Like many others, I had this persisting regret that I could have had a much better shot at JEE advanced and secured a higher branch at IIT Kanpur if, for once, things had worked out differently for me and life was easy on me. Hence I started my journey at IITK aiming for a 10-pointer (cliched, I know). The day after orientation, I ended up in the library with ‘Griffiths’, given how fond I was of Physics since JEE prep times, so it was really fun to start with. The intent and efforts worked well as I stayed above average + Std. deviation in all courses in the first mid-semester examinations. A momentary delight soon followed by a tragic downfall- an aftermath of the overconfidence and the lack of practice that the early ‘success’ brought along. I missed the A grade by a mark in both Phy103 and Mth 101. The dejected me joked to myself – ‘If only the Prof could be convinced by a mail to take away even 30 marks from my Phy 103 endsem paper and increase one mark in Mth101 – at least one A would show up on my grade sheet, but alas!’. 

While I got more and more involved in the Music Club (discussed later), I lost practice, especially in ESC101, which starts to get tough after recursion – hence leading to another B. Finally, there I was, aiming for the sky, stuck in a date palm tree (aasman se tapka, khajoor pe latka :'(), with an SPI of 8.56. I rushed into calculating how much would I have to score next sem for changing my branch to Economics. However, I soon realised it was hardly feasible and decided to go with the flow and see how things unfold. What further added to the blues was that my roomie (Yashkrit) had managed to score the same SPI while playing PUBG all day long- all hard work for nothing? I thought, “Isse accha hota ki maze hi karliya hote, itni hi SPI aani thi to :'(“. 

Hence the realisation surfaced that from then, I would do everything else seriously, but studying – this stuck along for the following three semesters. Thankfully the practice from previous years had equipped me to understand concepts, even at the last minute. Hence, I managed to get a 6+ SPI, fearing F grades but still being at the average mark in all courses by the end. But by the end of the 2nd year, when I was a 7-pointer and the internship season was approaching, I realised that I had taken acads too lightly. If not amended now, I would have to pay for it later. Hence, I diligently worked hard in the 5th semester, which was online, and even if recorded lectures could be replayed and were convenient, the alarming shift to unfair means was compelling and rather helpless aftermath. I made proper notes and studied regularly in this phase, much like the JEE prep times. Yet thanks to the downsides of the system that only raised the average through conveniently available online resources (cheating, I mean), I still ended up with an SPI of 8. Fast forward to the next semester, which caught me in the ongoing trap of conveniently scoring without caring much about actually learning something. I ended up with an SPI of 9.8 with minimal effort ( it was my tenure as a Coordinator of the Music Club, and I preferred to see the fruitful results of hard work in there at least, if not in acads that was largely a rat race now). This strategy saved the 7th semester too, and I managed to focus on placements as the topmost priority. A word of advice, if I may at this point, would be that don’t get caught up in the whirlpool of the grading system- you get a C even when you work extremely hard and an A even when you barely read anything. 

Following the plan, I thought the last semester would be amazing. I could conveniently focus on conducting the Musical Extravaganza offline after two years- what I was deprived of in an online semester, and make many memories, that I longed for. But the online to offline transition became hard to crack, and the course policies were atrocious. While in one course, all online evaluations were rendered null and void, in another course, a vast majority was awarded 0 in midsem, and passing criteria was 30% – an almost impossible target for a seemingly incomprehensible course. Hence, the last semester was somewhat strained against expectations. Yet, it was decent enough in terms of all the memories we made and adventures we had while I managed to pass all courses, much to my respite and surprise.

Thus to summarise this facet, it’s been an absolute rollercoaster. My only suggestion will be to remain consistent with your courses if you want to maintain a good academic record. A spikey academic growth curve like mine creates a lot of pressure and makes one easily accountable in the future. Thus, consistency and diligence remain the key and the most important values I take away from this facet of the journey.