Assignments: Good or Bad?

Assignments: Good or Bad?

Engineering without assignments is like bread without yeast.

The reason behind the fluffy nature of any bread is the yeast added in it.

In a similar fashion, the reason behind the tough, competitive and busy nature of the engineering is the assignments that are assigned throughout the term.

I’m not saying that students from other courses don’t have any heavy assignment work; it’s just that the workload of any student who has to attend college for more is immense.

So how are assignments assigned?

How do the students manage to complete the assignments on time?

Let’s find out…

To be honest, it’s not just the students who get busy because of the assignments.

It’s the faculty who sets the assignments, it’s the faculty who checks the assignment before the allotted time by the university, and it’s the faculty who submits the marks of the students before time. So it’s not just the faculty’s fault. It’s just the nature of the engineering course.

Its 6 subjects and innumerable assignments!

I don’t have a sibling who graduated as an engineer. So, I was unaware that the faculties assign a lot of assignments to the students. As I got my first assignment, I was kinda excited about it. Then the faculty asked us to buy us a file from the college stationary to bind the assignment sheets in one place. And the file was so large; it couldn’t fit into my backpack!

I realized that this can get tougher ahead. The assignments came one by one, back to back!

And it was the same for all the subjects.

Mr. Tenacious and students like him start completing the assigned work on that day itself.

He is always sleep-deprived and restless as the day starts. But that’s okay, great things come for a price. I’ve have completed many assignments with him. And I need to say this; the reason for my complete work is Mr. Tenacious to some extent.

He’ll complete the work before time and that’s for sure. When we spend a lot of time with people, we tend to pick some of their qualities.

Well, I’m not particular as Mr. Tenacious or Dr. Workaholic or any smart kid in the class is, but I try my best to complete the work as soon as possible. I don’t want to get into a situation where the work so much piled up on me, that it’s impossible.

Of course, I work better under pressure. Whenever you get pushed to that edge, that is the point where the drive comes from. And if you can perform under pressure too, it’s a blessing!

But that shouldn’t be the motivation at all…

If I could take some qualities of a hard-working kid, particular ness is surely one of them.

Should they assign assignments to the students?

That’s a big question of debate!

 Being an average student, I neither hate nor love the assignments. But I have my own point of view on this topic.

Just as I said earlier, by the term ‘Engineering’, I expected a lot of practical work and knowledge. But I think the amount of practical work must be increased.

Yes, Knowledge is important!

But what’s the point in gaining the knowledge if you can’t even apply 1% of it?

Some of the faculties are really knowledgeable, but they can’t pass on their practical experiences to us because of the restraint in the syllabus. I’m not rushing the process but this is needed to change at some point. This will allow all the students to expand their vision and possibilities beyond the textbooks. This will lead to much more efficient and “Happy” engineers.

But this case has a flip side too. Assignments are supposed to be a reviewer for each chapter that is taught by the faculty. If you complete the assignments with devotion, you’ll get good insights of the chapters or the subject.

The assignments are purposed to serve as a mock test on an individual topic.

But students need some more time to complete them. The rate at which we get assignments makes some of us to copy assignments from each other.

Well, it teaches us about co-operation.

(During my high-school days, a friend of mine used to draw for me in the journals.)

This pattern of work somewhere affects some students’ ability to work on their full potential.

My mom bought me a pack of pens. To be honest, I used 15 of them for my own studies and exams. Rest of them were used for completing the assignments. The point is, it’s really tiring task to complete your file. So if you decide to complete the term-work at the end of the term, you should be able to write by both of your hands.

You better hurry and push yourselves!

But after some days of writing you’ll get used to it.

It’s like you have no other option.

It’s not that the engineering students are incompetent or their faculties are teaching them wrong, they’re just having problems to apply the knowledge in the real world.

Studies from a world-renowned organization showed that 37% of the engineers from India can’t write the correct code. I’m not sure about other fields though. But I hope this changes soon.

It’ll only be possible if the university takes steps to make engineering great again!

Every engineering college needs to look up to the well-known research institutes such as the MIT’s and the JNU’s and try to promote entrepreneurship, application-based knowledge and research.

There’s nothing wrong to look up to someone better. It’s better than looking down on ourselves.

And of course! This won’t easy…

Engineering colleges lack funding, facilities, and donations. But if we just stick to the plan of providing boundless knowledge and application, we may see the field of engineering in India and the world evolving.

With all being said, I want to apologize each one of you reading this for not making it sound funny. I wanted you to understand that there should be a balance of knowledge and application in every field. Assignments are a good way to understand and test our knowledge on a certain topic. At the same time, we are expected to broaden our knowledge from various sources online and books.

Complete the assignments on time and don’t forget to get them checked before the deadline.

I need to go shopping at the mall now. Maybe I need a pack of pens again…