The lives of BMM students all over Mumbai, though diverse, follow more or less the same pattern. And at some point in the pattern comes the realization that it is time to start studying for their exams (For most this happens 2-3 days, or even less, before the exams). A very small number actually realizes this more than a month in advance. For those students who have awakened or are soon to awaken and seek guidance on how to tackle this accursed ritual of testing one’s skill on the basis of an archaic syllabus… here are a few tips

1. Get Your Act…err…Notes Together.

You can’t study if you don’t have anything to study/refer

Not those little chits you’ve passed around during lecture… I’m referring to the substantial (hopefully) tome of knowledge you’ve built while you paid attention to the professor during some of the lectures you attended or while you toiled away in the college library not so long ago. (Oh wait a minute… you’ve probably just woken up … so if you haven’t done either of the two above mentioned activities… do not fear… there are plenty of notes compiled by students and lecturers that are doing their rounds via email. Just pray that someone forwards you a copy )

Note: Please understand that notes are not money. There’s no harm in sharing them. The marks you’ll be getting don’t depend on how well someone else is prepared. (Of course if you have an enemy… feel free to abstain from sending them anything… but don’t expect them to send you anything either.) Also, go to your college library and request the question papers of the previous five years. 75-90% of those questions (including the case study structure) are REPEATED!

More easy, upload good projects, get moderated and avail all the previous questions papers (for boards only for now) from BMMBox free of cost via these links – http://bmmbox.com/cafe/forumdisplay.php?f=4 and http://bmmbox.com/cafe/forumdisplay.php?f=3

2. Don’t wait for the Prof.

He/She’s not going to declare war on you just because you’ve started studying a part of the portion he/she’s not finished.

There’s no harm on perusing a chapter before the professor’s touched it in class. On the other hand, there’s a lot of risk involved in waiting for them. Here’s why: -

• They may have completed that part in a lecture you’ve bunked
• They may have completed that part while you were daydreaming about Katrina Kaif/ Whatever girls dream of during lectures
• They may tell you to DIY (Do It Yourself) one week before the exams.
• They may simply rush through it at FTL speed (Faster Than Light) one week before your exam.
• They may be abducted by aliens before they complete it.
Start your studies (at least just read through the chapter) regardless of where your professor’s reached in the syllabus. Once you’ve collected notes… USE them… the spider in your attic or the roaches under your bed can’t read.

Note: - If you HAVE read a unit before your professor discusses it in class… keep it to yourself. There’s no need to show off your so-called superiority in class by interrupting the professor while he/she’s explaining it. You’re not going to get any medals for it and you’re more likely annoying the Prof. and your classmates.

3. Get Your Net Set.

The Internet, like BMMBox , is a NECESSITY while preparing for BMM exams.

BMM requires one to stay up to date with current affairs and most subjects require students to provide a lot of current examples to justify the theory they vomit out into their papers. The Internet is the most convenient resource for this. So make sure you speak to your ISP. Do anything required (short of death threats and stone pelting) to ensure that you have a WORKING Internet connection while you study.

4. Collect your Projects and Assignments.

If you don’t have a copy of them, request your friends to share theirs.

Your projects are more often than not based on your syllabus and are a reflection of the practical application of the theory you learn. Go through your projects and the projects made by others to further understand the subject. Believe me… projects help you learn a lot of things that would seem incomprehensible otherwise. Share your projects and take some time out to go through them.

5. Form a Study Group; Follow a strict schedule.

There are many advantages to studying in groups

Get a few of your friends together to study with you. Don’t let the number of people in the group exceed four. Your groupies give you company when studying, help you understand topics that they might know but which you find incomprehensible and stop you from drifting off while studying. Just don’t get carried away making jokes or letting breaks eat into your study time.

A schedule is very important when you’re preparing for exams. Make a time table for yourself, PRINT IT OUT, make multiple copies of it and stick it up wherever you’re likely to notice it in your house (Spare the bathroom and the Television screen if you can). Make sure your leisure activities come AFTER your study time. Your study period should not be divided into different parts of the day as it breaks continuity. However, you can take 3 five minute breaks in every hour spent studying. And most importantly – STICK TO YOUR SCHEDULE.

