# Need help passing B.Tech. Subjects (backlogs) in a very short time



## Chetan1991 (Apr 10, 2013)

Hi all. I'm pursuing Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Himachal Pradesh University.
This is my last year and I'm in deep waters. I have 10+ supplies/backlogs. The sad thing about the situation is that the supplies aren't because of me being utterly dumb in the subjects. I'm not trying to brag but I have good aptitude for computers (doesn't that describe all of us?) and can learn and reason quite fast. I have been repeatedly told by sympathetic teachers that my content is excellent but its lacks "presentation" and "length".
I was told in the first year by seniors that HPU doesn't give a 5h!t about the content of answers. All they care about is neat and long answers. But I can't abandon my principles and write crappola. 
The syllabus of HPU revolves around fundamentals rather than applications. If you just looked at the syllabus one would think it is the university that spawns world's best computer scientists. But inexperienced/unqualified teachers plus some laziness on my part have been my undoing.
Everyone keeps saying that passing is easy, anyone can pass. etc but gaining knowledge is hard. I'm pretty much the reverse case. I just can't comprehend how can someone give answers unless they have thorough knowledge about the question being asked? esp. how girls cram stuff without understanding a single thing? I just simply can't remember anything without understanding it.
So
1. Do you know of any online forums etc subject notes by students teachers etc can be downloaded (Not OCW etc)?
2. Are there some techniques to quickly learn and remember subjects not related to your core subject?
3. Any resources to thoroughly understand calculus?


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## dashing.sujay (Apr 10, 2013)

Almost all pvt institutes are same mate.



> All they care about is neat and long answers. But I can't abandon my principles and write crappola.



You stole my hearts feelings. The same reason I also got a list of backs. But eventually even I had to clear the _usual_ way.

Even I'm in final year, about to pass. So will tell you only one thing. Just forget and dump your whatsoever principle and clear the papers as others do. Believe me you'll have a really tough time if your knowledge is not supported by your degree. That's the only difference between a pvt college student and a reputed one. We don't have a choice.


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## Chetan1991 (Apr 11, 2013)

dashing.sujay said:


> Almost all pvt institutes are same mate.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thank man but my problem is that I have terrible memory. The only way I can remember things is by having thorough understanding. I can't cram even a single page. If anyone can help me with that I'd be very thankful.


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## Desmond (Apr 11, 2013)

Look buddy, since you are short on time, you better cram as much as you can and make sure your answers are long enough to get enough marks. You can try to understand, but that will take a lot of your time.


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## dashing.sujay (Apr 11, 2013)

Ok, I'll say one thing. If your syllabus expects you to learn only "a" and "z" by leaving b-y, then don't think why they did that; just do. Forget you're a science student, act like arts' one.


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## shreymittal (Apr 11, 2013)

Bro ratta maar


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## vyral_143 (Apr 11, 2013)

Well, same with me so we are also one of that kind. What I would suggest you to try and make story of your understanding to remember. Like we do here on forums. For example suppose question is "I need to buy a laptop. Which one should I buy ?". First question comes in our mind is why do we need laptop? then is what all preference ? next is to search options available. Later evaluate them and select one. This whole sequence is quite logical and easy to suit 'our' minds. Similarly try to make story of logical sequence of steps. If not that possible and you have to mug up I would suggest you to write answers point wise. Like if you have same question then points for me is Need identification, preferences, search of alternatives, evaluating alternatives, purchase. Under this point heading you can write whatever crap which you feel is logical to that point and is in context of it. This things works for me, though i m not in engineering anymore and currently in post-grad. I do get understanding of topic and can answer same as they are expecting.

Hope it helps..!!


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## theterminator (Apr 11, 2013)

Its a problem with our society and our mindset that Btech is the most awesome thing to do.


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## digit.sh (Apr 11, 2013)

theterminator said:


> Its a problem with our society and our mindset that Btech is the most awesome thing to do.



Do you think it is not? Then don't take it up. Simple. It is not for you. If you like Mass-Com, take that, you will shine. Simple, isn't it?

Those who think some papers like Automata, Theory of computation, Compilers should not be there in CSE, because they "have no practical importance" has made a huge mistake in life taking up CSE. You have to understand TOC, Compilers, Computation are the core of CSE, not some shitty asp.net or ruby/django. Love it or hate it, CSE is all about Mathematics.

As an answer to Chetan's query,

1> Do not search for a onile forum or course. Most are crap. Only good (very good indeed) one is MIT OCW, see the link called "algorithm" in my signature. See if it helps. But it is for Algorithm only.
And yes stay away from any IIT lecture, specially Kamala Kirthivasan's. She is a good teacher, but the style of the lecture will slow you down, and you don't have much time.

