Ten things to do before AMAeSI results are announced

1. Make a list of subjects you are taking in the next semester.
2. Check this semester exams paper and evaluate the marks on each
question that you will give yourself, if you are the examiner.
Evaluate what and how you answered each questions.
3. Make a routine for the next semester.
4. I always advocate setting a lower limit, so set a lower minimum
limit of time that you will devote to each subject daily. Don't be
ambitius, set a minimum limit maybe less than an hour but make sure
you do it each and every day.
5. Get into the habit of making your morning heavy. Do all your
important task in the the first hour of the day.
6. Most importantly set goals for next semester. From studies, to
skills development set some concrete measurable goals for the next 6
months.
7. Form a new habit. Replace a bad habit with a new one. Getting up
early or study a certain no of hour per day could be the habits toucan
try to install.
8. Pledge to use your imagination more in your studies this semester.
Cultivate it. Use visualization to remember all that you have studied
in the last semester.
9. Pledge to Study to be an engineer than study just for exams for the
next semester.

10. _______________________

Number 10 is intentionally left blank for you to fill. Fill it and
follow them.

Have a successful next semester!!

3 Ways to Jump Start Your Semester

Focus should be you buzz word for the semester.

Focus on your priorities. Focus on the things that you are doing your AeSI for. Focus on completing your degree, focus on your career. Focus on the immediate tasks that you need to do to get the most out of your semester.


Next semester is beginning and all I want to say the AeSI students is stay focused.

Here are the 3 things you should do immediately to Jump Start Your Semester of Success.

1. List out what you want out of this semester. By now you might know the subjects you are going to take so decide what and how much you want to learn from it. Fix a quantitative goal for the subjects; let’s say “I want to get 75+ marks in this subject”. Or “at the end of this semester i'll be master of this particular subject". The more objective your goal, the better. Main thing is to set a goal before you move on and keep it in writing.

2. Set a minimum limit of time that you want to study. Do it for the subjects you have made the goals for. This is the minimum limit that you have to do no matter what? So set it sensibly. It good to think that you can study 8 hours a day but you know it can't be always sustained. So set a limit that is lower than your average. I knew I can study 4 hours but I always set 2. This might seem unreasonable or plain rubbish but there's a catch. Now when I set 2 hours, I can't reduce or push this thing away. I need to do it everyday. So set a limit that you know you will do everyday. Setting one sensible limit meant that I have to study for that minimum no. of hours no matter what happened, be it serials blasts or jam-packed classes!!!

3. Write this thing down and publicly announce this to your near and dear ones. This will help you stick with it. This is the most important step. Setting goal was easy not staying with it is hard. If you are not accountable, you tend to loose you focus. So announce your goal and the task and the minimum hours that you need to put to some one who will see how you are doing. This helps you keep on track. Its like laying down the tracks for your train of goal!!! Be accountable!

And one bonus trick, keep the writing somewhere you always see. Always begin your day thinking about the goals. Keep them in your conscious.

To be more accountable, use this post to write your goals for this semester in the comments and regularly post the updates here and keep the entire AeSI community aware

Begin it now. Best of luck!

AeSI exams results awaited- few tips for next semester

AeSI results is what all the AeSI students will be waiting for now. And many of you might have begun studying for the next semester. So I thought I will share some of the tips so that the next semester is more fruitful and productive for all of you.


My most productive semesters were the once in which I had made clear cut goals or targets. While in section-B I took up propulsion-1, propulsion-2, propulsion-3 and aerodynamics as my subjects. This were tough subjects and whenever I told the choice of subjects to any of my friends they stared at me and I guess laughed behind my back at my foolishness of taking all the tough and big ones at one go. But my task in that semester was simple. I took the subjects thinking that they will be related and then there was the fact that all of them were to be taught by Mr. Natrajan sir. He is the most productive teacher I have seen in my entire life. I mean he used to come at 7am in morning and then used to continue teaching till 9 in the evening. At tea breaks we always used to wonder from where he gets so much stamina or energy to teach. This is when I challenged myself that if I wanted distraction free study then I need to emulate Natarajan sir and I took all his subjects at one go and I cleared all the four subjects that semester with getting the highest marks in propulsion-3 and aerodynamics!!!


Here I want to tell you 3 things that did the magic for me. I used the word magic because like magic this whole thing can be accomplished by some careful planning and preparation.

1. First and foremost was that I took up the class in GIE and never skipped any of the lectures of Natrajan sir. During that time some bhaiya was also giving propulsion classes and majority of students were enrolled for his tuitions, but I kept my focus on Natrajan sir. Yes he doesn’t cover the entire syllabus and sometime miss some of it but I think knowledge is like energy. My best came from the fact that I took the knowledge from Natrajan sir and not from some bhiya. As thermodynamics teaches us. Energy degrades from one from to other so I wanted the purest and so I stayed with Natrajan sir and it really helped. How? See that particular bhiya also studied from him. But what is the most important thing was he was just imparting the knowledge of propulsion while Natrajan sir, with his years of experience was teaching us the same thing but was also sowing the seeds of problem solving. I will write a separate post of the things AeSI students can learn from Natranjan sir latter some time.

2. Plan your study hours. This is one important step. Plan on the numbers of hours you want to put in everyday for your studies. The no of hours shouldn’t be the maximum that you can give. But they should be the minimum that you pledge yourself that you will be able to give everyday no matter what. In my case I knew with no other things to do I could do 7 hours study easily but then this hours I didn’t knew if the classes and other activities will permit me to have them always. So I gave myself 2 hours everyday. Yes 2 hours. This is the minimum I have to give to my studies everyday for that semester. I wanted consistency and this minimum 2 hours gave, me that. I always overshot this hours but knowing that I have put in my minimum hours target for that day helped keeping me positive.

