IIT prof discusses: What are the differences between College education and Coaching?

I discuss the main differences between the kind of education students receive and the life they live during coaching days versus the ones during college days.

The points discussed should be helpful to students in their first year of college life as they transition from their coaching days.

00:00 Introduction
00:34 Elimination game vs Actual education
02:15 Structured problem-solving vs Emphasis on theory
05:32 Focused objective vs Variety of options
08:27 Limited subjects vs Huge number and variety of subjects
11:13 Sprint vs Marathon

Disclaimer: I am a faculty member in the Mechanical Engineering Department of IIT Kharagpur. However, the views expressed in this video are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my Department or my Institute.

#jc #CollegeLife #Academics

[satish]

@ Prof.JC, While appreciating the topic and presentation, it may please be emphasised at the beginning of the video that the use of the term "College" herein refers to the 'premier institutes' in India (especially to IITs and their flagship BTech / BS program)

"College" in India commonly and literally refers to affiliated colleges of state universities... Such colleges are basically coaching centers for their respective university examinations... The preoccupation of such affiliated colleges is solely on completing the "portions" (syllabus!) for their university examinations.. And like coaching classes the "performance" of affiliated colleges and of their faculty members is based on the proportion of students who clear their university examination.. The "best colleges" are those which get the maximum number of "ranks" in their university conducted examinations!!

Notably, such Colleges are filled with faculty members who are time-servers, degree holders from the same kind of colleges, completely disconnected from academia.

So please make a part-2 of this video on coaching centers 🆚 affiliated colleges after visiting and spending some time in them, at least some days in a couple of nearby colleges affiliated to state universities... Please ask students who have attended coaching classes and missed getting admission to premier institutes; most of them will expectedly say that the faculty in the coaching centers which they had attended were far better than faculty in their present college!

In the meantime, the video could perhaps be renamed like "Teaching/ Learning in JEE Coaching Centers versus after joining IITs" ... It may also be good to add a disclaimer that certain coaching centers (e.g. AhaGuru, run by a distinguished alumnus from IIT Madras, and M.Prakash Institute) are adherents to the teaching/ learning practices of premier institutes, minus the supporting infrastructure and academic ecosystem.

[DaddyLongLegs-lcjs]

Good Evening Sir
I started watching your channel in late december and I am admired to see a professor guiding the students early for which branch to choose. Unfortunately, I only scored 155 in Jee advanced and took a drop to enter top 7 IITs with a good circuital branch. I hope I can enter IIT KGP and meet you.
Thanks for reading.

[sundernarayan]

Wonderful perspective on the comparison of learning in coaching classes and learning in college. You are right in pointing out that the goals are different. An analogy of series of sprints in a long race is on the spot. The other thing is in college these sprints are connected. End of the performance in series of sprints determine the outcome of the long race both in terms of learning and marks/results. There is one phrase which we are always taught when we try to learn something new and that is to unlearn what you have learnt. I guess thats the same when students come in to college life. They need to unlearn the past methods of learning in some way to learn new methods of learning. May be this could be emphasized in orientation programme.

[AayushKumarLal-czbs]

Had the first day of class today at IITKGP😁 mining dept... by the way sir I was even looking for you while passing nearby the mechanical department

[sankhajitdas]

Watching this from the room of lbs hall.. Truly a different feeling ❤❤❤

[ruchipandey]

Sir you are genuine teacher but what about those students who were not privileged enough to get coaching and they end up landing into a tier 3 govt.college .nobody talks about them .

[AshmitSinha]

Thanks a lot for making a video on this topic.. This was very very important for the transition from coaching to college.. Thanks prof JC!!

[warriordefenderw_d]

Good Evening sir,
Sir every time i listen your words its a true delightfull feeling and so true. Sir, in my 10 plus 2 level, I've never opted such a coaching centre which is totally oriented on the JEE advance level Or any competitive exam based studying which also might be the reason that why I not selected in any IITs or in NITs and got eliminated from this race even having 93% in my boards but instead I developed a long-term mechanism in the self study by making my own notes from the books i studied that will help me in long run as none was there to guide me that time.
Sir i have taken admission in Heritage Institute of Technology if you know it in West Bengal in Chemical Engineering branch. Sir please bless all of us and I hope that now i will do better in future.
Thank you sir,
Myself Souvik Chatterjee

[Farid.biology]

Sir please make a video for aspiring teachers, joining coaching industry vs being a professor in college

[Sumit_Singh]

Thank you professor you're each video give us a guidence which we rarely get anywhere...Thanks for your clarity which we got everytime after watching your video...🙏

[RhapsodyofRain]

But sir do all professors in all colleges actually care about the students? As far as I have heard from friends and even my own relatives that, rarely the professors care about imparting knowledge to the students

[lightyagami]

As someone who's preparing for PhD fellowship exams post Masters, I feel sad about how coaching destroyed the zeal for knowledge and sciences. School students mostly just study sciences just for the sake of clearing exams. There's no interest in trying to understand how a concept came about, how was it discovered etc. There's no interest in research. Many of these students end up doing well in these entrances but suffer in colleges as in colleges the way of teaching changes drastically. There's infinite resources available, there are standard books, Indian books etc. There's finally actual practical knowledge and experimentation. And if your luck is good, then even research opportunities. Most of the students even ignore all these as they're just there to get placements and leave. Its sad to see the current state of India research field. Its often thought that those who don't get success in any other field end up joining PhD for research. There's no respect for research.

[RishiVaish-ymnr]

I really like your opinion and the timing, sir. Very nicely complemented. Thank you :)

[shyamshankar]

Feeling enthusiastic of learning from you in the coming years✨✨

[Supratimdas]

Thank you sir for your guidance and insight into college life and how it will be different from our coaching life. Will be joining Jadavpur University Electrical engineering department this year as a freshman.

[ElectronProton-jzes]

Sir please upload a video for jee 2026 aspirants

[nandanchitragar]

Sir please make another video on developing problem solving skills. I am not able to solve any of the problems on my own. But after looking into the solution, I realize that I could have thought of that but each time that doesn't strike my mind.

[ushar]

Sir, even your college admits students through these elimination tests. Can you please recommend any change in the entrance process, so that students with genuine aptitude and knowledge get admitted?

[idamonica]

Sir, congratulations on being selected as one of the best teachers in the institute 🎉🎉🎉

[beingnatural]

Sir, please make a video on important things to consider while taking notes in lecture.