Re: Typical IIT nonsense.
by Lily Lily on Mar 15, 2010 03:38 PM
Oh yeah? Mr. Smartie, if somebody wants to be a doctor why does he need to go through Social Studies in school?
Re: Re: Re: Typical IIT nonsense.
by Maximus Meridius on Mar 21, 2010 10:36 AM
I disagree with that point. Rounded education is important. A computer scientist who doesn't know how an internal combustion engine works is not likely to be taken too seriously. A computer scientist who cannot communicate properly is useless as an employee or researcher.
The IIT JEE though concentrates too much on rote learning. For example, you could easily convert the above problem into a ratio-proportion problem and every high-school student would be able to solve it. However, to solve this question, you need to memorize some stuff about inorganic chemistry (molarity, possibly atomic weights etc). It's worse when organic chemistry is involved, and such information is utterly useless: it can be looked up in a book if you really need it. The algorithm here is to reduce a complicated set of chemistry terms (molarity and such) to a simple linear equation that you can then solve. It's no different from your Std 10th maths exam, except the problem uses terms that are less natural to you than say money or distance.
What does it test? A little of your understanding of fundamentals, but mostly your ability to retain facts. (Though some problems do test pure concepts). It tests how methodical you are, and how hard you are willing to slog to memorize this info.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Typical IIT nonsense.
by V S on Mar 30, 2010 12:16 PM
Besides the emphasis on memory and rote...there is another problem with the IIT i.e. the fact it is paper based..
Just because you can solve a problem on paper doesn't mean you are a good engineer and just because someone doesn't perform well under pressure on IIT hardly means he is not going to be a future star.
Re: Re: Re: Typical IIT nonsense.
by kaushal jha on Apr 21, 2010 02:51 PM
only if you don't know how much physics/ maths are involved in computer science.
Re: Re: Re: Typical IIT nonsense.
by sunaina sharma on Mar 21, 2010 10:04 AM
Bebo Every knowledge is reconnected to itself at some point of time, fertile brains decipher this while dumb couldn't !!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Typical IIT nonsense.
by Maximus Meridius on Mar 21, 2010 10:20 AM
Which is why IITs are such centers of excellence right? How many papers (original research) does IIT publish each year? A medium level college in the US (the kind IITians won't even consider) publishes more papers than an IIT. The IITs are amazingly good at producing hard-working and dedicated individuals. Some of these go to the US to pursue research interests (but never stay on in IIT. No IITian wants to do research in IIT, which is a telling sign. If they want to stay in India, they move to IISc)
The IIT-JEE, for the most part is pattern recognition. You identify patterns in the problem, match it to patterns in your head (that you have already seen) and come up with a solution. This is indeed useful, but there's more to education than that. The real test is to identify patterns that nobody has seen before, which is where the IITs fail miserably.
Unlike what the lay person is led to believe, the IIT JEE is not an intelligence test. Preparing for JEE requires 5x more effort than say board exams, and the JEE is really a filter to identify people who are willing to slog their backsides off. However, much of success is built on slogging, so it's fair enough. The great leaps of science, though, come from inspiration that goes beyond slogging. That, perhaps is what the IIT-JEE fails to capture...
An IIT prof said it best: In IIT, bTech is the main product, MTech is the byproduct and PhD is the waste product...
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Typical IIT nonsense.
by V S on Mar 30, 2010 12:17 PM
IIT exams are out of tune with reality of the times. People need to be innovative and the IIT's kill innovation by making people slog.