3. Use library extensively. I have written a long article back then of the benefits of library. And if you had been in GIE during that time. You would have always seen me at GIE’s library everyday. This is where my minimum 2 hours were always consumed. Not only it gave me the perfect peaceful and undistracted place to study but having so many reference books at hand increased the breadth of the knowledge that I studied. Please do read the advantages of studying in library that I found then.

So these were the 3 things that every AeSI students can emulate in his or her own study schedule to get the maximum out of this semester. What else do you recommend for a productive semester? Have other tips for studying productivity, do share in comments.

Why the begining of last semester of AeSI for skills development

Last week i talked about 6 steps that an aesi student should take while in his last semester. A friend reading the blog suggested it shouldn't be always the beginning of the last semester. Professional and skill development can or should ideally begin as one enters the section B stage.

In a way he is right but my logic of choosing beginning of the last semester is that. This is the phase after which the student is most likely get into the industry. So he or she should be more proactive in his/her skills development in this months.

By skills development, i mean learning catia, nastran, hypermesh, ansys, c or whatever that a person thinks he will need in future.

Starting early gives you an edge that you might learn more and will garner more skills. But this has a serious disadvantage that one might loose interest in a skill one is working for so long, and as it happened with my fiend, you burnout and there is no enthusiasm left for the skill.

This leads to laziness when its time to practice and since you see lot of time ahead before you need to apply the skill you are learning skill, you slack off.

So i prefer the last semester. It gives you more focus and direction. You are less likely to loose you enthusiasm for catia,nastran or whatever you are learning.

I did my C the most distinct skills that i had while i graduated from aesi, in last semester. This is when i made a goal of writing basic c program related to aerospace in C every weekday. I kept the habit in whole of my penultimate semester in aesi. I didn't always had access to the computer,so i always wrote my program in my diary. This has helped me a lot in getting recognition in all the jobs that i did after graduating.

What do you think? Which is the best time for an aesi student to seriously begin building his/her skills? Is last 6 months ok or one needs to give more time?

6 smart things you can do today to give a great start to your semester.

Here is a list of 6 tips for all AeSI students to give a great start to your new semester.

1. Set a fixed routine.
   Identify the time you will study and the time you will nor study. Fix it.  
   
2. Set minimum hour of study and keep it low.  Maybe just two hours of study at the beginning of the semester is what you want. Keep it light. The aim is to set the minimum hours and stick to it.
   
3. Plan to use the first waking hour productively.
   Once you fill the first hours with the most important work rest of the day you can use to whatever that comes to you. So think about what is the most important task of your life right now and schedule it to the first waking hour of your day.
   
4. Set reminders of the your goals.
   We fall short of goals not because we have low potential but because we forget our goals. We forget to do revision. We forget the intention for which we are working. So set reminders. 
   
5. Set one day for total fun activities.  No Study Day.
   Choose a day when you will not study. Will not do anything related to AeSI and career development. This is your recharge day. Use it to recharge. Be active in all other actions. Try including sport activities.
   
6. Research and set one base book for each subjects that you have for this semester. Setting one base book gives you consistent definitions and understanding. Hoping books is like going to ten tuitions for one subject. Gaining too little with so much hard work. so be smart, stick to one book for at least the first 3 months of the semester.

All the tips that are mentioned above can be implemented right now. so what are you waiting for. Go ahead and create a successful semester.

I am sure you might have your own list of tips, so what are you waiting for write them in comments.

How to give a great start to a new semester? - 3 tips

New semester have began for many of the AeSI students. It's the time
when classes start and we all fall in the grove of going to classes
and tutions. Life falls into a routine and it's becomes easy to miss
out the right way to begin a new semester.

So here I will present you three ways (although all are related) to
begin the new semester that lays a strong foundation.

1. Cut out your study hours.
This is the start of the semester. Don't put too much time pressure on
yourself. It's the time when you have the leisure of time. So utilize
it on other things than taking notes more than needed, and studying
more than required!

Do the minimal study, read ahead what will be taught in the class and
the tution and be attentive in classes. Apart from that don't study.

2. Reflect.
Instead spend time reflecting on the things you are learning than
mugging up formulaes and data for the exams! Reflect on whatever is
taught in the class, imagine the concepts introduced, discuss or
connect what you learnt today with what you already know.

This is the time when you want to build the foundation of your study,
so shun making notes, mugging, and solving hundreds of numericals.
This will come latter in the semester, right now lay a strong
foundation with the concepts.

3. Use pen paper and drawing.
Use pen and paper. Draw, imagine and relate the stuff you are
learning. Take imaginary classes of the stuff you are learning. Teach
what you have understood, question what you haven't!

This is how the begining of you new study should commence.

As always, I am curious what do you think about this? Are you
following a nobel way? Do comment.

Read related study tips by clicking the following link
http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=study+tips

Want future posts of my-aesi in your email or rss then click this link http://feeds.feedburner.com/myaesi

Measure What is Measurable

'...measure what is measurable and make measurable what is no so...' -Galileo

If you are learning a new tool, a new software, a new skill, a new method then always remember Galileo's rule.

Measure the measurable. whatever is being measured will improve. This is what the core of the matter. If you want improvement in your resolution or goals measure them regularly!

