the on-going exams are f**ing killing me!

I'm in sem-5 computer engineering right now and these f**ing exams are killing me. Also got DSF, ADC and OS kts to clear. IF you are having these subjects then I would advise joining classes for adc and dsf, it helped me a lot I at least can write the programs that too without byhearting but by logical understanding and plus they cover good 60 marks in the theory paper. Next paper is CN on 9th and its so F**ing boring I like these networks and stuff but studying about it is still putting be to sleep - as in seriously sleep, I keep trying not think that way, can't help it. The syllabus is just dead and full of non-sense. Why the F*** would anyone who wants to learn or study about NETWORKING by-heart what a hub, switch or router is?? I can just use google or open any of the 100 books and read about it as and when I need it. The same would go for all subjects - dbms, dsf, you name it .. think about it : if you're to create a Database in SQL or ORACLE when you get your job why would they ask you to do it without using books, internet or someone else's help infact in companies today group work is all that matters and still we had a practical exam where we had to make a database to enter names, age etc and the db stores it then use some other code to retrieve it then show it to the external who most probably hates his/her job and has no idea about any coding. 

The best reform in this system would be to increase the difficulty level a bit and let the students use the internet on spot during practical exams and come up with the databases or programs instead of byhearting ASP, like 2 of my frnds who had no idea about ASP where busy byhearting the code, one fellow was even trying to remember the capitalization in the code(as in wht keywords r to b in caps) he stopped only when I told him that ASP doesn't care abt caps and was very relieved. The same guy had also called to ask how-to-unzip-a-zipped(winrar) file later that day.

on the Indian Education System from deesha.org

Atanu dey is a economist. He got his Phd. in economics from UC Berkeley. He also has an MTech from IIT Kanpur and MS in CS from Rutgers University. He blogs at deesha.org about India's development and has written posts which make you think. I have learnt a lot from his posts. Here's a post from his blog about our education system. You should definitely read his blog if you are interested India, politics, economic development etc and avoid the lying media they are good for nothing in areas which matter.

You can read the post at his blog by click this link.

 

The greatest scandal and the greatest failure of the Indian governments (all of them, and practically all of them have been Congress) has been in education. A great economy and a great education system go hand in hand — though it almost always starts with the education system supplying the fuel that powers the engine of growth and development. Any dispassionate observer of the Indian education system (and I am one of many) cannot but conclude that it is one of the most distressed. It has never been very good but successive assaults on it by the government has reduced it to a wreck that cannot do anything else but act as a road block to development.

Indians have been electing the Congress for decades. India is a third-world country, a country that is listed together with sub-saharan African countries such as Burundi, Uganda, and Burkina Faso. Congress brought that about by following insane economic policies. The tragedy is that even if the party wakes up and realizes that the policies are absolutely mindless and wrong, they still cannot follow other policies — for it would then have to admit that the worthies who made these policies were retards like George W Bush. But those worthies have to be worshiped because the Indian population will vote for any progeny — regardless of any merit — of the worthies. 

That is what nails India to a cross: the Indian voter will vote for the Nehru/Gandhi family, and the resulting government can never change any of the disastrous policies that Nehru set in place. India is caught between a rock and a very hard place. India’s future is bleak because good people can never head the government and make rational policy. India suffers ignominy in international forums because India is too poor. India’s poverty is the direct consequence of the insane policies made by the governments of India — and did I mention that practically of of those have involved the Congress?

Sorry for the digression but let me come back to the point that I was making on education. The system is a disaster. Let me put it this way. If you want to know if something is good or is a p o s, just look at the demand for it. If a lot of people go for it, it is good; if the demand is low, it is a p o s. 

Let’s consider one measure: number of foreign students in the Indian education system. Why is this measure reasonable? Because foreign students have a choice in which education system to enroll in — unlike the majority of Indian students who cannot just up and leave for a foreign education (because India is a poor country, and that poverty is the result of Congress governments . . . you get the picture). So here’s a number that will not come as a surprise to you if you have been paying attention: About 350,000 foreign students study in Australia. India gets 8,000. 

Adjusted for population size, relative to Australia, India gets 133 foreign students. That is not a typo. Let me spell it out: it is a hundred and thirty-three, not one hundred and thirty-three thousand. Australia get around three thousand times the number of students per capita compared to India. (India is approximately 60 times Australia’s population.) 

You can do the same for other developed countries. And how is China doing? In 2005, it had around 140,000 foreign students and probably has around 200,000 by now. Compared to India, China attracts 25 times as many students as India does. And you know what’s the worst part? The numbers for India are shrinking. 

There is practically no demand for education in India by foreign students. Ergo, it is a p o s. QED.

I got those numbers from Arun Shourie. He gave a Foundation Day Lecture in Sept 2006 to the IIT Kharagpur Alumni Association Delhi. (Hat tip: Akshar Prabhudesai.) You should click over there to read the article but for the record, I am reproducing it here in full.

Just remember: those policies that have prevented the Indian education system from developing (much like the policies that have prevented India from developing) have been brought to you (to paraphrase them programs on PBS) by the generosity of your fine Congress governments, and by voters just like you!

Enjoy! Or should I say, weep for India?

