Sumit Anand, class 12th student at a private school of Jammu, earlier saw a silver lining to the coronavirus lockdown for he had got a lot of time to study for the engineering entrance exam. Now he sees otherwise.
One of the many thousands aspiring to get into IIT, the prestigious engineering institute of the country, Sumit says, “When I had to attend both school and coaching classes, it was hard to manage time. Go to school, come back home, have lunch, rush to coaching centre, come back home by 8-8:30 PM, have dinner, and then sit down to finish the assignments. It was a tiring daily routine. I hardly had time for self-study.”
However, now when he has all the time, lethargy and frustration are getting the best of him.
“After the initial panic triggered by lockdown, I had thought to utilize time to study hard for a good score in IIT JEE Mains. I began revising all of the study modules I had received from the coaching centre since class 11th. Then, I joined an online crash course by a Chennai based coaching centre. But as the lockdown prolonged and entrance exam postponed, it has been hard to not lose heart,” he mentions.
He adds, “Done with crash course. Done with revisions. Kitna padhenge! And still, if I take a pause, I might forget all that I’ve studied. So, neither can I take the liberty to be lazy, nor can I enthusiastically study.”
Similarly, Shraddha Sharma, class 12th student and NEET aspirant says, “I started preparing for the medical entrance exam when I was in class 10th. I joined a coaching centre when I entered class 11th. Thereon, I virtually isolated myself to give all the time to my entrance preparation. Also, our daily schedule was such that we didn’t have time for any other thing.”
She adds, “I got extra time to prepare with the announcement of lockdown, which seemed a good thing in the beginning. Three months on, I can say that it has been tough to keep up the spirit. Plenty of time every day, to do what?”
Though her coaching institute offered free online crash course during the lockdown, she chose self-study. “I am not bookworm kind of person. I am trying to give a few hours daily to studying, and stay in touch with entrance syllabus. There are days when it feels enough of studying, but I can’t allow it to outdo my years of hard work,” she remarks.
Hit hardest are the students who have dropped a year or two to prepare better for the major national entrance exams. According to them, their life and career have been thrown out of gear.
Besides the entrance exam, there was uncertainty about their pending board exams, until yesterday. So they were required to keep studying for both.
Akshit, aiming for National Defence Academy, says, “There are families which understand what is going on and there is nothing one can do about it. They have stopped asking or pressurizing their kids to study. Then there are families which believe their kids must be able to crack the entrance exam when they have got additional time to study. Their expectations have only increased. Also, it is highly likely that some families ask their kids to drop a year.”
He adds, “The competition to get into best colleges is so much that students can’t afford to take it lightly, however adverse the conditions are. For instance, the IIT JEE Mains is conducted twice, before and after boards exams. There are students who have scored above 95% in the first attempt. Do you think they would not be burning the midnight oil for another attempt at improving their score?”
Shraddha says, “We are waiting for government’s decision. At least then we’ll have a target and we can study accordingly.”
Also: Read my article at THE NEWS NOW
Lockdown stretches, students fear losing focus from Entrance exams
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