Students Technology

IIT JEE is believed to be one of the toughest exams to crack. Youngsters approach the institute with big aims and aspiration to make it big in the real world. With the fat salary cheques, and the tag of the institution, being a part of IIT may seem fancy, but ask an IITian and they he’d have another story to tell.

In the book Five Point Someone, writer Chetan Bhagat, an IIT alumnus himself, subtly brought out the problems that students face in the campus. Figures reveal that IIT Kharagpur averages a suicide or an attempt to suicide every two years, IIT Bombay has one at regular intervals. What is the reason behind the mounting number of suicides and deaths on the IIT campus?

The reality behind this is the tough exams, which an individual has to undergo before landing on a prestigious job. Though there are numerous other factors like strain, apprehension, expectations, the fundamental cause is the stress that is involved in the preparations for these daunting examinations. Apart from coping with the pressure of exams, IITians have to also sustain and maintain good grades throughout the year. Unlike various other courses they can’t just score passing marks. The students have to get more than average marks in their practical exams according to the syllabus set by the course and constantly improve their grades.

With the amount of competition in the campus, the students have to push hard to be the best, which leaves them no time for any recreational activities. To cope with this, IIT students have now derived methods to bust their stress.

Numerous students are a part of some or the other activity club in their institute, these clubs help combine studies and fun.

"Every month we organise a small quiz related to our subject of interest, it has a fun element in it. Like a given formula has to be sung in the form of a song with a tune provided to you or a mathematical problem has to be solved very slowly unlike exams. This gives time to every student to understand the problem or formula better," adds Meenal, a first year student at IIT Bombay.

Besides, most of the students believe that college festivals are the biggest break for them. Students have become part of some committee or the other, which works for these yearly festivals.

"Our college fest is one place where our teachers also give us time off from studies to enjoy those four or five days. The preparation for the fest begins two months prior to the event. We decide the theme, design posters and interact with other colleges. Students who are good at drawing, ideate and become part of such committees and beat their stress, balancing studies along with it," said Vishnu Panjwani, a student of electrical engineering.

Other students are members of the Gymkhana where they play sports like table tennis, badminton or organise box cricket and they involve teachers as well.

"When I am stressed out, I spend most of my time in Gymkhana playing table tennis and arranging matches with them. My friends who like to play cricket organise box cricket and on several occasions our professors and faculty members also participate. It releases a lot of stress and we concentrate better after a small match or a TT game," says Abhinav Sharma, a student of Vivekanand Engineering College.

Apart from students mending ways to beat stress, colleges are also taking a keen interest in helping students.

IIT is now providing counsellors to help students beat their mental stress and also guide them if they have any problems related to home or friends. Some colleges have a counsellor for every department. As Sharma puts it, "It is all about striking the right balance, and combining fun with studies."