About 8,000 foreign students are studying in India. In Australia, on the other hand, there are about 350,000 — and remember, we add to our numbers every year more than the total population of Australia. Nor is it just that foreign students studying in India are less than a fortieth of those studying in Australia. The number of students who come to India has actually been going down: according to government figures, in 1990/91, there were over 12,765; last year there were 7,745! (By contrast, the increase in 2004 in the number of foreign students studying in China was three times the total number of foreign students that came to India: China hosted 141,087 foreign students in 2005.) We could be educators to the world — just as we could be surgeons to the world. But here is another opportunity missed: while Dubai, Singapore, Australia, to say nothing of distant US, etc. are positioning themselves as education hubs, we remain mired in that bog — the HRD Ministry.
It isn’t just that we are missing an opportunity. We are paying a huge cost every year. One estimate puts the amount that is spent on Indian students studying abroad at a figure that would be sufficient to set up 30-40 IIMs or 15-20 IITs every year. And going abroad to study is just the first step. Having studied in that country, having got familiar with the place and people, most decide to take up work there. Soon enough, they settle down there. Science and Engineering Indicators, 2006, reports that of Indian students who received doctorates in Science and Engineering between 2000 and 2003, close to 90 per cent said they planned to stay on in the US; two-thirds had firmed up “definite plans to stay.” The proportions were the same in one critical discipline after another: 91% and 62% in biological and agricultural sciences; 92% and 72% in mathematics and computer sciences; 90% and 70% in engineering…(Science and Engineering Indicators, 2006, Appendix tables, A2-96 to 100.)
The fault is by no means that of the youngsters. And there is no doubt that those who have stayed on in the US, etc. have also done much for India — they have, among other things, helped change the world’s perception of India, and, thereby, India’s perception of itself. But imagine how much our country would have gained in actual productive potential if we had educational institutions of such quality that these youngsters did not have to go abroad. Imagine how much our country would have gained if they worked here, that is if the work environment here had been such that they had felt confident they could develop to their fullest potential, and reap rewards commensurate with their capabilities and with the effort they put in.
And if we persist in the obscurantist policies and practices that mar our educational sector, this drain will only increase in the coming years. Countries are straining to develop themselves as the more attractive destinations — for students, for investors, for firms. Nor is the matter confined to choice, there is a compulsion too, a compulsion of which these leading countries are well aware and to counter which they are taking focused steps. In regard to the US, for instance, National Science Foundation data reveal that in 2003, 85 per cent of those holding Science and Engineering doctorates and working were above 55 years of age; 76 per cent were above 60 years; 20 per cent were 70 and above. The proportions for those holding Master’s degrees were equally significant: they were 85%, 65%, and 16% respectively. (Science and Engineering Indicators, 2006, Appendix tables, A3-43.) And this is just one among many reasons on account of which these countries will continue to aggressively court researchers and skilled workers from India and elsewhere.
Indeed, the threat now is not just that individuals will be wooed away. Countries — from Singapore to South Korea to Taiwan to China to the EU-25 — are making even greater efforts to woo entire firms away, in particular R&D firms. Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan have already become significant research-hubs. But the suction for entire R&D firms can come from farther a-field too. We think of the US as a high-cost economy, as one that is now compelled to outsource R&D efforts to a country like India. But that is just one side of the picture, and that is true only for one end of research. In 2002, US firms spent around $ 21 billion doing research in foreign countries. As against this, foreign firms spent close to $ 26 billion doing research in the US. (Science and Engineering Indicators, 2006, Volume I, 0-4, 0-5, 18.) And that stands to reason: researchers are less costly in countries like India, but today a great deal of research, and almost all of frontier research, involves such high-technology infrastructure that it is best executed in countries like the US.
Things to do
The first thing to do is to stop counter-positioning primary, universal education against higher education. We need both. We can afford both. Second, we must see both — the threat as well as the opportunity: the threat that we may lose our best minds at an even faster rate than the rate at which we have been losing them in the past decades; on the other side, the opportunity that we can be educators to the world.
Third, to ward off the threat and to tap into the opportunity, we require the same sort of measures. To arrest and reverse the alarming deterioration of standards in most of our institutions of higher learning. To ensure that in regard to both – students as well as faculty – merit, performance here and now, alone counts. To ensure that rewards are strictly commensurate with performance.
And resources. A large proportion of these will have to come from the government – for instance, private entrepreneurs just do not have the long horizons that basic research requires. Equally, government alone will just not have enough resources for this sector. Thus, one service that finance ministers can do is to give the most generous incentives and tax-breaks for industry to invest in education and in R&D. For every trifling misuse, a Manipal will come up.
And the resources have to be defrayed not just on equipment – that is what is done ever so often: and by the time the underpaid, under-motivated faculty learn to exploit the equipment to its full potential, the equipment is obsolete. A good proportion of the resources have to be set apart for making salaries and allowances of faculty and researchers and their work-environment attractive enough for them to forego careers in private industry and to choose instead to be in universities and research institutions.
It is obvious that we cannot do any of this so long as higher education and research is dominated by governmental institutions. China, for instance, has launched an aggressive drive to bring back the very best Chinese faculty who are working in universities in the US, Europe and the like. To attract them back, China is giving them remuneration and allowances and work facilities that are better than what they have in universities where they are working. This is being done irrespective of what existing faculty get in the Chinese establishments in which these returnees will be lodged. Can such a thing be done in a governmental organisation in India – what with its scales and unions; what with the fact that the salary of a professor cannot be higher than that of the vice chancellor, and the salary of a vice chancellor cannot be higher than that of secretary, HRD…? I am, therefore, wholly against the current rush for affiliation, etc. We should encourage institutions to de-affiliate, from existing universities and the like. Colleges and research departments and institutions will come to be known by the work they do, by the standards to which they adhere. Along with this movement to de-affiliate we should develop first-rate, wholly objective and reliable methods to rank institutions.
But the gaps are so vast that mere resources will not do. We need to adopt unconventional methods to scale up this sector. The remarkable success that F C Kohli, one of the fathers of IT in India, has achieved with the “total-immersion” method in making absolutely illiterate persons literate enough to read a newspaper within 8 to 10 weeks; his analysis of “gaps” between the best engineering college in Maharashtra and other colleges in the state, and how these can be bridged by using modern IT and communications technologies – these are the sorts of measures we need to put in place. And, instead of stuffing IITs and IIMs with mediocrities just because they were born to one set of parents than another, we should induce them to multiply faculty, and to upgrade existing faculty in other institutions.
Two prerequisites
But for any of these measures to be executed we need two prerequisites. The first is to outgrow clichés. “Do not make a commodity of education,” our politicians shout every time there is the slightest effort to make educational institutions self-sustaining. “Do not sell ma-Saraswati,” they shout every time there is an effort to induce industry to take up education. All such shouting ensures is that existing scarcities continue, and the existing education-czars rate off the lolly. All it accomplishes is to enable a dental college here, near Delhi itself, to pocket a “donation” of Rs 28 lakh from every entrant…Is the way to deal with the fact that 150,000 students have just applied to the IIM, Ahmedabad, for 250 seats in its two-year course, to force it to take in 27 per cent additional students — that is, sixty two more students — on the basis of birth? Or is it to give incentives to industry to set up 62 institutions of comparable worth?
And then there is the even more urgent task — to reverse the recent trend in regard to the few islands of excellence that remain: the recent trend of interfering in the IITs and IIMs. The recent edicts regarding reservations are just one — though by itself fatal enough — lance of such interference. Appointments of directors; hauling them up before Commissions because some congenitally disgruntled employee keeps writing letters to high-ups; the insistence of a legislative Committee that they switch to Hindi as the medium of instruction…There is an all-round assault to breach their autonomy.
To ward off such senselessness, three things are required. First, do not temporise: do not think that the way to meet the assault is to concede a bit – those concessions will not assuage the grabbers; on the contrary, they will become the reasons for the political and bureaucratic class to grab all: “See, the director himself is saying that they are ready to abide by our order – all he is asking is that he be given a little time to do so…” Second, as those who are working in these institutions are in a sense under the thumb of government — and I have been struck dumb by fear to which faculty themselves testify in open meetings — outsiders, in particular the alumni of these institutions, have an important duty: they must constitute themselves as firewalls around these institutions.
But the assault on such institutions is but an instance of the general assault on excellence in India today: from legislatures to civil service to educational establishments, mediocrity is being asserted as norm, vulgarity as right, intimidation as argument, assault as proof. Two classes today stand in counter-position to this assault on standards – entrepreneurs and the professional middle class. Accordingly, the pan-Indian organisations of professionals should get together to contain, roll-back and eventually eliminate this assault.