2>Not related to your core subject? Which are they? The best way to cram them in short time is to look at prevoius years' questions and find the pattern, see which parts of the syllabus are the most important and then read them up from an easy book.

Now here are the easy books on each subject:

Microprocessor(8085) - Ramesh Gaonkar's book.
Automata - Mishra & Chandrasekharan.
Algorithm - CLRS is the best, do not know of any alternative. It covers data structures too.


3> IMO, the best resource(and easy) to understand Calculas is the book "Calculas" by Thomas & Finney.
But do you have much time to read up books thoroughly?

Lastly, the absolutely best way to gain a lot in least time is to ask for help from a friend knows these stuffs. It takes 10 times the time to read(and understand) from books than it takes to listen a friend explaining.

I would say take 1 or 2 days to search through the previous years papers and find the pattern. Then take another day to collect books and resources you need to cover the most important parts. Then see which portions gives the largest coverage in the time you have. Then start reading. Good luck!


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## theterminator (Apr 11, 2013)

digit.sh said:


> Do you think it is not? Then don't take it up. Simple. It is not for you. If you like Mass-Com, take that, you will shine. Simple, isn't it?
> 
> Those who think some papers like Automata, Theory of computation, Compilers should not be there in CSE, because they "have no practical importance" has made a huge mistake in life taking up CSE. You have to understand TOC, Compilers, Computation are the core of CSE, not some shitty asp.net or ruby/django. Love it or hate it, CSE is all about Mathematics.



I am a btech cse graduate myself and i used to love system programming/compilers/c language/data structures/operating systems..etc 
but about half my class at the end of 2nd year were upset why they chose to do btech. Its not that I am saying something fake. Its a reality. 
I very much know that computer science extensively involves discrete mathematics. After all, you need to know about it before picking up that Cormen book and many others.



shreymittal said:


> Bro ratta maar



I want to like this post


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## dashing.sujay (Apr 11, 2013)

digit.sh said:


> Do you think it is not? Then don't take it up. Simple. It is not for you. If you like Mass-Com, take that, you will shine. Simple, isn't it?
> 
> Those who think some papers like Automata, Theory of computation, Compilers should not be there in CSE, because they "have no practical importance" has made a huge mistake in life taking up CSE. You have to understand TOC, Compilers, Computation are the core of CSE, not some shitty asp.net or ruby/django. Love it or hate it, CSE is all about Mathematics.



And suddenly I lost interest in these subjects. TOC, got back 3rd time. Have to give it again


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## theterminator (Apr 11, 2013)

My curriculum didn't had TOC as a compulsory subject. It was an elective between TOC & Compilers. And I went with Compilers.


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## whitestar_999 (Apr 12, 2013)

dashing.sujay said:


> And suddenly I lost interest in these subjects. TOC, got back 3rd time. Have to give it again


3rd time!really unlucky i guess.why not try some "jugaad" to clear it(not cheating) like some emotional appeal to professor(not too desperate but just enough to get some idea about few topics questions to get passing marks)?


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## dashing.sujay (Apr 12, 2013)

whitestar_999 said:


> 3rd time!really unlucky i guess.why not try some "jugaad" to clear it(not cheating) like some emotional appeal to professor(not too desperate but just enough to get some idea about few topics questions to get passing marks)?



First time I didn't know what TOC meant.

Second time I just knew what it was.

Third time, I really studied, but I don't know what went wrong. I even taught it to some of my friends. All of them cleared and I got back  !!

Jugaad can only be applied through money (which costs a LOT, and I don't intend to that). Appealing to professors won't help as it's a govt univ, not a deemed. Cheating, I can obviously do, but it's not much helpful in TOC, and I didn't tried it in TOC yet 

This will be my last chance to clear all, and I'll have to do it anyhow. 

I never felt any subject bizarre as much as TOC in my life, ever.


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## coderunknown (Apr 12, 2013)

i got backlog in TOC too


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## whitestar_999 (Apr 12, 2013)

i looked TOC in wikipedia though i did knew about turing machine from earlier(aka the turing test).it is a complex subject & reminded me of the quantum mechanics & theory of relativity.


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## dashing.sujay (Apr 12, 2013)

sam said:


> i got backlog in TOC too



ditto same condition (pre-edit post). Compilers clear without TOC.


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## theterminator (Apr 12, 2013)

^ guys at my place used to study from K.L.P Mishra


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## coderunknown (Apr 12, 2013)

dashing.sujay said:


> ditto same condition (pre-edit post). Compilers clear without TOC.



bingo. DAMN !!!


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