During my days in NAL, I was actively measuring the time I spent on the tool that I learnt there. From Matlab to Solidworks, from Nastran  to visual basic, from scripting to drawing I noted the no of hour I spend on each activity.

As no of hour I put in help me see what I was learning and it had improved my learning process a lot. It enabled me to learn many tools and have an hands on experience on many of them in the period of the time that I have spend in NAL.

So measure. I am doing the same with my declared resolutions of this year and I am glad that I am working on them till now and barring the scripting thing I am doing pretty good. Here’s the snipped of the chart of my resolution measurement.

How are your progressing on yours? measure your goals Galileo is not wrong in the above quote. It works. Not only as a motivation but this regular reviewing helps reinforce the goals that you have.

Related : Focusing on solutions than problems will go a long way in AeSI and Life

• 5 Reasons that IIT Lectures are a Boon for AeSI Students.
• When will AeSI announce june 2008 results?
• Study and Life Lessons from Natrajan Sir of GIE
• 3 Ways to Jump Start Your Semester
• AeSI exams results awaited- few tips for next semester
• Advice to AeSI students before you begin the next semester
• Why the begining of last semester of AeSI for skills development
• 6 things you should begin doing in your last semester of AeSI.
• Read the ANSYS Advantage magazine for free

6 things you should begin doing in your last semester of AeSI.

Many of aesi students will be in the last semester of AeSI and here i thought of writing about 6 things they should begin doing in their last semester in AeSI. Earlier i have written about 8 things that you can do after the amaesi examination.

I have seen many folks just waiting for the last exam to finish when they begin doing this steps but i feel the right time for this step is the beginning of your last semester and this is when this 6 steps can impact on your entry into the industry once you graduate from aesi.



1. Make your resume and post it on job sites.

2. Begin looking at the requirements. See the skills being demanded. If you have then, good improve them, if you don't acquire them.

3. AeSI provides you the facility of time, so utilize the time to do freelance work. Teaching is great. Maybe join some local CAD center, or teach the skills you know in your institute. But do something to strengthen your skills.

4. Brush up your favorite subjects. One of the favorite question in your first interview will be based on this.

5. Read about your industry. Computer film magazines are spicy but begin reading about the industry you are about to enter. You might begin with indianaeronews blog to stay current on Indian aerospace news.

6. If you are good at designing, have worked in some CAD or analysis tools, then create an online or offline portfolio. This portfolio will give you an added advantage when you do the job hunting.

Though i have written the steps in keeping aesi folks in mind, but these steps are equally applicable to all the graduating students.

update : Read why to choose beginning of the last semester for all this activities

Analysis of result june 2005

Someone very eloquently put it " Its cold, its calculating. There is
no grey. Its all black or white". She was talking about maths and
statistics. Well that 's the very thing that's attractive about them.
They give answers. Here are the answers, that i got from the analysis
of the results this time, which as you maybe aware i am in the habit
of doing it for the past semesters.

This analysis is my 6th one, and having the data's for the past years
have given a unique perspective to this analysis, as i have compared
them all together as you will see from the graphs.

For the benefit of all those like me who are more akin to figures and
graphs, i have added like last year the magic of excel graphs. Eye
pleasing and informative at the same time. So without much adieu
lets begin.

Section A

a. In section A, as always principal of flights has the lowest passing
percentage. With 7.36% passing that is 7.36 people passing out of 100
hundred who appeared for the exam.

b. Best performance for the last four semesters is of ED, Which has
46.37% pass out this time.

c. Fluids is the subject with most number of student appearing this
time in any subject of section a.

d. The subjects of Thermo, Maths-II, Solids and fluids had more than
1100 student appearing in each! This probably stems from the backlog
that gets created as the students fail in this subjects in previous
semester.

e. 18.125 out of 100 people who had appeared in any subject of section
A has cleared the subjects. This number is fairly constant for the
last semesters as seen from the trend line of

sec a.

f. Of all the semesters, June 2003 has the lowest pass out percentage
in Section A, highest being December 2002 semester.

g. If you look closely at the data, you will see that this is the
first time that any
subjects pass out in Section A has crossed more than 45% and subject
who broke the record is ED.

Section B

a. In propulsion stream, biggest shocker is VMD result which
previously always hovered along 80% pass out line, but this time it
had Nil passing percentage, with no one passing out of 35 who
appeared.

b. Propulsion two is the top scorer of this semester in propulsion
stream with 84.62% passing percentage. This subjects passing
percentage fairly remained close to this 80% line only dip was in June
2004, when it went below 40%!!

c. Math-III is the second best in prop stream, with close to 60+%
passing percentage and many above 70+ marks!!

d. In propulsion I, the passing percentage has declined from 55+% in
December 2002 to 48% this semester.

e. In all propulsion core subjects, propulsion III is always the one
with lowest pass outs and this perhaps explains the maximum number of
students that appeared for it this time in propulsion stream.

f. Structure one is the highest scorer in aerodynamics stream of
section B, with an all time high of 86.21% pass outs and the marks i
heard were generous, as one of my acquaintance got 93, highest ever
mark i have heard of

g. Vibration also made a good showing with 71.87% passing percentage.
This is highest for vibration in last 6 semesters.

h. Aerodynamics one was a shocker this time, as only 3 out of 52 who
appeared passed. Looking at the data, you Will learn that aeroone has
the distinction of being the subject with highest ever pass outs of
AeSI, which was in dec 2003, got 90.47% passed in this subject.

i. With an average of 56.87%, aerodynamics stream for the first time
has overtaken the passing percentage of propulsion stream, which for
this semester stands at its lowest 43.36%!!

j. Compared to all the passing percentages for last 6 semesters,
propulsion streams results this time were lowest.