ET Complete guide to studying abroad.

Education times has made a effort to provide all trustable information about studying abroad in one book. I have not tried or come across any reviews but given its a famous newspaper in the field of education, should be helpful.


I quote below from their site.

In a new trend, more and more people are deciding to go abroad for their undergraduate studies. The reasons influencing this decision include fierce competition on home turf, high aspirations, more disposable income, flexible and innovative approach of Western universities, and the belief that a degree from overseas has more value in the job market.

However, it is always a tough decision to choose between course, college or country. While there is a plethora of information available, it may only confuse one even further.

In response to a growing demand for a single and reliable source of information, The Times of India launches Times Study Abroad, a definitive guide to studies overseas. With the help of an advisory board comprising faculty, policy-makers, admission officers, students, scholars and overseas representatives, the step-by-step guide will help you in your search for the right course, college and country.

Priced at Rs 150, the book is available at all leading bookstores in India. Alternatively, to order a copy, log on to www.tgb.indiatimes.com or call 011-45738558/ 45738588.

To buy the online version of the book for Rs.75/- Click Here

If you have any query about downloading the book online, please feel free to write us in at myedubooks@indiatimes.com

If you have tried it then please review it below in the comments for the other readers.

How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off !!

Here's another article to help you be more productive. Waking up on time at morning right at the moment when you desire, no matter how late you sleep or how tired you are. This habit will benefit you life long.


you'll never hit snoozzZZZ again!


