How to survive University coursework

These are stuff I did/learned from my mistakes in Grad School. Jotting it down just in case it helps someone. Well, I don’t usually pull ranks, but just in case this helps motivate you to read it: these have helped me maintain a 4.0/4.0 even after 5 to 6 years of coursework in a U.S grad school (masters and PhD). Also this is a perspective from me, who did undergrad in India before coming to U.S for grad school. However, I suspect most of it is relevant to students at all phases who believes in hard work.

Also this blog is specifically about Classwork. If you’d like some tips about surviving grad school life in general, I have a few notes here.

Attend All Classes:

Nope, this is not your school days where you can skip (or come late to) a class to go get a coffee and then hope to “catch up”. Never happens. But you knew this before signing up for university life right? In fact if you really have to miss 30 mins of a class to get coffee or food, I’d suggest miss the last 30 mins. The first 30 mins are very important for two reasons :

1. The Professor usually does a recap of what was taught in the previous class- which even if you haven’t attended, will be a good segue into this class.
2. Human brain works on only one thing: repetition. Even if you understand the concepts and logic, you still need to hear it repeated at least 5 to 7 times before it becomes innate (and you can reproduce it legibly in an exam sheet). This can be one of that 7.

Also take notes. Just notes of whatever you can think of is relevant in what the professor is speaking about. Your own shorthand technique is fine. And when I said take notes, I meant on a notebook (that thing which has papers) with pen/pencil…And no, don’t even think about writing notes in an electronic medium. I know you just got the brand new laptop/ipad you want to show off, but, it's only a matter of time before you distract yourself, and the people behind you, with the new cat picture you discovered online.

4 hour rule:

For every hour you spend in lecture, spend 4 hours analyzing/understanding it at home. Go home, and on the same day, try to type it all out by yourself. Yes, its ok to use electronic medium now if that is faster. I still write the explanation on the sides of notebook, since I know how self disciplined I am when it comes to being on a computer with internet connection. However, my point here is, do it on the same day. A human brain loses 18% of information as every day passes. And remember the 5 to 7 times rule above, this can be 2 out of 7.

Ask questions in class:

I know, I know, “this is not something I have ever done, why should I do it now.” . Here in the U.S university classes everything boils down to one thing: how eager the Professor thinks you are to learn. Raise your hands and ask the professor to explain again, or ask anything really really stupid. In fact if you preface it with “Can you please explain again…” you can really ask about anything under the sun. You can always agree to disagree and even prove why what you think what the Professor said is wrong. Remember Professors are also Scientist- and a Scientist has to be ALWAYS open to new ideas and corrections.

Also remember, these guys are here as Professors because they love to explain stuff. Especially in Computer Science, if they wanted a job that pays them say half a million dollars a year (some of them still make that through their advisory positions with the industry), all they have to do is step outside academia. But the fact that they are here wasting their life explaining basic stuff to losers like us, is only because they LOVEEEE explaining stuff. And hence they love students who ask questions. And never ever will you get a reply like : “You don’t need to know this.” or “Why do you care how it works, just memorize it”. This is a culture where scientific curiosity is encouraged first and foremost. Period

Professor’s Office Hours:

I can’t reiterate the importance of this. Here in a university this is the time when a Professor earmarks an hour or two a week for the students in his class for explaining stuff which they couldn’t understand. The reality is that no student EVER shows up in office hours. However, I have heard many Professors say, “am sure they didn’t understand that part. But am so not gonna explain it unless THEY ASK”. What they are trying to do here is inculcate the “Asking” habit. Plus office hours are the biggest measure of your motivation. Now it doesn’t matter if you understood anything in the class, or even if you missed that lecture. Just show up. Some Professors even give out hints for homework problems during office hours. It's a supply-demand thing. If you don’t ask, or not show motivation, he will assume that you are smart enough or you don’t care. Either one is bad for you.

Also at the end of the semester when you are a border line between say B and C, he asks himself (or his TAs-read below), oh who is this guy “XYZ?, oh it's him/her. I have seen his/her face, I know him/her, let me bump him/her up to B”. Unlike in other places, everything here is based on the decision of the Professor. It's called academic freedom. Even if you have high scores, the Professor can decide to move the “cut off” just to screw you. Especially if he thinks that you are doing something fishy or are not motivated enough. Remember, the asking qns part above: that again is for you to “be noticed”. You want to make the Professor think: “Oh, this kid is interested in what am speaking, let me go find out who he is”. I get it, at the end of the day, its “FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT” but yeah, do you care if it works?

TA /Grader office hours:

Something as important as attending the Professor’s office hours is: attend office hours of Teaching Assistants. If not every week, at least once in say 3 weeks. This is to make the TA familiar with your face, and more importantly your name. At the end of the day, almost always no Professor ever grades your homeworks or exam sheets. So your grades are in the hands of the TA.

What goes on in the mind of a TA when he grades a question is something like this: “Oh, Who is this person XYZ. His/her answer is really confusing. Let me give him 2 out of 5. It's safe for me that way so that my ass is covered if my professor asks me why I gave him more than he deserves. Also if the student actually has the right idea, but explained it wrong, let him show up to my office hours with this exam sheet”. Now if the TA already knows you he starts off with: “Oh, XYZ, I know him/her from office hours. Therefore He/She must be a smart student. His/her answer must be right. Oh, looks like its not completely. Let me give him/her 3 out of 5. After all his/her questions in the office hours proves that he/she is motivated/understood it.”. And after my experience with so many semesters of being a TA, believe me when I tell you this: there are rarely black or white answers which can get full or no scores. Especially even more in Grad school . Hence the TAs are told to be “considerate” and “not discouraging”. So…

Also at the end of the semester when you are a border line between say B and C, the Professor asks the TAs: oh who is this “XYZ?, “ Then the TA replies “oh its him/her. I have seen his/her face, I know him/her, very motivated/eager to learn. Lets bump him/her to B”

Copying/Plagiarism:

DON’T. PERIOD. Any loophole you can think of , they have already thought of. Especially these days with FERPA and other laws, if you are an international student that is a sure shot way to get kicked out from the country. If you are a citizen, this is when you get introduced to the bad cops in FBI who will make the rest of your life, not just academic life, hell.