6. The Study Method.

Here’s the method I employ while studying for my exams

i. Read through the notes. Don’t try to memorize the notes. The first reading is just to get a basic idea of the subject. Read it and try to understand what’s being said. You don’t need to remember the number of factors leading to a war or the different types of headlines. Just go through the entire syllabus once. (This forms the basis for your preparation and, despite the fact that you may not even pass if you gave the exam immediately after completing this step, it is still very important).

ii. After the first step, open the previous years’ question papers, and find an answer to each question in them from your notes. Prepare these answers as well as possible while looking up the latest examples to validate the theory from the net. (After this step, you’re definitely going to pass the externals… but that shouldn’t be the upper limit for your goals)

iii. Subsequently, re-read the topics you’ve missed out while preparing with the question papers. This completes your second read of the entire syllabus.

iv. Once done with your second read… go through the entire syllabus again… but just skim through all the topics. Try to close your eyes and remember each sub point as you read it in the previous two revisions. Re-read whatever you can’t remember. (This step will go super- fast if you did the previous three sincerely)

v. For safety’s sake, skim through the syllabus again for topics you may have missed out.

Miscellaneous Tips:

• Don’t forget to ask your professor about the format to attempt your case study.

• Load up the refrigerator with some snacks. Sure you’ll put on weight… but you don’t get distracted as often when you’re munching on something.

• Get your stationery ready well before the exams. Don’t go hunting for it one day before the exam (I mean it… I get through BMM lectures using borrowed pens and notebooks )

• You do not need to take photos/videos of your ‘group study night’ to upload on Facebook.

• This one’s for the guys… give all your computer games/PSP/PS3/XBOX to friends who DON’T have exams and delete them from your computer. Once you get started on ‘em during breaks… there’s no stopping.

• Try not to pull all nighters – not only does it mess up your biological clock; you also forget most of the things you studied while your brain desperately pleaded for rest. Coffee makes no difference to this and neither does ‘Sona-Chandi Chyavanprash’ .

• If the books are too expensive to buy on your own, form a book pool where each person buys one of the required books and the others make a copy of it (Xerox/Photocopier shops in remote places offer students huge discounts for large orders.)

• VERY IMPORTANT – Once done with an exam, leave the centre immediately. Don’t hang around to discuss answers and don’t check your answers after you get home. Concentrate only on the next exam.

Now that you’ve read all this, you shouldn’t be in need to read something on how to prepare for exams again!

- Raghav Rao

Any student enrolled in Mumbai University’s three year holiday course with a degree certificate (also known to some as BMM), will be quite aware of the fact that a considerable portion of their marks depends on their projects. And projects are probably the factor that set undergraduate courses apart from the ‘memorize and vomit’ format to which students were hitherto accustomed. In other words, any student wishing to begin or continue a streak of good scores after taking up BMM needs to do more than just learning prescribed answers to stereotyped questions by heart (as is quite commonly the norm in CBSE schools). Therefore a list detailing some of the common errors made by earlier batches while executing their BMM projects has been compiled for the benefit of such students (and also of the indifferent majority comprising other varieties).

*Please do note that the list has been provided so that the errors can be avoided rather than repeated.

1. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!

Start work from Day 1

Many have wondered about the best time to begin work on their projects in BMM. In such a situation it is wise to assume that the professor probably had a reason for assigning the projects so far in advance of the submission date (rather than imagining that these dates were decided through an elaborate process involving a calendar and darts) viz. that the project requires a considerable amount of research and therefore, considering that there’ll be other activities to keep students busy, it would be best to start it as soon as possible.

*Note: If not too busy flirting/daydreaming, it would be advisable to write down the project brief as the professor explains it.

2. YOU’RE NOT SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN!

In other words – don’t jump out of the window believing you can fly or believe that you’re capable enough to do the project without the help of your teammates.

Anyone who believes that the phrase ‘one-man team’ makes sense needs to re-appear for their Math and English papers before continuing the course. No matter how skilled an individual may be, a project by his/her so-called ‘inferiors’ who worked together as a group would, 9 times out of 10, be superior to a project done individually by him/her simply because of the value of brainstorming and pooling together the group’s collective experiences and strengths. Make sure the entire group is involved in EVERY aspect of a group project and meets regularly to evaluate progress.
*Remember: Too many chefs spoil the broth, but the chef alone can’t manage the entire kitchen.