When your alarm wakes you up in the morning, is it hard for you to get up right away?  Do you find yourself hitting the snooze button and going right back to sleep?
That used to be part of my daily awakening ritual too.  When my alarm would blare its infernal noise, I’d turn the damned thing off right away.  Then under the cloak of that early morning brain fog, I’d slowly ponder whether or not I should actually get up:
It’s nice and warm under the covers.  If I get up, it’s going to be cold.  That won’t be too pleasant.
Oh, I really should get up now.  C’mon legs… move.  Go, legs, go.  Hmmm… that isn’t how I move my legs, is it?  They don’t seem to be listening to me.
I should go to the gym.  Yeah.  Hmmm… I don’t really feel like working out right now though.  I haven’t even had breakfast.  Maybe I should have a muffin first.  Banana nut.  Now that’s a good muffin.
Maybe I’m trying to get myself up too early.  I’m still sleepy, aren’t I?  Maybe getting up with an alarm is unnatural.  Won’t I function better with more sleep?
I don’t have to get up right this minute, do I?  Surely I can relax another five minutes or so.  The world isn’t going to end if I don’t get up right now.
I’ll bet my wife is toasty warm right now.  She told me she hates it when I try to snuggle her at 6am, but so what…  she loves me enough to forgive me, right?  I know… I’ll start massaging her back and shoulders first.  She can’t resist a good massage, even so early in the morning.  Then I’ll transition to a head scratching.  Yeah, that’ll do it.  And then slide right into the spoon position.  Won’t that be a pleasant way to start the day?
[ Scootch... scootch... Zzzzzzzz ]
Two hours later…
Me:  What time is it?  I don’t even remember the alarm going off.  That was a good snuggle though.  Oh well, guess I’ll have to skip exercise today.
Wife:  Why do you keep setting your alarm if you aren’t going to get up when it goes off?
Me:  Oh, did you think that was my wake-up alarm?  It’s actually my snuggle alarm.
OK, so I wasn’t really intending for it to be a snuggle alarm.  I had intended to get up when it went off, but my foggy brain kept negotiating me right back to sleep.
Fast forward to present day…
My alarm goes off sometime between 4:00 and 5:00am… never later than 5:00am, even on weekends and holidays.  I turn off the alarm within a few seconds.  My lungs inflate with a deep breath of air, and I stretch my limbs out in all directions for about two seconds.  Soon my feet hit the floor, and I find myself getting dressed while my wife snoozes on.  I go downstairs to grab a piece of fruit, pop into my home office to catch up on some emails, and then it’s off to the gym at 5:15.
But this time there’s no voice inside my head debating what I should do.  It’s not even a positive voice this time — it’s just not there.  The whole thing happens on autopilot, even before I feel fully awake mentally.  I can’t say it requires any self-discipline to do this every morning because it’s a totally conditioned response.  It’s like my conscious mind is just along for the ride while my subconscious controls my body.  When my alarm goes off each morning, I respond just like Pavlov’s dogs.  It would actually be harder for me not to get up when my alarm goes off.
So how do you go from scenario one to scenario two?
First, let’s consider the way most people tackle this problem — what I consider the wrong way.
The wrong way is to try using your conscious willpower to get yourself out of bed each morning.  That might work every once in a while, but let’s face it — you’re not always going to be thinking straight the moment your alarm goes off.  You may experience what I call the fog of brain.  The decisions you make in that state won’t necessarily be the ones you’d make when you’re fully conscious and alert.  You can’t really trust yourself… nor should you.
If you use this approach, you’re likely to fall into a trap.  You decide to get up at a certain time in advance, but then you undo that decision when the alarm goes off.  At 10pm you decide it would be a good idea to get up at 5am.  But at 5am you decide it would be a better idea to get up at 8am.  But let’s face it — you know the 10pm decision is the one you really want implemented… if only you could get your 5am self to go along with it.
Now some people, upon encountering this conundrum, will conclude that they simply need more discipline.  And that’s actually somewhat true, but not in the way you’d expect.  If you want to get up at 5am, you don’t need more discipline at 5am.  You don’t need better self-talk.  You don’t need two or three alarm clocks scattered around the room.  And you don’t need an advanced alarm that includes technology from NASA’s astronaut toilets.
You actually need more discipline when you’re fully awake and conscious:  the discipline to know that you can’t trust yourself to make intelligent, conscious decisions the moment you first wake up.  You need the discipline to accept that you’re not going to make the right call at 5am.  Your 5am coach is no good, so you need to fire him.
What’s the real solution then?  The solution is to delegate the problem.  Turn the whole thing over to your subconscious mind.  Cut your conscious mind out of the loop.
Now how do you do this?  The same way you learned any other repeatable skill.  You practice until it becomes rote.  Eventually your subconscious will take over and run the script on autopilot.
This is going to sound really stupid, but it works.  Practice getting up as soon as your alarm goes off.  That’s right — practice.  But don’t do it in the morning.  Do it during the day when you’re wide awake.
Go to your bedroom, and set the room conditions to match your desired wake-up time as best you can.  Darken the room, or practice in the evening just after sunset so it’s already dark.  If you sleep in pajamas, put on your pajamas.  If you brush your teeth before bed, then brush your teeth.  If you take off your glasses or contacts when you sleep, then take those off too.
Set your alarm for a few minutes ahead.  Lie down in bed just like you would if you were sleeping, and close your eyes.  Get into your favorite sleep position.  Imagine it’s early in the morning… a few minutes before your desired wake-up time.  Pretend you’re actually asleep.  Visualize a dream location, or just zone out as best you can.
Now when your alarm goes off, turn it off as fast as you can.  Then take a deep breath to fully inflate your lungs, and stretch your limbs out in all directions for a couple seconds… like you’re stretching during a yawn.  Then sit up, plant your feet on the floor, and stand up.  Smile a big smile.  Then proceed to do the very next action you’d like to do upon waking.  For me it’s getting dressed.
Now shake yourself off, restore the pre-waking conditions, return to bed, reset your alarm, and repeat.  Do this over and over and over until it becomes so automatic that you run through the whole ritual without thinking about it.  If you have to subvocalize any of the steps (i.e. if you hear a mental voice coaching you on what to do), you’re not there yet.
Feel free to devote several sessions over a period of days to this practice.  Think of it like doing sets and reps at the gym.  Do one or two sets per day at different times… and perhaps 3-10 reps each time.
Yes, it will take some time to do this, but that time is nothing compared to how much time you’ll save in the long run.  A few hours of practice today can save you hundreds of hours each year.
With enough practice — I can’t give you an accurate estimate of how long it will take because it will be different for everyone – you’ll condition a new physiological response to the sound of your alarm.  When your alarm goes off, you’ll get up automatically without even thinking about it.  The more you run the pattern, the stronger it will become.  Eventually it will be uncomfortable not to get up when your alarm goes off.  It will feel like putting on your pants with the opposite leg first.
You can also practice mentally if you’re good at visualizing.  Mental practice is faster, but I think it’s best to run through the whole thing physically.  There are subtle details you might miss if you only rehearse mentally, and you want your subconscious to capture the real flavor of the experience.  So if you do use mental practice, at least do it physically the first few times.
The more you practice your wake-up ritual, the deeper you’ll ingrain this habit into your subconscious.  Alarm goes off -> get up immediately.  Alarm goes off -> get up immediately.  Alarm goes off -> get up immediately.
Once this becomes a daily habit, you won’t have to do anymore daytime practice.  This type of habit is self-reinforcing.  You only have to go through the conditioning period once.  Then you’re basically set for life until you decide to change it.  Even if you fall out of the habit for some reason (like an extended vacation in a different time zone), you’ll be able to return to it more easily.  Think of it like muscle memory.  Once you’ve grooved in the pattern, it will still be there even if you let some weeds grow over it.
Any behavior pattern you experience when your alarm goes off will become self-reinforcing if you repeat it enough times.  Chances are that you already have a well-established wake-up ritual, but it may not be the one you want.  The more you repeat your existing pattern, the more you condition it into your subconscious.  Every time you fail to get up when your alarm goes off, that becomes ever more your default physiological response.  If you want to change that behavior, you’ll need to undertake a conscious reconditioning program such as the one I described above.
Beating yourself up about your bad wake-up habits will not work — in fact, you’ll just condition these mental beatings as part of the very routine you’re trying to change.  Not only will you not get up when your alarm goes off, but you’ll also automatically beat yourself up about it.  How lame is that?  Do you really want to keep running that dumb pattern for the rest of your life?  That’s exactly what will happen if you don’t condition a more empowering pattern.  For good or ill, your habits will make or break you.
Once you establish your desired wake-up ritual, I recommend you stick with it every single day – 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  And for the first 30 days, set your alarm for the same time every day.  Once the habit is established, then you can vary your wake-up times or occasionally go without the alarm if you want to sleep in, but until then it’s best to keep the pattern very tight.  That way it will become your default behavior, and you’ll be able to stray from time to time without serious risk of deconditioning it.
I’m confident that once you establish this habit, you’ll absolutely love it.  I consider this to be one my most productive habits.  It saves me hundreds of hours a year, and it keeps paying dividends day after day.  I also found this habit extremely valuable during my polyphasic sleep experiment.
Think about it — if you oversleep just 30 minutes a day, that’s 180+ hours a year.  And if you’re at 60 minutes a day, that’s 365 hours a year, the equivalent of nine 40-hour weeks.  That’s a lot of time!  Now I don’t know about you, but I can think of more creative things to do with that time than lying in bed longer than I need to.
I encourage you to give this method a try.  I know it seems silly to practice getting out of bed, but hey, what if it works?  What if you knew with total certainty that if you set your alarm for a certain time, you would absolutely get up at that time no matter what?  There’s no reason you can’t create that for yourself over the next few days.  Practice makes permanent.

