My Winter Story!
The months of December and January proved pretty hard on me. It has been a similar situation to all students of Kerala Technological University(KTU). The end semester exams totally took over 50 days to get completed.
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This December I never felt it like a normal winter month. Even the joy of Christmas was never there :/. But the month of January was more pleasant in terms of weather with chilly mornings, heated afternoons and dusky evenings. Even the hill station of Munnar for the first time many years saw snowfall. Now you don’t have to travel to North India to find some snow. Now as I write here, my hands are swelling red due to cold weather.
All this happened amidst a lot of political turmoil in the state(Referring to the Sabarimala Issue and Vanitha Mathil), the Christmas, New Year and Strikes(Locally called as Harthals). All this uprising further led to the postponement of our exams. Exams further are set to delay the academic calendar of Sem 4.
Mention not I am not gonna get into the Politics now. The exams were a bit rocky at least one spoiling out of six can turn down the game. So, I have decided to write more about Sem 3, its subjects and some basic tips you may need to keep in mind. (Writing for the juniors out there).
Sem 3 has about six theory papers and two lab papers. Out of 6 theory, one is an elective. The first exam was our Maths paper, Linear Algebra and Complex Analysis- As per the name suggests it is two totally different subjects which you will learn as one single subject paper. Complex Analysis makes up 60% of the syllabus. It deals with the basics of complex numbers, complex functions, its properties, integration, differentiation, Taylor and McLaurin and the all-new Laurents Series etc. This subject is pretty scoring if you've attended class and practised it out. Also, it means that you have to be sharp in Calculus(So you can't leave it just like that after the first sem). Linear Algebra deals, with Linear Equations, Matrices, Determinants and Vector space. A lot of which you've learned in class 12 but its not as easy as you hear it, but it can be conquered easily through practice. The overall rating of the subject will be easy-moderate.
The second encounter was Discrete Mathematics. May you will think what's that? It's a mathematical paper specially meant for computer science students. It teaches all you will have to know for designing and engineering Computers, which sounds interesting but it's not. It deals with Sets, Logics, Relations, and Functions. The subject is kind of tough- meaning its not a straight victory, you will have to chase it down very hard. Over that, we had just one day ahead of the exam. Something that is gonna rescue here is Online Notes and Good Youtube videos. Majority of them will be GATE oriented but still, it helps you a lot. While choosing online notes select from B.Sc Maths sites as they have better content. Again as everytime questions from the previous papers have good chance to get repeated here too. Discrete mathematics again is a useful subject in the next few years, so don’t drop it here. (It’s the biggest application is in the field of AI).
That was the last exam in December, then we had some good gap to enjoy holidays and Christmas. On 21st December, I was invited to attend the IEEE quiz event Spectrum War, held at MEC. The Quiz was pretty interesting but I could have done a bit better, (much of easy answers went to other teams), but got second, so the former doesn't matter. It was a great pleasure to Libin and Sreeram, two popular faces of IEEE Kochi hub.
On 25th, the Christmas day I had a Family Get-together cum outing. The best part was the Sagarrani boat trip from Marine Drive, Kochi covering around the Inland shores of Kochi city along the Vembanad Lake and Kochi Backwaters, thus entering the Arabian Sea and coming back. The best attraction was Vallarpadam International Container Terminal, docking containers, to and back from the ship. The scene we only saw in electronic media. The boat had power-packed entertainment throughout the trip. We could also see dolphins in the sea. Now you don’t even have to go far away to see dolphins too. After the trip, we had some official meeting in a hall in Ernakulam, where family members had a good time conversing and trying some good delicacies.
On December 30, was my cousin sister’s engagement and she will get the tag of the first person of this generation to get married. The function was held in BTH Kochi. On our way back, Grandparents joined us to stay with us for a few days. As usual, New Year never disappointed a good start for a whole new set of adventures and experiences as expected.
On 2nd, two young women self-claimed entered the Sabarimala Shrine leading to a big blackout(hartal) the day later. On the same day, we had some small repair works happening in my house. (Never mind, not affected by hartal in any way). Harthals generally are regressive in nature, they harm the economic and social ecosystem. I expect a lot to change on this. I am for ‘Say No To Harthal’.
Next day was my 3rd exam Data Structures. As the name suggests its a familiar topic to every CS student, no matter whether he likes it or not, its a very important core theory paper. It deals with data access, data storage and data manipulations. In simpler terms, you will learn about arrays, linked lists, algorithms, sorting which are already known to us plus, trees, memory mgmt, graphs, double and circular linked lists etc. You will also have its lab paper as well. You need to have good logic, programming aptitude(in C language which is to be learnt in Sem 2). The overall design of the paper is easy to moderate.