Well, if this facts enlightens you, i am sure the graphs that follows
will add more to your understandings, so take a look.

http:\\www.geocities.com\sukh2010\

Someone asked me "why do you do it?" well i do it because it give
answers, nay stupid answer. I do it because i love doing it. Please
don't forget to send your "hate mails" i love receiving them, they
decorate my email!!! :)

enjoy
sukhbinder

ps: The graphics takes sometime to load if your connection is slow, be patient.

Lesson learnt from P-2 exam

First lesson to be learnt from this exam was don’t leave the immediate previous semester question paper. Do it and make sure you have all the numerical and questions done!! This is what happened to my roommate and me. We studied everything, did every numerical twice, scoured the notes by heart but ignored the numerical of last semester. So there we were. sitting in the examination hall cursing myself and the question setter for not making an effort and myself for being foolish enough to leave these questions thinking they won't be repeated so soon.


Well, if these two questions were a blow then the rest was scary as I was left there to answer all the theory questions for which the theory was inadequate. In p2 mainly the theory comes from the combustion chamber part and here I did one more mistake in my preparation. I did make notes but they were not enough, I mean this subject requires notes and to be studied from variety of books, they questions are similar but not a single book you will find in Gie that has the complete answer in it, so you got to scour loads of book to get a good answerable answer. Otherwise it just vague, and on the figures that you have to depend on. So make it a point to have good notes on the theory part of P2.

Does having good notes will suffice, no? Having notes gives you an edge now studying and memorizing them does the real work and this takes me down to my last minute exam blunder. From the start of the course people fed us p2 is easy. Just do the numerical do the cc and you are clear. And I foolishly believed it and so did some other folks! But this over simplification made me neglect the subject. Yeah it actually did. I did give it less time, I concentrated on the numerical, left out the theory for last week before the exams and this is where I did get my most anxious moment.

I delegated the theory till the last week before the exams and then when I finally sat with the book and the notes, I started getting anxiety pangs. And believe me they are much worse that snake bites!! “Ok lets do cc”. “Hey what are the different types of nozzles” and then ok that is the derivation for the Bryton cycle. This and much more topic tumbled down to me all at once, drawing me, drowning me. I somehow did the stuff but was not satisfied; I could have done much better if I had paid the proper study schedule for p2. So folks learn from my mistake. Never delegate the work of p2 and never neglect and let it sit there till the last moment.

One of my reason for keeping the thing off to last minutes was the confidence that I had 25% of the syllabus like the cycles already covered in section a and I can do that in an hour and that proved to a naught. It not that I couldn't do the numerical or derivations, but its that it look more time I expected and silly mistakes snarled in every fifth line making things frustrating, so do all the stuff before exams when you have lots of time. keep the exams and a week before the exam for pure old studies. no new things, just revision of what you have already learnt.


And when I am on to advising then there is one more that I guess every amaesi'an will agree. When preparing for amaesi, be prepared to surprised at the question paper, its always as inventive as Edison (perhaps!), as unpredictable as the stock market. And there are no rules. don't say this topic will come , that won't come? It a wild stock market out there. any question is possible so just go ahead and study what you can. Don't believe me just flip the June 2004 and Dec 2003 questions your doubts will melt away. As one batch mate of mine who gave flight for the 4th time put it candidly, "every time I study for flights I learn a new thing!" So folk you will always find new things; the subjects are vast and so is the mindset of the question paper setter, so just make sure you learn every time you read and don't guess. just learn what you find. who knows!!


And last but definitely not the least thing that I learnt from the exam was not to fret over what I have not learnt. Just make sure that you know everything that you have studied and concentrate on it during the exams. Fretting over what you have not done cost a friend of mine a semester. You know, our syllabus is big for 6 months, but we brave souls do take the plunge. But don't expect to cover all of it. If you can its well and good but crying over what's not covered it not great as I learn from mistake of one friend in this exams. I am in no way suggesting selective studies. No that's even worse. You loose more by it. All I am saying is if time gets crunch and before the exams, its always wise to have a in-depth knowledge of what you already know than shoving the new material under stress!!! So prepare from the beginning of the semester........

Related links for AMAeSI June 2008 exams

5 tips for studying for exams
Secret of clearing AeSI!
My way of decompressing while preparing for exams
After exams what?
6 lessons from last semester

How I used to setup a study routine for next semester

Setting up a routine was the first step that I took when I was in aesi?

Just before the announcement of aesi results, I used to sit and take
stock of my time and subjects and made a routine for the upcoming
semester.

I didn't follow the routine always but most of the time routine gave
me the ability to just begin. It automated many of the decisions I had
to make when sitting to study.

Since I had already assigned fixed hours to a particular subject, so I
didn't had a dilemma of what to study next? All I needed was a glance
at the routine, and I knew where my next hour is going to be utilized.

Here are some of the points that you might find useful while making
your own study routine.

1. Decide how much time you have per day. Keep it modest. Early
enthusiasm points that we can should alot the maximum hour available,
but the best strategy that I found is set a resonable minimum hours.
Set the number of hours that you are sure you will put into study no
matter what.

2. After the hours, decide on the subjects. Ponder on the lengh and
the structure of the subjects? Are they all theory or all numerical or
which section dominates

3. After deciding on the hours and the subjects, now is the time to
fit the subjects to the time available.

4. But before that, set the first half hour or an hour, whichever is
convenient to revise what you have learnt the day before. Yes revising
should be a part of your study routine. Begining early will enable you
to keep everything fresh. As the semester will progress the lengh of
revision hour will increase.

