day in the Life...