GET ASSURED great discounts in your city with Groupon.

 Started new in India - www.groupon.in

I can't imagine anyone NOT using Groupon. Why wouldn't you?


You get to try new places at an extremely discounted price and what most of us Groupon users are doing is really getting to explore our own cities and trying things we normally wouldn't.


FACT: Everyday there is the opportunity to eat something different, try something new, or buy something we normally wouldn't all because of the fantastic offers these hungry (or truly marketing savvy) businesses are offering.

Gadgets, restaurants, spas, entertainment, accessories, automobile hardware groupon has it all!  

Find Today's Daily Deal on Your City's Best Things To Do at Groupon.in!

Why Use Groupon?


Every day a super duper deal is featured by Groupon from a local business in your area with the best and most unbeatable deal of the coolest things to see, eat, do and buy. With Groupon, you get discounts you won't find anywhere else.


I heard that they have to sell a certain number of deals for us to get the discount. So do I have to get others to buy with me?


No because there are millions of members that we email to and send out Groupon deals to that will make up the group. But you will most likely want to share the info and with your family and friends because "the more the merrier," right?


Alright so I just heard about today's deal and I GOTTA have it. How do I get it?


Look for the big "BUY" button and click on it to purchase before the offer ends, which is at the stroke of midnight! Best part of all is that you will ONLY get charged if the minimum number of other deal seekers sign up! Then if they do get enough people, Groupon sends you link a special link to print off your Groupon. Wooo hoooooo Now were saving the big bucks. So to make sure you do get that awesome deal, pass on the love and get others to sign up too. If not enough people join, no one gets it (and you won't be charged) RATS I hate when there is not enough people that snag the deal and I lose out, so do be sure to pass on the email!


Do I have to use my Groupon on the same day I bought it?


No way. Groupons do (well many do) have an expiration date, but you don't have to use them on the same day you buy the deal.

How groupon works?

10 Tips for College Students.

 Here is an article by steve pavlina, a noted writer about personal development. He graduated with 2 degrees in 3 semesters and now tells us how he did it and some more. Read on!
 
After writing the time management article “Do It Now,” which was based on my experience of graduating college in three semesters with two degrees, I received many follow-up questions from students asking for more advice.  Here are 10 tips to help you create a productive and memorable college experience… and most of all, to deeply enjoy this time in your life.

1. Answer the question, “Why am I going to college?”

Many college students really don’t have a clear reason for being there other than the fact that they don’t know what else to do yet.  They inherit goals from family and peers which aren’t truly their own.  That was how I started college.  Is this you as well?

As I’ve stated previously on this blog, the three-semester deal wasn’t my first time at college.  I had previously gone to college when I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be there.  In high school I was a straight-A honors student, President of the math club, and captain of the Academic Decathlon team.  That momentum carried me forward, and without really ever deciding if it was what I wanted, I found myself with four more years of school ahead of me.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but my heart just wasn’t in it.  Consequently, I sabotaged myself in a big way.  I blew off my classes and got an education in parties and alcohol.  Apparently some administrator was biased against students whose GPA starts with a decimal point, so I was soon expelled.

That experience sent me into a bit of a tailspin.  I was in a funk for about six months, mostly just playing video games.  Finally in an attempt to re-ground myself, I got a retail sales job and tried to stay under the radar while taking some time to “find myself.”  That was the time I began developing an interest in personal development, and boy did it pay off.  A year later I was ready to go back to college, and I started over as a freshman.  But this time I knew why I was there.  I wanted to be a programmer, and I wanted to earn my Computer Science degree (I later added the Math degree).  But it was more than that.  I knew I was capable of a lot more, and I wanted to push myself.  I wanted to create the richest experience I could.  For me that meant a really dense schedule.

Your goals for college will likely be different than mine.  What are they?  Why are you there?  If you don’t know — and I mean really know it in your gut — then you have no focal point for your experience.  You may as well not even be there.  What is it about your experience that resonates as true for you?  What are you there to learn?  What do you want to experience?

2. Imagine your ideal college experience.

Once you know why you’re going to college, imagine your ideal outcome.  Let it flow outward from the reason you’re there.  Whether you’ve already started college or not, stop and simply write down some attributes of your ideal experience.  Describe it in as much detail as you can.

Before I returned to school, I spent hours visualizing the kind of experience I wanted to have.  I saw myself being challenged but managing it easily and without stress.  I saw myself making new friends.  I saw myself having a really great time.  Most of all I imagined a very balanced experience — a blend of academics, activities, socialization, and fun.  The keyword I used was “richness.”

This was a really important step.  I didn’t understand the mechanism at the time, but I was pre-programming myself to succeed.  Whenever I encountered obstacles, my ideal vision was so much more compelling that I was always able to find a way to get what I wanted.  I became a co-creator of my experience instead of a passive victim of it.

Visualization allows you to make mistakes in advance.  If you can’t get a clear visualization, your experience is likely to be just as fuzzy.  Debug your visualization until it inspires you.

Real life will of course turn out differently than you visualize.  The point of visualization isn’t to predict the future or to restrict your freedom to decide later.  The point is to give you more clarity for making decisions right now.  Your ideal scene serves as a map that can guide you through the quagmire of options.

3. Take at least one extra class each semester.

Students are taught that 12-15 semester units (3-5 classes) is a “full” schedule.  But a schedule that light is hardly full.  A person with a full-time job will put in a good 40+ hours per week, and students enjoy every possible vacation day plus spring break, winter break, and summer vacation.  If you want to spend four or more years in college, add more degrees or get a job on the side.  Don’t feel you have to go at a snail’s pace just because everyone else does.

