<p>Havaldaar: That’s why my dad dropped out. He use to do research with some folks there, and realized that even though people were smart, they weren’t nice people, not people he wanted to hang out around. So he came back to his city engineering college!</p>
<p>Also, I talked to him about this. He says that he studied engineering in general a lot, and also had great teachers. </p>
<p>I’ve also looked through his old college textbooks(I’m studying out of em, Gorakh Prasad Integral and Differential Calculus textbooks), and next to each problem, there is a check next to each problem(means he solved it). He has hundreds of books on different topics filled with checks.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go to IIT if I got into MIT because you can’t choose your branch. That’s the most ■■■■■■■■ thing I have ever heard about in my life.</p>
<p>I’ve decided that where I go to college won’t make or break me. Rather, its what I do with what I have.</p>
<p>if im not mistaken, you can choose what you do at iit based on how well you score on the entrance exam. If you are in the top 20% you get to choose anything. The lower scorers must take what is left.</p>
<p>“About the 16 yr old cousin graduating-now you’re just exaggerating!”</p>
<p>Seriously how would you know? He is my cousin! He does not goto IIT though, he goes to a college in Tirupathi (used to be my hometown)</p>
<p>Its crazy how young some of the kids are who goto Indian colleges. My friends dad I was talking about earlier said he went to IIT when he was 16… crazy</p>
<p>Gandhiji, I understand that your dad’s friend might have gone that early, my Dad went ot college at 15, but nowadays its only possible if you fake your age on an official document.</p>
<p>In earlier days, it was possible to go to college early because there was no 12th grade, school ended in the 11th grade.</p>
<p>The Chinese college system is worse. You don’t know what test score you received, and you don’t know what test score is needed to get in the college of your choice. Worst of all, you can only apply to one college! Not to mention the 20mil other people competing with you.<br>
Oh, and if India is anything like China, they don’t learn advanced math like Calculus, they just do some REALLY, REALLY hard algebra and geometry. The last three questions on the college entrance exam this year were about as hard as the USAMO, and you only get 2 hrs for the entire 24 questions!</p>
<p>I have a cousin who goes to one of the top high schools in China. I helped her with her 8th grade math once (she was #1 in her class and still couldn’t do them). They were just algebra but emphasized problem solving, and they were comparable to harder AMC or easier AIME questions. I could do them, but I thought they were difficult, and I’m a math major. I don’t see why schools in other countries still use entrance exams… it’s cheaper, I guess - but silly. A friend of mine in Taiwan was really into English, and wanted to major in it at National Taiwan University. He got in, but didn’t score well enough for English, so he has to study Japanese instead. Pretty lame.</p>
<p>No Indians do advanced calcie, but what really drives me nuts is that in Physics and chem we’re supposed to use log books! I mean Graphing calculator technology is available but they insist on those damn logs. What are they trying to prove?</p>
<p>Yeah. I saw my cousin memorized tons of decimal values for the trig tables. That is so gay. Intelligence isn’t achieved through memorization, but rather learning how to effectively use tools given to you.</p>
<p>The only reason we are not allowed calculators is because only 70% of the students can afford those basic calculators, so introducing them would obviously give an unfair advantage to those who can afford them.</p>
<p>The Indian education board isn’t dumb, given the situation and resources they are doing a wonderfull job.</p>
<p>How is it exactly that the SAT pulls off a math section where you don’t need a calculator? </p>
<p>It is perfectly possible to devise problems where you don’t need a calculator, and yet don’t need log tables. Admissions shouldn’t be based on the answer you get, but the path to get there. How does the AP Calculus BC exam have a nice big non-calculator section?</p>
<p>yeah, but why do you want to weed out all the people who aren’t that obsessively and fanatically determined? these are engineers. they’re useful. artificially lowering the population doesn’t actually help their job market, it just means less useful stuff gets done. it’s bloody stupid, when taken to the extent that it is.</p>
<p>but you have to take into consideration the number of people that are applying. At some point, they just have to say…well we know at least 10% or so of the applicants are qualified. Why not take the ones who are more determined over the others.</p>
<p>“How is it exactly that the SAT pulls off a math section where you don’t need a calculator?”
I think those college entrance tests are much more difficult than the SAT or AP.</p>