Blog - The Dips

The Dips

SPI and CPI graph during my BTech.

Initially wrote this around June 2021

During college life many events happen at once and it’s the exciting part of college life. Through this journey of ups and downs, I would like to share the reasons for certain valleys in my SPI (semester) marks, so that some may relate or some may discover how things around affects studies.

1. The gradual dip

   Three types of students arrive in the first semester, one who gives up on everything and finds some hobby apart from btech, the second one is still in the mindset of class XII and wants to ace his semesters, and the third ones (exceptional creatures) who are carefree but also score well. I was the second one as I was warned about flunking semesters and delayed graduation. Trying to shoot for 10 CPI, I got a satisfactory 8.5 in the first sem. During the 2nd semester, one of our faculty member (Saleem sir) had an idea of starting a technical club and being enthusiastic freshers I and my friends got down on it. The subjects in this semester were pretty easy compared to 1st, as we had already cleared Mechanics (the nightmare subject). So studies were going a bit flat, though averting options for backlogs. Hence, there was a little decrease in the SPI(7.82). In the 3rd semester, we were busy in the opening ceremony of the club in August and I was skipping my studies(without losing minimum required classes). Additionally, I deemed the subjects too easy for me to study every day. So the grades went much lower(7.0). Then in the 4th semester (winter 2018), we were all destined for the Singapore AUV competition which happened during March. Initially, our mindsems were coinciding with our competitions, but due to some protests, it got delayed to just after we arrived from the competition. I gave all the exams except one of my electronics subjects. This was the only worst choice of my whole Btech studies. Even though I gave my first and the last makeup exam of the electronics subjects (receiving only 1 mark out of 25 and internal 5 marks were deducted later for low attendance), I had to clear this paper anyhow. Alhamdulillah passed it by getting a D (I hate profs from electronics dept.). That was the last extreme dip of 6 SPI, plunging down my CPI to 7.3.

2. The small dip

   After the biggest steep in SPI in the 4th semester, it was time to get back on track. As the main objective of the club was achieved by establishing and participating in the first competition. A little stub in the 5th sem lowered my CPI a little bit but SPI was progressing. This time I took a few more hours before the exam to study. Alhamdulillah, it helped me get around 7.4 SPI in the 6th semester. Reaching the final year in the 7th semester got preoccupied with preparing for GRE & TOEFL and mentoring the junior students at the club. Also during our exams, the anti-CAA protests broke out, concluding our 7th-semester exams in August of next year. So that was the next small dip.

Lastly, I was able to get 10 SPI (pandemic played a huge role :D) in my 8th semester. But as you can see the overall effect of it was only 0.3 on the CPI. So it’s always advised to score for 10 at the starting 4 sems so that any dips later could be handled.

In the end, I would say that these dips helped me shape what I am today. One of the major learnings from these result patterns was that every time I had to realign my studying patterns. I had to every time “study how to study my way” to get a good score as well as complete knowledge of the subject. Initially, I thought following notes from toppers would suffice, without even attending classes. Then later rectified it to attend classes, not study every day and just mug up those same topper notes a day before. By the end, I understood, rectifying doubts during class, is way better than studying every day, but reading the material (textbooks) by yourself and making notes (hand written/Computerized) is the most efficient way for me. This required preparing for exams at least 10 days before exams. This almost happened only when I was locked during the first wave of the pandemic.

All the best to those who are in college!

P.S.: Anyone struggling in BTech can freely contact me without hesitation. :)