Studying in India reminds me of being back in school.
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We are highly hardworking, clocking (what I think should be) the most studying hours in a year compared to varsity students from any other country.
The subjects that I study are the same as any medical college freshman:
I am halfway through my first year, and I have clocked more Anatomy practical hours than any other medical student out of India.
My lectures usually send us into mild (or severe, if you’re unlucky) tachycardia (increased of heart rate).
Every week, we will have a class test for some subject or another.
All this keeps us (or at least a majority of the class, me excluded) in constant vigilance of our studies.
And so concludes the chapter on the Great Indian Education Experience.
Margaret Alexandria Yoong
The Great Indian Education Experience
I study from Monday till Saturday;
my studying hours being from 0800 hrs till 1700 hrs during the weekdays
and from 0800 hrs till about 1130 hrs (depending on when the lecturers let us off) on Saturdays.
On weekdays, I have a half and hour breakfast break at 1000 hrs and a lunch break from 1230 hrs till 1400 hrs.
I sit in a classroom full of wooden tables and chairs, with a huge blackboard up in front.
I sit in class according to my Roll (Registration) Number, and I’m not allowed to change my sitting position without written permission from the Dean. For variety though, the College changes the “flow” of the Roll Numbers eight times a year; meaning that the first number in class begins from someplace different each of these eight times.
My attendance is taken before every class; my name is called out, and in reply, I raise my hand.
During classes, I am not allowed to talk.
I am not allowed to chew.
I am not allowed to take a sip of water.
Should I wish to yawn, I should do it ever so discreetly.
In other words, my temperomandibular joint is not allowed to make any movements of any sort
unless it is to ask the lecturer a question pertaining to the subject taught.
Not only are our class hours longer than yours, but we have less holidays than you do.
We have (officially) only EIGHT PUBLIC HOLIDAYS IN A YEAR.
Anything extra that we might get lies in the goodwill and discretion of the Faculty and the capabilities of our Student Council.
We get to come home to Malaysia twice a year, each holiday averaging at a month only.
And on top of that, we still mug in our rooms till the wee hours of the morning.
Anatomy, Physiology, and Biochemistry.
The style in which we are taught would differ though.
Don’t believe me?
I see my cadaver (or “dead body” for the layman) four times a week, each session lasting two hours.
When I first “handled” my cadaver, I wore gloves and touched him at arms length.
When I last left India, I was leaning over him, probing and digging into his thorax region with my bare hands.
I have (half) a real human skeleton in my room; I call “him” Dexter.
Near the exams, I fall asleep hugging my humerus (named Huey) or next to Dexter’s skull with his empty orbits (eye sockets) staring at me, eerily illuminated by my table lamp.
Students from a particular medical university in Malaysia have yet to see a real cadaver, yet touch it.
Practical Anatomy is given grave importance in India.
For my Block (Semester) Exams and my University (Final) Exams (affectionately referred to as the Blocks and the Unis respectively),
I need to go trough an Anatomy Practical Paper (or more “fondly” referred to by us as Spotters).
The Spotters adventure is one that a mere paragraph will not do justice to.
Look out for it in my next mass mail.
Our lecturers love asking us questions.
One of my Biochemistry lecturers in particular will launch into a mini viva voce session, running from one chapter to another,
and God help you if you are unprepared.
Sometimes, we have a few class tests in a week.
The results of all these class tests are finally taken into account during the tabulation of our Blocks marks,
which are in turn taken into account during out Unis.
Forget about trying to mug towards the end of the Block. It never works.
I speak from experience.
(Note, I am still praying for Divine intervention for my marks from the last Blocks…)
It’s not that bad – really.
February 12, 2004