Now you might be thinking that 12-15 units are supposed to equate to a 40-hour week with all the outside homework and studying, but that’s only going to happen if you do things very inefficiently (which sadly is what most people do).  If you follow some of the time-saving tips later in this article, then 15 units should only require a few additional hours outside of class to complete assignments.  Obviously I couldn’t have taken 31-39 units per semester if it meant doing double those hours in outside homework.  I didn’t succeed by overworking myself.

If you’re an above average student, you can certainly handle an above average schedule.  Sometimes we don’t know what we can handle until we push ourselves a little.  If you think you can handle 15 units, take 18 or 21.  You can easily shave a year off your schedule.  Or you may be able to add a minor or a double major.

What about prerequisites?  For the most part I simply ignored them, and fortunately at my school they weren’t enforced too well.  I found that most of the time a prerequisite is listed, it’s geared towards below average students.  Don’t let pointless bureaucracy slow you down if you want to graduate sooner.  There’s always a way around it — it’s usually just a matter of getting some random form signed by someone who’s too bored to care either way.  A smile and a compliment go a long way.

By the law of forced efficiency, if you put more things on your plate, you’ll find a way to get them done with the time you have available.  So if you don’t challenge yourself a little, that extra time will slip through your fingers.

I think the real benefit to a dense schedule isn’t that you’ll graduate sooner.  The real benefit is that you’ll enjoy a richer experience.  Taking five classes instead of four means more learning, more achievement, and more friends.  And what employer wouldn’t be attracted to a student who graduated more quickly than his/her peers?  This sort of thing sure looks great on a resume.

4. Set clear goals for each class. 

Decide what you want out of each specific class.  Is this a subject you’re eager to learn?  Do you want to target this teacher for a letter of recommendation?  Is this a required class you must take but which doesn’t otherwise interest you?

My goals for each class determined how often I would show up, whether I’d sit in the front or the back, how actively I’d participate, and what kind of relationship I’d seek to establish with the teacher.

For some classes I wanted to master the material.  For others I just wanted an A grade.  And for others I wanted to set myself up for glowing letters of recommendations from enthusiastic teachers whose native language was English (so the letters would be highly readable and positive).

My mom has been a college math professor for decades.  At home she’d comment about students she barely knew who’d ask her for letters of recommendation.  Many times she had to turn them down because she just didn’t have anything positive to say in the letter.  On the other hand, she was happy to support those students who put in a serious effort.  Most teachers want to help you, but you have to let them see your strengths.  Even if you don’t get an A in a particular class, you can still give a teacher plenty of material for a great letter of recommendation if you participate actively and show respect toward the teacher.

This is not about manipulating your professors into lying on your behalf.  The simple truth is that the quality of a letter of recommendation ultimately comes down to how much a teacher respects you.  Don’t put yourself in the desperate situation of having to request a letter of recommendation from a teacher who doesn’t even remember you — or worse, one who thinks poorly of you.  Set yourself up for success in advance.

One of my professors learned about my packed academic schedule and expressed interest in learning how I was managing it.  We had a very nice conversation about time management techniques.  I had several programming classes with this professor and aced them all.  I happened to think he was an excellent teacher, I had great respect for him, and I quite enjoyed his classes.  When it came time to ask him for a letter of recommendation, he wrote one of the most glowing letters imaginable (“best student I’ve encountered in my career,” etc.).

On the other hand, I had certain teachers who were downright lousy.  I ditched their classes often and learned the material from the textbook.  Obviously I didn’t seek out their assistance down the road.

Sometimes you’ll achieve your goals; sometimes you won’t.  Even if you do your best, you may still fall short.  You may encounter teachers that are unfair, lazy, sexist, racist, or otherwise incompetent.  My wife had an overtly sexist professor who would never give a female student a grade higher than a B, no matter how well she did.  He would say things like, “If you’re a male, you’ll have to work hard in this class.  If you’re a female, just come by my office after hours.”  Eventually sexual harrassment charges were filed against him.  You’ll have to pick your battles.  Some are worth fighting; others are best ignored.  Having clear goals will help you decide which is which.

5. Triage ruthlessly.

You don’t need to put an equal amount of effort into every class.  Inject extra effort when it’s important to you, but feel free to back off a little from classes that are a low priority based on your specific goals.  For me this was an important way to conserve energy.  I couldn’t play full out in every class, or I’d burn out, so I invested my energy where it mattered most.

In every student’s schedule, some classes are critical while others are almost trivial.  In a typical week, I’d usually ditch around 40% of my classes because I just didn’t need to be there.  For some classes attendance was necessary, but for others it didn’t make much difference.  I could simply get the notes from another student if needed, or I could learn the material from the textbook.  If it wasn’t necessary for me to attend a particular class (based on my goals for that class), I usually ditched it.  That saved me a lot of time and kept me from having to sit in class all day long.  Sometimes I’d just grab some food with friends to give myself an extra break.

I would also triage individual assignments.  If I felt an assignment was lame, pointless, or unnecessarily tedious, and if it wouldn’t have too negative an impact on my grade, I would actually decline to do it.  One time I was assigned a tedious paper that represented 10% of my grade.  I really didn’t want to do it, and it required a lot more hours than I felt it was worth.  I was headed for an A in the class, and if I didn’t do this assignment, I’d drop to an A-.  So I respectfully told the professor I was declining the assignment and that I thought it was a fair trade to receive an A- in order to reinvest those hours elsewhere.  He already knew me and understood my reasons.  He gave me an A-, and I was fine with that.  It was indeed a fair trade.  In fact, looking back I wish I’d done this sort of thing more often.

Sometimes teachers get a little too homework happy and dole out assignments that really don’t justify the effort.  You’re in charge of your academic experience though, not your teachers.  Don’t feel you must do every assignment just because the teacher feels it’s a good idea.  You be the judge in accordance with your own reasons for being there.  Just be sure to consider the consequences of your decision.

By stealing time from low priority assignments, I was able to invest more time in the real gems.  Some creative assignments taught me a great deal.  I usually hated group projects with a passion, but there was one particular group project where the team really gelled.  I enjoyed it tremendously and learned a lot from it. 