5. After the revision hour, set 30 mins a day ( any time you like) to
do exploration. This is the time when you just explore any topic that
you studied that day. It's not study but a time when you can dig
dipper and learn about a topic more deeply. You might want to use
wikipedia or google or a magazine or off course book for this kind of
exploration. This enables you a fresh prespective and keeps the
interest alive.

6. For the Rest of the remaining time, fill in the subjects, mix them
well. Theory with numerical and vice versa. The idea is to keep the
interest alive and not to be burden with studies.

7. Last and the most important point for making your own study routine
is think your week to have 6 days!! Yes 6 days!! Keep one full day
off. No studies on that day. That day is reserved for any hobby,
networking or anything that you are passionate about. This is the day
you test your passion, experiment and just live. An unplanned day
within 6 planned day will help you navigate your study ship to its
correct destination, help you ponder on your progress.

Hope this points will help you write a routine that maximises your
efforts in time for a fruitful next semester.

After this all that is required is execution. So come on execute.
Commit to yourself that you are going to follow this routine for the
next 30 days. And then do it. If you can continue for the 30 days, it
will become a habit.

So after making the routine, commit the next 30 days for following it.

When in section A, don’t worry about jobs and all

Section B marks the greatest change in an AeSI students life. I remember when I crossed section A, I was the happiest person on earth that day. It felt like that. After all, this was the change that I was expecting for a while then.

This step meant great to me as this brought me closure to the completion of AMAeSI degree. Crossing over to this side of AeSI degree meant I was just a few steps away from being an aeronautical engineer. It meant being close to the freedom of earning my own money, it meant I was closer to be working at an aerospace organization.

So what were the thoughts that went to my mind. The prominent thought that I remember was about learning catia, as this was only cad software that I heard about back then, it meant looking at the kind of jobs available in the market for aerospace. The thought of the training or job decision also went through my mind

What's the point I want to make, when you are in section A, don't worry about job prospect, skills development, jobs outlook, training or any other thing. Just study and hook your attention to getting good marks and passing section A. Don't burn yourself in any other tension.

Section B and most importantly the last two semester of AeSI are the best time when you need to think of jobs, skills development, training etc. So till then enjoy your studies. Learn what you read, expand your knowledge, improve your communication skills and  essentially have masti.

Treat your journey of AeSI like a marathon, start slow and steady. Don't burn up all your fuel in the initial legs. Keep them for the last two semester of AeSI. Till then expand your knowledge, do interesting projects, build networks, grow your subject knowledge etc.

Being a rocket is not what is required. Be a jet engine first.

Related stuff:

• Is this your last or second last semester in AeSI
• 3 Ways to Jump Start Your Semester
• Communication Is the Key to Success

Confidence + degree + skills = job

In my earlier post I have mentioned the above formula and said after AeSI, this is the recipe for landing a job. I ventured that if one can develop this 3 while studying for AeSI then you need no training and he or she is ready for the job,

In this post I would like to talk more about it and go in depth of what I meant by each of the term.


Confidence!

What is confidence? Confidence is your belief in yourself. It’s the belief that you are able to take on the work assigned to you. It’s the belief that you are able to apply your knowledge to get results. So how can an AeSI student build his confidence? First it’s passing his or her degree, that's one major confidence booster. IF you have passed with honest effort, you are already on your way of being confidence. It comes with preparation.

For me passing 4 subjects at one go was a major boost to my confidence. In section B, first semester I took up propulsion 1, 2, 3 and aerodynamics 1 as my subjects and studied for them, and did a marathon study along with Natrajan sir!!! And after my last semester, without waiting for the results to be announced I came to Bangalore and joined NAL as an unpaid training. This was best decision that I took in regards to AeSI and it really paved and concreted my confidence. It showed me the knowledge that AeSI has imparted us.

Confidence comes by preparation. By honestly studying for the exams, and getting all fundamentals and basics in your fingertips. Confidence comes with seeing the results of your efforts.

Wikipedia has a good post regarding how to build confidence. Read it and most importantly apply the points!!


The one I liked most is
"Try to make yourself talk positively at all times. When you hear yourself saying you can't do something, stop and say you can. Unless you try, you will never know whether you are able to or not."

Degree
The next part of the equation is degree. Complete the AMAeSI degree. It will enable you to say that you are one of the best aeronautical engineer in india!! Yes Read it here, here and here. It is this degree that enables these persons to say that they are best in the world. And then we all have the biggest inspiration Mr. Bishnujee Singh. He began from AeSI degree. As Shah Rukh Khan says in the recent HP advertisements, think big. Once you have made your mind that you are pursuing the AMAeSI degree. Forget the fact how tactless, careless, unsympathetic AeSI folks are . Be proud of your degree. It’s the only thing that should matter. As I said in my earlier post “tips for getting employed in the aerospace boom”, taking pride in your degree is the most important thing IF you don't respect it NOBODY else will.

Skills.
A company requires person who are not only knowledgeable but the one who can apply that knowledge to some practical work out of which the company benefits. And this is where your skills came. So as mentioned in post titled “things to do in your last semester”, make it a point to know what are the skills that the companies are looking for and began building them in your AeSI days. This is the most important area that you have to work for. In my case I have begun earlier, I knew I had a knack of programming so I began with that skill and set a daily 30 minutes goal for that. I developed it so that it became my prime reason for getting the project trainee job in NAL. I didn't have access to CATIA or other design and analysis software like NASTRAN, ANSYS then, but if I had I am sure I would have chalked out a similar plan for that... So most important thing AeSI students can do first know what skills are needed and when they are in last or 2nd last semester of AeSI, they should begin developing them. Set small challenge and daily goals to accomplish them.


