Education (II)

This basically is going to talk about my college life. To be frank, at least I believed that I did not enjoy as much I wanted at college and to say the truth literally hugging books all the time. The first year in to college, entering with all kinds of dreams, aspirations after the high scores in school, was really good. Actually, I loved it since I felt being back to what I do the best, learn by understanding rather than mugging up things which, I have been doing for the past two years in school. In college is when I started reflecting what I understand rather than forcing myself to mug up i.e. if I understand a subject I score really well in it else I flunk and flunk badly.
First Semester, I loved all the subject (basically because they were not engg. subjects at all) - physics, chemistry, math, english, mechanics, engg. drawing. The teaching here was really good. People taught the methods and let the others do the exercises and exams had problems which required to be solved during the exams and not to be reproduced (as done in school). This the method that best works for me at least.
Second Semester, yes, this is the most dreaded semester in all my four years in college. A guy who knew some math and had some knowledge on mechanical physics (or Newtonian Physics or physics of things which can be visualized like trajectory of a ball, acceleration of a car etc ) was thrown into understanding concepts like electron, neutron and proton (what heck. till that point I have not thought how they could possibly exist). When I could visualize how a boy standing near a cliff would fall when pushed, I could not imagine what they meant by energy levels or hills and electrons falling from one state to another blah ..blah blah... I was literally flabbergasted and to top it all, the semester duration was short and the books we followed were one of the worst for a new comer to cope with (may be a pro can decipher the symbols). I could see all the 26 alphabets put in between paragraphs (obviously they too were filled with the same) as symbols or formulas and to crown the situation, had them differentiated as Capitals and Lower Cases. Wow .. anyone at first glance would understand it very easily, that too with a font which would be size 8 in MS Doc. It did not leave it there, each section has references not only to the past but also to things in the futures. Man .. anybody reading this (at least me) would go mad. Anybody from Electronics background would have found out the book by now for others it is the great "Electronic Devices And Circuits" (However, later during my fourth year, I realized that this was the best book for understanding and helped me great in preparing for GATE).
One other thing about this subject was this required lot of imagination. You need to visualize many scenarios, experiments relations etc. This I would say would be better done if it had good visual presentations like Video, Flash or Demonstrations of the various setups (not only this subject but many other) would have given it a different perspective altogether and it would be better if professors give this as semester projects for individuals. Things like this once done would really help the future students very much.
The other subject which I felt difficult was the Material Sciences were I felt I am not the one for it. There were subjects like Circuit Theory and Maths which had initial problems but later proved to be really good.
My Third Semester, again showed some signs of good times with subjects like Signals and System, Network Analysis being the prominent ones I remember. Signals and systems was more understandable since I could see or figure out how signals are constructed and how operations on them worked. It was more like math. A mention about the book of reference "Signals and Systems by Oppenheimer" is a worthy book unlike the above, it had simple english explanation, good font and eligible formulas. I had a very wonderful tool called the Matlab which aided me in understanding the various things explained in the text. Other than this I must say that I had a natural inclination to this subject :) .
Network Analysis I say I loved this subject just because of the way it was taken. Unlike signals and systems which I liked it because of subject as such, I liked this one due to the teacher. Dr. Srivatasava. He had a queer and funny way make people understand his subject. His classes would involve good interaction from students and he always had jokes and funny comments in his lectures which made the subject more interesting to hear. His approach to teaching was simple. He covers all the concepts with clear examples and explanations. Here you are made to understand every sum and problem. Also he tests whatever he teaches. Thus the entire process is simple. If his job is done well the person learns what he/she requires the basics. Anything other that this, if one wants to pursue, can do so with these basics.