University Calling…

March is around and the whole valley is looking forward to a beautiful spring season. Winter is ready to go and the cool breeze of spring is waiting to blow fresh life in the surroundings. This is the season where every person in the valley hopes to start afresh. As winter stops almost all the work in Kashmir, from educational institutes to daily working labourers, the season of spring gives a new start to the year. The tradesmen are ready to start their trade; farmers return to their lands, students bring back life to the schools, construction works start and above all the nature starts to rejuvenate. For a student this period proves to be of a vital importance, especially for those who have recently graduated from various colleges throughout the valley. As the month of March is coming nearer and once the university opens its gates for admissions, students will start flocking towards Hazratbal. This is the peak season when most number of students visit the University campus. Lines are seen from Rumi Gate itself as students wait for their turn to get copy of University prospectus. Everybody seems to be in rush and those who are aspiring to study in University often take circles around their future departments in order to familiarise themselves with the environment.

This scenario has been taking place year after year in the University, yet I see many of the deserving students actually end up either not getting the admission or getting admitted in a course not of their choice. Here one should not point fingers towards the University administration; I am talking about students who deserve but due to their negligence or improper counselling mess up their educational career. Thus I felt a need to write these lines for those students who are not sure what to do or don’t know how to crack the University exams.

The first point that a freshly graduated student should take into consideration is that the level of competition would be high due to the limited number of seats. Thus a student should be prepared to face this challenge. Many of these students think that reading those books which claim to be a mantra for cracking a seat in the University. But in reality if ones concepts are not clear and one hasn’t put efforts in college days it becomes hard for him to clear these test. Thus this exam is not really a one shot go, one should have a clear understanding of the basic concept of the subjects he is going to appear in. Thus I will suggest going through all references and books of the whole graduation period will help a lot. The second biggest mistake students make is that they apply to a many courses in University. Everyone seems to fill almost all four forms in the prospects many even double the number. They think of these exams as a lottery game, the more you apply in many courses the more the chances of getting admitted in the university. This is the basic reason why many of the students either give up their degree after a semester or never pass one. One should be clear about the area of his /her competence. After all it is not a one night stay in a hotel where one can say “koi bhikamrachalega”, it is the matter of one’s whole career. This is the time to ripen the fruit that has been taken care for almost fifteen years or so. It is a crucial time and if one ends up in a wrong department one will curse oneself for the rest of the life. So one should not haste in this race, so better take a leap of faith and appear only in the subjects in which one has hold on. Many of the students interested in science end up doing LLB or MLIS on the other hand those interested in law end up in history or psychology. It is not that these subjects are inferior or non-competent, but it is the matter of choice and love. If one is not good at remembering dates and names he can’t be a good historian and one who gets confused easily can’t be a good lawyer. Thus a student who lands in this trouble not only cheats himself but the whole society. So, I will better say only appear in the subjects of your core competence rather than trying your luck everywhere. Yet there are also those students who will be joining University just after their 10+2 exams, these students really need someone to counsel them otherwise due to deficiency of decision making they run into courses which are never meant for them. This is the main reason why we don’t have a greater number of researchers in engineering or medicine in Kashmir.

Again many students which are well prepared and have a good hold in their respective subjects fail to secure a seat. The reason is that many of these students haste in completing the exam. Many students get into the race to complete the paper before any other does. One should take full advantage of the time allotted for a particular paper and should not hurry in writing answers. Being calm, quite but concentrative will surely help, better to concentrate in exam hall than to say “Arayyaaryeh to mujheaatatha…par…” Again it is better to attempt fewer questions than doing all with wrong answers. Attempt only those questions that you are confident about, rather guessing and messing around. The more you guess the more you mess your chances to get admission in the University because of the negative marking system. And after exams please compare your answers with the keys published and uploaded by University on its website, it will not only give you a clear idea about where you stand but also gives one chance raise questions later if one thinks justice is not done. Thus a well prepared and better focused student is a frontrunner to secure a seat than those who rely on guess and lottery things.

All I can say is best of luck to all aspiring students who are ready to knock the sacred gates of wisdom and knowledge and a warm welcome to those who will knock out others to get an entry to the University.