3. DO NOT WAGE WAR!

Words many wish George W. Bush (among others) had paid heed to a few years ago.

However, in a more relevant context, do not believe your peers to be your enemies. It’s possible that there will be those who try to rise up by pulling others down, but there’s no reason to categorize all your peers that way. Be open, friendly and don’t hesitate to exchange information about your projects fearing they’ll steal your ideas. You may learn a lot from each others’ mistakes and your professors aren’t dumb that they won’t recognize a copy when they see one.

*Remember: One who needs to copy is one who is ill prepared. And a well prepared original is much better than a shoddily prepared copy (which is probably why nobody’s ready to pay $1 million for my version of the Mona Lisa).

4. DO NOT JUMP IN WITH GUNS BLAZING!

Max Payne could do that, but he had bullet time.

Before starting on a project, it is recommended that one view similar projects by the previous batches to see how things are done and more importantly, to get an idea of how the end product of their hard work (well… not always) turns out. It’s also important to chalk out a step by step strategy for the execution of the project. This makes it easy to keep working and to monitor one’s progress. Play devil’s advocate with your group members. Question each choice so that you’re ready with answers when others do.

5. DO NOT MAKE IT AN EGO BATTLE!

Just because your idea wasn’t selected for the project doesn’t mean you haven’t contributed anything to it.

One very often brings their ego into the equation while working on a project. If such is the case, then it is advisable to slap oneself on the face and remember that the project is more important. It is quite demoralizing when one’s ideas are not accepted/do not meet with approval. However, that’s no reason to squabble with one’s teammates.

*Remember: Professors don’t give you marks based on how many of your ideas made it to the hard copy. It’s not a call centre.

6. DO NOT MAKE A GROCERY LIST; DO NOT WRITE A 200 PAGE NOVEL!

Your marks do not depend on the weight of your hard copy. They depend on what’s within.

Your project hard copy needs to explain not only what you’ve accomplished in the course of the project, but also the thought process behind it. So make sure it contains all the information required, but don’t drown it a sea of words making it hard for the examiner to FIND the info.

7. DO NOT COPY+PASTE/CTRL+C, CTRL+V!

Wikipedia (and Google too) is great. We all know that. But chances are that if YOU could find it on Wikipedia, so can your professors.

While there’s no problem using Wikipedia as a source of information, do not make it the ONLY source of information, and DEFINITELY do not copy the content directly onto your soft copy. Learn to paraphrase the information. Understand it and write it down in your own words. Your project isn’t a means for your professor to unravel the mysteries of the world. It’s a way for YOU to learn more about the topic. Whenever you copy directly from a source, (not more than a 50-word paragraph… and that too occasionally) make sure you give them the credit for the information.

8. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF PRESENTATION!

A picture’s worth a thousand words, but don’t turn your hard copy into a graphic novel.

A well formatted, well presented copy will (and rightly so) always by awarded more marks than a less appealing project of the same merit. Spend some time making some snazzy visuals in Photoshop and learning to format your document in word.

9. DO NOT FUDGE FACTS!

Neither the American government (Mission Apollo) nor the head honchos at Satyam could get away with it. So the likelihood that you will isn’t very promising.

The term ‘fudging facts’ includes but is not limited to surveys where the college dog, your imaginary friend and the President of Czechoslovakia graciously agreed to fill in your questionnaire. You get half the day off (unlike engineering students) to give you ample time to work on your projects. So make sure you’ve actually done the work you claim to have done in your project.

Note: If you’re good at cooking stuff up, organize a charity bake sale and put it to some good use.

10. DO NOT STRATIFY YOUR TEAM!

Division of labor is smart; lack of communication between divisions is stupid.

While it’s necessary for the work in the project to be divided amongst the members based on their aptitude, every team member must still be well informed of what that others are up to. Just because someone does one job well doesn’t mean he/she’s completely useless elsewhere. Be open to inputs from other members but try not to step on their toes while providing feedback.

Remember: The professor can ask any of you about any segment of the project. He knows nothing of how the work was divided. (Also for an example on the consequences of a lack of communication between departments, examine any government in the world)

Afterthought: -Probabilities of power cuts, printer failures, hard disk crashes, dogs/cows chewing up homework etc. tend to increase on the day before project submission. Make sure you have everything ready two days in advance. Professors tend to get cynical at times.

- Raghav Rao