Do you really study?

When I started this blog, I wanted to write only about computer science but I really think that I have to express something that has been inside me for long and I think it’s the right time for that. This article is for the students of computer science or more generally students of any discipline.

Now, everyone of you ask yourself the question “Do I really study?”. When I refer the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary for the meaning of the word ‘study’, what I got was ‘the activity of learning or gaining knowledge’. Now ask yourself “Do I really learn or gain knowledge?”. How many of the students of engineering can claim the answer “Yes, I really do”. The percentage of positive answers for this question would be very feeble. The exact meaning of the study according to us is ‘the activity of earning marks or good results in all forms of examination, writing assignments, getting internals and doing all sorts of activities that complies perfectly with college rules’. Now if you ask “Do I really study?”, the amount of positive answer would peak. We should be ashamed of this. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary was exactly correct in giving the meaning, so I conclude we don’t study at all.

How many of you know what you study? We can add more questions like this. Marks and degrees are not the scale for your intellectual ability. Once you understand this, you will start to love your subjects; once you start to love your subjects, you will start to earn marks and degrees automatically.

There are many who blame the college for not giving proper environment for learning, and this perspective is entirely wrong. No college in the world would give you what you want. Harvards University is one of the best universities in the world where millions of people wish to do their studies. Even that university has thrown out students like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Now people would know Bill Gates’ Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook more than that university. They succeeded because they were ready to be dropped out if the university comes in their way of learning and finding new things, and not just because of the universities they studied. That’s the spirit. How many toppers of universities would be like this? I’m not against toppers but people who didn’t score marks are not fools or incapable.

The amount of pleasure in learning something is immeasurable. Once you start to feel that, you will become an addict of learning. The character of the protogonist of the film 3 Idiots was a big inspiration for me, where he studies engineering and the degree goes to someone else.

Everything that you have in your syllabus has a purpose. Search for the purpose, use the internet. Once you find the purpose, it’s hard to separate you from that subject. You will be glued to that. If I said Cryptography and Turing machine were one of the reasons that brought the second world war to an end, isn’t it worth studying those subjects? Truly they are. You should be able to speak hours about the purpose and beauty of each and every subject. I wish you people develop this attitude. Keep on asking questions yourself to find the purpose of each subject, each unit, and each 16 mark question.

I don’t know how many of you would be inspired by what I wrote here, but if at least one changed their daily habit of writing assignments, memorizing for next day’s exam and assuming them as ‘studies’, I have achieved the purpose of writing this article.