Well this completes the recipe.. If you have all the 3 you are job ready and can hit send to send your resumes along with cover letters and I am sure there's nothing that can stop you from getting that job.

What are your thoughts to this? Do you think there is some other ingredient to it that I missed? Please do share your opinions in the comments.

Internship Experience By An IITian.

In the last article I had written  about 7 Reasons Why You Should do Internship which you can read from here .Some days before I was just surfing Facebook and I got a very nice article from Facebook page Inside IIT  about the internship which was Submitted by Tapobrata Behera, IIT Kharagpur.
Below I am sharing that article,
I hope you will like that

Internships are the craze of the moment. One of my seniors said that it is always advisable to utilize each and every vacation of your college life and do something noteworthy for your CV! So I also asked my dad to liaison with his friends and ultimately I got a winter training at one of the steel plants. It was the first day of my 4 week vocational training and my dad introduced me to my mentor. After exchanging the pleasantries with my mentor, he asked me to follow him. First we were supposed to visit the STEEL MELTING SHOP.

"So, you are from which college?" he asked me while typing a reply on his smart-phone.
"IIT-KGP sir," I replied with a sense of pride.
"That’s really nice. Which branch do you belong to?" He asked, looking into my eyes with a sense of admiration.
"I belong to metallurgy department, what about you sir?" I asked him.
"I am also from metallurgy department, IIT Madras. By the way, we have reached the STEEL MELTING SHOP."

He then showed me the huge furnaces, flow of molten metal and started explaining them briefly to me. After that I asked him a few inquisitive questions . He was able to answer almost all of them and I had started to admire him for his knowledge . After that we both went to a canteen as my mentor had not taken his breakfast and wanted me to accompany him for the same. The following conversation took place after he came ordering his dosa and coffee and sat in front of me.

"The entire process is so fascinating. It must be quite some fun working out there?" I asked him, and my mentor could read the exuberance on my face.
"Yes .. the process is very fascinating. But do you know .. I never enjoyed to learn all this facts and stats which I was telling you. Aeroplanes used to enthrall me a lot in my childhood days and I had made up my mind that one day I will design and develop new aerodynamic models. However, as you know, in IIT you don’t select the branch, THE BRANCH SELECTS YOU (based on your rank). And similarly I had to settle for Metallurgy. A senior there, introduced me to the concept of department change. I used to think that maybe we have to develop a project on a topic of our desired branch and I used to spend all my time reading and collecting data about the various aerodynamic models. It gave me immense pleasure and filled me with joy when I understood how exactly planes like BOEING 747 and Fighter Jets function. By the time I came to know that branch change was related only to the “PERFORMANCE IN SUBJECTS OF FIRST SEMESTER” all my dreams were shattered. Thereafter my grades suffered terribly . Do you know why did that happen?" He asked me, stirring his coffee with a spoon.

"I am really sorry to hear that, sir. And no sir, I don’t know." I replied and was anticipating a pretty stark reality by now.

“Right from my first semester, I rarely enjoyed the courses. A few courses were interesting, but I was all the more interested in learning about the working mechanism of an aeroplane. I used to miss majority of my classes, not because of my dedication to aerospace engineering, but because I could never really make sense why a few courses were being taught to us. I thus ended up with 1 F grade in my first semester and that ended my chances of securing a branch change. I was occasionally reprimanded at home for my grades. My parents never realised that AERONAUTICS was my forte. In the subsequent years , I had to give up on all of this as I was closing on a very poor CGPA and was thus left with the inevitable task of studying hard to score an acceptable CGPA.

Study, because if you don’t, you won’t be able to able to earn your bread and butter, and in doing so I sacrificed the thing which meant so much to me and which, according to me, was the only reason of my existence in IIT. And now you see, I am here before you, stating you all the facts and data which don’t really mean much to me. It was only that “BREAD AND BUTTER” phrase which caused to me give up on my passion. Your survival is thus inextricably linked with your CGPA not with your passion in IIT. I really wish something could be done to remedy this crisis. What is your CGPA at the end of first year by the way?" He asked with me, with a dry smile on his face.

"Umm.. I think we are done with the coffee and dosa. Maybe we should go and checkout the other departments?" was my reply and we both got up to visit the other departments.
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Submitted by Tapobrata Behera, IIT Kharagpur

Follow me on facebook from here.

Please do share with us your internship experience if you have any.

Thanks for reading.

Randomness and your new semester

A routine give you a framework. Its an easy reference to what to do
next.

Randomness on the other hand gives you new experiences. It gives you
hope. It surprises you.

I think the reason for germany's defeat in worldcup was lack of
randomness in it's team.

The german team was well structured, disciplined but lacked any
randomness. The other team took advantage of this and succeeded.

So why am I writing about this here?

I want you to add bit of randomness in your life. While studying,
having routine, and timetable is a good idea, but keep one day of the
week to explore. Let that day be randomness day. On this day you try
any crazy idea you have. Read whatever fancies you? Do something that
isn't in the tutorials!

Don't plan the day, let it decide it own course. On that day read off
topics from your core syllabus.

In that day, explore wikipedia for any random topic that just pop up
in your mind.