A cool triage technique I used was timeboxing.  I would decide how much time an assignment warranted, and then I’d do the best job I could within the allotted time.  So if I had to write a 10-page research page on European history, I might devote 8 hours to it total.  I’d slice up the 8 hours into topic selection, planning, library research, outlining, writing, and editing, and then I’d do my best to stay within those times.  This was a great way to keep me from overengineering an assignment that didn’t need it.

In a way this was my own method of academic load balancing.  Some of your assignments will be unbalanced in the sense that they seem to require an unreasonable amount of effort compared to how much of your grade they represent or how much you expect to benefit from completing them.  Sometimes I would decide that the effort to write an A-paper just wasn’t warranted.  Maybe I’d estimate it would take me 20 hours to do an A job but only 10 hours to do a B job.  And if the assignment was only 10% of my grade, perhaps I could accept a B there.  I often thought in this Machiavellian fashion back then, and often to my surprise I found that my B-quality papers would come back with As anyway.

6. Get an early start to each day. 

I’ve written previously about the benefits of becoming an early riser.  I wasn’t getting up at 5am when I was in college, but I’d usually get up around 6-7am.  I found that getting an early start each day helped me get a lot more done, not just in the morning but throughout the day.  I began each day with a 25-minute run followed by a shower and breakfast.  This simple morning routine got me out the door feeling alert and energized.

I’d be lying if I said I got up early because I wanted to.  It was really out of necessity.  I had many morning classes, including 7:30am classes one semester.  But I’m glad I did that because if I didn’t have those morning classes, I just would have slept more than I needed to.  Even if you hate morning classes, you may find as I did that you’re a lot more productive if you schedule them anyway.

7. Reclaim wasted time during your classes.

Let’s face it.  Not every class is going to require your utmost concentration.  Sometimes teachers babble.  Sometimes they reiterate what you already know.  What percentage of class time requires your complete, focused attention?  For some classes it’s 90%.  For others it’s 20%.  If you aren’t actively learning during class, you’re wasting time.  If a class is really challenging, sit in the front and soak up every word.  But if a class isn’t challenging you, then sit in the back, do homework for other classes, and pop your head up every once in a while to see if there’s anything worth jotting down.  Always have a book open, so when your hippie professor goes off on yet another nostalgia trip about the 60s, you’ll have something productive to do.

This was a surprisingly great cure for boredom.  If the professor was droning on and putting everyone to sleep, I’d be working on programming assignments.  I used to write them out on paper and then go to the computer lab between classes and type them up.  That way I didn’t have to spend much time outside class in the lab, sometimes just 10-15 minutes if my program worked the first time.

You’ll be amazed at how much time you can free up using this method.  I was able to complete the bulk of my assignments in class (but usually not in the classes in which the tasks were assigned).  If you’re in school right now, I challenge you to see how much extra homework you can complete during your normal class time today.  Then estimate how many hours you’ll save every week from this practice.  It really adds up.

You can’t concentrate at peak efficiency continuously, so be sure to take breaks.  When you need a break though, take a real break.  I used to meditate or nap on the grass between classes in order to recharge myself.  I’d use my wristwatch alarm to signal when it was time to get up and go again.  Those breaks were very restorative, and I could go to the next class and work full out once again.  I never worked flat out all day long.  I worked in waves between total concentration and total relaxation, cycling many times per day.

8. Learn material the very first time it’s presented.

One of the biggest time wasters in school is having to relearn something you didn’t learn properly the first time.  When students say they’re studying, most of the time they’re making up for a previous failure to learn the material.

In software development it’s well known that bugs should be fixed as soon as possible after they’re introduced.  Waiting to fix a bug near the end of a project can take 50x as much effort as it would take to fix the bug the first time it was noticed.  Failing to learn what you’re supposedly taught each day is a serious bug.  Don’t try to pile new material on top of an unstable foundation, since it will take even more time to rebuild it later.

If you don’t understand something you were taught in class today, treat it as a bug that must be fixed ASAP.  Do not put it off.  Do not pile new material on top of it.  If you don’t understand a word, a concept, or a lesson, then drop everything and do whatever it takes to learn it before you continue on.  Ask questions in class, get a fellow student to explain it to you, read and re-read the textbook, and/or visit the professor during office hours, but learn it no matter what.

I was normally an ace in math, perhaps because my mother is a college math professor who was taking calculus classes while I was in the womb.  Plus my father was an aerospace engineer, so I’ve certainly got the genes for it.  But there were a couple topics I found incomprehensible when they were first introduced:  eigenvalues and eigenvectors.  I’m a highly visual learner, which is normally a strength academically, but I found these abstract concepts difficult to visualize.  Many of my classmates found them confusing too.  I invested the extra effort required to grasp these concepts and earned an A in the class because I treated my confusion as a bug that had to be fixed immediately.  Those students who allowed their confusion to linger found themselves becoming more and more lost as the course progressed, and cramming at the end couldn’t bestow complete comprehension.  Just like programming bugs, confusion multiplies if left untreated, so stamp it out as early as possible.  If you’re confused about anything you’re being taught, you’ve got a bug that needs fixing.  Don’t move on until you can honestly say to yourself, “Yes, I understand that… what’s next?”

Ideally there should be no need to study outside of class, at least in the sense of relearning material you didn’t learn the first time.  You can review old material to refresh your memory, but you shouldn’t have to devote a minute of your time to learning something that was taught a month or two earlier.

During finals I was probably the least-stressed student of all.  I didn’t have to study because by the time the final exam came up, in my mind the course was already over.  The test was just a formality.  While everyone else was cramming, I’d be at the arcade playing video games.  I’d already learned the material and completed all the assignments (at least the ones I was going to complete).  At most I’d just spend some time reviewing my notes to refresh the material the night before the test.  Isn’t this how academic learning is supposed to work?  Otherwise what’s the point of showing up to class for an entire semester?

During each semester ask yourself this question:  Am I ready to be tested right now on everything that has been taught up to this point?  If your answer is ever “no,” then you know you’re falling behind, and you need to catch up immediately.  Ideally you should be able to answer “yes” to this question at least once a week for every subject.