During the exam:

Write something/anything that comes to your mind. How we (Prof/TA) grade usually is through negative points. Say the question carries a total of 20 points. We look for the n intended key points. If we can’t find it, we start looking for “what all can I find”. Then we start going -2, -4, etc…So that way you still will have 10/20 even if its absolute bullshit that you have written. However, on the other hand if you wrote nothing/zilch, we can’t do this negative mark thing. We are forced to give a zero. So even if you have no idea what the question is asking, just write something about it. No not the story of what you watched in youtube yesterday, but something relevant.

Also, use pencils instead of pens to write the answers in an exam. Unlike India, you don’t get “extra sheets.” You are bound to answer within the space provided. And most probably (in all the panic and sleepless nights’ hangover) you are going to realize half way down the page, that whatever you understood about the question was wrong, or you got the answer wrong. In that case you can erase and rewrite it. We as graders, if there is one thing we hate the most , that is answers that we can’t read. Especially ones where the exam sheet looks like a battlefield with scratches and crosses. Generally graders/TAs/Professors are nice people. They are not there to get you (unlike in India where the Professor might have had a fight with his wife at home and that reflects on how he grades. Am not saying that doesn’t happen here completely. But the repercussions are high, so they try not to mix personal and professional life). Here by mandate, we are told to encourage students. But when the TA is grading like 100 answer sheets, along with balancing his own course work, you kind of tend to hit frustration sooner or later. You don’t want to add to it with a bad looking exam sheet.

Handwriting:

I understand that , it is not something you can change at this point in life. If its bad, its bad. However, like crossed out answers, another thing the TA hates is answers he can’t read. My handwriting was horrible, until someone told me this: write in capital letters/upper case. There is only so much you can screw up in upper case, unlike lower case or cursive writing. Worked magic for me and hope it helps someone.

After the test:

STFU: Yes, you heard it right. Shut the fuck up. Don’t discuss it with anyone. Not even your best friend from your hometown who is now your roommate. One, it becomes very depressing. Two, its against privacy policies.

After you get your scores/graded exams:

STFU. Yes. Don’t ask others how much they got or what all they got wrong.As per FERPA, one student is not allowed to know the grades of another student. By whatever means. More than that it is a damn depressing thing to do. Remember, there is only one person you have to beat, Yourself.

But one very important thing is: yes, OFFICE HOURS again. Go with your answer sheets to the office hour of??…yes, TA…He is probably the one who graded your answers. And NOT the professor, in many cases. And generally a TA is more convincible/likely to increase your grades than the Professor. Refer to the TA thought process above. Even if you are convinced that there is absolutely no place you can get any points, just go and ask him to explain the answer. And then tell him, this is what you meant etc etc. Be nice, beg, not demand. And generally TAs are ok with giving one rare point to one rare kid who ever shows up. Because he knows that won’t affect the overall grade distribution. But for you that one point might be the difference between life and death at the end of the semester.

Appealing:

While its not advisable to go to Professor after TA says no, I personally feel its worth a try. And no, (unlike in India) they will never yell at you or ask you “how can you be so stupid?”. That is a BIG BIG NO NO against a Professor’s code of ethics in the U.S . That one line can get him fired (unless he is Tenured, but hey, that is a different discussion altogether). Now if the Professor says NO, that is when I would suggest : leave it. While theoretically you can appeal up higher to dean and stuff, it kinda leaves a bad taste in the mouth. For both TAs and Professors. And as you know, even if you win that battle, they can make sure you lose the war later on. So DON’T.

Typewriting:

Learn typing. Especially if you are in computer science or computer engineering or MIS. With so many homeworks/assignments in a week, this is going to make the difference between who submits , at least by 11.59pm, and who doesn’t.

Other random study tips:

• Use a pomodoro when you study.
• I keep my smartphone in a locker and instead use a flip phone during the semester. Helps me stay away from the facebooks and chats and instagrams…but that is me addicted to it too..you can maybe have 2 phones, smartphone for home and flip phone for campus. Just a suggestion.
• Get a pet/dog …having a dog now makes sure that I go home in the evening, instead of doing 16 hours a day/sleep over in the lab anymore. Plus it’s nice to have someone wait for you on the window sill the whole day — makes you feel loved and wanting to go home. And don’t buy a dog from a puppy mill. Go pick from a shelter nearby. If you can’t adopt, at least foster or volunteer at a shelter. It is such a life changing experience.

• NEVER “work or study” from home .
• Block all time suckers like cnn(news sites were my bane) and facebooks on my browser…say from 9am to 5pm. I use a chrome add on called blocksite.

Now I understand that overall, this might all make me sound like a weird geek who didn’t have any fun in college. Nope, did all that too. But the key here is balancing your social and academic life well. Here are some tips for that too.

Bottom line: Despite talking so much about grades at the end of the day only one thing matters : Did you learn something new or not — and even felt happy about. Rest all will fall in place. Good luck and Godspeed in this journey. It's actually fun, if you enjoy it.