Mind is a powerful entity and it needs a routine and burst of
randomness to function well. So give that to it.

With amaesi results stated to release any day now, it's right time to
plan for the next semester with a pinch of randomness added to it!!

Past discussions on how to have a great semester can be found via this
link http:///my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=semester&max-results=100

3 tips that you can apply to enhance your studies

After the announcement of AeSI results, starting out your new semester
is the next thing in aesi students mind. Here are some study tips you
can immediately apply to get the maximum out of your semester.

Imagine.
Yes, whatever you study imagine it. See it in your mind's big
blackboard. Connect whatever you have learnt with the previous.
Imagination is more powerful than knowledge, so utilize it.

Start small, and switch on your minds cinema to accelerate your
learning.

Draw.
Just reading is not sufficient. Get a pen and paper and start
outlining the concepts you pick by way of drawings. Draw what you have
studied.

This sharpens your understanding, strengthen the connections and glues
the information you learnt.

I have extensively used this technique during my aesi days for all of
the subjects. If you can look at my notes of aesi, you will find
papers crammed with little drawing, and line. So draw whatever you
learn.

Discuss.
The topics that I remember the most are the once that I had discussed
with my friends. The topics that still float around my mind are the
once on which I had heated discussion around the tea shop with my
friends. So discuss what you learn.

Present what you learn in an interesting way. Explain the topics in
different angle. Connect and tell your friends about how what your
studied is connected with what you already know.

Take a leap in imagination and make the stuff you learn interesting to
discuss.

If you can do all these, you can study and remember lot in less time.
Study will become fun. Finding interesting ways to discuss the topic
will fire up new connections and help you retain more. So get going
and apply these techniques this semester!!

2008 a review of myaesi – your chance to catch up!!

2008 is ending and many of the blogs I follow and read are coming up with their internal review of the year for 2008. This gave me the idea for this post. I will give month by month update on what has happened in this blog. This year I tested two new interface for the blog and also tested Google adverts for the blog and many other unique things that I would have never learnt if I weren't blogging

January

January began with a mail from a trainee in NAL and then there was good news for AeSI community and then I wrote one informational post regarding special information for AeSI student members and informed u about 59th AM of AeSI. Wrote about GPA and a small post regarding MS in aeronautical and turbo machinery in UK and US. Then there was Bishnujee’s response to AeSI's student membership cancellation after 8 years. and I end the month with Mistakes fresh AeSI graduates do in their interview.

February
AGM news in Hindu and waiting and announcement of results were the major news in this month, followed by announcement of Tata's entry in aerospace domain. Then I also did AeSI section A results comparison. and had some problems in posting... and wrote after exams what

March
Tips on resume from satyam, and I exclaimed about no enews from AeSI and asked you all best way to search job....and discussed  two basics questions regarding resume and how to prepare for interview and also warned graduates of AeSI on how to send resume and how to edit resume in a professional way.

April

No April fool for this month as I wrote about one cardinal rule that one must remember about interview. and posted my first ever Friday links. and posted about aerospace events of the week and about a new catia training centre launch.and touched upon 3 glaring mistakes AeSI graduates do. And posted links for online GATE preparations and preparing for aerospace interview. also shared GE interview questions,solidwork video tutorials,open letter to anna university.

May
May was the busiest month. posted about catia video tutorials,tips to pass AeSI exams,do and don'ts for AMAeSI exams, DRDA SET, and announcement of AeSI exams.

Also posted 7 signs of unprofessional resume. how to fail exams, tips for getting most of revision and revisited how I cleared my workshop exam and posted the map of examination centers of AeSI along with the announcement of Berlin air show and ended with actions that will take your career ahead.

June
This was the exam month and apart from exam related stuff I posted about industry CAD usage data, and informed you about the technical interview questions after DRDO set. Apart from this tools in aerospace and highlighted a cool tool to find tutorials and other eBooks for learning catia, solidworks. Apart from CAD programs I listed some useful jobs links for AeSI graduates and gave a general structure of a cover letter and talked about will I recommend AMAeSI to my friends and family. Informed about IIT course materials on YouTube.

I also gave general advice on 6 things that you should do in your last semester.

July

This month began with an unsuccessful contest that I ran, told you about how to accelerate your job search, resume sending tips and asked you are you taking gate 2009 exams?

I answered the question I want to work in core field, told you about Olympics and aerospace connection and updated you on the farnboroug air show and DAE university's decision to cancel aerospace and aviation program. Asked you which is the best study center for AeSI and advised AeSI students on things to do before they begin a new semester as we speculated about AeSI results and criticized IIT video lecture series and ended with tips on getting training and jump starting your next semester and stated tips to get employed after graduation.

august
This month began with important dates for gate 2009 and then I listed catia training centers in India. And talked about various things related to AeSI, like prospects after AMAeSI, 6 reasons to do training after AeSI and listed 3 websites every AeSI students should visit.

apart from the I listed the problems with AeSI degree and had a system crash and ended with tips to apply for job requirements and remarked why IIT lectures are boon to AeSI.

September
This month began with quantity vs. quality debate and reposted
Bishnujee 's message of take pride in AeSI degree. told you about kung fu panda advice. and this month saw the launch of solidworks 2009 and I saw my worst resume ever. Told you about 3 things my mentor at NAL taught me and did a section a analysis of AeSI results, and urged students of AeSI to make syllabus book there friends. also informed you about few important changes in gate 2009 format that you should know about. and argued about having your network for AeSI graduates and students. And also posted advice from rolls royce.