Falling behind even a little is an enormous stressor and time waster.  First, you have to go back and re-learn the old material when the rest of the class has already moved on.  Secondly, you may not learn the new material as well if it builds on the old material because you lack a solid foundation, so you just end up falling further and further behind.  Then when you come to the end of the semester, you end up having to re-learn everything you were supposed to learn.  But because you cram at the last minute, after finals you forget everything anyway.  What’s the point of that silliness?  It’s like overspending on a credit card that charges you 25% interest.  Eventually you’ll have to pay up, and it will cost you a lot more time in the long run.

Put in the effort to learn your material well enough to get As in all your classes.  It will pay off.  Much of the material you learn will build on earlier material.  If you get As in your freshman courses, you’ll be well prepared to pile on new material in your sophomore year.  But if you get Cs that first year, you’re already going into your second year with an unstable foundation, making it that much harder to bring your grades up and really master the material.  Make straight As your goal every semester.  In the long run, it’s much easier.  I found that C students tended to work a lot harder than I did, especially in their junior and senior years, because they were always playing catch up.  Despite my packed schedule, it wasn’t stressful for me because I kept on top of every subject.  Consequently, I had plenty of time for fun while other students experienced lots of stress because they constantly felt unprepared.

9. Master advanced memory techniques.

One of the keys to learning material the first time it’s taught is to train yourself in advanced memory techniques.  I used them often in classes that required rote memorization of certain facts, including names, dates, and mathematical formulas.  If a teacher wrote something on the board that had to be memorized verbatim for an upcoming exam, I’d memorize it then and there.  Then I wouldn’t have to go back and study it later.

I’m sure you’ve encountered simple mnemonic techniques such as using the phrase “Every good boy does fine” to memorize the musical notes E, G, B, D, and F.  Those kinds of tricks work well in certain situations, but they’re so grammar school.  There are far more efficient visual techniques.  The two I relied on most in school were chaining and pegging.

It’s beyond the scope of this article to explain these techniques in detail, but you can simply visit this site to learn all about them.  Or you can pick up a book on memory improvement, such as The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne.  I recommend learning from a book because then you’ll build a solid foundation step by step.

These techniques will allow you to memorize information very rapidly.  For example, with pegging I could usually memorize a list of 20 items in about 90 seconds with perfect recall even weeks later.  Experts at this are faster.  Anyone can do it — it’s just a matter of training yourself.

I still use these techniques today.  Chaining allows me to memorize my speeches visually.  When I give a speech, my imagination runs through the visual movie I’ve created while I select words on the fly to fit the images.  It’s like narrating a movie.  My speech isn’t memorized word for word, so it sounds natural and spontaneous and can be adapted on the fly to fit the situation.  Memorizing visually is much faster and more robust than trying to memorize words.  If you memorize a speech word for word and forget a line, it can really throw you off.  But with a series of images, it’s easier to jump ahead to the next frame if you make a mistake.  Our brains are better suited to visualize memorization than phonetic memorization.

I don’t recommend memorizing by repetition because it’s way too slow.  Pegging and chaining do not require repetition — they allow you to embed strong memories on a single pass, usually in seconds.  The downside is that pegging and chaining require a lot of up-front practice to master, but once you learn them, these are valuable skills you’ll have for life.  I also found that learning these techniques seemed to improve my memory as a whole, even when I’m not actively trying to memorize.  I think this practice trained my subconscious to store and recall information more effectively.

It’s a shame these techniques aren’t normally taught in school.  They would save students an enormous amount of time.  Do yourself a favor and learn them while you’re young.  They have a lot of practical applications, including remembering people’s names.

10. Have some serious fun!

Challenge yourself academically, but give yourself plenty of time for fun as well.  Don’t squander your leisure time hanging around doing nothing.  Go out and do something active that will blow off steam and increase your energy.

One of my favorite college leisure activities was frisbee golf (also called disc golf).  I used to play for hours at night with a couple friends, sometimes until my fingers became blistered… or until campus security gave us the boot for hitting one too many non-player students. 

While playing frisbee golf, we would often have to scavenge through bushes, wade through fountains, and climb over various hazards trying to recover errant frisbees.  It was always lots of fun, and we’d usually “play through” these obstacles.  Several hours of frisbee golf served as a delightful reward at the end of a challenging week.  I still remember an incredible “hole in one” shot I made from a second-story balcony to hit a light post at the edge of a soccer field.

My biggest regret about college is that I didn’t have a girlfriend during that time.  If I had it to do all over again, I probably would have added an extra semester and taken fewer classes to make time for that someone special.  I had the opportunity, but I had to pass it up because my schedule was too packed.  Girlfriends can be a lot of fun, but most aren’t very efficient. 

This article’s advice centers on making your college experience as rich and memorable as possible.  Get your school work done quickly and efficiently, so you have plenty of time for the variety of activities college can offer.  Join clubs.  Play frisbee golf.  Get a boyfriend or girlfriend.  The worst thing you can do is spend your time falling behind academically due to poor habits, feeling stressed and unprepared all the time, and then playing catch up.  Squeeze as much juice out of college as you can, and let it serve as a springboard to a lifetime of fulfillment.

People often assume my aggressive schedule must have been stressful and exhausting, but the irony is that it was just the opposite.  I seemed to have an easier, more enjoyable experience than my peers.  Students with lighter schedules slacked off and fell behind because they convinced themselves they could make up for it later.  But I couldn’t afford to do that because it would have been impossible for me to catch up on a dozen different classes… and way too stressful to even think about it.  If I fell even a week behind, I’d be in serious trouble.  So I was compelled to develop good habits that kept me perpetually relaxed, focused, and energized.  Many of the habits discussed above were simply the result of setting the goal to graduate in three semesters.  That goal dictated the process.  I’m very grateful for the experience because it showed me just how much more effective we can be when we push ourselves beyond our comfort zones.  It taught me to keep setting goals beyond what I feel certain I can accomplish.  Many times what we assume to be impossible just isn’t.  We only think it is.

Mumbai University Sem 3 CMPN COA papers.

Here are the latest Mumbai University second Year Computer engineering computer organization and architecture (COA) papers.These are scanned copies in pdf files and are very clear in view.


->To download click the links then click on download button.

• May 2008 sem-3 coa
• December 2008 sem-3 coa
• May 2009 sem-3 coa
• December 2009 sem-3 coa