Two days later was the exam of Electronic Devices and Circuits. The nightmare of a second year KTU CS student. The paper is very tough as well as has a long syllabus. The subjects as in name deal with simple circuits like diode clipper to complex ones which are embedded in ICs. The subject also covers Amplifiers, Oscillators, ICs, Op Amps as well. The first thing you need to understand here is the working of a transistor(Much of them will be covered in Basics of Electronics and Communication Engineering of Sem2). For learning this subject you need good notes as well as good Youtube subscriptions like Neso Academy, All About Electronics and Tutorial Point. Notes can be obtained from KTU notes/ KTU students site. Just like data structures, you will have a tough lab time. The exam was quite okay as I anticipated some tough questions and thus prepared accordingly.
From January 7 to 14, we had a week-long leave for the last subject- Switching Theory and Logic Design. Oh, wait! it’s not as complex as its name. it’s just digital electronics. It includes knowing different number systems and their arithmetic namely- decimal, binary, octal and hexadecimal. Then you travel to logic gates, logic expressions before moving to flip-flops, shifters, counters and PLAs which form the core of Computer Hardware. This paper essential for your next sem paper of Computer Organisation and Architecture as well as Digital Systems Lab. Despite being an Electronic Subject, this is very much part of CSE and will be imp for GATE too. The YT channels mentioned above will again help you very well here. The exam though was very tough as everyone anticipated it to be easy. The overall rating of the subject is moderate to tough.
The exam isn’t over yet, as the first exam was now our last one. The last exam happened to be Life Skills. Can be said as the easiest subject of the second year. You will have 100 marks internals which is very easy to score through a seminar, a group discussion and some writing assignments. If you have proper English proficiency, then this subject will be your undeclared victory. Though you will have a 50 marks theory paper, which is very easy to prepare. It will have some theory(the same thing you did for the seminar) for 30 marks and a case study writing for 20 marks, which you can do it without any preparation just like the English subject in your school. This subject is in the easy category.
Now I have week’s time, as a sem break. Now I wish to read the e-book Animal farm, a small 60-page book (Those who want it can ask me) and also to make a fair comeback on Quora. I am also now exploring new vlogs on YouTube and thus I found Tech Travel Eat by Sujith Bhakthan, which is now suiting me very well and I am now its new fan.
Overall the academics of S3 very challenging to be honest. Fear, not this is the easiest engineering branch to be in too (Sigh!). I had scored quite bad in the internals so expect University exams to be more helpful. All subjects do require some self-learning compared to your school or first year. It may not be the case that from A-Z will be taught to you very well in class. You will have to get good notes, text and use YT tutorials to perform well. Much of the portions are something you have been learning since class 11, especially the maths and programming. Even things you learnt in the first year like C, calculus and electronics cannot be thrown away after the exam. A basis of writing and learning (maths and algorithms)& drawing and learning (analog and digital electronics) will do a great shower of success on you.
Behind all the exams, there was something else brewing- The MEC MUNSOC. Its a society for MUNners in MEC. If you want to know about MUNs refer my past blogs or else refer it here. Aswin, Hari Narayanan and I are the founding members of this and have assumed the executive posts too. So what is MUNSOC intended to? MUNSOC is formed to bring in quality debates and to help train MUNners of MEC, in excelling in MUNs across the state and beyond. This venture will be first of its kind in any college of Kerala, although some schools do have it.
Read about MUNs- https://readmedium.com/munning-101-why-you-should-take-part-19938be45703
The OC of MECMUN 2018 is taking the effort to bring make this a reality. Presently we have reached the final hurdle of legalising it. Our Life Skills Sir has agreed to our staff in charge. We hope to help humanities and social science to thrive in a technical institution like ours, helping people to develop their soft skills or to find their passion here or even to help people who may work in this field or take it up as a career option in future. Although I said about MUNSOC pretty lot here, the club proceeding as such is a secret recipe(Not the right time to tell it out). All second-year OC members are really helping us here and it’s they who have elected us to lead them. All thanks to them.
More on MECMUN- https://readmedium.com/mec-mun-2018-a-review-b92b138f3c66
MUNSOC will be open to any student of MEC although there are some rules to keep the process more smooth. Those who need any clarification on any of content in this page or MUNSOC in specific can contact me. Even juniors, who require academic advise can also contact me.
The MEC is also sending its First delegation to CUSAT MUN and will do so in MACE MUN and NUALS MUN as well. MECMUN is collaborating to all of them, so it's a pleasure for us to send and receive delegates. CUSAT MUN will also lubricate the delegation just before MACE MUN.
I am looking forward to a lot of events now, like CUSAT MUN, MACE MUN, NUALS MUN, quizzes, Arts and Sports Fest, YKA and other internships, MUNSOC, the new S4 subjects and lot more in MEC.
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