October
I began this month by talking about the AeSI communities on web and reacted about the worst resume of my life. I touched subjects of NAL training and how to became consistent like Australian cricket team and asked AeSI graduates to remember certain things after they pass out of AeSI. and informed you about the chandrayaan project. I also shared study tips that I learnt from my math's teacher at GIE. and then had a long delay.

November
Most of November I was out of station and I had a long delay,and posted Pratt and Whitney single core fan. and became my shorted month of posting this year.

December
I told you about why I write this blog, about inertia, and shared 4 tips on handling exam anxiety and told you about Vijay Malaya and shared an important lesson that my boss at NAL taught me and asked you to see the biggest full moon of the year.

well this is what I did on the blog for the whole year. Do let me know if I missed on something important. I would like to thank all of you for reading what I have to say. I hope in year 2009, I will be more consistent and will add value to AeSI student and graduates life. Do share your experience with myaesi with me. Thanks and happy new year everyone!!!

 Feel free to email this to your friends!!

Advice to AeSI students before you begin the next semester

You all might be waiting for the aesi exams results. And are preparing to begin the next semester. Next session classes in GIE are about to begin. Today I will talk about a distractive trend that I have seen in Chennai among the students of AeSI. Instead of opting for classes in GIE they go for the classes from other AeSI fellows. This is the trend that I have seen.




For the AeSI guy teaching it means quick bucks and for the one studying it means more personalized study and he or she is more comfortable in clearing his or her doubts.


But I feel this is wrong. Knowledge is like energy and it degrades as it passes from one person to other. Just like the laws of thermodynamics, work capacity of system degrades as entropy is always increasing. Same way knowledge also has a way of eroding as it’s passed. So take this knowledge from the person who has the highest experience in it, not from the next guy who cleared the subject last year.

Take it from the source which initially imparted the knowledge to the guy or gal not from someone who claims to give you all his notes. His notes will be great but the knowledge that will tickle down will be of low quality and with gaps. So always opt for good faculty. Its good to have a second backup tuition but the main source shouldn’t be ignored.


Let me give you an example during my days of AeSI, it was with advance strength of materials. There were two options, there was one new professor in GIE and then there was some bhiaya. Since the professor was new students had doubts that if he would be able to teach properly so majority of the students went for the bhaiya. Well its not that bhiya was incompetent but the professor being the senior in the field had more experience and he taught with his focus on building fundamentals while the bhiya taught us with the tricks he did to clear the exams. I enrolled in for both of them and it is here I saw the difference.

Finally what matters is the fundamentals and they are to be taken from the best source and I am glad I didn’t leave the professor even though I opted for the classes of that bhaiya.

So my word of advice to all AeSI students beginning there new semester is study from an experience professor, in the long run they will impart you more quality knowledge than anyone else. It good to supplement this with the classes of bhiyas’s but don’t ignore that fact that the faculty in GIE or any other institute you are studying is more important than any other option.

Allow yourself more time to stare at the clouds

A phase from study hacks (http://feeds.feedburner.com/studyhacks )
remained with me

"....allow yourself more time to stare at the clouds, and then be
prepared to follow-up when you spot something cool....."

It's the one technique or way of study that I always hit upon so many
times in this blog.

(Hit http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=time+study to read more on
that)

The main point of the quote is don't just study, soak in it. Drag the
studies out of the text books. Take it out and connect with it.

Study for small time, but use the rest of the time digesting,
connecting the stuff you read. Remember and see the content you
studied in different ways. Imagine consequences of it. Let your
imagination run wild on that information.

This is what a friend of mine in AeSI was master of. He was the only
guy who studied (that is sat with the books) the least, but always got
the highest marks and had answers ready. I didn't know his exact
technique back then, but now I know he moonlighted on those topics
that he studied.

We, myself included, forgot to recall the subjects as soon as we
closed the book, but for him they remained with him. From tea shops to
girls, he uncannily connected the new information with the world
around him.

So as you study for this semester, remember this mantra- study less,
imagine more. That's the secret of successful study.

Please give it a try. Do remember what one great scientist said,
imagination is more powerful than knowledge. So give it the wings and
reach the skys!'

More tips of studying for this semester can be found by clicking this
link.

http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=semester

6 lessons from this semester

1. Always revise what Sir has taught in class. The more you revise the more  u will grasp. And this semester I am more confident on the topics that I had revised than the one I neglected. So don't  forget to revise what you learnt in class and do it within 24hours of the class!

 

2. Out of the seven days a week always set one day for revision. This is the day u will revise all that you have learnt in that week. This is important as this will classify all the information you were collecting all week and will give you a proper broad perspective of things you have learnt.

 

3. revision is not only of the theory but also of all the numericals. Don't neglect them. Only seeing won't do. Do it on paper. You are not here to save paper so do it on paper and with pen just seeing it won't do any good.

 

4. And always be at par with the things that are going on in class. That is don't lag behind on what the faculty in class is doing. Stay with him. If you missed a topic, work hard give some extra effort and study along with him. This helps tremendously as you will see in the end of the semester you won't have to run fast to cover the topics.

 

5. Keep a log book of the things you have learned or the topics that you have studied and covered so that  you can revise it latter by seeing that log. This also helps in boosting you confidence to see all the topics you have covered at one place. So maintain it. Its sometimes boring but  very useful tool of motivation and revision.

 

6. And above all stay focussed. I read somewhere and it applies her too. Passion can motivate you towards your goal, its only hard work that will yield it. So work hard. There's no substitute to it.